Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools (The Tale of the Troubling Textbook) – Part One

September 16, 2020June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

It’s An Elephant, Dammit!

I’ve been researching and drafting what I hope will be the next “Have To” History book. The focus is on the tricky balance between “free exercise” and “establishment” in relation to public education – how to allow students (and to a lesser extent, educators) to express their sincerely held beliefs while still protecting the supposed neutrality of the system towards all things supernatural. It’s fascinating stuff (well, to me, at least), but I confess I’m having trouble with potential titles.

I was initially thinking “Have To” History: A Hall of Separation, but my wife assures me no one will know what I’m talking about (and she’s probably right). I’ve tried variations which are a bit more specific – “Have To” History: A Wall of Separation – Balancing Free Exercise and Non-Establishment in Public Education Throughout American History, for example. Unfortunately, paragraph-long book titles went out of fashion nearly a century ago. Plus, I’m not sure it would fit on the cover.

One of the most challenging aspects so far is deciding what to include. The Supreme Court has tackled a variety of issues involving the separation of church and state in relation to public schooling – school prayer (both teacher and student-led), teaching evolution, equitable facilities usage, and the real biggie these days – funding and resources. (These often involve “school choice” programs, vouchers, etc.) At the same time, education is historically a local concern, even in the 21st century. The Supremes generally prefer to restrict themselves to cases which involve either (a) substantial constitutional issue which must be addressed, or (b) issues which have presented themselves to various district courts and in which consistency has proven elusive.

All So Appealing

That means that many times, the most fascinating cases are those which never get past the nearest Court of Appeals. There are twelve of these scattered strategically across the U.S. and they’re a pretty big deal. Prayer on football fields, schemes for redirecting public money into select religious programs, challenges to curriculum – they get all kinds of fun stuff. The idea is that they use precedents set by the Supreme Court as their guide, along with the U.S. Constitution, of course.

But the devil, as they say, is in the details, and it’s not always obvious how existing decisions might shape each new variation. If it were, the case probably wouldn’t have made it that far. That’s the whole point of consistent national interpretation, after all.

It was at the Circuit Court level that I stumbled across Mozert v. Hawkins, which was decided by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (Cincinnati, OH) in 1987. Fascinated by the summary I was reading, I searched for more details and ended up – quite accidentally – stumbling through court records from several years earlier in the process. It was reading through these that I fell in love – with the case, with the process, with the various written opinions along the way, and with how very American it is from every angle.

Buckle up, because this one will take a while. Unlike the succinct, pithy, carefully balanced and academically maximized summaries in the book, this is what those cases look like in my brain before I get serious about making them, you know… useful.

Yes, Virginia – There ARE Two Clauses

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution opens with two clauses related to religion: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

The first of these, commonly referred to as the “Establishment Clause,” prohibits Congress from doing anything to promote a particular religion or religion in general. The second, known as the “Free Exercise Clause,” says that Congress can’t do anything to discourage or inhibit religious beliefs of citizens. Over time, these limitations have been understood to apply to government at all levels.

Most “wall of separation” cases related to public education involve questions of “establishment.” When Ms. Magdalene puts up Christmas decorations in her classroom, that violates the Establishment Clause. Inviting local clergy to open graduation ceremonies with a brief prayer is a no-no because it’s “establishment.” Requiring equal time for Creationism when it’s time for the chapter on Evolution? You guessed it – that’s “establishment” as well.

From time to time, however, a case will work its way through the system asserting the opposite. In these “free exercise” cases, the claim is that the state – in this case, manifested as the public school system – has hindered personal expressions of religious belief or behavior without sufficient cause. The “sufficient cause” part is important because the state has the right to place some limits on how faith is manifested when there’s a good reason. (Human sacrifice, for example, is a “no-no” even if your gods demand placation.) Government entities must demonstrate that they have a good reason for their restrictions, however. And, if there are less-restrictive ways to accomplish those goals, they have to try those first.

The Problem With Fiction

Enter Vicki Frost, the mother of several children attending public school in Hawkins County, Tennessee. School had only been a session for a few weeks in the Fall of 1983 when her 6th grade daughter brought home an English textbook containing a story she’d been assigned to read. This story, as it turned out, involved… mental telepathy. Worse, this fictional telepathy was treated by the story as if it were no big deal, despite clearly being un-Biblical.

As Ms. Frost perused her daughter’s textbook, she discovered a number of other alarming tales as well – stories normalizing cultural diversity, humanism, evolution, disobedience to parents, and the idea that children must eventually learn to think for themselves.

Frost spoke to some other concerned parents, and they approached the school about providing alternative reading assignments. At first, the school agreed. This meant, of course, that this handful of students had to be sent to the library or another room each time the class discussed the short stories in question. There could be no real collaboration or analysis unless teachers held a separate, alternative class for them each time. Eventually, the district mandated that all students would follow the prescribed curriculum. Refusal to do so would mean failing the class and could lead to disciplinary action as well.

Frost and friends took their school district to court. They claimed the district’s insistence on using this particular textbook was a violation of their “free exercise” of religion as parents. Because the issue was constitutional rather than criminal, it was heard in federal court (as opposed to the more familiar criminal courts we see in TV dramas). The lead plaintiff was another parent in the group, Bob Mozert – hence the official moniker of the case as it moved through the system.

It’s too bad, really – Frost v. Hawkins has a way more badass ring to it. Very Game of Thrones. But that’s paperwork for you.

Judge Hull

District Judge Thomas Hull of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (where the case presumably began) was not initially swayed by the parents’ complaints. He issued a summary judgement dismissing the case – meaning he didn’t find enough substance to their complaint to even hold a full trial. It’s sort of the judicial version of snorting and then asking, “Oh, were you serious?”

Judge Hull’s written explanation contains some interesting details and introduces themes which – in retrospect – serve as something of an “overture” for the larger story of Mozert as it moved through the courts. He couldn’t have known this, of course, let alone anticipate that he was about to get his honorable hand slapped by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for dismissing these parents’ complaints so readily.

{The} allegation that the books in question teach that one does not need to believe in God in a specific way, but that any type of faith in the supernatural is an acceptable method of salvation, {constitutes a valid complaint} only if the books were asserting either that salvation, or some form of religion, was necessary, or that no religion was necessary. In other words, the test would be whether the books were neutral on the issue of religion, or violating this neutrality either by advocating a particular religion or by being anti-religion.
The plaintiffs were directed to specify to the Court exactly which parts of the books substantiated their allegation. They have now responded, and it is clear that the books neither instruct the children that they must be saved, nor that they do not need any form of religion. The plaintiffs do not suggest otherwise. What they object to is the underlying philosophy of the readers, taken as a whole, which is geared to making the school children better participants in the world community. The books are aimed at fostering a broad tolerance for all of man’s diversity, in his races, religions and cultures. They intentionally expose the readers to a variety of religious beliefs, without attempting to suggest that one is better than another.

In other words, the initial complaint that the textbook in question was unfair to their religion turned out to be in reality a complaint that the book was equally fair to all religions. This, the parents insisted, was diminishing towards the one true faith – theirs. They even provided examples of several particularly problematic passages, as Judge Hull explained:

The first example is a poem entitled “The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John Godfrey Saxe, described as a Hindu fable… The poem described six blind men who each feel a portion of an elephant and reach a conclusion of what the whole must be like on the basis of their limited experience…

You all know this one. One man says, “an elephant is like a rope” and another, “it’s more like a solid wall” – that sort of thing. The lesson, of course, is that no one person usually has the complete picture or the whole truth.

In fairness to these clearly very fundamentalist parents, they’re not entirely wrong. The message that “all truths have roughly the same value” and “everyone has to find their own way” isn’t so far removed from “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together, goo goo ga-joo.” When the core of your faith is “I am THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life,” this sort of neo-hippie-unitarian nonsense is arguably chilling. And their argument wasn’t that each individual story was untenable, but that as a whole, the book seems to have made its choices in order to inculcate a specific set of values – inclusiveness, moral relativism, feminism, humanism, etc.

Next time you come across a literature textbook from the late 1970s, take a gander for yourself. My money says you’ll find touchy-feely neo-hippie. So they may have been onto something.

Did Soros Pay For This?

I’d respectfully suggest, however, that Frost and company made a major strategic error when they included their next example on the “naughty” list. Still quoting Judge Hull:

The second illustration… is from the classic story, The Diary of Anne Frank…

Whoa, there, my little inquisitors!

Let’s assume for a moment there are excerpts in Frank’s diary that proffer potentially problematic theology. The book isn’t necessarily above questioning just because she’s, you know… um…

But how was this a solid move strategically? How must THAT conversation have gone?

“Look guys, we dance along the rightmost edge of ultra-fundamentalism. Even other Christians find us a bit off-putting. But we might be able to get a win here if we can present our case as a reasonable effort to defend our sincerely-held beliefs. We’ve already got a few dozen examples on our list – stories with witchcraft, teen rebellion, eastern mysticism, and of course plenty of ‘one world order’ stuff. I’m not sure we’re doing enough, however, to demonize the most sympathetic figure of the 20th century. If only we could more strongly associate ourselves by implication with history’s single most horrifying example of intolerance and self-righteousness without the slightest awareness of irony…”

It just strikes me as slightly tone deaf is all.

This Court does not doubt the sincerity of the plaintiffs’ beliefs, nor does it doubt that the implication which can validly be found in the passages cited, offends the plaintiffs. This Court is satisfied by the examples filed that the books have the philosophical viewpoint plaintiff alleges. However, it cannot find in them, anything that can be considered a violation of plaintiff’s constitutional rights…
{T}he First Amendment “does not guarantee that nothing offensive to any religion will be taught in the schools.” (Williams v. Board of Education of the County of Kanawha, 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1975). What is guaranteed is that the state schools will be neutral on the subject, neither advocating a particular religious belief nor expressing hostility to any or all religions. From what this Court has read, it would appear that the Holt Basic Readings carefully adopt this constitutionally mandated neutrality. Moreover, they are well calculated to equip today’s children to face our increasingly complex and diverse society with sophistication and tolerance.

In short, Judge Hull fully accepted that the message to which these parents objected clearly emanated from the text when considered as a whole. This did not, however, constitute enough of a violation to justify forcing the school to change what they were doing. Efforts to equip students to function in a diverse world in which people hold all sorts of beliefs and practice any number of weird behaviors wasn’t a bug – it was a feature. The school wasn’t asking students to change what they believed or did, so it simply wasn’t a First Amendment Issue, according to Hull. In fact, it wasn’t even worth having a trial.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals wasn’t ready to say whether or not anyone’s “free exercise” was being infringed, but neither did they buy the quick-and-easy summary judgement of Judge Hull. That’s where Part Two of this wacky trilogy begins.

“Have To” History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases (Promo & Supplementals)

August 22, 2020June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

So I’ve written and published a book of important Supreme Court cases:

I’ve considered blogging about the process itself in hopes it might help others considering something similar, but I’m pretty sure the way I approach most things is roundabout and unnecessarily convoluted and would probably make any reasonable person want run from the room screaming. I will say this, though – it’s an amazing feeling to finally have it done. It’s also overwhelming the number of things that go wrong in the process itself and the volume of errors and problems you discover the first time your baby finally goes live – all of which can be traced back to me one way or the other.

Don’t worry, though – everything in it is fixed and practically perfect now. You should absolutely buy a few dozen copies. They make great gifts, look good on any bookshelf (at home, school, or other workplace), and they’re just the right thickness to go under unbalanced tables or chairs or give a little boost to your computer when live conferencing so your chin doesn’t look chubby.

“Have To” History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases: Stuff You Don’t Really Want To Know (But For Some Reason Have To) About The Most Important Cases In Supreme Court History (I know – catchy, isn’t it?) was a project which began largely for my own reference and classroom use. Some of the material I posted here on Blue Cereal as early drafts. I wasn’t always focused on “landmark” cases – much like with anything in history, for every thread you pull, every question you pose, every rabbit you chase, there are something like a four-hundred and eleven new threads, questions, and rabbits begging to be pulled, posed, and chased – and not always in that order. It doesn’t require you to be particularly knowledgeable or profound; it’s a simple function of focusing on, well… anything, for any real length of time.

As I tell my students, when history is “boring,” the problem isn’t the history. It’s them.

At some point I began wondering if my efforts might prove useful to other educators in their various circumstances. I’m under no illusions about my own abilities, but there’s so much out there and so little time to really dig through it; you never really know what others might find helpful. I pulled together fifteen or so cases, excerpts from the Court’s written opinions, and some questions I’d written as “scaffolding” for my less-enthusiastic classes. I added a few more for sake of completion, along with some simple graphic organizers to manage major periods with multiple related cases.

I initially posted the final product to Teachers Pay Teachers along with a dozen other items. I have mixed feelings about TPT – I’m not against it, necessarily, but I’ve always preferred to simply share whatever I have that others might find useful. Then again, none of us seem to be against getting paid for leading workshops or writing teacher books promising this year’s magical cure to all the things, so I’m not sure why there’s so much faux outrage at those willing to offer up their own labor and creations for a few bucks so they can buy grandma that penicillin.

I sold a few items, but not enough to justify how I was feeling about it. My principles may be for sale, but I’d like to think the price is a little higher than what I was making.

Plus, I gradually realized several things which should have already been obvious. First, not every class needs the same sorts of questions or guidelines, even if they are studying some of the same cases. Second, if my goal was to self-publish the final product (which over time seemed more and more likely), I was limiting its usefulness by formatting it as a “workbook” of some sort. I mean, I read all sorts of nerdy things from other subjects or fields, but I’m not sure I’d actually pay for something if I thought half of the cost was for “homework” I wasn’t going to do. Finally, I’m in a one-to-one school. I tend to assume students can easily look up any relevant information not explicitly covered in the content. That means my questions aren’t always limited to stuff from the materials I’ve provided; they regularly include relevant background info one can easily Yahoo.

In short, my constant second-guessing became a bit silly. I deleted my TPT account and decided to write something which might appeal to students, teachers, or actual people in roughly equal proportions.

I combed several sets of state standards for American History and U.S. Government, plodded through the official Course Descriptions for APUSH and AP-GOV to make sure I included every case referenced in either (whether I’d have chosen those personally or not), and revised my summaries to make them as useful as possible for both students and teachers while remaining as accessible as possible to people who simply wanted to understand a little more about what the hell was going on with this or that issue in the news today.

I’m not saying the final product is perfect, but there’s a reason it took a year longer than I’d planned. (Plus, the final product really is perfect – I was just trying to be humble.)

Because this post is serving the dual purpose of sharing supplemental goodies while working in a subtle promo for you to open a new tab and buy the book, I’ll even share the final description from the (quite stylish) back cover:

Whether you’re a student trying to fake your way through an American History or Government class, a loyal American citizen seeking constitutional context for current events, or simply trying to look smart on a budget, “Have To” History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases covers all the stuff you don’t really want to know (but for some reason have to) about 44 of the most important cases in our collective history. From midnight judges to gay marriage, internment camps to presidential shenanigans, you’ll find yourself looking more thoughtful and insightful just by leaving a few copies lying around. And if you actually read it, well… your credibility and self-confidence will soar and you’ll start decisively winning all of those arguments on social media. (Just tell them you have the book!)
Each featured case comes with historical context, the “three big things” you should remember, and an explanation of the decision and why we’re still talking about it today. Excerpts from the Court’s majority opinions are included, along with interesting bits from important concurring or dissenting opinions (so you can take in the Court’s reasoning in its own words). Additional “worth-a-look” cases are presented in compact form with brief highlights from the Court’s decision and a quick summary of the case and why it mattered. “Have To” History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases is readable and fresh and covers everything likely to be on the test.
Take that last bit as literally or metaphorically as you wish.

Once everything was finally finished and published, I started thinking that it might still be useful to a few teachers to have those questions and graphic organizers and whatnot – especially if they weren’t something they were expected to purchase. I added a few more to go with the expanded format of the book, and here we are.

I’ve attached the same materials in two different versions. The “All” file, not surprisingly, has everything in a single PDF document. The “Questions” file has just the questions over case summaries and written opinions, and the remaining attachments are the various graphic organizers from the “All” file but in higher quality PDFs of their own. There’s also a summary of how the courts work which I didn’t write but have used in class from time to time.

Do with any or all of it as you see fit – or don’t. I genuinely hope some of it’s useful. If so, I’d love to know. If you create better stuff and you’re willing to share, send it along and I’ll post it.

The Blue Cereal Podcast For New (Or Reviving) Teachers

August 9, 2020June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 1 Comment

Well, my #11FF, I decided to record a few podcasts for new (or reviving) educators. This seems like a wonderful idea because I lack the proper equipment, there are dozens of excellent education podcasts out there already, I have nothing to sell, and this year is so weird it’s hard to know how to prepare for it anyway.

In other words, why not?

If you’re looking for polished rhetoric or witty repartee, book recommendations or big education words, you’re a tiny bit out of luck this time around. If your’e looking for the truth about teaching and how to survive it, on the other hand… welcome to the Eleven Faithful Followers. You are home.

Episode #1: Everything Is Weird (Roll With It)

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Episode #2: Of Grades & Grading (You’re Doing It Wrong)

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What’s Your Name? (This Year’s First ‘Virtual’ Assignment)

August 5, 2020June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

What’s In A Name?

In Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Juliet laments that she cannot be with Romeo largely because of their last names. Their families are enemies and neither would ever accept the other into their homes. Standing on her balcony, unaware that he’s listening, she rejects the idea that names could be so important. Why should it matter what you’re called if you’re as awesome as Romeo – at least in Juliet’s eyes?

Still, sometimes our names do matter. It varies from century to century, family to family, and culture to culture, but sometimes your name means more than others might realize. Maybe it was given to you for a specific reason, or maybe it’s influenced how people react to you or what they assume about you. If nothing else, it usually (but not always) reflects the family into which you were born. Sometimes a major religious conversion prompts a name change. Many women still take the name of their husbands when they marry. Best friends sometimes have nicknames for each other which only they use. Couples often call one another by names that no one outside the couple can use without causing problems.

Or maybe your name is just a name and its meaning is only what you give it by being you. That’s OK, too.

The Importance of Communication

One of the primary goals of any English class is to improve our communication skills. While there are an endless number of ways humans communicate with one another, two of the most important and most universal are (a) speaking and (b) writing. We’re going to work on both this semester.

Please note that it’s never my goal to embarrass you or put you on the spot or push you to share anything you don’t wish to share. If you don’t want to say it or write it, then DON’T. I won’t be fact-checking you on anything unless there’s some specific reason I should. Our goal is to get better at communicating our own thoughts and ideas and understanding the thoughts and ideas of others. What your thoughts and ideas ARE is your business. Share them or not as you choose.

The Name Video Assignment (Due ____________)

You’re going to make a brief video (60 – 90 seconds) talking about your name and share it with me by uploading it to Student ‘Name’ Videos {linklinklink}. Your video can be as simple or as involved as you like, as long as it meets a few basic guidelines.

1) Your video should be at least 60 seconds but no longer than 90 seconds.

2) It should begin with you introducing yourself with your full name.

3) For the rest of your brief introductory video, talk about your name or some part of your name – were you named after someone? Does one or more of your names have a particular meaning? Is your name common? Rare? Often misunderstood? How does your name reflect you and/or how has having this name shaped your life a little bit? (You don’t have to cover all of this. These are just starting places and ideas. Talk about whatever you wish in conjunction with your name.)

Click Here For My Sample ‘Name Video’

The Technical Stuff (How To Make It Work)

Use Chromebooks or phones or whatever you wish.

If you’re unsure how to record video on your Chromebook, there are a few quick ‘How To’ guides posted along with this assignment on Google Classroom.

If you’re not sure how to upload your video, click the link for Student ‘Name’ Videos {linklinklink}. Then choose the ‘+ New’ near the top left of the screen, and ‘File Upload’.

If for some reason you can’t upload your video using these instructions (for example, you don’t have a working Chromebook and you’re doing all of this on another device or something), try sharing it with me some other way – email a link, etc. MAKE SURE YOU LET ME KNOW, however, so I don’t miss it and think you simply didn’t do it.

Email me with questions or problems – {email address}

This, pretty much, is my opening day assignment this year. The links will be different (the only one that actually works here is to the sample ‘name video’ – and even that will look different for students), but otherwise, this is how we’re starting off.

I borrowed this lesson from Barrett Doke, who teaches 8th Grade American History in the Houston area. We taught a series of virtual workshops together this summer, and I loved his approach to technology in the classroom, even when ‘in person’ school was still a thing back in the day. He’s done it successfully for years, although I’ve dressed it up a bit differently (anything you don’t like is probably me).

Why This?

Some of my motivation I covered in the actual directions. I won’t see my kids in person for at least nine weeks, and that’s going to make it difficult to form that there ‘rapport’ we always talk about. And honestly, while my pedagogy is fine, my strength has always been the face-to-face. Obviously, that’s out for a while.

I also believe the part about communication being an essential skill and all that. In fact, the second assignment is a short personal essay which builds on the “let’s talk about YOU” idea. Yes, it’s partly about trying to establish connection, but the ability to talk about ourselves coherently is an essential academic and professional skill. (You won’t get through many college admissions officers or job interviews if you can’t handle “so tell me about yourself a bit” decently.)

On a related front, if much of this year is going to be done long-distance, we’d better start getting comfortable using the technology – both students and teachers. If I’m going to ask them to eventually submit video summaries of what they’ve read or otherwise express themselves using this format, we’d better practice it with something easy first.

Finally, there’s an additional, somewhat awkward motivation as well. I’m an old white guy whose hearing isn’t what it used to be. I genuinely want to learn my students’ names and say them correctly, but there are more each year that I never seem to quite get comfortable with. At the same time, it feels more important than ever that I demonstrate at least that much attention and respect to those whose names are most likely to give me trouble. With this assigment, I’ll have a reference as often as I need it to exactly how they want their name pronounced – because they’re the ones saying it.

These instructions clearly take an ELA approach, but that’s not essential. When I taught American history we’d always discuss the power of names, usually in relation to slaves and slave-owners. I’m not even sure you’d need a justification for it if you’re interested. It’s your class, and you have to start somewhere.

If you want to give it a shot, all I ask is that you NOT use my sample “name video” or Barrett’s. Obviously you’d want to make your own anyway, right? Also, I’d love to hear how it goes – seriously.

Here are my instructions (pretty much the same as the first half of this post) as a Google Doc if you’d rather edit them than start from scratch. You’re also welcome to the follow up personal essay instructions. I should probably note that while I’m definitely using these this year, I haven’t yet. I honestly have no idea how it will go.

But then, that’s often the case – even with things I’ve used for years. We wouldn’t want it to get too easy or boring, would we?

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Is That A Right?

July 16, 2020June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

Don’t get excited – I’m not diving into current events or anything. (I’m far too demure for such things.) In fact, I’m intentionally avoiding the subject at the moment because any effort I make to write rationally about what we’ve become ends up as a spittle-spewing, obscenity-laden rant and, worse, totally off-brand. Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, where I’ve lost even the veneer of professionalism or decency towards my fellow man, can no doubt verify this assertion.

Instead, I’d like to share two very simple things you may find useful. Or, you may not. You may find yourself a little bit sad for me if these are my best new cutting-edge distance learning ideas at the moment. Either way, I’m giddy enough for both of us.

“Is That A Right?” is the name of an activity I’ve done with American Government and American History classes for years, and which I’m considering trying “virtually” this fall if circumstances lead us down that path.

It’s not even an overly innovative lesson. It’s really just a PowerPoint presentation with a series of descriptions of potential “rights” as per the U.S. Constitution. Students vote ‘Yes’ if they believe whatever’s on the slide is a protected right and ‘No’ if they don’t, and we discuss it a bit (“Tasha, why do you think so?” or “So, Garrett… would you still say that’s a right if we change the wording to what Tasha said?” You guys know how discussions work.) The next slide tells us the “right” answer, often with disclaimers about how it’s actually a bit more complicated than that – because it’s almost always a bit more complicated than that. Then we go to the next one.

I recently converted the most recent version of this presentation into Google Slides. You can access it in its entirety right here. If it’s something you’d like to use, all you have to do is make a copy (File, Make a Copy…) and it’s yours. Once you’ve copied it, you can change prompts, explanations, images, etc., just like with PowerPoint.

So how could we do this if we’re not in the same place?

I’ve had the privilege of co-teaching several workshops with an amazing history teacher from the Houston area named Barrett Doke. He’s one of those guys that loves technology, but always as a tool for putting more of the learning into the hands of the students and never as an end in and of itself. We all say that’s how we want to use technology – but he actually does it that way. (Now, the rest of you don’t get all defensive – I’m sure MANY of you are just as wonderful. I’m just sharing my personal warm fuzzies.)

Doke is partial to Google Slides and gets rather… enthusiastic when given the chance to share the many simple things you can do with them to make your lessons more flexible and your technology more useful without investing endless hours or – and this is a biggie – relying on your district to purchase and maintain subscriptions to specific apps or equipment. He showed me something he liked to do in Slides that would never have occurred to me. (As I said at the outset, it’s entirely possible this is obvious to everyone else in the world besides me. I can live with that.)

If you adjust the ‘View/Zoom’ for your slideshow while NOT in ‘Presentation’ mode, you’ll discover there’s all sorts of unused space around each slide. You may have stumbled across this in the past when moving around graphics or setting up animation. As it turns out, you can put stuff in these margins and it will be saved and accessible along with everything else, even though it’s not part of the slide.

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

Doke often uses this space for what I think of as ‘tokens’ which students can access. These can be numbered or customized to include their names (although the tokens have to be slightly larger that way). Whether they’re all in class together or meeting virtually (but synchronously), he’ll pose a question or prompt and offer the same sorts of options you’d see with multiple choice. Students move their tokens to the part of the slide which best reflects their response, then Doke calls on a few to explain why they chose what they did. Because they’re all on the same document, everyone sees what everyone else is answering – just like in class.

Yes, this is very similar to what Pear Deck does. I’ve not used Pear Deck extensively, but I hear great things. It might actually do this particular type of activity a bit better. I don’t have it, however, so it’s not a factor.

Here’s the long distance version of the same activity. I’ve used it with teachers successfully, but haven’t yet had the chance to do it this way with students. You’ll have to make your own copy (File, Make a Copy…) if you’d like to use it.

I like several things about this lesson in this format:

The discussions are still the discussions. They’re the key to the lesson being meaningful and the information sticky. Without good discussions, it’s just another quiz.

Anytime you can have synchronous (i.e., “live”) student responses in a form other than asking them to speak up in class, you change the dynamics and who’s likely to participate. That’s not to say it magically guarantees full engagement, but students who may not take initiative in class will often drag their token to the answer they like best.

If you have particularly shy or fragile students, the alpha-numeric system allows a degree of anonymity. One of my priorities is usually creating a dynamic in which everyone learns to speak up, and in which disagreement is healthy and means you respect the other person enough to challenge them, so anonymity is not a priority to me. Plus, it’s difficult to have discussions, even online, anonymously.

Finally, the slideshow is easily shared with students. It’s forever available should they choose to review anything or question anything after having time to think about it.

There are, of course, several downsides:

It’s tricky to keep track of who’s who on Slides. On Google Docs or Google Sheets, students logged in to their school Gmail show up on my screen as a cursor with their name next to it. I can also check version histories and edits in case there are shenanigans. I’m not sure Slides has a similar feature, and even if it does, it won’t help you if your students don’t have school Gmail accounts. That means in theory, anyone can move any number. (Then again, is there ANYTHING in class – virtual or otherwise – that’s completely bozo-proof?)

In order for students to have access to move their tokens around, I have to give them access to ‘Edit’ the Slideshow. That means in theory, they can add or delete slides or change other elements of the activity. I’ve made messing with the slides (accidentally or otherwise) a bit more difficult by ‘locking in’ everything except the tokens themselves. If you’ve made your own copy of the “Long Distance” version of the activity, you may have noticed that while you can move the tokens around, you can’t move around shapes or text on the slides like you normally could. It’s still possible – for you or anyone with ‘Edit’ access – but it’s more laborious and would require both knowledge and focused intent. This is thanks to another cool thing Doke showed me that is gradually changing my online instructional world. (Again, keep in mind that I’m nearly a thousand years old and still both startled and impressed by things like lava lamps or instant music downloads.)

If anyone’s interested, I’ll try to talk about ‘locking in’ elements of various slides next time. I’m learning to get better at doing it, but I’m not yet adept at explaining it. For now, you’re welcome to play with “Is That A Right?” and let me know how it works out. Keep in mind that you’ll have to make your own copy before it will let you edit anything or even move those little tokens around. Obviously, once you’ve made your own copy, you can add far more antagonistic, current event-related slides of your own and blame it on that guy who posted it on the internet to begin with.

You absolutey have that right.

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