Staging history: Charter School Teacher of the Year John Hall brings lessons to life

This article shares some of the instructional strategies of John Hall, 2009-10 AT&T Charter School’s Teacher of the Year. Mr. Hall brings social studies lessons to life by incorporating drama and art.

By Dan Lewandowski

John Hall in his classroom at ArtSpace Charter School in Bumcombe County. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)

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Legal

Inside language arts and social studies teacher John Hall’s classroom at ArtSpace Charter School in Buncombe County, North Carolina, his class of twenty-five sixth-graders is engaged in a role-playing exercise based on what is arguably the most significant legal proceeding of the 20th century: the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial. On tables here and there lie copies of The Diary of Anne Frank, which the students have already read. On the wall hangs a three-by-six-foot collage called “Images of War,” created by the students and inspired by Pablo Picasso’s 1939 masterpiece Guernica.

In the “dock,” in the persons of some of Mr. Hall’s sixth-graders, stand notorious former Nazis accused of crimes against humanity. A number of their classmates — “witnesses” — await the opening remarks of still other classmates selected to role-play attorneys for the prosecution and the defense.

One of the students portrays a former death camp guard. Among his assignments leading up to the trial was to create a life story for his character — to determine, through research, the guard’s age, his home town, how he entered military service, whether he volunteered for or was assigned to the camp, etc.

Another student, portraying a camp survivor, received the same assignment: Where did her character come from? How did she come to be there? What happened to her family?

Prior to the proceeding, an attorney from the Asheville area addressed the class to explain the roles of lawyers, witnesses, and jurors and to demonstrate the art and craft of legal argument.

At the bench sits the “judge,” in the person of Mr. Hall, a self-described “former vagabond actor, producer, and director,” watching, learning from, and silently critiquing the latest edition of a learning exercise he created during his fourth year of teaching and his second at Artspace.

Curriculum integration

Mr. Hall’s war crimes trial exercise exemplifies the interdisciplinary teaching strategy known variously as “differentiation” or “individualized education” but most commonly as curriculum integration, which

• emphasizes activity-based learning projects,
• combines disparate curriculum elements in the service of broad educational goals,
• accommodates students’ individual interests and rates of learning,
• helps students take responsibility for their own learning,
• illuminates relationships between and among complex intellectual concepts, and
• encourages teamwork and mutual support.

“I love this approach,” Mr. Hall proclaims. “First, I’m a performer, so it fits my personal style, allowing me to use — and teach — the many communications skills I developed in my first professional career. But more important, it fits my deepest convictions about how students learn. I believe students gain a more comprehensive understanding of a subject when it’s presented in a broad context and when they contribute something of themselves to their own learning.”

For example, when Mr. Hall teaches the Renaissance, the class engages in another role-play exercise in which the children paint versions of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel images on the underside of the classroom tables. To help the children gain real-world work and leadership skills, Mr. Hall assigns them to peer-led artisan crews like those that worked under masters such as Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Bramante. While the sixth-graders are learning about the complex religious, social, and political history of the 16th century and how those elements relate to subsequent European and American history, they’re also singing madrigals and studying the architecture of St. Peter’s Basilica.

And even more satisfying to Mr. Hall, in terms of his students’ continuing intellectual engagement in the lesson of the moment, is, “When the kids leave my room for classes in science and math, they’re not required to change mental gears.” Because the faculty at Artspace works collaboratively with an arts integration team, projects extend across the curriculum, in accordance with the goals and objectives of the Standard Course of Study.

The ArtSpace method

Mr. Hall is proud that his innovative teaching methods contributed to his being named the 2009-10 AT&T Charter School’s Teacher of the Year, but he quickly credits the teaching and learning culture at ArtSpace for allowing and encouraging him “…to become the teacher I am today.” At ArtSpace, he says, “creative instructional practices are not only possible, they are mandated.”

Many North Carolinians, he believes, including some educators, are unaware that charter school students must pass the same end-of-grade tests as students in traditional schools, and that charter schools must meet the same performance goals as traditional schools. “Many people I speak to assume that, at an arts-themed school, the kids sit around on the floor and draw pictures all day.” Charter schools, he explains, simply use “specialized tools and visions” to engage students in the Standard Course of Study.

“Our specialized tool,” he explains, “is the arts. By integrating music, dance, drama, and the graphic arts in every unit we teach, we believe — and have evidence to support — that we give our students a richer variety of opportunities to succeed.”

Making it real

Regardless of what historical period his class may be studying on any given day, Mr. Hall emphasizes broad cultural patterns and relates past events to present events. “I demonstrate that we’re talking not about ‘those people who lived in another time and another place’ but rather about us, here, today — why we act as we do, believe as we do, and progress — or not — as we do.”

For example, after eliciting his students’ opinions about the classic “I was just following orders” defense advanced by Nazis at Nuremburg, he challenges the kids to reconsider their opinions in the light of modern, war-on-terrorism scenarios.

“Students may read accounts, look at photographs, and review statistics, but nothing affects them emotionally like raising a hand and swearing to tell the truth about some horrific act or event,” or deciding to condemn to death someone whose wartime actions gain ambiguity under legal examination and cross-examination.

Assessment and evaluation

Although Mr. Hall’s methods may seem free-flowing and free-ranging, his grading and evaluation practices are formal and predictable.

He prefers to measure students in terms of their overall intellectual progress, but creates traditional tests throughout the year not only to prepare them for the EOGs but also because, “In two years, they will attend traditional high schools. I would do them a disservice if I didn’t prepare them for their educational future.”

Similarly, although hour-to-hour activities in Mr. Hall’s classroom are subject to the ebb and flow of project work, both the instructional plan and pacing are clearly delineated. “I create a rubric for every unit and the rubric is only one part of a packet of information the students receive,” he says. “Also, the parents may see everything beforehand. Plus, I produce a biweekly newsletter that goes out in both paper and electronic form.”

Verdict

Now the Nuremburg role-play exercise is finished and Mr. Hall’s debriefing session has begun. The trial, he reiterates, is a moral watershed in human history. Its rulings declare unequivocally that everyone is personally obligated — regardless of circumstances or whom one serves — to oppose indisputable cruelty. Gently he prompts the children to express their feelings aloud. “What does this mean for us today,” he asks. “What does it mean to you?”