Bob Jones students, teachers explain benefits of integrated courses

MADISON — At their Feb. 7 board meeting, the Madison City Board of Education heard from a few Bob Jones students and two teachers concerning the benefits of integrated courses in high schools.

The idea to implement an integrated course was born out of a trip to Fairfax County, Virginia, to see how they were using these courses in their schools.

According to English teacher Robin Dauma, these kinds of courses offer new ways to challenge students and allow them work collaboratively. In addition, it eliminates a number of logistical difficulties and saves teachers from repeating material.

“That allows us to go deeper, so it’s been a beautiful thing,” she said.

This school year, Dauma and history teacher Bridget Drummond joined forces for an AP Language and Honors Modern U.S. History integrated course that allows students to read and study classic novels that coincide with certain historical time periods. For example, students may read Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” while studying the post-reconstruction South and read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” while studying the Jazz Age.

On the other end of the spectrum, Dauma said students can also study rhetoric in historical documents like politicians’ inaugural speeches, transcripts of court cases and other legal documents.

“Never as a history teacher would I have thought that I would be collaborating with an English teacher,” Drummond said. “… It’s been a real blessing … we can go so much deeper with material, and I think that’s just been fun—things that I could never do in a regular 11th-grade history (class).”

The teachers’ AP Language and Honors Modern U.S. History course has 19 students. They meet for one block all year and earn two credits for taking the course. Dauma said having the class for a whole year, rather than just one semester like most classes, allows them more time to delve deeper into the material.

“As educators, we constantly encourage our students to work collaboratively and to take what they learn in our classes and use it outside of our classrooms—use it in all aspects of their lives,” said Sharon Powell, MCS secondary coordinator. “In fact, if they would take these two pieces of advice, then everything that we teach in our classrooms would be relevant.”

Three students in the class shared what they have learned in the first three units and explained how the material and the activities relate to their own lives.

One student, Tyler Theakston, said Unit 1 taught them about philanthropists, entrepreneurs and idealists. “That’s great because our world is built on innovation and invention,” he added. During this unit, he and other students completed a challenge to build a tower out of only straws and paperclips. He said this helped them learn how to think like inventors.

Taylor Theakston said Unit 2 was her favorite because it focused more on writing and analytics, which relate to research, something she said is a big part of her life. In this unit, the class worked on their research papers and debating skills, as well as analyzing progressive leaders.

For Unit 3, Bradly Spindle said he and the rest of the class focused on individual presidents. To tie that in with English, the class studied speeches and analyzed their literary techniques. Something else they did in class was a “Profiles in Courage” contest based on John F. Kennedy’s book of the same name.

“It was just really cool how it showed the freedom of this class that we have because our teachers gave us the option to do a podcast or an essay,” Bradly said. “Personally, I chose to do the essay, which worked as a great measuring stick for me to see how my essay-writing abilities have improved from our research paper back in Unit 2 to now where we had to apply it in a whole new way on a topic mostly of our choice.”

The class has also been able to participate in several “special events” that tie into their lessons, including a visit from local podcasters John O’Brien and Ben Jobe during the Profiles in Courage contest. Tyler said their guidance and expertise not only helped him figure out a direction for his own podcast, but they also helped him see how he could potentially become a successful podcaster like them.

For Taylor, visiting the traveling exhibit “The Wall That Heals,” a three-quarters-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was a rewarding trip. TWTH made a stop in Huntsville in November 2018 and allowed the class to gain unique insight as they were studying the Vietnam War.

“It’s just such a different experience to read the numbers on the page and then go see all the people who were actually affected in this war,” Taylor said. “All the names on the wall, the artifacts that were recovered from the war, (and) getting to talk with veterans themselves really allowed us for a better understanding of what actually went on during that time.”

As they move forward, the class will be learning about the Depression and Civil Rights eras, and in March, Dauma said they will be the first student group from Madison City Schools to tour the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery.

Board President Ranae Bartlett thanked Dauma and Drummond for paving the way in the system’s first integrated course, and board member Connie Spears commended the students and teachers for building a class that is so meaningful to them.

“I want to thank the board for letting (the integrated course) be a part of our curriculum,” Dauma added. “I will say, if you’re questioning and we’re looking at planning more of this, let’s do more of this. … It’s worth it.”