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Lakeville Teacher is State's Social Studies Teacher of the Year

Orchard Lake Elementary teacher Christopher Clifford's fun, interactive teaching style keeps kids engaged and eager to know more about their cultural history. It also got him a big award.

Step into Christopher Clifford’s social studies class and you may find yourself in the middle of a revolt by the British colonists against King George. Or you may decide to join the Patriots as they square off against the Red Coats. No matter the topic of the day, Clifford and his co-teacher Janine Steffer are sure to be busy on the front lines.

Clifford was honored last week in Rochester as the state's Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year at the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies Teacher of the Year Awards gala. He was nominated by students and teachers who wanted him to be recognized for his “outside the books” approach to the subject.

His students often reenact what they are learning, choosing roles and learning what it was like to be on each side of any given historical dilemma. Clifford said the idea of bringing history to life in the classroom actually originated with his students.

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“During my first year at Orchard Lake Elementary my students asked if they could do a play. I thought, ‘hmmm...a play?’ So I asked Janine if she had any suggestions and she mentioned that she had a great play about the Boston Tea Party. So after seeing how the kids responded to that, doing a play became an annual event,” Clifford said.

These days Clifford’s classes have moved away from the plays, due somewhat to larger class sizes and the time involved, and moved on to other interactive activities, namely reenactments. Clifford said he really wanted to find a way to dig in and keep his students engaged. He said he knew social studies could start to get really boring if kids were just reading about it, so he began taking his fifth-graders out into the field for studies and background. He also said Steffer has played a key role in helping him come up with ideas and develop strategies.

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“Janine and I really wanted to give the students the best we have. Her specialty is the literary component and I was working with kids on doing hands-on work, so we decided to work together. We took out the wall between our classrooms and now we have the whole 5th grade to work with,” Clifford said.

Fifth grade social studies at Orchard Lake begins with a focus on pre-colonial America and moves into the study of Native American cultures, the establishment of the British colonies, the Revolutionary War, the Industrial Revolution and ultimately the Civil War.

“We look at the history of how the country was formed and what people were instrumental in that--what their struggles were, what accomplishments they made and how people benefitted from having their own freedom and being their own country,” Steffer said.

Clifford and Steffer said they really want their students to feel what it was like to be those people and to experience what they experienced. That’s why they’ve continued to do the reenactments with their classes.

“Some of these kids have a hard time connecting and relating to social studies because it’s history and it happened a long time ago. They don’t know what it felt like to be Lewis and Clark exploring the west, or what it was like to be in a war fighting for your freedom, or for a king to take away your rights or tax you unfairly,” Clifford said. “So there’s a lot of great conversations that come out of the activities we do because then they can relate to it. We get real emotions from these kids.”

Steffer agreed. “They react just like the colonists did. They feel the disappointment when they think they’re in charge and all of a sudden King George nixes their ideas and takes away their rights. They feel what it was like to be an indentured servant or a woman who had no say,” Steffer said.

For each topic studied, Clifford and Steffer pass out cards to each student with a role on it. So for the British colonies study portion, kids may be indentured servants, men, women, members of parliament or other society members. Clifford said it gives students a chance to wear a number of different hats and see what it was like to be in a position of power or to be oppressed. He said that really puts things in perspective for the kids.

“I usually hold the king card, and all of a sudden they see that I get to make the rules and have the final say. Then they’re up in arms and yelling and want to rebel, just like people really did,” Clifford said.

As for the social studies award, Clifford said Steffer was contacted by the parent of a former student about nominating him. His students then wrote a nomination letter along with Steffer and submitted a DVD with footage of the reenactment work the kids have done. Clifford found out the day after the materials were submitted that he’d won the award, which is given to one elementary, one middle and one high school social studies teacher each year. The criteria for applying included having to show a personal interest in history and social studies and showing a unique approach to teaching the subjects.

Orchard Lake Elementary School principal Karen Roos said Clifford’s teaching style deserves recognition.

“I am most impressed with his courage to step out of the normal teaching mode with his creative activities that cognitively engage students and give them a taste of the struggles and triumphs humans have encountered throughout history. He truly does make history come alive for his 5th grade students,” Roos said.

Clifford and Steffer hope that the award will help raise awareness about the importance of social studies in elementary education, as both said it is in danger of fading into the background, especially due to the fact that it's a subject no longer tested in schools due to changes in standards.

“Take George Washington,” Clifford said. "There’s a lot of renewed interest in him right now. He was an amazing man. For our reenactment I played General Washington and we split the class into Patriots and Red Coats. I took his strategies and with just 17 Patriots we beat 43 Read Coats in three out of five battles just implementing his ideas,” Clifford said. “They fought dirty, but they had to, because King George fought dirty too. But it was so fun to see it all work.”

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