Local teachers tackle history
Remote learning reshapes lesson plans for today’s presidential inauguration
Staff Writer
In a typical year, Peak to Peak high school social studies teacher Meghan Lukens would livestream Wednesday’s presidential inauguration in her classroom.
But because of the pandemic, the high school students at the K-12 Lafayette charter school are still attending class remotely. So instead, Lukens plans to watch the swearing-in and the speeches with her classes remotely — she teaches an economics class followed by an Advanced Placement government class on Wednesday morning.
“Students will know it’s a big deal because (watching an event live) doesn’t happen that often,” she said. “It’s a formative moment. Histor y is happening right now.”
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are expected to be sworn in shortly after 10 a.m. mountain time, followed by Biden’s first presidential address. The morning inauguration means teachers had to decide if they want to have their class watch the inauguration live, show clips the next day or skip it altogether.
For teachers in the younger grades, especially, there are concerns about the potential for violence during a live viewing. Earlier this month, teachers also had to figure out how, if at all, they would address President Donald Trump’s supporters storming the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot.
Along with live streaming the event itself, Lukens plans to ask her students to analyze the inauguration speech, including answering the questions “what surprised you,” “what did the speaker think you already knew,” and “what challenged or confirmed your thinking.” Her government class is now studying a unit on the presidency.
She also tackled the U.S. Capitol riots head on, spending three hours the night they happened “completely changing my lesson plan.”
“I agonized over how to teach this,” she said. “I was also experiencing a lot of my own emotions and thinking ‘I have a class in 10 hours.”
She star ted her classes by checking in with students on how they were feeling, then letting them know she also was still processing the events. She provided a synopsis of what happened, then polled the students, giving them options on what they wanted to discuss and how they wanted to discuss it. The winner was talking about the Senate speeches during the cer tification of the electoral college votes.
“I love current events,” she said. “They’re hugely essential as a government teacher. Students are developing their identity and figuring out who they are and navigating
these really unique current events. Jan. 6 is going to be a date that people remember.”
Erin Shea-bower, who teaches a remote, combined four th- and fifthgrade class at Boulder’s Crest View Elementary, said how to handle Wednesday’s inauguration was “a big decision” for teachers.
“I was pretty worried that there may be violence, which is horrifying to consider, and I have a lot of mixed feelings about my fourth/fifth grade students seeing that live,” she wrote in an email.
Based on guidance from educational experts, she’s leaving it up to parents to decide if they want to watch with their students during class. For those that don’t, she will have an alternate activity available.
To prepare, her class on Tuesday participated in a live, virtual lesson from the National Archives on “The Constitution and Presidential Powers.” The lesson included a study of primar y source documentation of presidential powers and job descriptions, as well as pictures of various inaugural events through histor y. She also plans to have all her students complete a lesson on President Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address.
“I thought it would be best to find some inaugural events in histor y and see if the kids find any connections to today’s events,” she wrote in an email.
Longmont parent Laura Ruth said her step-daughter, a high school sophomore, will be in advanced placement history during the inauguration and is likely to watch it. Her daughter, a senior at Silver Creek High School, will be learning from home that day and has a free block, so she plans to stay home to watch it with her.
“As a parent of daughters, I feel it is incredibly important for our students to watch this historic inauguration where the first woman will become vice president,” she wrote in an email.
She added she was concerned to hear at a district parent meeting that the St. Vrain Valley School District has received requests from parents wanting to opt their children out of watching the inauguration during class.
“I do understand some are afraid of violence at the event, so perhaps a tape-delayed presentation is appropriate for the younger grades, but asking our students to miss this inaugural event seems counterproductive to learning American history,” she wrote in an email. “I understand many do not like the outcome of this election, but it is a part of our legacy.”
At Peak to Peak, high school human geography teacher Mary Kathryn Wood is providing an optional “inauguration viewing party” for interested students during class, while others will have the option to work on classwork.
While her regular human geography classes haven’t yet started the political geography unit, the inauguration is especially timely for her advanced placement class currently studying that topic, she said.
“We are discussing federal and unitary states, challenges and threats facing states, and electoral geography,” she wrote in an email. “I’m using C-SPAN resources for studying historical inaugural addresses for interested students as optional tasks outside of school time.”
After the riots at the U.S. Capitol, she took a dif ferent approach, sharing the Langston Hughes poem “Let America be America Again.” Students had the option, after class, to write a simile or metaphor about the poem or write about what it made them consider.
“I felt like the events of Jan. 6 required a creative debrief, regardless of the curricular connections, since students were experiencing various emotions,” she wrote in an email.