Teaching Controversial Issues: Bringing the "Fight" to the History Classroom, by Kevin Lydy and Arch Grieve. Presented at the First Annual WSU Network For Educational Renewal Conference in 2013.

1. Teaching Controversial Issues:
Bringing The ‘Fight’ to the
Classroom
Presentation given at the 1st annual WSUNER
Conference, April 20, 2013
by Kevin Lydy and Arch Grieve
The Dayton Regional STEM School

2. Why teach controversies?
• Some of these topics are required
• Important to teach kids to argue the way
adults should be arguing
• Makes students defend their arguments, not
repeat what they’ve heard their parents say
• Goal is not to change their views, goal is to
help them articulate and defend their views
more fully

3. How we’re different at STEM
• Teach units thematically, not strictly
chronologically
– Benefit #1: Students cover one topic multiple
times over the course of a year (e.g., WWII)
– Benefit #2: Ability to cover contemporary issues
instead of “pushing for the present day”

4. Sample units: Struggle for Equality
• Present U.S. history from the perspective of marginalized
groups; recognizing that there truly is no unified, collective
voice but a common thread runs through each narrative
• Begin with the experience of women in U.S. history, then to
African Americans, Native Americans, Latin
Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, People with
Disabilities and Gays/Lesbians.
• Utilize a wide variety of resources, predominantly primary
source documents and video documentaries.
• Lessons utilized come from a variety of resources, including
PBS, Teaching Tolerance, Teachers Curriculum
Institute, Anti-Defamation League, Ithaca College and many
others.

5. Sample Units: Conflict and Genocide
• Don’t cover major wars that Kevin covered already
• Look at Armenian Genocide, Holocaust, Cambodian
Genocide, Rwandan Genocide, Darfur, Kashmir, and the
Conflict in Northern Ireland
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict is culminating project
• Utilize Choices curriculum heavily (from Brown
University) for the content readings, as well as other
online sources, like Frontline documentaries, the US
Holocaust Memorial Museum website, etc.
• Many resources and sites are included on the handout

6. Content Requirements: Equality
All within American History course title from June 2012 “Model
Curricula” from ODE
Topic: Social Transformations in the United States (1945-1994)
Content Statements:
28. Following World War II, the United States experienced a struggle
for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil rights.
29. The postwar economic boom, greatly affected by advances in
science, produced epic changes in American life.
30. The continuing population flow from cities to suburbs, the internal
migrations from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt, and the increase in
immigration resulting from passage of the 1965 Immigration Act have
had social and political effects.

7. Content Requirements: AI Conflict
All within Modern World History course suggestions from June 2012 “Model Curricula”
from ODE
Topic: Cold War
Content Statements:
20: Religious diversity, the end of colonial rule and rising nationalism have led to
regional conflicts in the Middle East.
21: Postwar global politics led to the rise of nationalist movements in Africa and
Southeast Asia.
Topic: Globalization
Content Statements
24: Regional and ethnic conflicts in the post-Cold War era have resulted in acts of
terrorism, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
25: Political and cultural groups have struggled to achieve self-governance and selfdetermination.

8. Inspiration: Equality
• Thematic curriculum from Mary Connor
• Curriculum did not include gays/lesbians or
people with disabilities
• Topic is more prevalent in the news
• Students who identify need to understand
that they have a history

9. Inspiration: AI Conflict
• Ohio state standards
• My own personal interest in the conflict
• My own personal disgust at the partisanship
that exists on the national level for multiple
issues

10. Integration
• Both units are integrated heavily with
Language Arts classes
• Students write letters to their members of
congress, so assessment is authentic
• LDC grant from Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation

11. Essential Questions: Equality
• What is the experience of gays and lesbians in
U.S. history?
• How have societal changes in the U.S. affected
gays and lesbians?
• What are contemporary issues surrounding
gays and lesbians?
• What are the different opinions on those
issues?

12. Essential Questions: AI Conflict
• How has this conflict come about? (history)
• What are the primary issues in the conflict?
(history)
• What do both sides believe about the other?
(empathy)
• What is (or should be) the US role in the
conflict?

13. Implementation: Equality
• Excerpt from Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man
• Anti-Defamation League’s “A Note About
Language”
• Timeline lesson plan adapted and updated
from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and
Gay History in America (PBS Online)
• Before Stonewall documentary
• Stonewall Riots

14. Implementation: Equality (cont.)
• After Stonewall documentary
• Students are then presented with their project, to
write their state senator concerning Ohio House Bill
176 which would add “sexual orientation and gender
identity or expression to the existing list of protected
classes (ie: race, religion, sex, disability, veteran's
status, age, etc.)”
• Students need to explain the steps necessary for HB
176 to become a law
• Students are then given a demonstration of how to
utilize evidence and research to support an opinion

15. Implementation: Equality (cont.)
• Dr. John Feldmeier, professor of Political
Science at Wright State University and civil
rights lawyer talks to the students
• Students then engage in a series of peer
critiques as they write their letters
• Students are graded on how well their
argument utilizes claim-evidence-reasoning
and not on which side of the argument they
choose

16. Rubric
Using a Likert Scale of 1-5

17. Implementation: AI Conflict
• Intro: Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef calling for the
destruction of the Palestinians and the Hamas Farfour
cartoon
• Begin with timeline of major events, geography, and
terms primarily through lecture format utilizing
powerpoint and worksheets, which lasts roughly a
week
• End of first week students are given a formative
assessment to determine where they are at with the
material and help differentiate for their primary
document assignment
• Found that students had a better understanding of the
material after going through the letter-writing process

18. Pre and Post tests

19. Implementation: AI Conflict (cont.)
• Documentary entitled Promises, looking at the
children of the conflict
• Begin researching primary documents using
differentiation techniques and open source
• Google Docs collaboration
• Guest speakers from Israeli and Palestinian
perspectives, and WSU Professors Drs.
Shannon and Schlagheck

20. Implementation: AI Conflict (cont.)
• Students begin letter-writing process, focusing on
content in history and format/structure in language
arts
• Requirements are very structured and rubric very
specific
• Prompt: “After researching primary and secondary
documents on The Arab-Israeli conflict, write a letter to
your Member of Congress that argues your position
on whether the US should support or not support the
Palestinian bid for statehood in the UN. Support your
position with evidence from your research. Be sure to
acknowledge competing views. Give examples from
past or current events or issues to illustrate and clarify
your position.”

21. Rubric

22. Reflection: Equality
• Improvement:Need to ensure that students'
opinions are supported by evidence that has
legal standing.
• Ensure that all students' opinions are
valued, but that they must be supported by
evidence.
• Positive: Dr. Feldmeier’s presentation was
everything that I could have hoped for.

23. Reflection: AI Conflict
• Improvement: Next year for I/P Conflict I want to spend
more time utilizing the seminars to help go deeper into the
primary documents.
• Also need a better way to share the documents peer to
peer, as we didn’t come up with a standardized way to
name documents in the Google folder.
• Positive: Was able to differentiate primary documents well
based on student reading levels so that they could
meaningfully contribute to the discussion whether they
were summarizing the Oslo Accords or a three sentence UN
Security Council resolution.

24. Doubts we have (controversial
educational issues)
• The bill Kevin talks about might not go anywhere
• Editing a video, ‘becoming the censor’= good idea or
not?
• Using Wikipedia for primary document analysis
• Limiting our own biases, how do we check ourselves?
(Let them know if you take a stand or keep your views
to yourself: Kevin’s HRC sticker and Arch discussing his
own thesis comparing S. Africa and Israel)
• Having a unit on Gay Americans automatically puts
Kevin in a position to defend
• Students providing other sources