Jessica Gobran,
Grade 6 Teacher
Jessica Gobran teaches grade 6 and has been teaching for 2 years. She teaches at a middle school in Airdrie, Alberta. Airdrie is a small but growing city with a relatively ethnically homogenous population. Jessica’s upbringing in a larger, more diverse city helped her develop nuanced understandings of different cultures and perspectives. Jessica has found that her students don’t have the same types of experiences that she had growing up, but that she can introduce her students to different perspectives through her social studies courses. Although Airdrie is relatively culturally homogenous, Jessica’s students come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and many have different learning and socio-emotional needs.
Airdrie, Alberta
Civic Engagement
Jessica uses the comparative study of historic and modern forms of citizenship to teach her students about the importance of civic engagement.
Two of Jessica’s grade 6 units in particular help students understand and appreciate their rights and responsibilities regarding civic participation. The first is a unit about democracy in ancient Athens, and the second is a modern student voting simulation.
“We get a lot of reactions from the students about how ancient Athens was so patriarchal, and how only select people of certain groups were allowed to vote and participate in government decisions,” Jessica explained. “Then when we get to learning about contemporary government systems, if a student understands that voting used to be restricted, I think that there is more of a drive to get out there and vote or participate in their government because they can recognize that, historically, in some places, it was not always the case that they could have done that.”
Jessica said that watching students make connections between class content and their role in society is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching.
She described how her students thought about the fact that “historically, women in ancient Athens were not allowed to participate, and they were not viewed as citizens. This influences the way that I see and interpret my voice civically in Canada today, because I know that when I’m 18, even though I’m a woman, I get to participate. So, when they make that connection, and that interpretation in light of their own identity, that’s super rewarding, because it feels like the content you’re providing them with is purposeful. There’s something that they can do with that content.”
Teaching & Learning
Jessica takes care to integrate her students’ interests into her curriculum to inspire them to personally connect with history.
One of the key projects in Jessica’s sixth grade social studies classroom is a personal history project, during which students bring in their own historical artifact.
As Jessica discussed, “It is an opportunity to talk about personal histories and how we’re all coming into the social and language arts curriculum with our own stories, experiences, and points of view. I then open the floor to all students to bring an artifact of their choice to reflect their personality and their interests.”
By creating an opportunity for students to bring their own artifacts into the classroom, Jessica teaches her students that history can be fun, flexible, and personal.
“Kids, especially at this age, want to engage in history in a way that is more interactive. They don’t want to just sit back and learn about an artifact. They want to touch it and feel it and put it on and maybe feel like what a knight would have felt like, for example.”
By teaching her students that history can take many forms, Jessica inspires her students to think beyond the traditional idea that history is just a long list of dates and facts.
“I don’t think teaching history is about knowing the facts and dates of medieval knights and kings and whatever. I find that quite boring,” Jessica shared. “But I love history, because I think it’s a good way to understand your own identity and understand other people’s identities.”
Co-created by Jessica Gobran and Abigail Smith