Current Essential Question: How can I use my knowledge of American civics/politics/law to inspire others to be more informed voters?

On Monday, I spoke to a class of 10th Grade History students about gerrymandering. On one of my slides, I told them that gerrymandering was a process conducted by state legislatures. As I motioned to a map that illustrated my point, I surveyed the room and watched the information fly over everyone’s heads.

They did not know what state legislatures are.

To me, this seemed like an essential piece of civic knowledge. State legislatures have so much say in our individual lives—more than Washington D.C., to some extent. But I had taken this knowledge for granted and made the mistake of assuming that just because I was familiar with state legislatures, others would be, too.

This moment points to one of my habits when I create learning material. I am very detail-oriented when it comes to such projects, mostly because I don’t want to misrepresent facts or provide an incomplete picture. In a time where politics has such a grip over the media and our lives, I don’t think a simple baseline understanding is enough. As such, I do my best to create activities that will encourage students to examine the many nuances of voting rights. And if my Google Forms are any indication, students have learned a lot from my comprehensive lessons.

However, being as detail-oriented as I am, it can be hard sometimes to see the forest for the trees. During my gerrymandering lesson on Monday, I decided in the moment to cut some of my slides, thinking to myself, “this is too much information right here, and I don’t have the time to explain it.” In hindsight, I should have valued fostering discussion over introducing more information when I designed my lesson. Students will grasp the central ideas if I keep them central. And if that means I have to skim off some of the details, so be it.

But this dynamic between discussing main ideas and dissecting details has no easy solution. I know that I do not (and likely will not) know the “ideal” level of background information to introduce before delving deeper into a topic. I surely did not need every U.S. or constitutional quote for my gerrymandering lesson, but students did need to know what state legislatures do. So if they don’t, do I stop the class for a government 101-style overview of federalism? 

I think the answer to this dilemma will come with a lot more teaching experience. When the confusion about state legislatures occurred on Monday, I did not quite know what I should do—but Ann jumped in right away. She knew her students well, so she could immediately tell that they had not absorbed the information. She also knew how to frame a short discussion on state legislatures in a way that did not take ten minutes. I know that I will not get even the tiniest fraction of the experience needed to improvise at an Ann Carroll-level, but I hope to get a lot better than I was before my project.