Pupils in Kittery seeking answers to hard questions Terrorism subject under scrutiny

KITTERY – Like many pupils in Maine, seventh-graders in a Shapleigh Middle School class here have a lot of questions about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Unlike most pupils, they devote much of each day to finding answers.

In a class taught by Janet Reynolds and Gert Nesin, the topic of terrorism has been woven into the daily lessons on history, reading, writing, science and even math.

It’s a teaching approach called “integrated learning,” where classes take a topic and integrate it into all subjects of study.

The approach is relatively new in Maine, but it may be a method that is encouraged for more middle schools in the years ahead.

The Maine Commission on Middle Level Education, appointed earlier this fall by Education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese, is taking a closer look at how Maine’s 10- to 14-year-olds are being educated. It will make recommendations for improvements in a report to be issued next September.

Right now, it appears that few middle school teachers in Maine use integrated learning in their classrooms, said Edward Brazee, co-chairman of the commission studying middle school education in Maine. In a survey of 3,000 Maine middle-level teachers last spring, only 7 percent of those responding said they were using an integrated curriculum.

Brazee said the traditional “separate-subject approach” assumes that students will notice that subjects are interrelated. But middle school students are not yet capable of making those connections independently, he said, and do their best when they have a role in choosing what to study and when they can relate their learning “to questions they have about themselves and the larger world.”

“That particular age group learns best when things overlap,” Brazee said.

The value of this approach can be seen in the class that Reynolds and Nesin co-teach at Shapleigh, where the students created a list of 80 questions they wanted to answer about terrorism.

Among the questions: Why would the terrorists think it’s a good idea to ruin some people’s lives? What different kinds of terrorism are there? Why were people from other countries saying we got what we deserved? Why can’t the world get along?

The students have chosen “big idea” topics to research and discuss, such as the history of terrorism. They typically break into small groups to discuss the topics.

“We want to find out if there was any other big attacks like this,” explained pupil Mark McLaughlin.

While the pupils in Reynolds’ and Nesin’s class are focusing on terrorism, they’re also studying all the subjects required by their school district and the state’s mandated curriculum standards, called Learning Results.

For example, pupils in grades five through eight are supposed to learn about the civil rights movement in America. The students in Reynolds’ and Nesin’s class have been studying that topic through the lens of terrorism. Some subjects – math, for instance – aren’t as easy to weave into the central theme.

Still, Nesin said, even math can be related to the study of terrorism. One group is creating a survey that it plans to send to history and political science professors, asking them about the causes of terrorism.

The pupils then will have to analyze the survey quantitatively and qualitatively, Nesin said.

The pupils in the class say they like the integrated approach.

“It’s very interesting,” said Sarah Dodge. “The stuff changes every day. It’s not like other classes where you do the same thing every day.”