How do teachers captivate their students? Here, in a feature we call How I Teach, we ask great educators how they approach their jobs.
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Sam Westerdale, a civics and government teacher at Aurora’s Rangeview High School, has a master’s degree in political science. But she’s not afraid to admit what she doesn’t know.
“I try to demonstrate that fragility is natural in the learning process, and it shouldn’t be seen as weak, but rather, as being curious in wanting to understand or learn more.”
Westerdale spends a lot of her summers attending workshops to improve her craft. For example, learning how to teach the concept, “stare decisis,” a Latin term for the legal doctrine that says courts should honor historical precedents when they decide similar cases.
Teaching, she said, is “a constant cycle of learning and relearning.”
Westerdale, a board member of the Colorado Council of the Social Studies board, talked to Chalkbeat about why she hands out copies of the U.S. Constitution to students, what she learned after a student’s unexpected absence, and what she wants teens to know about the nation’s founders.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?
There were a few moments when I realized perhaps teaching is where I wanted to end up. This definitely came from being an avid reader ranging from “Goosebumps” to the “Fellowship of the Ring” series. I remember creating a fake library with my siblings in my bedroom and pretending to check out books for my sister.
I went into college as a biology major, thinking I might be a science teacher, and then took a government class and realized how much I loved learning about how power is wielded and the importance of knowing your rights.
There is a history of teachers in my family and in my husband’s family, and that also helped encourage me to apply to the teacher education program at the University of Colorado Denver 15 years ago.
How did your own experience in school influence your approach to teaching?
I grew up with a speech impediment and took speech therapy classes in elementary school. I was difficult to understand at times and participated less due to embarrassment. I think a lot about how the pressure to succeed felt very prevalent in the 1990s and early 2000s, and how the learning that comes from struggling or failing is at times far more important than getting it right the first time. I share that experience with my students because I think that education is in a better place now in terms of providing support and being honest with who you are.
I want my classroom to be a space for excellence as well as vulnerability, and give students opportunities to be kids, which may include a room full of stuffed animals (mainly llamas), getting-to-know-you warm-up questions, their current favorite song, or knowing which Dorito is their least favorite.
Tell us about a favorite lesson to teach.
One of the first lessons I teach in both my civics and my dual enrollment American government classes focuses heavily on the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers. I stress the importance of compromise and how the actions of a few people led to our rights and liberties today.
The lesson from iCivics, called The Federalist Debate provides a summary of what each group wanted along with their beliefs. I group students into smaller groups and assign them each a Federalist Paper (usually 10, 78, 39, or 84) or Anti-Federalist Paper (Brutus I or Brutus II) to analyze and decide which point of view it is from.
It’s one of my favorite lessons to see students learn from primary sources and realize that much of what was designed hundreds of years ago is still relevant to today.
Why do you hand out pocket-size copies of the Constitution to students at the beginning of the year?
It’s a tradition we’ve had at Rangeview High School for as long as I can remember for civics and dual enrollment classes. One of my main goals is a sort of scavenger hunt, so students find each part, from the Articles, which design our structure of government, to the Bill of Rights and the rest of the amendments.
Students like having physical copies of the Constitution and feel more engaged and connected to their rights and liberties. There are even moments where students make statements like, “Now I have my rights with me, ready to read whenever I want.”
Tell us about a lesson when you connected current events to the Declaration of Independence?
One of my favorite iCivics lessons is Philosophically Correct. It explains which philosophers influenced America’s founders and which philosophies are referenced in the Declaration of Independence.
My class is often the first time students dive into content that asks them to reflect on human nature and current events in relation to civics. I remind them that many founders were not much older than the students, and — like good students — they looked for inspiration for a new government in their favorite philosophers. This lesson includes ideas from Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Machiavelli, and Montesquieu, and what that relationship looks like between a people and its government.
I have students analyze concepts from each philosopher and annotate the Declaration of Independence to show how it expresses natural rights, the rule of law, the right to revolution, popular sovereignty, equality, consent of the governed, and social contracts. Students complete an exit ticket on how they see The Declaration of Independence today by selecting one of the seven concepts in relation to current events.
Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.
This happened one of my first few years of teaching. There was a miscommunication over why a student would be absent for a few days. When the student returned and I asked where they were, they said, “Monticello.” I incorrectly thought that the student was lying because just a few weeks before, I had shared that I had visited Monticello for the first time. I thought the student was referring back to my experience and using it to lie.
I remember taking a deep breath and deciding to be curious. I asked the student to share what they learned. The student went into amazing detail from the artifacts on the plantation, the enslaved labor which built Monticello, and the significance of Thomas Jefferson in American founding. I quickly apologized. I also made sure to email the student’s parents about what happened and how I felt horrible for that initial thought of the student possibly lying. The student and I would often laugh about the moment throughout the year. To this day, I always try to be curious with others.
What are you reading for enjoyment?
I am currently reading the newest Wonder Woman series by Tom King, “The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America” by Jeffrey Rosen, and “Water Moon” by Samantha Sotto Yambao.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
