BFSSRob

In regards to grading, one area where I feel confident in is rationally dealing with the kids and parents in professional way. I feel somewhat lucky that I have had to deal with people in multiple situations. I have also been in the position where I have dealt with teachers from the parents side of the table. The area where I am concerned is the time management aspect of grading. History is very writing intensive and I am concerned with getting through 75+ essays in a timely manor.
 * Grading:**


 * Summative Assessment**

This is my Summative Assessment plan. I still need to write my reflection and will make any adjustments upon review by my peers and repost.


 * Late Work Policy**

My policy on late work will be flexible. Knowing myself, I will not be timely with grading papers from my students and it will be hard to hold them to a hard line with getting there assignments in. I will advise my students that if they have not had prior contact with me and arrangements have not been made in advance to turn in their assignments late I will still accept the assignment but instead of starting at the same 100% scale as everyone else, they will be starting at a 95%. If the assignment is over 1 week late, they will start at a 90%. No assignments will be accepted once we start a new unit and if all assignments have not been turned in, students will not be allowed to retake their summative assignment as per district policy. I feel this is a very flexible policy yet still holds student's accountable for their work. They would still have an opportunity to earn a high grade on the assignment yet are also penalized for taking extra time.


 * Content Advisor Insights**

1. Big Picture: Picking out what the main area(s) you want to focus on and then making sure you hit those hard with the students. Don't get bogged down in the minute details and lose track of the main points.

2. Choices on Assessments: Allowing students to make choices on their assessments was a big thing for me. I always planned on being a teacher who had most of the assessments being essay or short answer. When thinking about it and knowing I'm going to be teaching the same class to 75+ students, I don't know if I want to read that many essays for assessments. A balance between short answer, multiple choice & essay may not be a bad option when combined with other performance assessments.



Article Review: Writing in the Social Studies Classroom Author: Kathy Griffin

This article is one teachers approach to utilizing writing as an area of focus in her history classroom. She believes that by having her students write that they would not only be better able to learn the material but would also develop “higher level” thinking skills. As she put it in her article, “…writing to increase thinking…”

The bulk of the article consisted of examples of assignments that she had the students perform such as writing a narrative, journaling, an essay, and a creative writing assignment where they had to include 10 vocabulary words from the fur trader’s era that they were studying. In total, there were four different writing assignments over the nine-week class all of which were of varying styles and having forced the students to think on multiple levels in Bloom’s taxonomy. They were required to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, as well as show comprehension of the material. She provided some examples from student’s writings that show the creativity and their thinking was beyond simple comprehension or recall.

What really makes the article work is how she describes some of the challenges and that she admits to some of the failures that she had to deal with. The acknowledgment that the class did not work for every student, that some did fail with some of the assignments. What I do believe that she did well with and that I agree with her on is when she wrote that
 * 1) Even though it didn’t work for 100% of the students, the results were very positive and that she could definitely disseminate that her class as a whole did not only learn the material, but did think at a higher level.
 * 2) Writing does belong in every social studies classroom
 * 3) Writing does assist in getting students to think at higher levels.

Author: Elliott Seif

In this new era of education (post No Child Left Behind or NCLB), social studies teachers are faced with new challenges when the need for a well-rounded education is even more necessary due to global economy and citizenship being such a prevalent topic of conversation. While Math and Reading are very important, only social studies can prepare students to face the interaction of different countries customs and cultures. In order to do this, educators need to adapt their programs and curriculum to match the changing world.

This article describes one way of accomplishing this task through Backwards Design. This is when to create essential questions or big themes to build around and then work backwards to design unit and lesson plans that will lead students to understand and answer the essential questions. The article proves three examples of how this approach was and can be utilized in the classroom very effectively.



Our first meeting with Beth went very well. Without a doubt Beth is very knowledgeable and has a vast amount of experience that she is willing to share with us. I believe we are all looking forward to learning from her. We spoke about several different topics this first night. The main area of conversation was about issues we will face as Social Studies teachers. We also discussed the vast availability of materials we can locate and what organizations like NCSS offer, what and where to located articles to review and what topics most concern us.

After reviewing quite a few articles and looking at some of the major issues, I have decided to focus on:


 * 1) Technology- specifically how to us it for primary documents especially in History and Political Science/Government.
 * 2) Teaching or addressing Controversial Issues in the classroom.
 * 3) How we should teach History. Whether we should continue to teach History chronologically from past to present or should we teach it backwards.

// The issues faced by today’s social studies teachers are almost as vast as the different definitions of social studies itself. While we may not come to a consensus on what the most pressing of issues in Social Studies are, I believe three of the most important issues we are faced with are; the use of technology as a way to access primary documents, addressing controversial issues in the classroom, and finally if we should continue to teach history chronologically. //
 * Thesis: **


 * Outline:**
 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) Thesis Statement
 * 3) Technology
 * 4) Summary statement/Trend
 * 5) Specific Examples
 * 6) Importance in the SS classroom
 * 7) Controversial Issues
 * 8) Summary Statement/Trend
 * 9) Specific Examples
 * 10) Importance in the SS classroom
 * 11) Chronologically (Past to Present) vs Backwards (Present to Past)
 * 12) Summary Statement/Trend
 * 13) Specific Examples
 * 14) Importance in the SS classroom
 * 15) Conclusion/Restate Thesis
 * 16) Summarize

[|Guidelines for Using Technology to Prepare Social Studies Teachers]

This is a pretty good article but it focusses primarily on using the Internet as a research or classroom tool. It does not discuss other forms of technology such as Smartboards etc. There are some great links and ideas to use in the classroom.

1. Write a bibliographical entry for the book using APA format.

Zevin, J. (2007). Social studies for the twenty-first century: methods and materials for teaching in middle and secondary schools (3rd ed.). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

2. What is the author’s background in education?

- High school teacher in Chicago - Middle school teacher in Michigan

3. Skim through the Preface and the Personal Prologue. What are 2 things that you learned about the book or author?


 * 1) Author believes that the only topics in social studies worth teaching are those that contain or suggest questions with more than one answer
 * 2) Author believes that the heart of all teaching lies in stimulating the production of ideas, looking at knowledge from others’ viewpoints, developing a sense of empathy, and formulating for oneself a set of goals, values, and beliefs that can be explained and justified in open discussion.

4. Looking at the Table of Content, what are the 6 main parts of the book? 1.Philosophy and History of Social Studies 2. Teachers and Students: a Context for Social Studies Instruction 3. Strategies for Social Studies Instruction 4.Teaching the Social Studies Curriculum 5. Textbooks and Media in the Social Studies 6. Beyond the Classroom: Professional Issues and Trends

5. Which chapter should you definitely read before you begin the unit project?

Chapter 7: Planning a Unit from Start to Finish

6. Which chapter will be particularly helpful with planning assessments?

Chapter 8: Evaluating in Social Studies

7. To aid your quick review of the textbook, how does each chapter begin and end?

The chapters begin with an overview and end with a summary

8. Of all the chapters in the book, which one interests you the most? Why?

Chapter 17: The Future of Social Studies Education I am very concerned with the direction of my content area is going

9. Of all the chapters in the book, which one will you probably not read during this course? Why?

Chapter 2. How the fields of Social Studies relate. I will not read this one because I believe I am very comfortable with how they are interrelated.

10. What is one section in particular that you would like to discuss further with your content advisor?

Chapter 12: Old Concerns, New Direction


 * For Research Essay—Read Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, and 17. Highlight as you read a chapter. Then stop and list your “Top 5 Ideas/Tips” from the chapter. Read only one chapter at a sitting. Chapters 9, 10, 11 are also important, but the main ideas and summaries may be enough at this time.
 * For Unit Plan and Summative Plan—Read and highlight Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8.
 * For Job Preparation—Chapter 16 and 17