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Divide and conquer: detecting patterns that explain the big picture.

Article Excerpt
Alecia Ford had a problem that teachers everywhere face more and more frequently with the predominance of standardized testing--too much world history to teach in too little time. How could she help her sixth-grade students develop an in-depth understanding of the Enlightenment in just two weeks before testing effectively finished the school year? Impossible? Sixth graders were not going to read Rousseau. On the other hand, it was a period of history Alecia, co-author of this article, found fascinating and important. So she devised a plan to divide and conquer the vast information and then pull it all together for a deeper understanding of the significant changes that characterize this period.

In planning for the unit, Alecia started with the question: "What was it about this time (including but not exclusive to 1700 to 1800) that caused historians to consider them a distinct unit, separate or different from the years before and after, and name them 'The Enlightenment'?" As a middle school teacher whose primary certification was in science, she had not learned the answer herself. Her strategy was for the students to figure it out together with her. She explained her thinking about finding the answer to the students from the very beginning.

On the first day, Alecia divided the class into five groups, each responsible for researching a different country during the time of the Enlightenment in that society. The groups were to find information about a number of specific topics, all chosen for their relevance to the societal, intellectual, and governmental changes that defined the Enlightenment. Groups researching England, France, Spain, and the American colonies/ United States were able to find most of the information they needed in their textbook. However, the group responsible for Russia had to get information from other sources; Alecia made certain that group contained some intellectually curious students who were computer savvy. She also gave them a head start with copies of information from other sources.

Students liked the idea of only having to read one fifth of the chapter rather than all of it; and they liked that they would be the class experts on their assigned country. Alecia gave each group a list of questions to research about each country, such as the following: What was...

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