On Tuesday, Mr. Yarborough’s seventh-grade History classes visited the Upper School history department to present to my tenth-grade history class of ESL (English as a Second Language) students. The seventh-graders had a tough job ahead of them–to teach the United States Constitution to a group of students from China, Korea, Japan, Germany, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. To many of these students, the concepts of federalism, “checks and balances,” and the legislative, judicial, and executive branches were foreign concepts. To the seventh-graders from Rome, Ga., well, they’ve been learning about American history throughout their lives!
Mr. Yarborough assigned each group a topic, ranging from the European influence on the American Constitution down to the specific roles of the three branches of government. My students were able to recall learning about the Age of Enlightenment in World History, and were nodding along during one group’s presentation about John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.
However, when it came down to the nitty gritty business of setting up the United States government, my students were entering a new realm. Overall, we thought the seventh-graders did a good job of presenting the information in a way that acknowledged that some of these students might not know much about American History, but at the same time, did not belittle their lack of knowledge.
After explaining how lawmaking fit into the duties of the legislative branch, seventh-grader Frank Manning showed an interactive “School House Rock” video about a bill sitting on Capitol Hill waiting to become a law. Through song, the video taught the lawmaking process in the two houses of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate. My students found the video to be quite entertaining and informative (even if it was a bit corny!).
All in all, it was a good exercise for the seventh-graders in oral communication. Since they were teaching American History to non-native students, they had to be sure to explain each definition, and to apply it to the bigger picture. Although the content sometimes needed work, and some students needed to speak up a bit more, I was impressed with how adept these students were at using technology in the classroom!
