Experienced Pa. teacher develops new approach to instruction of difficult topic: Penn State's Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative provides support for creativity

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — After a long day teaching fifth-grade language arts and social studies in the Red Lion Area School District during the 2020-21 school year, Wendy Smith sat down to plan her next social studies unit: the Civil War.

She tried to focus, but local and national headlines about polarizing current events swirled in her head. How should she approach this difficult historical topic? Did she need to avoid certain phrases and resources? Even as a teacher with more than 33 years of experience, she felt unsure.

"Being a teacher mid-pandemic and being mindful that I might just be an outlier when it comes to certain issues, I was all but desperate to find a way to address content without stepping on toes," says Smith, who recently started her second consecutive yearlong program with the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State.

In spring 2021, when she first heard about the Initiative's partnership with her school district, Smith immediately knew she was interested — and she quickly found she wasn't the only educator feeling uneasy and seeking support.

"I felt like I would benefit from being a part of a group that was working towards creating greater possibilities for all students," Smith says.

During the Initiative program, Smith came up with her own project, collected and analyzed data, took action and shared her findings with her colleagues and Penn State pedagogical experts. In the process, she became more responsive to her students' needs. "I was able to focus more on being an observer, a noticer, rather than having a preconceived goal about how to approach classroom issues,” she says.

Smith became a teacher who sought questions and possibilities instead of trying to have all the answers all the time, she says.

The program helped Smith and her students interact with the curriculum with greater engagement. It enabled her to facilitate deeper discussions and tailor learning to match student interests, while the students developed a richer understanding of grade-level content.

The Penn State program boosted Smith’s confidence to teach the Civil War. She shifted her approach to sharing the ownership of the learning with her students. They grew their knowledge and thought critically about the nuances and complexities of that and other historical events. They engaged in civil discourse.

Smith’s new pedagogical approach positioned her students wonderings about the Civil War to align with their curricular goals. She served as a facilitator of their learning, not a provider of content or knowledge.

"All kids can think, and all kids can think deeply, but you have to engineer it for them in a way that makes them comfortable with it and allows them the space to make mistakes," Smith says. "There's a lot that can really make them more critical thinkers."

The Penn State program, which utilizes an educator professional development mechanism called inquiry, propels personalized learning.

"Before using the inquiry cycle, there were days when I may have just tried to cover the material with hopes of student retention,” Smith says. “With the inquiry cycle, I find that I tend to plan for learning 'the basics' of a historical event while allowing time for further student exploration, critical thinking, and civil discourse. This often leads to students having an in-depth knowledge of the historical event, guided by their own curiosity."

Smith plans to solidify her new approach this school year during her participation in her second Initiative program.

"What I have experienced and learned last year," she says, "has given me so much renewed motivation and joy in my work as an educator."

The Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State is part of the University’s Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative. It supports educators in the effective instruction of a wide variety of historical and current difficult topics.