Americans Who Tell the Truth

As educators, we know that in order for the student to connect fully with what they know and want to know, the heart must be engaged first. Some have called it an “emotional hook,” others simply, the “heart connection.”  Whatever you name it, it is much older and truer than brain research and it is what each of us knows to be true.

To care deeply about something or someone, propels us and compels us to learn it, know it and understand it. 

But there must be more to a biography study than passive involvement on the student’s part. The story of a human life told to the student by the teacher already offers an important difference than reading about it or even having it read to them.  When the teacher takes the time to know the life of someone and then prepare it to tell to the class, she communicates its personal significance and is forced to examine the life before sharing it, thus extracting her own personal meaning from it.  She also models the value of knowing something well enough to speak it to the group rather than read it from a book, as a third source of knowledge. It is, thus, a gift to the student, from one human being to another.

Therefore, if you can, I urge you to prepare these biographies and tell them to your students, rather than read them. Better still, have Robert Shetterly come to your school as I did and tell the stories of those he chose to paint. It is even more moving to hear of how he fell in love with each one for their courageous acts and humanity.

Once engaged at the heart level, by any of the ways of presentation above, students must be allowed the opportunity to then process and make this information their own.

The more active and varied the ways of doing this, the more permanent the relationship to learning.

Here are some of the ways I have used biography in my work with students.

I urge you to share yours here as well.

(Click here to share an idea or strategy with us!)

“Living” timeline:

This activity involves each student. Groups of eight to twelve students are formed .If class size is small, one group is fine. After hearing or reading a biography and having some class discussion of it, the class is asked to get into groups of eight to ten students. Students then are given an opportunity to decide upon the events in the biography they would like to portray as a group and then, individually for presentation to the class.

With the help of the group, each student then prepares to represent his portion of the biography.  Included in the brief presentation would be relevant dates, importance of an event in the life of the person or as it relates to the study. For example, students presenting Lincoln’s biography would be asked to make connections to the significance of events in his life for our country and also share related events/information from other parts of the study. After preparation is complete, students then form a line in front of the classroom to create their “living” timeline. The rest of the class will also have prepared the same biography. Each group is asked to critique the groups’ presentation based upon agreed upon standards/ rubric provided by the teacher ahead of time. Suggested standards would be the presence of a chronological series of events, the ability to portray their significance in the life of the individual and related study and general knowledge of the events presented.

When all the living timelines have been shared, each group can determine what they missed or want to change and put those in their class notes along with the timeline.

Students should be asked to present the timeline in their notes using a different color for each person on the timeline from their group. Using color in notes work has great benefits for retention of information. (See Eric Jensen’s Student Success Secrets)

If you are using the “sketchbook journal” methodology of note taking and record keeping for class, have students enter the living timeline there.

On the following day, have each group form again. Have one group return to the front of the classroom. Ask them to line up, as they were the day before. A great way to stimulate memory and deepen knowledge is to extend this activity in using the following variations:

1-      Give students one minute to rearrange themselves Next, ask them to restate the living timeline in their new roles to stimulate knowledge of the biography in its entirety, rather than only knowing their own part in the timeline. In effect, they are “trading” parts with someone and can be one another’s teachers in doing so.

2-       Do this several times over a period of days using several different biographies.

3-      Have one group return to the front of classroom out of order. Ask someone to volunteer to put them in the correct order.

4-      Put eight to twelve students (as needed for a biography) in the front of the class. Ask a student to volunteer to arrange them based on any biography you have studied thus far.

5-      Do the timeline from the end of the life and work forward to its beginning.

Presenting information in reverse is an excellent strategy for memorization for some students.

6-      Line up two or more biographies from the same time period or some other study.

For example, line up Martin Luther King’s with Malcom X’s chronologically.

Have other students then add themselves in as representatives of what is going on at that time in our country’s history. When this is all done in this active, living format, making use of themselves in space to represent a life and a history, it presents a powerful visual image for them. I have found this to be of great use later in the class for test study and general need for review.

Dramatic renderings of the biographies:

Have students prepare a biography for this activity well in advance of the day it is scheduled.

          Choose two or more students to prepare for this activity daily.

          Have students research biographies and enter into a forum of discussion.

Students in the “audience” can be press members (an excellent way to work with the responsibility of the press in a democracy) and ask questions of the individuals presented about their life’s work. Asking Dorothea Lange about the subjects of her work, for example, or Samantha Smith about her need to travel to Russia. Many of the individuals risked their lives for their work. Set up a panel of those individuals (Lincoln, ML King, Jr., Malcolm X, Mother Jones, etc.) and have them discuss the question of what is worth risking one’s life for and why.  Allow this discussion then to be part of a wider group when the “audience” can begin to ask questions or debate the question.

It is also wonderful to set up a similar panel on the issue of civil disobedience, with H. D. Thoreau’s writing as a basis for this, for example. Assemble any one of the “Americans Who Tell the Truth” who engaged in civil disobedience and was willing to go to prison or lose employment for their efforts. Again, have participants hold a forum on the topic and the question of why they risked and endured imprisonment for their beliefs.  Once these topics have both been explored, it is inevitable that students will begin to share what it is that would persuade them to act in ways that could end their lives or cause them to be imprisoned. Many times, at such young ages, they cannot yet envision or imagine having these types of passions. Others have already developed strong political or personal alignments for which they feel great passion.

Sharing those with one another can be a very revealing and strengthening experience.

It can also be a very important experience for them to realize that human beings can be so much more than passive recipients of what life hands them. More important now in a culture which does not view adolescence in particular as a period of contribution but one of acquisition, our students need to hear the stories of people who were actively involved in their own lives and world and expected to make a difference in the course of history. This is why the Americans’ Who Tell the Truth series is unique in that it offers us contemporary examples of activism and individuals with whom they can connect. My students each chose someone to communicate with and prepared interview questions for that person should they have the opportunity. Having interaction with Robert Shetterly and other local activists in our community enlivened their studies further.

To conclude, each was given an interview assignment that is described in the Projects section of the website.

_ Play writing and dramatizations:

Ask students to choose one or more interaction(s) or event(s) in the life of the biography that you choose or that had some special meaning for them personally.

Have them dramatize the event (s) in writing and perform them for the class with assistance from fellow students where needed.

If there is time, these could be developed and performed as a longer-term project.

For example, a group of students and I chose five events in the life of a slave whose story we studied. We then took those events and created a play in five scenes.

The play was performed for other students. We did not have time to develop it further but the potential to do that was there and certainly could be done at a college or high school level with great results.

A college in Southwest Missouri has had students in the drama department working with the portraits and created another way of working with them that they will share here.

-          Put the dramatizations done by the college students here. I would love it if the teacher would write it up and we could include it here.

Projects:

Interviews and citizenship:

Each student was asked to choose five individuals to interview with questions that she wanted to ask of them regarding citizenship. Questions were to be open ended rather than “true/false, multiple choice, yes/no” inquiries.    Teachers should approve individuals to be interviewed and questions first. (If necessary, I had a letter of permission prepared including my phone number for each student to take with them to the interview should the individual require it.)  Students chose many types of people in the community, both local politicians, activists and also, family members and friends.

They asked questions that resulted in lengthy and thoughtful answers.

They were also asked to “portray” their subject in some way. A sketch, photo, sculpture, painting all were acceptable ways of creating a portrait of their citizens of choice.

I enlisted the help of a local photographer to instruct the students in the ways of black and white portraits which many of them chose to use in their project.

(In schools or communities where an art teacher or other adult is not present to assist with these types of artistic renderings, this aspect of the project could be omitted and the interview process used on its own.)

Students had one month to prepare this assignment. They were asked to collect all their interviews, report on them in essay form, include their portraits and present this in a binder or portfolio. Two students chose to videotape their interviews and this was quite successful.  I encouraged them to find as many ways as possible to represent their interviews. At the end of this project, we all gathered for what I consider to be the most important aspect of our study and work with biographies: our forum on citizenship.

Insert something from Bill Ayers on the importance of student interviewing here when we can get him to do it!

Forum on citizenship:

Holding a forum on citizenship in your school or classroom community can be one of the most rewarding experiences of a teaching career. I have held a forum on citizenship with my students two years in a row and hope to continue to do them in my own city and others in the future. 

I have seen how the interviews project and forum work together to empower students in their communities. It is truly a marvel to see students stand in front of the adults in their communities and ask them questions such as, “What do you think our most important work is right now as a country?”  Or, “How can our country begin to know when it is time to stop fighting?”

Each student should be asked to choose one of her interview questions to ask the audience during the forum. Once presented in class, the interview questions should be examined carefully in preparation for the event.  Questions should be open ended and require more than simple “yes/no” responses, as was assigned in the interview project. (If you are doing the forum without the interview project, take time at this point to help students with forming questions of this type.)

If time permits, each student should be encouraged to make a brief statement before they begin discussion of their questions with the group.  In helping students form their statements, I have asked them to share things such as which interview might have sparked new thinking for them, or the one that surprised them most.

Additionally, they have shared which portrait stirred or disturbed them most and why.

They could also be asked to memorize the quote from the Americans Who Tell the Truth series that meant the most to them and share it with the audience. This year my students did this on their own, as they had specific individuals for whom they felt great affection. Hence, I must give them the credit for this part of the forum!

Our forum moderator, Harry Pickens, memorized and recited a poem by Christopher Frye to close the evening.

It was a perfect end to our forum.

Preparing for the forum in class was not just limited to the formation and evaluation of questions and statements. Once completed, students were asked to practice their statements, quotes and questions nightly for about two weeks prior to the forum. Work was done with students on the valuable experience of public speaking. We also discussed the nature of a forum, its purpose and content. Each forum was very different and had its own special outcome. We were able to look at the role of media and ponder its hindrance or help in relation to these types of gatherings by citizens of our country over time. Creating an event of this type takes many hands but again, I urge you to include this in your studies, if only in the classroom with students, holding a forum with one another. Below is an outline of the process I followed both years; this a checklist of items I found important to consider. When you hold your forums, please do share the lessons, surprises and incredible moments that they bring you! (Click here to share with us!)

To host an Americans Who Tell the Truth Forum in conjunction with bringing portraits, Rob Shetterly, Harry Pickens or Michele Hemenway, please click here for more information.

Find the right place.

We held our forum in cooperation with a Temple the first year in their center and with a high school the second year in cooperation with the entire faculty and student body.

Both were good locations in their own way. Both offered the ability to have portraits and student work displayed and allowed for as many people as possible to attend.

Neither of the events was publicized due to space and time considerations

If you are going to host the portraits, be sure to find a way to have them available that night of the forum if you can. With six portraits standing behind students as they pronounced their statements and questions to the adults in the community, there was a confidence provided by their presence that was unmistakable!

Find the right Time:

I have held both of my forums in the evenings.

I found that to be of help in allowing all parents to attend and other community members who could not attend a daytime forum.

Each school would need to determine what would work best for their parents and adult community members.

Find the right adult supports/ speakers for the forum:

It is helpful if you can engage a local adult (or bring Rob Shetterly and Harry Pickens)

As a moderator for the forum. As teacher, I usually am not a presenter at the forum.

I want the students to feel that this is their event, not mine.

Rob and Harry worked that night to ensure that students were the focal point of the forum, as did Bill Ayers and the two rabbis who led the forum the first year.

Here is a typical schedule of how our evening flowed and who did what when!

Opening: a student welcomed everyone and made a brief statement as why we are here. The student wrote the statement herself with feedback from me. This is an excellent opportunity for a student who wants to step forward in a leadership role and be a public speaker.

Moderator: Harry Pickens introduces the speaker. (Though he is an outstanding speaker himself!)

Speaker: We had the good fortune of having Bill Ayers and then Rob Shetterly to speak on the role of citizenship in our times to the audience and students. Choosing someone in your own community is also as wonderful an option!

Moderator: Now it is the student’s turn to come up one by one and share their statements and questions. The moderator aids the student in facilitating discussion.

Once this portion is finished, the moderator brought the evening to a close.

One year the rabbis led us in a song about peace and the second year, Harry Pickens recited a poem. Both were valuable in different ways.

Finding the right closing:

An important piece of this event is to determine a simple activity such as the ones above that will pull the evening together and allow closure to the event. We would love to hear how you decide to do this!

Following the forum, students were asked to write about the experience and share the things they learned, what went well, what could have been better and how and how the study had changed them. Excerpts from some of these evaluations can be read by clicking here.

Artistic work related to biographies:

Clearly, Robert Shetterly has provided an obvious example of how artistic work is connected to biography. I would encourage you to allow students to pursue portrait work of some type. If you are not comfortable leading portrait work in your classroom,

Find an artist, art teacher or someone who will teach your students the basic principles involved and then encourage them to give this a try. Students are very cautious at first and often complain that they cannot do this, as they don’t know how to draw or that they will embarrass themselves. Certainly, if they have not experienced this type of art work in the past, it will feel challenging. If you can gently encourage them to move past that with the help of someone who can teach them some simple basic features of this type of work, it will be a source of great satisfaction for them. My students felt very comfortable using Robert Shetterly’s images as a reference and enjoyed their own attempts at portrait drawing with oil pastels. What we talked about most was that when you draw or paint someone as you see him or her, you come to know your subject intimately. What do the eyes tell you? How do they gaze into the world? What can we see in their faces?  We began by looking at our own images and discussing those. By starting out this way, it allowed us to have a sense of humor about this task that seemed so daunting.  As I, too, am not the most gifted illustrator there ever was, but have taken some art classes and know some small “tricks of the trade,” we were able to take this journey as teacher and student together. So, you see, as is often true, it is best when there is no “expert” to show us “how to do it,” so that we can embark on the journey as equals. And so, I encourage you to explore this activity as a way to talk about the individuals in the portraits and add new dimensions to the study.

These can be done in student’s sketchbook journals if you are using those along with the quote or another piece from the life of that individual. My students each found other quotes from the portraits they chose, as well as the one scratched into the portrait.