ACTV, he proudly presents on
On Campus with your host, ACU
vice president and dean of campus life,
Dr. Gary McCaleb.
Here's Gary.
On campus today,
we're pleased to welcome Karen Turner,
a history teacher in the middle school
program here in Abilene, Texas.
Thank you for being with us, Karen.
Thank you for having me.
I think the area of history and what
started as a very important
concern to everyone, sometimes
perhaps history becomes a little bit
taken for granted and and
don't realize we don't realize how
important maybe it really is.
Sometimes people have said if we
appreciate history more, we wouldn't keep
making the same mistakes.
But would you tell us a little bit about
your approach to teaching history
and and what you teach?
Uh, in middle school here,
I teach seventh grade and I teach Texas
history.
And we try to have the students see that
not only is history discipline to learn,
that involves also reading, math,
all types of other areas.
And then we try to have projects
and ideas and things going on.
So they'll say it's relevant to their
lives and they'll find
something that interests them and pursue
it when.
What specific area of history do you
teach Texas history?
All of Texas history.
In other words, all facets of
it.
And from beginning to the very
now state guidelines, we
stop about the eighteen eighties,
but we go back and teach the geography
of Texas.
And then we start with Indians,
explorers, right through the revolution,
the civil war, about to the eighteen
eighties with the cattle kingdom.
And that's where we stop.
We do not bring it into the 20th century.
Is there a reason why you don't.
I don't know why is that
according to state guidelines.
And that's where they stop
when you teach history, let's say on
the middle school level, do
you see any particular approaches
as far as for example?
What I'm wondering is, uh,
I guess one approach would be to to
feature particular
individuals and teach history
through the lives of certain key
historic individuals.
Another perhaps slightly
different approach would be to to hook
or hang everything on key or major
events that occurred, then
hooking it on dates and time periods
and things like that.
And then perhaps another approach would
be to, uh,
it seems like a lot of times,
well, this would be partly advanced, but
major battles and wars and things
seem to always come, uh,
to the top as far as the study of history
is concerned.
Are there what are what are your
approaches to teaching
history?
Of course, when you teach Texas history,
you always tie Sam Houston,
Stephen F. Austin.
But I like to tie it to Texas history.
Seventh graders are very aware
of their own surroundings.
And to think there's a world wide beyond
the oceans, sometimes it's a difficult
concept.
So if we talk about Indians, we
might talk about an Indian raid
or an event that happened right here in
Tyler County or surrounding
area so that we can say,
well, here we sit in. Two hundred years
ago, a hundred and fifty years ago, this
was going on.
When we talk about the geography, we talk
not only about statewide, but what
is it right here in Abilene, Texas, and
when they can relate it to their own
lives. What is it right here?
And I have a link then I seem to
enjoy it more, seem to remember it more,
and then they want to learn a little bit
more. Of course, your goal is to want
them to say why.
I'm going to go find out for myself
and want to research something on their
own.
I sometimes I have the feeling that
that a person's appreciation for history
grows the older that they are
and that children sometimes
find history rather boring and dull
and unexciting.
And I don't mean to be putting I know
what you mean.
But then as they get older, they become
more and more interested in history and
in what's going on and and the
heritage and even their
own their own genealogy
and their ancestors and so
forth.
I think that's because as we get older,
we have more things we can tie it to.
When we talk about maybe something
that happened along the coast, we can
say, oh, I've been to Houston or some
of my students have not been.
And that's the reason I use the Abberline
approach, because I can begin to tie
it to something. As soon as you can find
someone, say, my grandmother did that,
or I know somebody who lived down the
street who did that all of a sudden,
then it's this is interesting.
This is good stuff.
And I seem a lot more interested in it.
I know that there are some interesting
new things being done
to try to pick that interest.
And we're going to talk about those a
little bit later before we run out of
time. But you mentioned a while ago
the idea of state guidelines.
How restrictive are they
or how specific are they in
in telling you what has to be taught?
They're very specific in telling
you what they want you to cover,
but they're only guidelines if you want
to do more.
Certainly you are encouraged to do
more that you are expected
to cover in Texas history,
the Texas revolution.
You are to teach that so the student
understands what events were going on and
the whys and some of the heroes of it
and things like that.
But if you want to add more to it, you're
certainly encouraged to do that.
But they do spell it out
and hand it to you and ask that you be
sure that you cover in the call an
essential elements and
the state, for example, what would be
can do you have some examples of what
essential elements would be in
the House in Texas history?
Well, as far as
one in research, we have your supposed
to locate and gather information.
So we have to have opportunities for the
students throughout the school year
to locate information to gather
it. Critical thinking
is one.
So they're not only social studies
scales, their lifetime scales.
And then they also have one very
specifically about how did the geography
influence the settlement of Texas?
And so you do activities and readings
and, uh, work in that
area.
When a student has finished
their seventh grade course in Texas
history. Are there certain expectations
of the knowledge level
that they will have attained?
Is there some kind of statewide test?
No, there's not a statewide test.
So we just hope that they have learned
this. And then it definitely is a
building scale when they take American
history next year and the handling
system, they can remember well,
we've already talked about settlement and
now we're talking about settlement along
the eastern coast, the United States.
We've talked about explorers.
So hopefully it will be a building scale.
Mm hmm.
What do you find in having taught,
for example, how long how many years have
you taught seventh graders Texas history,
that 11 years with that
kind of experience, I'm sure you've
learned well what the things are
that that they find most
interesting.
Uh, are there certain areas of Texas
is a Texas revolution?
I think all Texans have heard about the
Alamo, and so they always
look forward to that.
And there's a lot of excitement at times
about that. And why would
that occur and when did it occur?
And they particularly like that.
They also like cowboys and Indians.
And that was units,
particularly very successful
ones, one where they choose.
Does it concern you that it might be
possible with all of the emphasis
on science and math
at the present time, the computerized
orientation for our generation
today, that history might be
getting a little less attention
as far as the importance or the relative
importance of it as an area of
study
sometimes because I think that people say
you need math or science to get a job
and so you wouldn't need history.
But like you said earlier, if you don't
understand what's going on right
now in your world, makes it kind
of hard to understand future events.
Or maybe you asked to vote on an issue
and you need to have the skills to
research or understand why
a city would have a government like that
or why you would have these regulations.
History and social studies have been
emphasized recently.
They've added a economics
course on the high school level.
Mm hmm.
You mentioned earlier that one of the
state requirements or guidelines is
to do a research project.
Is that now?
No, not do a research project, but just
have an opportunity to gather and
research information.
The state does not tell you exactly how
you go about this. It does not say it has
to be a research project or a research
paper or anything like that.
So I would have an opportunity.
So what would what would be the ways that
you would then accomplish that guideline
with your class?
Well, to me, that means getting out of
the textbook and going out on your own
opportunities might be doing an oral
history project where you would interview
somebody to find out what life was like
enabling or like Texas.
You might adopt a building, look at the
architecture of a building, say, when it
was built, why
it's there when it was built.
You might participate in the history
fair, which would be an excellent
project or opportunity
for you to use and research scales
and be able then to present it to others.
Then each student
in your class will do one of those things
before they've satisfactorily
completed your class.
I love that. So do several of those.
Yes, we're just now finishing
up a smaller project on famous places
and they were we told him the names of a
lot of famous places in Texas
and they were supposed to research the
place, describe it in
the history of that place.
And then they did some other activities,
got a road map, found out how far it
was. If you drove by car, how many
hours would it take to get there?
They did some riding with
it.
They also did some science
projects with it.
If you didn't go by car, if you had an
opportunity to ride a Texas animal
and you had to look up the animal, how
fast the animal travels,
how long would it take to get there?
And so we try to
work as many different areas in
to show students that life is not
compartments and that you
need all these skills to work together.
Now, at the seventh grade level,
how much history will
the seventh grader have had prior to
this year when they come into your class?
I'm not really sure, but I do
know social studies is part of the
curriculum in the elementary level.
And I do know that I have some Texas
history in elementary school, but I'm not
sure how much.
So it may not be their first exposure,
but should not be their first exposure.
Yeah, when a student
finds an area in other words, I suppose
the whole idea of the research is that
they might find some area that kind of
turns them on. It gets them excited about
history.
Uh, do you see that
frequently happen?
Yes. And once that light's turned on,
it just never turns off.
They just keep wanting to know more
because they get excited about history
and they just want to know more and more
and more. And maybe the project's over,
but they still think they'll find
some other things that are interesting in
it. Have a good transfer.
Hmm.
What are the ways that you.
In other words, how much of this
identification of a project is
is up to you to tell them or to assign
them? Is it up to themselves?
Do they work it out with their parents?
How do they come up with the project they
decide to do?
It's pretty structured in the seventh
grade. I tell them
what they can do and I might
let them make small choices to begin
with. Like I'll give
them a choice of maybe 20 different
places, pick a place
or there's two hundred fifty
four counties, pick just one county.
And that's I want you to do these four
things.
So at the beginning we start out
with a lot of structure so that as we
build, we can loosen up.
And finally we can say, well,
what are you interested in?
I have no success with saying, why don't
you do a project and tell me about
it the next day?
What? I don't know where to start and I
wouldn't know where to start if somebody
told me that.
I want to know about what?
How do you want me to prepare it?
And we try to give them a variety of ways
to prepare it. Not all students
like to write, so we like to have other
top activities.
Do parents get involved in these research
projects or some parents
do, because sometimes
it involves driving a child to perhaps
the public library. Our school library is
excellent Texas collection,
but sometimes I have to go to a college
library or a public library or sometimes
I want to go out and see something.
They might want to go out to Fort Farnum
Hill. And that's not my mother.
Dad has to take them.
We hope all parents are involved in their
children's education.
I just didn't know whether it was
something that's done entirely at school
or whether they took them home.
And you expected them to work.
Some is done at school because
then when they have questions, I can help
them with it.
Some, of course, would have to be done at
home.
And we don't want, of course, the thing
lugged back and forth if it's a
particularly bulky project.
You mentioned a few minutes ago the
history fair. And that's a fascinating
thing. And we're going to take a break
here for just a minute. When we come
back, we're going to talk about the
history fair and how that is
working to excite these young
people into getting more and more
involved in history.
OK, we're visiting today with Karen
Turner.
What is the ACU difference? For Julie
Manna's sophomore from Abilene?
It's the chance to get involved.
There are many different ways students
can get involved in activities that I
see. I was I was in freshman
class sing song and the musical
and I went on spring break, came to
Chicago.
These things just really helped me
get involved and get to know people and
enjoy school so much more.
The issue difference can make a
difference for you.
For more information, call six seven
four. Two thousand.
We're back on campus and visiting with
Karen Turner as we talk about history,
particularly as it relates to the middle
school, young people in Abilene.
Now, tell us a little bit about the
history fair.
The history fair is a marvelous
opportunity for students to
learn and use research
scales, critical thinking skills,
presentation skills, and present
some project that interests them
about any facet of history.
It does not have to be on Texas history
since I teach Texas history.
Most of my students project is
about Texas history.
This is a relatively new concept, isn't
it, as far as for Abilene?
Yes, it is.
This will be our second year to have a
regional fair enabling.
Last year was the first history
fair in Abilene, although I guess
it's been a concept used in other places.
Yes, it is.
Sometimes, yes it is.
And I've had state contests before.
Then how would you rate the first year?
Was it a success?
I thought it was a wonderful success
from the standpoint of participation.
Uh, is there a way to estimate
how many young people participated in the
fair? I know you may not know the exact
number, but were you pleased
by the number of students that got
involved?
I was pleased with the number of my
students that got involved.
I believe over two hundred students were
involved in this whole area is called
a regional history fair.
And it takes in 18 counties.
And I had quite a few students
who you can work in groups.
And so we had quite a lot of entries
into the fire and they loved it.
When I asked them what was the best thing
we did all year, they said the history
fair and they're already driving their
eighth grade teacher's nuts wins that
history fair. You should be sure to let
me in or what can I do?
And two students told me they spent
their summer thinking about ideas.
So, you know, you've got them excited
about history.
And now there are different
kinds of projects, aren't.
Can you kind of
identify identify the different kinds
of projects?
You can write a project, and that is a
typical research paper that so many
of us are familiar with.
Then there is a project which is a more
visual where you take a large board
and you put the theme and then
you put information, but also pictures,
models, things.
That is a visual presentation.
Now, you can do that individually
or you can have a group.
There might be two people working
together.
There's also a media presentation
where you can use slide type or video
or things like this.
Then there's an individual drama
presentation where you might
dress up like somebody in history and
do a dramatic presentation.
And then there is a group dramatic
presentation.
And last year they presented a play
about the fall of the Alamo that I
thought was excellent.
My students didn't do it, but it was an
excellent project.
We've got some some pictures of
last year's history fair that I think by
looking at them, help us get a little bit
better idea of what the history fair was
all along. So maybe we look at this first
one here. I think it's the one that is
the.
Well, there you have it. Why don't you
just describe it for us?
These are both individual and
group projects.
And you can see that we feel the floor
of the basketball area
with these projects.
They're set up on tables and then the
students put their work and you
just come up and view it and you get a
good idea what the theme
was. Last year it was triumph and
tragedies and students found areas
of history where they were both the
triumphs and then the tragedies
and I presented them.
And those are set up in such a way that
people can walk around.
In other words, it would be an
interesting thing for adults probably to
learn.
And I were amazed with the quality.
I was not amazed.
I think that children can do so
many things now.
The idea of triumph and tragedy, that was
the theme last year.
Each year there's a different thing to
change the theme.
And so, wow.
So it's not a time period or
no novel or anything.
Somebody might be able to use
a similar a similar
moment in history, a different year, but
it's with a different theme that pulls it
together.
It's the theme this year.
It's conflicts and compromise.
So you could go all the way back to the
ancient Greeks, you could bring it all
the way up to the Middle East situation.
So time periods not
a consideration.
And that's the reason we have students
participating on high school level
with world history classes on
middle school with American history.
Now, we have some examples of some of
those, a little close up of some of the
individual projects.
Let's look at this first.
And here, maybe you can tell us a thing
or two about it.
This was a group project by some girls
from Madison and now it's middle school.
And they did the triumphs and tragedies
of a tennis player, Althea Gibson.
And this was a winner.
Here at our local history fair.
Hmm.
Now, the idea of being a winner means
something because then you can go on to
you go on to state, you participate
in state.
And if you went on at state level, you
go on to national.
There's forty four states, I believe,
that participate in this history
project.
So that won by winning was
to all states and went to state.
Yes. Well of course that in itself
is exciting. Yes.
To the student and has additional
historical opportunities
if it lets them go to Austin.
Yes, that's right.
Let's look at the next project here.
This shows the work of some students from
Albany, and this is another
award winner.
And you can see that on the projects,
how they use pictures and
models in front
to present the ideas of triumphs and
tragedies.
The tragedy here was a jail.
And the triumph is how Albany has turned
it into a beautiful art museum.
And that was presented.
And as you could walk by, you could see
that information. This, as I said, was a
winner on the senior high division.
High school students do not compete
against middle school or junior high
students.
How are the winners determined?
Is there a panel of judges on the panel
of judges?
And what is there a certain kind of
criteria that the students
know they're going to be judged on?
For example, I'm wondering, in addition
to the historical
information that those projects may have,
how much difference does
it make, the quality of the artwork or
the the display of the photographs and
things like that?
Fitting the theme is important,
but also the quality of the work and also
the quality of the presentation.
If you have a marvelous idea
and it's not presented very
well, you can't get people really to look
at it or get excited about your project.
So all these things are taken into
consideration.
Let's look at this next project and
maybe you can tell us the thing about it.
This is an interesting story behind
it, this young man.
One second.
I believe here at our regional
history fair, the rules
do not say anything about changing.
And some of the judge's comments
gave him some ideas about how he
could make this a little bit better.
It was not a winner
here, but it went on to state,
oh, I'm getting this back.
But it went on to state in place second
there.
So it started out here
lower and then went on and did even
better in state because it want
to make some improvements, improvements.
And actually the Athea Gibson project,
I believe, beating here that he was able
to improve and he was a higher winner
there. He did not go on to nationals, but
it was a neat project and he was able,
with a judge's comments to improve.
It seems to me that this
whole history fair idea ties together
a number of benefits in addition to an
appreciation for history, which, of
course, is the primary thing, it
gives the student an opportunity to get
involved in a creative project.
Yes. And to to really employ
some creativity.
And in some of the cases, especially with
the oral presentations, gives them an
opportunity to get up in front of people
and make a presentation.
All of those kinds of things are
extremely beneficial experiences
for you.
Yes, these are lifetime skills.
And now what will you
be doing?
In other words, will we now in the cycle
as far as the next history fair is
concerned, the next history fair
will be in the spring that as
far as getting prepared for this, we're
going to have a workshop at ICU
on Saturday, November the 2nd, and that
is for students.
We've already had one for teachers
to let them be aware of their
opportunities.
And this one will be one for students.
And we'll show them examples of projects
and we'll show them dramatic
presentations and we'll show them the
things that they can do.
We'll give them ideas for topics
and we'll show them a little thing about
projects, how you can make your special,
how the use of color or the use
of design or lettering can
really enhance your project
and make it a winner.
Now, what age group are how many
grades of school are eligible to enter
a history fair project?
I believe it's middle school through high
school. So that would include sixth grade
level, all of those.
So would it be true then that if any
young person, middle school or high
school young person in this area
is welcome to come to this November 2nd
meeting and
they don't in other words, they're not
dependent upon their teacher
pursuing or encouraging this project
through the class. It can be done.
Can it be done outside of
a school sponsored thing if that
particular school is not in it or
I believe they are entered through their
school because they do give school
awards.
For instance, a school that wins the most
trophies gets a sweepstakes award.
So it is through the schools.
I imagine any student who is excited
in. You have to want to do a history
part. I can't imagine a teacher in the
world saying through all of that.
No, I don't. I don't want you to think.
I don't want you to do.
Yeah, I and most of the teachers I've
talked to in this area are very excited
about it.
You mentioned there had already been a
session for teachers.
Yes.
And now what what would go on
in those sessions?
What was the reason for that meeting?
Well, many teachers have never
participated in a history fair, and they
wondered exactly what it was.
Many teachers wondered, how much work
is this that I will have to
do, how much work will be required of the
students? And so we wanted to point out
the benefits of it and then give them
some guidelines.
We wanted to give the teachers some ideas
for topics, because when you first hear a
topic, you'll think compromise.
All I can think of is the eighteen fifty
compromise and then you start thinking
and almost everybody and everything.
There's a little bit of a compromise and
then the ideas start flowing
in the different projects you
can present.
And it was basically to give the teachers
a little bit of guidelines, what it's
about and what they can do.
So after the November 2nd
session for the for the kids,
are there any other particularly
important dates or what happens
from that day forward?
Well, we hope they get excited and start
working on their project or at least
picking a topic and looking for
information.
Now, in the spring in March,
through their teacher, they will send
their entry and they do have to answer or
they just don't show up with it and
they will send their entries in.
And there's a deadline on that.
Then the big day of the history fair is
in April and it's on a Saturday.
And of course, the public's invited.
We had a lot of Aveling people who
came out to look at the projects
that didn't even have students involved.
Would you expect this year to be
larger than last year?
You're already seeing signs that it will
be from the standpoint of the level
of interest.
My former students are already excited
about it. They're looking forward to
doing it. And a lot of people, when they
saw articles in the newspaper said,
I didn't know that was going on or I
can't believe I missed that and
I'm going to put it on my calendar and
things like this.
And so I think that this is going to be
something that is going to grow and grow.
And I think this area, the state is going
to be well known for students who are
excited about history and excited about
learning.
I suppose the answer to this question is
obvious, but I want to ask it anyway is
as a result of the history fair in this
renewed interest, are you finding
that having benefits in your classroom as
far as history is concerned?
Tremendous.
As I told you, it's in the spring, so
we had two more months of school to go.
But these students
enjoyed history.
All of a sudden history was
relevant. I wanted to find out about
things. And as I said, I keep thinking,
oh, I could use this for a topic
or oh, I wish I'd use this for a topic.
And I seem to enjoy history more and
I think enjoyed school more.
Even some of mine that were sick a lot
immediately got well because I didn't
want to miss something, or
at least I hope that was the reason.
Yeah, well, it's always good
to find new ways to
delight that little flame
and encourage students to see.
I guess there's nothing more exciting to
teach you than to see a student suddenly
become excited about learning.
Yes. Is that right?
And that's what makes teaching so
rewarding.
Thank you so much for coming by and
spending some time with us and for the
interest in history and for the time
you spent with so many of our young
people in this area and for telling us
about the history there.
Enjoy it.
And thank you for being on campus
with Karen Turner.