Our district has asked us to have an ongoing conversation  about our work  on “Personalized Learning”.   My students and I have  decided to continue the discussion via a project , that began for me many years ago but has evolved through the years.  The project entitled, Perpetual Textbook, engages students in a series of personalized learning activities asking student to take a critical look at the messages and interpretations  posed by authors of  our textbook.

Paul’s Story

Many years ago when teaching fifth grade Social Studies, one of my students questioned the textbook author’s interpretation about the advantages and disadvantages of the British during the American Revolution. With the discussion of the British, the textbook authors gave an interpretation that the mercenaries were an advantage. One of my students disagreed and thought the mercenaries were a disadvantage because they were a financial burden to the British. After an informal class debate, we wrote to the textbook authors about the debate. All three authors wrote back and complimented our discussion.
My memories of this lesson came back this year when planning a lesson about the Third Punic War. I was thinking that more could have been written about the fall of Carthage. Since we adapted a new curriculum a few years ago, I thought of  introducing  to my class the idea  proposed by Alan November called  “perpetual textbook”. The idea was also reinforced  after attending a workshop on  “Personalized and Real World Learning” offered  by Steven Barkley in October.

I decided to have a “year long” ongoing theme/project on revising our textbook with eventual plans to develop a website for the “perpetual textbook” and to write to our regular textbook authors with our findings. Many of the Barkley workshops through the years emphasized the “real world” experience for students and thought that a “perpetual textbook” which emphasized student interests would be a good personalized learning experience for the students.

Some highlights:
 Student textbook rewrites of Rome and Carthage

• Projects included revised maps, artwork, and end of lesson questions with emphasis on the Third Punic War. Some aspects were geared to student abilities. For example, one student who is a talented artist and has an interest in naval battles, put special effort into naval battles at the time.

• Editorial
   With an editorial cartoon project about Caesar Augustus, some students were encouraged to develop a comedy routine as an alternative. In one case, a student who has an interest in broadcasting and broadcasts the high school football games for the local cable channel, made a “stand up” appearance for each class giving a critique on Caesar Augustus.

• Document based essays on what would be proper interpretations of Genghis and Kublai Khan and Charlemagne, and implications when studying history and civilizations today.

Next Steps
 Due to time constraints, we haven’t displayed work on a website yet for our perpetual textbook. (This is a new skill for me and I’m investigating options. We hope we can  have something up and running by early April.
 Culminating student letters to the authors of Glencoe’s World History, Journey Across Time, not as a critique but how a really good book is being used to stimulate further interest and research.
 An 800th Anniversary Celebration of the Magna Carta and how the Magna Carta influences the world today.
 Ties to our district’s Holocaust Remembrance Night.
 Ties to our upcoming overnight trip to Washington, D.C.
 Update on April 29th: Final essay for the year will be a “letter” to the textbook authors about some of our final topics and connections to previous year long study and our upcoming trip to Washington, D.C.

Some of these projects/activities are things my students have done before but having the real life “perpetual textbook” as a real life goal makes the experience more unique.

Any suggestions are welcome. We’ll keep the CPS/SHU PDS posted when we’re up and running with our “textbook”!
Paul Maloney, maloneyp@cranfordschools.org