Teaching this editorial unit and the previous advertising unit, I immersed students for over two months in an authentic learning environment. I have the unique position of also teaching a history course where the instruction is mostly notes, lecture, and textbook. Interestingly the grades for the history classes (both of which are inclusion special education classes) are higher than the communications classes. I search for reasons at this discrepancy. My principal says that since communications is an elective, one shouldn’t expect the same level of commitment and value as given to a core course such as history. I am left confused.

The methods of teaching that I have come to know in this past two years through example and research seem, in my practice, to be less successful than the methods that have been used for decades. A variable in this comparison is that the history class is 6^th grade whereas the communications class is 7^th grades. Also the history class, as an inclusion class, has a teacher’s aide. All assessments for the history class are designed as multiple choice or short answer to reflect the information that will be assessed on the SOL test. The professional learning community team (comprised of the four 6^th grade history teachers) presents the same information, the same notebook pages, and gives the same assessments. Every month, the team meets with the administrative staff to identify on a “hot list” those students that have fallen below the 80% level on the assessments.

        I go into detail about the history class because I have felt very split personality going from one block to the next. In my observation, I would think that the communications students have succeeded more in critical thinking skills, making connections to real life applications, and gaining skills for use in professional settings. Granted, the communications course lends itself more to those goals. However, none of those are measured by SOL tests. In the end, when the communication students progress in high school, I feel comfortable that they will remember and understand the meaning behind the concepts, even if they cannot remember the exact term.