National Resource Guide to American Studies in the Secondary Schools
Sponsored by the ASA Secondary School Committee
Model 2 -- 11th Grade: Montebello, CA
Compare with: Tuscaloosa, AL, Miami, FL, Elgin, IL, Caledonia, MI, Lebanon, NH, Iowa City, IA
Montebello High School
2100 W. Cleveland Avenue
Montebello, CA 90640
Phone: 213-728-0121, Ext. 4454
Contact: Marsha Ehlers
Program Development & Organization
History of the Program
Montebello High School is an urban comprehensive high school of about 2700 students located on the east side of Los Angeles. Montebello is a very culturally diverse setting, with 82% of our students coming from homes in which a language other than English is spoken. Students enter Montebello High School speaking eighteen different primary languages. Many of our students are recent immigrants and 40% are not United States citizens. The largest group of students is Hispanic, about 89% of the total. These students come primarily from Mexico with large groups of Salvadorians and Guatemalans as well. There are also significant numbers of Armenians and Asians. Recently, there has been a greater number of students arriving from the countries of Georgia and the Ukraine. African Americans comprise about .71%. The median income level of the population is $31,441 which is about $3,500 below the county-wide average. Approximately 60% of the student body qualifies for the reduced-cost breakfast and lunch programs based on family income. Last year 390 students graduated, with 45 accepted at a 4-year college or university.
The majority of graduates continue their education at a local 2-year community college or seek entry-level employment. We do not have a formal American Studies course or program at our school. It was an approved course in the Social Studies department in the 1960's, but was dropped in the 1970's in a back-to-basics swing of the curriculum pendulum. However, many of the themes and ideas of American Studies have been preserved and further developed in an integrated approach to curriculum currently in use in the Montebello High Career Academy.
The Integrated American Literature/United States History program was begun in 1993 for students in the 11th grade. At that time the school district decided to develop a Career Academy program within the normal school setting, a voluntary program for students who wished to focus their education on preparation in one of four career areas- design and construction, business and marketing, communications technology, or human services. The program has been funded primarily through federal Carl Perkins grants. The Perkins grants require integration of vocational education and academic subject areas. The curriculum must meet the needs of students who plan to enter the workforce immediately following graduation, as well as those planning to go on to further preparation at a university, community college, technical school, or union apprenticeship. Students are not tracked and there is a heterogeneous population within classes. Opportunity is provided for those students who would like to receive honors credit for the class. They are provided with extra reading and writing assignments and meet with the teachers once a week for specialized instruction. They also collaborate on special projects such as video or HyperStudio presentations. (Hyperstudio is a multi-media program that allows students to connect text, music, and images in an oral presentation.)
Number of Teachers/Teams
There are currently 12 teachers working in the Academy setting. Three of those teachers (Barbara Revueltas, Linda Limon and Marsha Ehlers) focus on the areas of American literature and U.S. History. Pairs of teachers share a group of common students, usually about 35 in a class. The students are juniors. There is also a team of teachers working with seniors in the program, integrating the themes of American Government and Economics with classes in Advanced Composition or Technical Writing. Teachers volunteer for the program and generally share a common commitment and educational philosophy. We meet weekly during a common prep period and lunch to discuss curriculum issues and the progress of individual students. Several times a year we meet for longer periods of time to coordinate units of instruction. New classes are generally developed as a team during the summer.
Once a year an interim week is planned where students in all classes within the Career Academy focus on a single topic. Teachers work together to coordinate instruction and provide cross-curricular experiences. Last year's topic was "The Impact of the Automobile on American Culture." Students studied the role of the automobile in American architecture, read literature related to the automobile, analyzed the impact on the structure of American families, and critiqued the films American Graffiti and Tucker. Students in Economics classes created automobile companies and dealt with the questions of labor relations, advertising and the most profitable use of limited resources. Students visited the Petersen Automobile Museum of Los Angeles and wrote reflective essays regarding the role that the automobile has had in the development of their own values and goals. Teachers work together to develop the interim week projects and students also suggest themes and topics.
Challenges, Frustrations, and Successes: Advice to Those Starting Up
There are many challenges and frustrations in trying to teach in an integrated curriculum program. Some of the challenges are philosophical. Working in a team requires a great deal of time, creativity, and flexibility. It is essential that teachers have the enthusiastic support of the administration because it is inevitable that problems will arise. One of these problems is resistance from other colleagues who feel that an integrated curriculum compromises academic disciplines. If you are going to have the time to study a theme in depth across the traditional curricular boundaries, it necessitates careful selection of those themes that are worth the effort. It becomes impossible to "cover" everything that has been taught in more traditional settings. Compromise is essential. It also takes several years to build up credibility among members of the faculty who are fairly certain that an integrated curriculum centered around the dominant values and problematic aspects of American culture is just another idea in the long line of educational fads which have been enthusiastically touted and then stored away in the dark corners of the school bookroom.
The most basic requirement is time. Teachers who are going to work together must, as a minimum, have a common preparation period. This often creates difficulties in the creation of the school master schedule of classes, which is one of the reasons why a commitment to the program by the administration is critical. Time is also required to make the connections to the community, which can have a very positive impact on the program. One of the great strengths of the Montebello program has been the willingness of members of the community to share their expertise with our students. Members of the Montebello Historical Society have held classes to share the history of our community and certify students who volunteer as docents at the Sanchez Adobe, the oldest building in our community. Student docents help maintain the Adobe and give tours in both English and Spanish to visitors to the building. They also work at the annual fiesta held at the Adobe to mark the founding of the city. Members of the business and professional community serve as mentors to individual students. This year students enlisted the help of long-time members of the Historical Society, Women's Club and Senior Center to make a video tracing the economic development of the city for the last 50 years. The involvement of members of the community gives students the opportunity to develop skills in research and oral history, as well as providing a wealth of primary information in the areas of ethnicity, gender, class and region.
A major frustration facing our teachers is the uncertainty of funding. Most of our funding has come from federal Vocational Education and Compensatory Education sources. These sources are very susceptible to changes in the political climate and we never know until several months into the school year exactly what our resources will be for that year. This makes planning very difficult and leads to a significant amount of frustration. It also leads to a great deal of fundraising activity as teachers canvass local businesses, search for small grants and help wash cars on weekends to finance the activities we feel would benefit our students. Many of the students and parents in our city feel that the nation has taken an anti-immigrant turn which will have a direct bearing on the availability of funds for Compensatory Education. The passage in California of Propositions 187 (which limits or denies certain government services such as health care and education to illegal immigrants) and 209 (which ends affirmative action in state hiring and education) has created great concern in our community. American Studies programs that are created from the general funds within a school district rather than from federal categorical funding might have a more stable foundation.
Some of the challenges involve curriculum decisions. At first we found that our themes were driven by the chronology of traditional U.S. History classes. This meant that the English teachers were doing most of the compromising in order to match the time period of the pieces being read with the unit being taught in history. This often did not work well. Most of our students do not read at grade level and trying to rush the students through a novel which would normally take the class five weeks to read in two weeks in order to match the progress of the history class meant that the students did not enjoy or benefit from the novel. We finally decided to center both classes around 6 important themes rather than around a chronological overview of the subject. (One good place to look for such themes is in the Curriculum Standards for Social Studies available through the National Council for the Social Studies. Another good source of themes is in Teaching the Sixties by Brooke Workman, another contributor to this work. When we freed ourselves from the constraints of marching decade by decade through the year, we were able to choose materials that had more meaning for our students. (It also meant that students did not have to wait until June to get to the parts of American history and Literature that actually interested them.)
Again, I would emphasize the need for administrative support. Teachers must have time to plan together, search for new materials, and risk failure. There must be a commitment to give the program a few years to prove itself. This means that classes may be smaller than the school average at first. It also means that counselors must encourage students to try something new. Most students at our school are not very adventurous when it comes to class choices. Counselors need to help students work these classes into the graduation requirements.
It also means that teachers need to make an extra effort to inform parents about what they are doing. Students are shocked when I tell them to get out the essay they started in American literature and finish it in History. Many prefer to live anonymous, compartmentalized lives. Parents need to be informed that although these classes may look a little different from the classes they remember in high school, students are learning just as much and will be just as well prepared for the future.
Our program has been in existence for four years. During that time we have experienced a number of challenges. But we have also experienced a number of successes. Attendance in the program has been consistently higher than the school average and the failure rate has been lower. Students seem to feel that what they are learning fits into a bigger framework of knowledge and has more relevance to their lives. We celebrate the successes of students who are able to help their parents pass the U.S. Citizenship Exam.
When students first enter the Career Academy program we meet with each student and parent or guardian to discuss their goals and dreams. The stories they share with us remind me often of the narrative accounts of the people who passed through Ellis Island in the first years of this century. They talk openly about the American Dream, of their belief in education as a ladder to the fulfillment of that dream. It is difficult to determine what role the Integrated American literature/History team will play in the realization of those dreams because it is one component in a larger reorganization process. However, at least part of the success must be attributed to the program. American Studies gives students the chance to see their dreams and questions in the broader scope of our nation's history and cultures. They can see the struggles of other peoples to find a place within the dominant culture or to stand outside and record the observations of those distanced from the majority. There have been many occasions in discussing a historical event, reading a piece of literature or watching a popular film during which students have remarked, "I never knew anyone else felt that way." This is the strength of an American Studies curriculum, the power to give us a perspective on ourselves. That, in itself, must be considered a success.
Summary of Program
Integrated Humanities Course Design
The American literature/U.S. History classes are designed for juniors within the Career Academy. Each of the two classes meets daily for one hour and the U.S. History section is a required class for graduation. Students are in a team-teaching setting with 2 teachers sharing approximately 60-70 students. The following year the students are in a similar setting for American Government/Economics and Advanced Composition or Technical Writing. Thus the themes cover a two year period. However, in this description I will focus on the junior year. A brief listing of the senior themes is found following the junior course description.
The year is built around six main themes. Each one requires about six weeks of study. The California State Framework stipulates that U.S. History at the 11th grade level should focus on the United States in the twentieth century. Therefore, we begin with a review of the years up through the Civil War, but spend more of the year focusing on more recent events. Because the year is built around major themes, we try to bring each unit into contemporary times. For example, when we discuss the development of organized labor in the late 19th century we also discuss how child labor laws now affect our students. In that way we try to help students connect the events and ideas of the past to their lives today. We also try to emphasize what was happening in the local area during each period.
The issues of region, race, ethnicity, class and gender are integrated into the program through the choice of the themes and the materials studied. We deal with the question of region by emphasizing the impact that the natural environment has on the development of a particular culture, such as the impact seen in Bless Me Ultima or My Antonia. We also try to emphasize the unique features of the Southern California region. Students are encouraged to visit local historical sites and meet with members of the Montebello Historical Society to broaden their understanding of the area in which they live. For many students this is part of an introduction to their new community. We talk about how our region is the same or different from their native homelands and try to analyze possible reasons for these differences. We also seek out pieces of literature written by multicultural authors who reflect the influences of different regions.
The questions of race and ethnicity are dealt with in themes we select for our units of study. Key historical events are discussed in each unit pertaining to race and ethnicity. Pieces of literature such as Huckleberry Finn, The Brick People, and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance also help students develop a sense of racial and ethnic diversity. Issues of ethnicity also arise when students conduct oral history interviews with recent immigrants and in the unit regarding the clash between tradition and "progress."
The question of class differences and struggles come up several times during the year. The quick review of the Civil War at the beginning of the year, the rise of organized labor, and discussions concerning immigration all lead directly into discussions of class. The writings of John Steinbeck, Booker T. Washington, Malcolm X, and F. Scott Fitzgerald also deal directly or indirectly with the question of class.
We have made a deliberate effort to include works by and about women in our literature selections. Works by Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston, Emily Dickinson, Anne Bradstreet, Katherine Anne Porter and others are read and discussed. The struggles of women to gain political, social and economic equity are also studied in the history section. Selections from A Century of Women and several PBS biographies of prominent women are viewed in class and discussed. Students are encouraged the read the biographies or autobiographies of women connected with their particular career interests.
Student Performance and Learning Assessment
A wide variety of teaching strategies and learning assessments are used, with few traditional lectures. Students work in collaborative groups to research ideas and make presentations. An emphasis is put on primary sources whenever possible. Students use panel discussions, videos and HyperStudio to present their information to the class. Films are also used to help students visualize the period and discussion as to the accuracy of the films is encouraged. A large part of the class in both English and History is spent in the development of a career portfolio. This portfolio is begun in the sophomore year. In the junior year career preparation materials are created such as resumes and college essays. Samples of outstanding work in the integrated curriculum, such as essays and projects, are saved. In May of the senior year each student is required to present the contents of the portfolio to a member of the business, educational, or professional community. In addition, students use their portfolios to apply for college admission, employment, or scholarships. We also try to utilize as many community resources as possible. Students visit and do research at local colleges and we have taken students to places such as the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Museum of Tolerance, the Museum of Flight, the Los Angeles Library, the Petersen Automobile Museum and the George Page Archeological Museum. In addition, we have worked with local architects to explore the architectural features of Los Angeles. Although our access is somewhat limited, students utilize the Internet to explore topics we are studying. In 1996 students followed the daily campaign activities of the presidential candidates on the Internet, set up a school campaign headquarters for each of the five major candidates and held a mock election. The results of that election were then faxed to CNN in Atlanta and students watched the national results of the student poll on television that evening.
Oral history interviews are used at several points in the curriculum. Students plan the topics to be investigated, borrow inexpensive tape recorders and analyze the results. Often this involves translating the interviews into English and then putting the information they have received into a broader historical context. Students also participate in simulations to explore key issues. For example, students in history choose roles to put Andrew Carnegie on trial. Students play the defendant, attorneys, character witnesses, judge and jury to resolve the question, "Did Andrew Carnegie do more harm or good to the United States?" They also create newspaper front pages to announce key changes in the technology of various periods. The front pages must include stories regarding political events, popular culture, literature, and economic events of the day. Students in the senior year choose a decade between 1940-1980 to create a news broadcast as it might have appeared during that time, which includes political events, sports events, cultural news, commercials appropriate to the period, and a film review. The broadcasts are taped and then reviewed by the entire class for style and content. Several students have worked with their teachers in an after-school Regional Occupational Program to create a video in a magazine format of local events which has been shown on the local cable channel. All of these teaching strategies are designed to help students develop skills in research, analysis and communication of their ideas.
Go to Montebello Course Units