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Teaching for a Living Democracy: Project-Based Learning in the English and History Classroom
This classroom narrative explores how teachers can build and sustain an intellectually and emotionally fulfilling teaching practice while changing the way students experience school. Written by an English and history teacher in a Philadelphia public high school, this book presents a framework of teaching for a living democracy―supporting learners to produce intellectually rigorous and creative work by designing instruction that intersects with students' lives and interests. The text offers project-based units of study and classroom practices that allow students to reconfigure understandings of themselves, their capabilities, and their roles in the world. Packed with student voices and the work of youth, this book provides a rich window into classroom practices that challenge authoritarian tendencies while cultivating dignity and agency. Book
144 pages, Paperback
Published April 17, 2020
8 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Block
1 book4 followersJoshua Block teaches public high school students English and history in Philadelphia. He is a teacher educator, a national board certified teacher, and recipient of a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 4, 2020
As a fellow Philadelphia teacher, I've long admired the project-based work that colleague Joshua Block does with his students. They tackle contemporary & relevant issues, do real work, and display it publicly. I first learned about his work early in my career, and have long sought to emulate it in my own classroom.
And so I am thrilled that Block decided to share this book with us - providing keen insights into his thought process of teaching and planning, step-by-step guides for projects he has done with his students, and powerful student voices and work. This book is an incredibly valuable tool for all educators, especially those who teach English and History.
If we want to do this type of meaningful work with our students, it is important for us to reimagine our roles as teachers, the roles of students, and indeed the entire institution of school learning. By sharing his own experiences, insights, and reflections, as well as scholarship from leading thinkers, Block gives us a lot to think about and act on in our own practice.
I also really enjoyed seeing his thought-process, guiding questions, and directions for students for projects that I had previously seen on display, like his “Our Philadelphia, Our America” project. After showing us how he structured the project, he provides examples of different types of work that students produced in the project. Their insights are important and engaging, and provide great models for how we might do this work in our own classrooms with our own students.
By doing this work, we can decolonize our classrooms and schools, and ultimately engage our students in processes that prepare them to be engaged citizens in what Block calls a “living democracy”. It is as essential now as ever that we do this work in our own classrooms, and Block provides us an inspiring model for doing this. Check out his book for ideas and inspiration.
And so I am thrilled that Block decided to share this book with us - providing keen insights into his thought process of teaching and planning, step-by-step guides for projects he has done with his students, and powerful student voices and work. This book is an incredibly valuable tool for all educators, especially those who teach English and History.
If we want to do this type of meaningful work with our students, it is important for us to reimagine our roles as teachers, the roles of students, and indeed the entire institution of school learning. By sharing his own experiences, insights, and reflections, as well as scholarship from leading thinkers, Block gives us a lot to think about and act on in our own practice.
I also really enjoyed seeing his thought-process, guiding questions, and directions for students for projects that I had previously seen on display, like his “Our Philadelphia, Our America” project. After showing us how he structured the project, he provides examples of different types of work that students produced in the project. Their insights are important and engaging, and provide great models for how we might do this work in our own classrooms with our own students.
By doing this work, we can decolonize our classrooms and schools, and ultimately engage our students in processes that prepare them to be engaged citizens in what Block calls a “living democracy”. It is as essential now as ever that we do this work in our own classrooms, and Block provides us an inspiring model for doing this. Check out his book for ideas and inspiration.
August 15, 2021
This book is best suited for teachers new to the profession or to those new to PBL. Although I think the book is valuable, well-written, and effectively organized, it didn’t offer me (a veteran teacher of 20 years) much additional insight. I have recommended it to the first-year teachers I’m mentoring this year, and I think they will find it to be a very useful resource.
August 31, 2020
This book was a game changer for me in understanding Project Based Learning. I am a teacher who has been using self directed with PBL for about 2 1/2 years. I took a grad class on PBL and still was having trouble really understanding how to use and what it’s benefits and challenges were. I had been preparing to teach a few classes using PBL and I had picked up this book earlier to help with that process. I wanted to read this book as the last part of my preparation for the class as helping with the structure. I have to admit too feeling pretty stuck up to that point. Luckily reading this book right at that time helped me greatly. I have to say in general with education books like this, I haven’t had much success. I have found them to be a bit too academic. This book is not written for strict academics. What I mean by this is it’s really just the author having an honest and authentic conversation from their own experiences. He does a great job including information about how PBL came to be with quotes and references of all that came before, but again he tells you this information as he is a coaching and helping you, but not being academic for it’s own sake. The author puts a lot of himself and shares his own honest struggles in terms of our educational system and using PBL. He does this like a friendly mentor. He walks the reader through a detailed process that includes how own reflections and the reflections of his students. Having it explained this way was really helpful as it digs deeper than just having written down a how to with steps. Those are included, but the personal reflections make it meaningful and clear. So that covers the PBL end of the book, but the most excited thing in the book is how to use PBL to create a classroom in which students feel heard, empowered, and given autonomy on their own learning. This book really covers how to be an educational activist and how to teach your students to be activists in the world and for themselves. If all students worked in the way the book outlines, we’d have a much more tolerant world in terms of accepting people from all genders, races, ages, and experiences.
This is especially made clear with the authors teaching and how effective it is with biopic, lgbtq, and other minority students. This way of teaching and how it’s explained in the book provides a road map on how to make every student feel at home, while allowing them to be themselves. Lastly the best thing about the book is how hopeful and optimistic the author is in his teachings and work. I have done some PBL in the past with a diverse student population but hadn’t really understood how this process really empowers and heals our most vulnerable and at risk students. But this book clarifies all of that. If you work in any educational capacity at all, the info in this book will greatly improve your teaching life as well as the students you work with. Please do yourself a favor and buy this book today. I promise it's a game changer. I would have found great joy in reading about the authors teaching experience and how much thought, hard work, and caring that went into the writing off the book, even if I was not a teacher.
This is especially made clear with the authors teaching and how effective it is with biopic, lgbtq, and other minority students. This way of teaching and how it’s explained in the book provides a road map on how to make every student feel at home, while allowing them to be themselves. Lastly the best thing about the book is how hopeful and optimistic the author is in his teachings and work. I have done some PBL in the past with a diverse student population but hadn’t really understood how this process really empowers and heals our most vulnerable and at risk students. But this book clarifies all of that. If you work in any educational capacity at all, the info in this book will greatly improve your teaching life as well as the students you work with. Please do yourself a favor and buy this book today. I promise it's a game changer. I would have found great joy in reading about the authors teaching experience and how much thought, hard work, and caring that went into the writing off the book, even if I was not a teacher.
May 21, 2020
One of the many things I love about this excellent book is the cover. I love the expressions on the students’ faces and I think it’s very telling (and almost certainly deliberate) that there is no picture of the teacher / author, Joshua Block. It becomes very clear very quickly that Mr. Block is not at the center of his classroom, so it makes sense that his face is not on the cover. Even here, he puts students first.
“Teaching for a living democracy,” Block writes, “means utilizing classroom practices and curriculum that result in students developing a stance of self-awareness, critical thought, participation, and social agency. In this model of learning, students develop larger understandings of voice and their own abilities” (4). In the pages that follow, Block presents my favorite kind of book on education, a hybrid of both theory and practice that, that made me jot notes in the margins at a furious pace.
Just as the absence of his picture on the cover is unsurprising, so is Block’s humble willingness to show the challenges he faces, both in himself and in the systems around him. And I am grateful that Block knows his audience – teachers like me – so he kindly provides us with lists of resources, links to examples of student projects and other starter’s kit materials. He is aware that his subtitle, “Project-Based Learning in the English and History Classroom” may be misunderstood. Project-Based Learning (PBL) has, like many good ideas, been turned into superficial jargon by superficial attention to its true elements. Block’s book is a masterclass in what it is supposed to be.
I was grateful for the reminder that learning is rarely neat or linear. Because of this, it can get messy and frustrating. But is also leads to the delight, humor, insights, and confidence that are found in the samples of student work and on the faces of the students on the cover.
I only have one complaint. I stole it from a former colleague of mine who went to hear a great talk and was disappointed when it ended. “I wasn’t finished listening,” she told me. My response to the end of this book was similar: “I wasn’t finished reading.” I look forward to his next one.
“Teaching for a living democracy,” Block writes, “means utilizing classroom practices and curriculum that result in students developing a stance of self-awareness, critical thought, participation, and social agency. In this model of learning, students develop larger understandings of voice and their own abilities” (4). In the pages that follow, Block presents my favorite kind of book on education, a hybrid of both theory and practice that, that made me jot notes in the margins at a furious pace.
Just as the absence of his picture on the cover is unsurprising, so is Block’s humble willingness to show the challenges he faces, both in himself and in the systems around him. And I am grateful that Block knows his audience – teachers like me – so he kindly provides us with lists of resources, links to examples of student projects and other starter’s kit materials. He is aware that his subtitle, “Project-Based Learning in the English and History Classroom” may be misunderstood. Project-Based Learning (PBL) has, like many good ideas, been turned into superficial jargon by superficial attention to its true elements. Block’s book is a masterclass in what it is supposed to be.
I was grateful for the reminder that learning is rarely neat or linear. Because of this, it can get messy and frustrating. But is also leads to the delight, humor, insights, and confidence that are found in the samples of student work and on the faces of the students on the cover.
I only have one complaint. I stole it from a former colleague of mine who went to hear a great talk and was disappointed when it ended. “I wasn’t finished listening,” she told me. My response to the end of this book was similar: “I wasn’t finished reading.” I look forward to his next one.
June 21, 2022
Block talks about a lot of great real world based projects for students and how best to engage the high school audience. He has advice worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews