Why This Video Clip of My Practice is Significant to Me
This video clip is a snap shot of the second semester of my second year teaching. At the time, I was a U.S. History teacher and department chair at South Atlanta High School. South Atlanta High was and is one of the lowest performing high schools in Atlanta Public Schools and serves a highly traumatized student population. This video clip is significant to me because of the high expectations and engaged class culture that is demonstrated in the video. In this video, we are preparing to take the End of Course Test (EOCT), which is a state mandated test that assesses the extent to which students have either mastered the material. Unfortunately, up to that point at the school, the U.S. History EOCT prevented a significant number of students from graduating, as
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That year, our students achieved a 96% passage rate on the EOCT, with nearly 20% of our students exceeding expectations. The clip demonstrates how I facilitated my students in practically preparing for an exam that had traditionally been a major barrier, while providing them with a rigorous and engaging lesson that expanded beyond test preparation and drill and kill. We brought the content to life by having students engage in a real world scenario in which they had to decide, with all of the available facts, if they would decide to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima or not. After making their decision, students engaged in a rich, evidence-based debate that required them to defend one perspective on the impact of war on America versus another. This debate required extensive student knowledge and