Learning from Teaching Experiences

Siobhan Carter-David

Carter-David

As the summer continues to heat up, OAH members, staff, and affiliated organizations continue to gear up for the 2008 annual meeting in New York City. This time around, there is so much more taking place that will be aimed at advancing history education. More specifically, we are happy to announce that we will be working closer than ever with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to bring to the 2008 annual meeting more exciting and informative special programs and events for pre-collegiate history educators.

Meanwhile, here in Bloomington, my role as Education Coordinator continues to be influenced by my teaching experiences as a doctoral student. This summer, my inspiration comes from my second year as an associate instructor for Indiana University’s Groups Program, a federally funded TRIO program that for thirty-nine years has helped specially selected students from Indiana from the time they complete their application to attend Indiana University until they accept their diploma on graduation day. The program focuses on those who are first in their family to attend college, those with limited financial resources, and students with disabilities from all racial and economic backgrounds.

The course that I teach, “Critical Reading and Reasoning for the New College Student,” explores the contours of Malcolm Gladwell’s number one national bestseller The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000). Although this course is not centered solely on the study of historical people, places, or events, its mission to teach critical reading and reasoning creates a unique opportunity for history graduate students to relay to incoming freshman the importance of interrogating sources, debating issues, and thinking dynamically. However, it also provides a space for an understanding of the special difficulties facing high school teachers and professors teaching college freshman, namely, those that require a teaching of new responsibilities as students cross the threshold from secondary school to college life, from childhood to adulthood.

As I begin my second and final year working at OAH, I know that my experiences as an instructor put me in league with the teachers and professors that I serve through the organization. For this reason, I am sure that my work this academic year will prove to be even more challenging and enlightening than the last.