BFSSJosiah

Welcome to all things Josiah!

** Textbook Survey—Social Studies **

As you peruse your content area textbook, please complete the following activities and/or questions. You may place your response on this page.


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

Zevin, J. (2007). Social Studies for the twenty-first century (3rd ed.). New York, NY: routledge.

The author started as an inner city Chicago Social Studies teacher. He learned really quick that Social Studies needed to be relevant to the students to bring about active learning.
 * 1) What is the author’s background in education?

Social Studies instruction lies in stimulating the production of ideas, looking at knowledge from others’ viewpoints and developing a sense of empathy.
 * 1) Skim through the Preface and the Personal Prologue. What are 2 things that you learned about the book or author?

Full understanding of background knowledge in any discipline is impossible. It puts the students and the teacher in a poor learning environment because you can’t devote too much time to that.

4. Looking at the Table of Content, what are the 6 main parts of the book? 1.Philosophy and History of Social Studies 2Teachers and Students: A context for social studies instruction 3. Strategies for social studies instruction 4. Teaching the social studies construction 5. Textbooks and media in the social studies 6. Beyond the social studies classroom: Professional issues and trends

5. Which chapter should you definitely read before you begin the unit project? Teacher Roles and Student Audiences Teaching Strategies for Higher Level Skills Planning a Unit From Start to Finish

6. Which chapter will be particularly helpful with planning assessments? Evaluation in Social Studies

7. To aid your quick review of the textbook, how does each chapter begin and end? It begins with an overview and it ends with a summary.

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

The one that interests me the most is the chapter on teacher roles and student audiences. I hope that it gives me a better understanding of how to get my students more involved in the learning process.

9. Of all the chapters in the book, which one will you probably not read during this course? Why? I don’t really see any chapter that I will not read. The text book seems to provide information that will benefit me as a teacher. I plan on learning as much as I can from this book.

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

I would like to learn more about assessment. I would love to get away from standard tests and rote memorization. I would love to learn ways to do this in practice. Not just as an ideology.

**Instructor Recommendations for Reading:** 
 * 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

Session Five Posting

Writing in the Social Studies Classroom Author: Kathy Griffin

What are the author’s main arguments or points?

The author argues that writing does have a valuable role in the Social Studies classroom. She was teaching a Social Studies class on the history of South Dakota and chose to use a workshop format for the class. This was a different approach than what she used in the past. She was straying from a text book and direct instruction, and was going to rely on primary sources, video, and other forms of text in her instruction. The assessment was also going to be different. Students would be given a wide variety of flexibility in choosing their assessment. There were narrative writings where the students took the role of a native person in the Dakota Territory, and they were instructed to write a story from the native’s perspective. There was an assessment after studying Sioux mythology that the students had to write their own myth from scratch. There was a video that they watched that introduced the mythology and this was the text that they used to gain knowledge to formulate their own myth. The students were also instructed to pick magazine articles from South Dakota historical magazines and write a review of what they learned from those. They also had vocabulary work sheets that they needed to write a story using nine of the words in the text. This assignment was wide open and the students started to come up with their own form of writing for this. Some chose to write advertisements, and some chose to write a story from the perspective of a fur trader in the Dakota Territory. The goal of teaching the course this way was to develop writing skills in the content area, but more importantly to develop higher level thinking skills. The students were forced to synthesize, analyze, and manipulate knowledge in the content area into a coherent writing assignment. Another big area was that the students were allowed to examine primary documents and then formulate their own responses to this period of History. This allowed them the opportunity to think on their own about this period rather than being told what to think by a text book. This was a very interesting approach to teaching History and a valuable lesson in effective ways to differentiate instruction in a student centered environment.

Does he/she support those arguments or points convincingly? Explain.

The author does support the arguments very convincingly. She shares student work samples, and discussions that took place in the classroom at the beginning of the assignments that illustrated the higher level thinking that took place. The story that she shared of the native living in the cave and having to eat a piece of raw meat for another meal was a great illustration of students really grasping the nature of life in this early time period. The other story that a student wrote about hunting buffalo with the other families was a great example of the depth of understanding the students experienced in this workshop. The myth that was written by a student about how the deer came to the Dakota Territory was another prime example of the students understanding this time period. I think all of these examples are riveting statements of the students understanding of the content. The depth and breadth of understanding that is realized could not be displayed on a multiple choice test with a few short answer questions. The evidence that the author cited in the work samples clearly illustrates this, and shows that differentiation can be an effective tool in the Social Studies classroom.

How does the information in this reading support what you will do or do in your classroom? Site some specific examples.

I am constantly looking for ways to make my instruction less teacher centered. This provided me with a plethora of examples that I could make this come true in my classroom. I truly see a value in teaching writing across the curriculum. The importance of writing in our culture has become increasingly important with the reliance on electronic communication. Being able to write in our world is more important than ever. All teachers need to have a role in developing this skill with our students. I would love to conduct this type of activity in my classroom because it fosters those skills of writing. I agree with the author that it would cause a sense of fear in me as an educator as well. My question I have is what do you do with the students that simply will not hand in the writing? I wonder if giving the opportunity of a unit test would help eliminate that issue. Some students simply won’t write. The reality is that those are the students that most likely need the help in developing writing skills. So how do you engage those students in taking part in the writing portion of the course? That is something that I will need to consider as I contemplate doing something like this in my classroom. Social Studies is a very good content area that lends itself well to fostering the development of writing skill. Due to that fact I think it is truly our duty to work a heavy writing load into the classroom. I plan on doing that, but I need to further develop my repertoire of writing exercises that will enhance the higher level thinking skills. This is something that I plan to develop into my education practice.

Research Paper Outline

Thesis: The Social Sciences content area is an ever changing environment, with the emergence of important trends taking place at all times. Three issues that are affecting the content area today are the use of technology in the classroom, teaching of controversial subjects and indoctrination in the classroom, and the effects of legislation on the content area. These are pressing issues to the current state of Social Studies content because all three will play a role in us becoming effective educators in the content area. Due to this we will further examine these three trends and discuss the importance of them on the current state of education in the Social Sciences.

Outline: 1. Introduction/Thesis statement 2. Explain trend of using technology in the classroom 3. Explain trend of teaching controversial topics 4. Explain trend of the effects of legislation on the content area 5. Conclusion
 * Cite examples
 * Explain relevance to the content area
 * Cite examples
 * Explain relevance to the content area
 * Cite examples
 * Explain relevance to the content area
 * Restate thesis
 * Summarize

Two Insights From Meeting with the Content Advisor 1. Formative assessment does not need to come after every piece of instruction. We do not need to check for understanding of every single bit of information we present in the classroom. It can be used to check for understanding of essential questions. Students understanding can also be checked by random assessment. It is not necessary to survey every student, every time, on every subject.

2. Performance Assessment can be used as the dominant form of assessment in our content area. There are ways to do performance assessment that allow you to still have a life as a teacher. It can be a very useful tool for students to show their complete understanding of a topic. I can check for deeper understanding and knowledge than even a multiple choice test can expose.

Late Homework Policy

I think that the question of late homework is an interesting one. At first I really thought that I would be pretty hard nosed on late assignments. I believe that students need to learn accountability. It is my responsibility as a teacher to educate them on the importance of being accountable. I thought that in order to do this I must present strict deadlines and a very rigid late work policy. As we were discussing this in class and I had some time to reflect on that I changed my stance. It is my responsibility to teach accountability. Expecting accountability is one way to teach that skill, but it is not the only way. I realized that learning to be accountable is a process like other topics of learning. The students will know about the expectations of handing in work in a timely manner but there needs to be some flexibility there to encourage growth rather than limt growth. In doing this there needs to be a margin of error taken into account or a learning curve. I agree with there being a penalty for the time that something is late, but I also think there should be a few other standards. One that I am considering is allowing students to have a free pass. We all have things that come up and the students would be allowed one occurence a semester where they will receive no penalty for late work. This allows me some freedom to be more strict overall, but allows them an out if they absolutely need one. Then if a student does not use the pass they could redeem the pass for a few extra credit points. This seems like an interesting idea and one that I will further evaluate.

The other issue is what assignments do you permit to be handed in late. I think that homework and daily assignments will be allowed to be handed in late. The one thing that will be non negotiable will be daily participation points. I will not allow these to be made up. Attendance is expected in the real world. I expect my students to be in school. If they miss school that is fine. That will happen. They will not be allowed to make up those points though. That will also help me in creating an atmosphere that fosters the growth of accountability. If there is a good reason for a major assignment to be late I will look for ways to not hinder that students academic standing by lateness. If a student is habitually late and did not reflect any effort leading up to the due date, that student will be treated differently than a student that actually has a real reason for not handing in something late. This is also an area that my thinking has changed. These are things that I will continue to contemplate before I begin my student teaching next fall.

Three Insights from Content Advisor Meeting The session was very productive and well worth my time. I have really enjoyed our time with Beth. She is a wealth of knowledge and is very willing to help. Good stuff
 * 1) It takes time to get your practice to one that implements performance assessment. I had this idea that I could remove all standard tests from my classroom and just assess student learning from performance assessment. Beth made me realize that it took her seven years of teaching before she was able to completely do that. This was a great piece of insight. It made me realize I have to be patient and start slow. Begin by working these into the curriculum and developing them before I depend completely on them as my primary form of assessment.
 * 2) Differentiation becomes much easier to implement when you actually have a student body. As you begin to get to know your students you realize ways that you can implement differentiation. You become aware of their learning preferences and likes and dislikes. This gives you a deeper understanding of ways that you can differentiate. We are struggling with coming up with ways to effectively do this because we don't have students to use to assess what to do. When we get in the classroom it will become more clear.
 * 3) Beth also provided very good insight on the topic of how to assess students individually during a performance assessment. Basically she showed us ways that we can assess learning in the preparation process leading up to the actual assessment. There can be grade elements that the students need to do in getting ready for the performance. This will allow me to assess all the students on all of the learning objectives regardless of their role in whatever the performance may be. There can also be a reflection piece to the assessment that will allow all of the students to demonstrate their knowledge on the learning objectives. This was a concern of mine and she did a fantastic job of showing us ways to do this effectively.

The easiest situation for me to adapt to is the one that involves one student being gone. I think there are a plethora of things you can do to accomadate one person. Things like emailing a separate assignment such as a text book activity guide would suffice. This student is easier to handle than one that separates performance of a whole class from the other two classes you are teaching. The situation like the impromptu assembly are difficult to deal with. In that situation I would try to have the classes that do meet that day to something that was tied to the content area, engaging and would afford them a new learning experience. The issue is that you need to give them a learning experience that will still be equitable to the students that are not allowed the opportunity. In the Social Studies content area I would tie that to some current event that would relate to the content area.