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“What I really like about the TCI curriculum is that it’s much more engaging than any other curricular materials I’ve ever accessed. ”Bill Casertano |
High school history teacher Bill Casertano first encountered TCI in 2006. At the time, he taught ancient history in Virginia and found success in using the materials. So, when Bill joined Ledyard Public Schools in Connecticut years later, he advocated for TCI’s curriculum during their social studies adoption.
“Having had success with TCI in the past, I knew this would be a good fit for the school,” Bill shared. “What I really like about the TCI curriculum is that it’s much more engaging than any other curricular materials I’ve ever accessed.”
The rest of Ledyard Public School’s selection committee agreed. The schools adopted TCI in 2012. To this day, Bill teaches with TCI’s History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals in his classes. Over the years, Bill saw firsthand how TCI engages students with hands-on activities, allows for flexibility with print and digital materials, and inspires teachers to bring learning alive in their classrooms.
One of the reasons Bill pushed for TCI is because the curriculum is designed around student engagement. The hands-on activities immerse students in history and ask them to interact with the content.
“TCI fits my understanding of pedagogy in the sense that you have to experience a concept and engage in it and get a little buy-in from kids, and then from there you can introduce new content, practice with that content, and then process that content,” Bill explained.
Research shows that high student engagement leads to more learning. However, student engagement peaks during fifth grade, and declines year after year. By the time students enter high school, only a third of students report being engaged in school.
Bill often uses TCI’s Preview activities to “hook” students into the lesson. Each TCI lesson opens with a Preview activity that captures students’ attention and connects to prior knowledge.
“If you give kids an experience of the content that you’re about to introduce, not only does that provide the hook and the engagement that you’re looking for, but that allows some learners access at that point,” Bill pointed out. “You know they’re interested and involved.”
Each lesson ends with a Processing assignment that asks students to apply what they learned from the lesson with higher-order thinking questions. Bill often uses these assignments as an exit ticket for his classes.
“They function great as a traditional exit ticket, but I like referring to them as Processing,” Bill reflected. “I like to tell the kids this is where you’re thinking more deeply about what we’ve done. You’re applying what you have learned. You are evaluating the content.”
TCI provides both print and digital materials, allowing teachers to use the format that best fits their approach to teaching. While most classrooms at Ledyard Public Schools went digital, Bill prefers to use print materials.
“I may produce my own handout, or I may take what TCI has given and just put that on paper,” Bill explained.
During the pandemic, digital materials were a requirement. However, as students went back into the classroom, Bill noticed that his students preferred print materials.
“I think kids are just so sick of being on their computers all the time that they are welcoming pen and paper,” Bill shared. “Maybe in a year or two, they’ll go back. But right now they are much happier to complete work on paper.”
TCI’s materials allow for greater flexibility. Teachers can switch between digital and print materials, or stick with the format that works best for them.
Like many other TCI teachers, Bill often adapts lessons in History Alive! to suit his personal teaching style. He uses TCI’s hands-on activities as a launching point.
“TCI materials are so thorough that the temptation is you could just be a cog in a wheel,” Bill began. “I always encourage people to look at it as a launching point. What can you do with this idea? How can you use it to increase engagement, or increase your students’ performance on whatever performance task you have coming up?”
For example, Bill teaches TCI’s lesson The Cold War Expands, in which students play the role of CIA agents to gather information about Cold War situations around the world. Bill adapted this lesson for his class by expanding on the theme and dressing up as a “Special Agent.”
“I always dress up as ‘Special Agent 008.’ I have top secret envelopes taped under the desks, and a secret code on the board,” Bill recalled. “That’s just one example. Those are really memorable moments.”
Bringing learning alive in the classroom is what TCI is all about. We love hearing from teachers like Bill who use TCI’s lessons as inspiration and develop new ways to engage students in the classroom.
Students play the “red dot” game to help them understand anticommunist hysteria.
This activity leverages the Experiential Exercise teaching strategy, which makes abstract ideas or remote events accessible and meaningful by tapping into intrapersonal and body kinesthetic intelligences.
Students enact a Roaring Twenties party and record notes about individual achievements and popular culture trends of the 1920s.
This activity leverages the Experiential Exercise teaching strategy, which makes abstract ideas or remote events accessible and meaningful by tapping into intrapersonal and body kinesthetic intelligences.
Students play the role of CIA agents to gather information about Cold War situations around the world.
This activity leverages the Social Studies Skill Builder teaching strategy, which turns the traditional, rote tasks usually associated with skill-based worksheets into more dynamic, interactive activities.