Category Archives: Best Practices

Articles that gives ideas or suggestions for best teaching practices.

Portugal’s Monument to the Discoveries stimulates further historical inquiry

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While on a recent visit of Lisbon, Portugal, author Terry Lee Marzell visits the Monument of the Discoveries located where the Tagus River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery. Photo Credit: Hal Marzell

Spring break has finally arrived. This is the time that many educators are eager to incorporate travel into their vacation plans. Teachers know that travel, in addition to being fun and intellectually stimulating, is one of the most meaningful learning opportunities available for both themselves and for their students. Recently, I returned from a vacation to Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar, and while I was there I could see many opportunities for incorporating travel experiences into classroom curriculum.

While in Portugal, I had the opportunity to visit the Monument to the Discoveries in the city of Lisbon, located on the northern bank of the Tagus River where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries. This is a fitting location for the construction of such a commemorative landmark, since this is the place where Portuguese ships were launched on perilous voyages to explore India and the Orient. The monument was intended to be a temporary exhibit as part of the country’s World Exhibition in1940, and became so popular that this permanent, enlarged version was constructed in 1960.

The monument displays a Portuguese caravel ship, and features the country’s celebrated Prince Henry the Navigator, a historical 15th-century figure known for being a strong supporter of maritime exploration and trade, particularly along the western coast of the African continent. In fact, it was Prince Henry who designed and financed the building of the caravel, a ship which in its day revolutionized navigational practices.

The Monument to the Discoveries stimulates further inquiry into this fascinating period of European history, not only for students, for history teachers, and for educators who are lifelong learners, but also for anyone interested in world history. Why not incorporate a visit to Lisbon in your future travels, so you can see the landmark with your own eyes?

 

The strategies Anne Sullivan Macy used to teach Helen Keller

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Miracle worker Anne Sullivan Macy employed a number of teaching strategies to teach her deaf and blind student, Helen Keller, how to communicate through sign language. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Anne Sullivan: This teacher’s name is synonymous with “miracle worker.” Anne is the remarkable teacher who worked with Helen Keller, an extremely intelligent blind and deaf child from Tuscumbia, Alabama. The relationship between the teacher and the student is explored in the play The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, an iconic piece of American literature that is frequently taught in public schools. This award-winning play depicts the exact moment at which, due to Anne’s expert instructional efforts, Helen was able to grasp the concept of language. This knowledge unlocked a world of isolation for the little girl, allowing her to connect with her fellow human beings, and making it possible for her to earn a university degree at a time when educating women was rare. The scene is sweet. But what strategies, exactly, did the miracle-working teacher use in order to achieve this breakthrough? After extensive reading on the subject, I think I may be able to identify a few of them.

First of all, Anne read every bit of published material available in her day about the education of handicapped students. She believed that knowledge of pedagogy is the first step to effective practice. In addition to this, Anne had the “advantage” of personal experience, as she herself had wrestled with severe vision impairment as a result of trachoma. I’m sure at one time or another, we’ve all met an educator who is particularly effective at working with students who are facing the same challenges the teacher himself faced as a youngster.

Second, Anne was a keen observer, and she made it a point to watch the normal processes of language acquisition. She then replicated those processes as best she could to fit the particular circumstances and needs of her student. Today, we would probably call this strategy recognizing brain-based learning, and coordinating teaching strategies to fit the way the brain naturally learns.

Also, experts generally agree that much of Anne’s success in teaching Helen language was attributed to the fact that the teacher always communicated to her student with complete sentences. Concrete nouns such as water or spoon, verbs such was pump or run, or adjectives such as hot or smooth,  may be easy to convey. But abstract ideas such as beauty or truth, or certain parts of speech such as pronouns and some prepositions are much more difficult to impart to an individual unable to see or hear. Yet Annie always used these words in her everyday communication with Helen anyway.

Fourth, Anne was especially adept at incorporating experiential learning into her lesson plans. The effectiveness of “learning by doing” has been well documented, but in a day and age when most instruction consisted of rote memorization without necessarily comprehending, Anne’s insistence on teaching through constructed experience was truly innovative. Wading through the creek water, climbing the tree, holding the chick as it hatched from the egg—experiences like these were the staples of Anne’s instructional program.

To learn more about Anne Sullivan Macy, I have included an abbreviated but concise biography of this amazing teacher in my book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Teachers who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, which can also be found at amazon.com at the following link: Chalkboard Champions.