Real Rigor: Connecting Students with Accessible Text
Cris Tovani · 2023
Several years ago the author was given the daunting task of figuring out why so many ninth graders in our high school were flunking US history. At the time, freshmen were flunking US history more often than any other class. As she began to investigate, two problems became obvious. There was too much content to cover (and not enough time to cover it), and the textbook used for the class was too difficult. The curriculum in US history classes increases by 365 days every year. She realize that purists don’t consider something history until it is at least twenty-five to thirty years old. However, the commonsense side of me says that any good history teacher works hard to connect current events of the day with historical events to help students make sense of the past.