Week 8- Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?

I was particularly interested in the article called “Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?” and wanted to write about that this week. First, I’ll define what the author calls a Grecian urn lesson: “projects that look creative, that the teacher might describe as hands-on learning, interdisciplinary teaching, project-based instruction, or the integration of arts and tech, but that nonetheless lack any substantial learning for students” (Gonazelez, 2016). Gonazelez points out a lesson where a teacher has students create their own urns in response to studying about Ancient Greeks. She explains that the project simply keeps students busy while it teaches them very little about the content.

This type of lesson perfectly captures a lot of my own experiences as a student, particularly in elementary and middle school. I was able to relate to so many of her examples of Grecian urn lessons, like completing a word search, spending way too much time coloring, changing fonts on a document for an hour, or adding transitions and special effects into PowerPoint presentations. All of these activities take away from valuable learning time, and participating in these activities did not deepen my understanding of the content in my classes in any way.

Gonzalez explains why these types of lessons are so problematic. They really don’t lead to enhanced learning and it wastes valuable time. They also don’t often align to standards. I think that Grecian urn lessons are more prominent in our own teaching than we’d like to admit. The author points out how to identify one of these lessons, offering questions to ask oneself as a teacher: “Does [the lesson] consume far more of a student’s time than is reasonable in relation to its academic impact?” (Gonzalez, 2016). Reading this article helped me realize that I probably participate in this problem through my own teaching.

My 6th grade students recently spent a lot of time in class creating picture books to accurately reflect a sub-plot of our novel. With this assignment, there was a large writing component to summarize the plot, yet I can definitely see how there might have been too much emphasis on creativity and neatness rather than content. We spent multiple days in class coloring, designing, and assembling the picture books as well as summarizing the plot and aligning it to the drawings. I like this assignment and the students were engaged but I can see how I will change it in future years to focus more on standards and high-level thinking.

I appreciate that Gonzalez did see some value in these types of lessons. After all, they really do increase engagement. For instance, with the picture book assignment, students were extremely proud of their creations after putting so much time and energy into them. She admits, “Building relationships with students, creating a family-like atmosphere, and making the classroom a place students love to come has incredible value” (Gonzalez, 2016). She also talks about how these types of lessons can be used as classroom management tools. When you need a day to rest or you need the students to just do something quietly and concentrate, it’s okay to fall back on this kind of lesson.

I think the thing she wants teachers to take away is to recognize how often they are teaching Grecian urn lessons, reflect on why they are teaching these lessons, and make changes when possible to improve instruction. This will require some teachers to have a deeper understanding of their own content area. Teachers need to have frequent training to familiarize themselves with standards and learn about the best instructional techniques. It is not right to assume that educators know best practices without being informed.