Helping Students Work Smarter

 After a few months of virtual classes we are now back to hybrid learning (teaching both in-seat and virtual students simultaneously). It is once again going to be an adjustment. One bright spot is that, even with another schedule change my students know that we are working on our National History Day projects. This consistency amidst change has been helpful. 

Projects are due next week. That has the potential to cause stress in students, at least until I clarify how close they are to a completed project, before they feel they've started.

We have worked on their final project for weeks now, my students just haven't yet realized it. The assignments at the end of first quarter focused on the context of their project. Students had to research and use the engineering design process to learn and explain the context of their historical event. This piece of the project took a few class days to complete. 

The second assignment was this year's National History Day graphic organizer. Each part of the graphic organizer brought students closer to "zooming in" on their topic to determine its parameters and start and end events/years (for example: D-Day, as opposed to the entire European and Japanese theaters of WWII), digging into and identifying the role this year's theme (Communication: the Key to Understanding) plays in their topic, and developing their historical argument. This assignment also took quite a few days to finish.

The third assignment helped students develop their historical thesis. This year my colleague found an outstanding thesis organizer that made this non-ELA teacher feel much more confident preparing students in this area! Hooray for collaboration! Thesis organizers took several days to complete and, like the previous assignments, it was a "two steps forward, one step back" endeavor for students.

The final project became much less daunting when I encouraged students to look back at their work. These components basically create the project--students can revise and edit the writing in these organizers to create their final project. (Their research before and during our work on the organizers round out their project.) 

Student stress is real in a "normal" year, it's unfortunately much more prevalent with all our students have encountered this year. My emphasis on reducing stress is hopefully clear now that my students see how the writing assignments we've created fit into the big picture.   

Frontloading students for success builds confidence and proves that big projects do not have to overwhelm students.