1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14
Session 1 - Monday, 23 Aug
Before class
- Buy a copy of the textbook (Maxim, 2017, Dynamic Social Studies for Constructivist Classrooms). Amazon has it
- Cruise this wiki and the CourseSite.
- Preview the syllabus. We will discuss it during class.
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Introductions
- Looking at our toolbox: CourseSite, wiki, bookmarks, etc.
- Reviewing syllabus
- Assignments and grading
- First step: Completing your first WTL entries
- Questions thus far?
- Conceptual work
- What is social studies? Starter activity
- European settlement patterns along the Lehigh River
- Extension: What if we looked at Native American settlements? Two examples: Cahokia, Manhattan. What else might you add?
- Social studies as a set of disciplines vs. social studies as something bigger, more integrated
- Why we need to push ourselves in this class: Take a brief visit to the teacher store
- What is social studies? Starter activity
- Closure
- Review of what's due next week – reminder about filling in info for "Weaving the Globe"
- Review of what's where (wiki, CourseSite)
- Any questions?
- Stick around for portfolio work
After class
- Reading
- Maxim, Ch. 1 (What is?)
- Gaudelli & Laverty, 2017 (as an overview and critique of the field – if nothing else, this should motivate you to be an informed, critical consumer of social studies materials. Also note historical connection with Dewey...and the scholarly record of the Lehigh COE dean !)
- NCSS, 2009
- Assignments
- WTL – what is the purpose of the curriculum??
- Update your profile in CourseSite to include your picture
- Starting planning out your upcoming assignments: Original Instructional Materials product #1, who you'll interview for HTCE, etc.
- Bookmark class websites on your computer (e.g., CourseSite, relevant wiki pages)
Input your portfolio URL ASAP
- PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING
- Show up early & in-person (!) to next week's class: meet at 5:30 in the front lobby of Iacocca to do an outdoor activity.
- Do the 'at home' version, sort of
- Download and install this app on your phone: My GPS Coordinates (Android, iOS)
- Go outside and start the app.
- Figure out which way is north; take ten big steps. Which way did your latitude change? Why?
- Take ten big steps to the east. Which way did your longitude change? Why?
- If you are really committed to this bit, get some sidewalk chalk and draw out a compass rose. Include the coordinates. Then go find a target and note its coordinates. Get a friend or family member to start at the compass rose with you and then go locate the target, using the coordinates.
- If you'd like to find a target placed by someone else, go to geocaching.com, create an account, and look up nearby geocaches. Note: The accuracy of the cellphone app is probably not good enough to actually locate a geocache – you'll be searching over too large of an area. Instead, you might need to use an actual, dedicated GPS unit. I have some that you can borrow if you like.
Session 2 - Monday, August 30
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete WTL
- Think ahead: What do you want to do for your Original Instructional Materials assignments? Are you able to find a preK-4 student to interview for the HTCE?
During class (ppt)
- Conceptual work
- Scaffolded geocache de-brief
- Handouts: target locations; thinking scaffold; lat-lon StoryMap; lat-lon handout for elem students
- (There are also some associated Google Earth files; ask me and I'll provide them)
- Comparison point for 'real' geocaching: 'Mother of all KINDER' Cache on South Mountain
- And if you want to read about this in greater detail: See Hammond, Bodzin, & Stanlick, 2014 article in CourseSite.
- Handouts: target locations; thinking scaffold; lat-lon StoryMap; lat-lon handout for elem students
- Touching back on last Monday's concepts: What is social studies?
- Getting started in GEOGRAPHY
- Three stances towards social studies education
- Three quick geography methods to illustrate
- JamBoard file used in the first two
- Google Earth file used in the third one
- Standards for social studies (just a quick look)
- Curriculum frameworks for social studies (again, a quick look)
- Discussion of student schema in social studies
- Time permitting: Going further on standards & curriculum frameworks, NCSS statement, etc.
- Scaffolded geocache de-brief
- Closure: Can you name and organize the instructional methods we used tonight? I have another JamBoard for this.
After class
- Reading
Maxim, re-visit Ch. 1 section on standards, read Ch. 10 (Geography)
Re-visit NCSS, 2009
skim BASD curriculum guides for grades 3 & 4 – what kind of a curriculum is this?
optional: Hammond, Bodzin, & Stanlick, 2014 (this is a how-to about the scaffolded geocache)
skim: Keeler & Langhorst, 2008 (to get ideas for orig inst materials assigns, particularly the second part)
- Assignments
- WTL – see forum in CourseSite
Complete instructional product #1, bring it to class ready to share!
Session 3 - Monday, 6 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete and bring in your Original Instructional Material assignment #1, have it ready for class. (But don't forget to also upload it to CourseSite!)
- Complete the WTL
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Original instructional materials work
- Getting ready to share our OIP #1s
- Sharing
- Talking about OIM #2:
- My example: A sequence of instruction on Community Needs & Community Resources.
- Opening worksheet – the needs I have in mind are on the second page... – the needs I have in mind are on the second page...
- Set of QR codes that I put up around the building
- Google Earth overlay that shows these resources in the community
- FYI: I created this with Julie Oltman, who teaches our geospatial tools class. If you haven't checked it out before, it's a great opportunity to learn more about Google Earth, ArcGIS, augmented reality, virtual reality, and more!
- Why not try...
- ...a new-to-you technology – Google Earth? Augmented reality? ArcGIS?
- ...a different lens – traditional vs. disciplinary vs. student-centered?
- ...a different content area (history, econ, geo, civics) – mix it up! Stretch your thinking and your tech skills!
- My example: A sequence of instruction on Community Needs & Community Resources.
- Conceptual work
- What's new in our instructional methods toolbox? Let's revisit our recurring JamBoard of methods. Which of these are specific to geography?
- Taking a look at the geography ed resources you identified after last week's class
- Taking a look at curriculum and standards for geography
- C3's geography section
- NCGE's Geography for Life
- PDE's straddle of Five Themes and a more disciplinary approach
- (What's this about the Five Themes?)
- A resource from Brenda Betts at CSU Stanislaus
- Wikipedia's entry on the Five Themes
- (And because I can never resist: Check out these these user-generated videos on the Five Themes)
- Digging into geography's Big Ideas
- Natural environment vs. built environment
- Physical geography vs. political, economic, or human geography
- Human-environment interaction
- Tools of geographic representation: maps and globes, yes, but also GPS, GIS, remote sensing, etc. (For example, here's a map of flood gauges I made for students at a school I'm working with – super, super interesting stuff that I never thought about before this latest storm: https://arcg.is/1HiqTW)
- Closure: Since we already talked about methods, let's re-visit the concept of the three possible teachers' stances (traditional, disciplinary, community-focused). Which of these do you think is privileged by the standards documents?
After class
- Reading
Review Geography standards: PDE, C3; see other nat’l orgs as you see fit
Read Barton & Levstik, 1996 (at least to the point where you understand context of HTCE assignment)
- Getting more context on social studies curriculum: skim Brophy & Alleman, 2002, and Wade, 2002.
- Assignments
Complete and turn in HTCE prep work
WTL
Work on original instructional materials assignment, product #2
Please consider sharing your OIM #1 by uploading to the Forum in CourseSite for this week’s class
- ...and an invitation! If you'd like to try out the 'community resources, community needs' activity, I have set up a version that you can do at home
- It requires the Collector app from Esri – you'll need to install this on your phone
- ...and the data you input will be visible / viewable on this map.
Session 4 - Monday, 13 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
- Prepare and turn in HTCE prep
- Complete WTL
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping:
- HTCE questions? Sharing a favorite image
- OIM look-ahead – make sure you know what's different about submit #2!
- Conceptual work – again, we won't get all the way through this....
- Geography framing: Five Themes vs. Four chunks. I prepared a JamBoard (note new features!!) on play a bit with these topics.
- Sample geography lessons / materials
- Community helpers...vs community resources, community needs
- A static lesson (or 'canned' lesson) on lat/lon...vs a scaffolded geocache
- A static data display vs. gapminder.com
- For elementary purposes, the Dollar Street database is particularly awesome
- Tools of geography: Lots of stuff here, but with emphasis on...
- Map projections
And a lesson plan that I've slightly adapted: The Grapefruit Activity. (While you're there: Note that it's billed as social studies AND science. Geography is the place where social studies starts to overlap with earth science / environmental science / physical science.- If you want to see the Flickr map I used, it's here: https://www.flickr.com/map – search 'Islam' or something else with a strong cultural gradient: 'mosque', for example.
- Physical geography: Not a perfect demonstration, but here's a Google Earth overlay that I created to divide continents into regions.
- Human geography: Families and Food activity. This is material borrowed from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
- Human-environment interaction: Population density activities / materials
- Set of YouTube videos
- Population density enactive, adapted from the Teachers Curriculum Institute geography lessons.
- Other visual materials on population in this place, time.
- Social studies and (de-)"othering"
- Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk. I'll just play a few bits.
- Single stories in social studies contexts
- Maps
- Textbooks
- Attending to multiple stories: Lots of different ways are possible, but I'll single out the Families Of the World video series as one way of introducing the idea.
- Sample geography lessons / materials
- Geography framing: Five Themes vs. Four chunks. I prepared a JamBoard (note new features!!) on play a bit with these topics.
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- If you haven't already: Read through PDE ELPS, or at least the stuff I extracted for social studies.
- Assignments
- Complete & turn in OIP #2. (If you need help thinking of something: re-read Keeler & Langhorst, 2008)
- WTL – this is a two-part process
- First, make a 'Whose Land?' map, following my instructions. (This requires you to use your Lehigh account to log into lu.maps.arcgis.com)
- Save your map and either link or place a screenshot in this week's WTL forum. I'll model it.
- Bring to class next week: A citrus fruit, unpeeled! I recommend a clementine, since they're easy to peel....
Session 5 - Monday, 20 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete WTL
- Prepare and turn in OIM #2
During class (ppt)
- A little pause for reflection on methods & geography – we'll re-visit our JamBoard of methods for this, plus dip into your WTL work on geography, your OIMs, etc.
- Tools of geography: Lots of stuff here, but with emphasis on...
- How about the latitude & longitude activity I had you guys do outside of class this past week?
- And a lesson plan that I've slightly adapted: The Grapefruit Activity. (While you're there: Note that it's billed as social studies AND science. Geography is the place where social studies starts to overlap with earth science / environmental science / physical science.)
- What this lesson has to do with: Map projections
- A resource that links that same lesson to a larger discussion of map projections: Flattening Earth
- Here's a wiki page that I use for this topic when teaching the Geospatial Tools class
- A much nicer treatment is here: Map Projections
- ...and if you just want to bathe in beautiful maps, here you go: Map Projections in ArcGIS
- Physical geography: Not a perfect demonstration, but here's a Google Earth overlay that I created to divide continents into regions.
- Human-environment interaction: Set of YouTube videos, plus some web images and materials drawn from the Teachers Curriculum Institute geography lessons
- And a thing I'm introducing about the intersections of science & social studies, focusing on the bar-headed goose. I made a Google Earth overlay, if you want to play with it.
- Closure
After class
- Reading: Maxim, Ch. 4-5-6 – just get started on these, start digging into what Maxim has to say about pedagogy
- Assignments
- Start thinking about the curriculum map assignment!
- WTL on geography & geography education take-aways
Session 6 - Monday, 27 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete WTL
- Work on curriculum map assignment – it's due next week!
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping: Curriculum map assignment
- Getting started with civics education
- Why civics is special – I'll be referring to the practice questions for the USCIS test – go to https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/2020test
- Two civics activities to discuss
- Government game for Southside Bethlehem – see map of locations; this is played using the app ActionBound (ActionBound.org)
- Community needs, community resources – we've referred to this before; see output map:
https://arcg.is/0HDuaC; I built it using ArcGIS Online.
Closure
After class
- Reading: Standards + Maxim, Ch. 9 (civics)
- WTL on civics ed standards
- Complete and turn in the curriculum map assignment – don't forget the reflection!
Session 7 - Monday, 4 October
Before class
- Complete and turn in your curriculum map assignment – and the reflection!
- Complete reading
- Complete WTL
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Anything to report on the curriculum map assignment?
- And: We are now officially on our own for the Field Work assignment. We need to find a replacement...so let's discuss?
- Moving ahead with civics ed
- Why is civics special, again?
- Thinking a bit on civics methods ...let's start building out a new section of our JamBoard file, no?
- And a new demo, this time looking at branches of government two different ways
- A general pedagogy thing: Giving, Prompting, Making
- Civics ed stances (traditional vs. disciplinary vs. community-oriented)
- 'What kind of citizen?' framing for civics standards
- Putting together Giving-Prompting-Making and civics ed / civics stances / what kind of citizen
- One more civics ed resource (getting back to games!): iCivics.org
Civics ed as the essential disciplineHistorical assertionsCivics and engineering?Civics as the guardrail against a failed society
- Closure
After class
- No class meeting next week!
- ...but please do look ahead at the instructional unit assignment and check out some of the resources I've posted under the following week
WTL on the purpose of civics ed, assuming that we got to that point- Reading
- skim over Hammond & Manfra, 2009 (Giving-Prompting-Making)
- optional: Westheimer & Kahne, 2004 (What kind of citizen?)
Monday, October 11 - no class!
Session 8 - Monday, October 18
Before class
- Complete readings
- Look at instructional planning materials I posted in CourseSite for the week of October 11
During class – no ppt tonight, just running things from this wiki
- Wrapping up civics ed
- JamBoard of methods – what do we have in our 'Civics' category?
- "Standing dates" / mandates that you can work with in civic ed
- Act 70 - requires all Pennsylvania schools to teach about the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights (link to legislation)
- Patriots Day (September 11) – in flux; I'm not sure how to approach this
- Constitution Day (September 17) – some sources of instructional planning ideas
- A content-area association (Center for Civic Education): https://www.civiced.org/lesson-plans/constitution-day-and-citizenship-day
- A publisher (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt): https://www.hmhco.com/blog/fun-constitution-day-activities-for-the-classroom
- A trusted public source, PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons-plans/lesson-plan-constitution-day-civic-empowerment-and-active-citizenship/
- A non-profit active in relevant civic ed, the Constitution Center: https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/educational-resources/lesson-plans/to-sign-or-not-to-sign-the-ultimate-constitution-day-lesson-plan
- ...and of course iCivics: https://www.icivics.org/teachers/lesson-plans/constitution-day-lesson-plan
- Elections (Usually Nov 2-8, depending on the year – "the Tuesday following the first Monday in November")
- Mock elections
- Actual classroom elections
- Election polling – for example, there's a governor's race in New Jersey
- Who's on the ballot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_New_Jersey_gubernatorial_election#Candidates_3
- Depending on the time of year, you might focus just on the primaries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_New_Jersey_gubernatorial_election#Democratic_primary, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_New_Jersey_gubernatorial_election#Republican_primary
- What the current polling looks like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_New_Jersey_gubernatorial_election#Polling_2
- Who's on the ballot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_New_Jersey_gubernatorial_election#Candidates_3
- (And by the way, civics is a GREAT area to integrate with math! Elections – and many other topics in civics – are essentially math + geography!)
- And another evergreen topic for civics: Monuments and commemorations
- Database of public school names from the National Center for Educational Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/
- Map of historical markers in Pennsylvania, with the data sorted lots of different ways: https://arcg.is/zi854
- And now let's re-visit that JamBoard of methods! What do we have that's new?
- Wrapping up civics
- First, there IS a state-wide social studies assessment...in civics! Meet Act 38; just note that it is NOT a high-stakes assessment. It also shouldn't have much impact (if any) on elementary education; this is just for your information
- But we do have a really big, challenging question I'd like to engage for a minute: What is the purpose of civics education??
- Housekeeping
- In lieu of field work, we will punt to the 'watch some videos' idea. More details to follow, but the rough sketch is that you will write the field work paper based on watching these videos...
- Getting organized for microteaching
- For next week: Turn in instructional unit overview / planning document. Keep in mind that it doesn't have to be perfect! I just want to get you engaged in the process & create an opportunity for me to give feedback
- Looking ahead to next week: Getting into history education, with an opportunity to meet up and do an outdoor activity: 4:00 pm on Monday, Oct 25 at Moravian Academy (422 Heckewelder Pl, Bethlehem, PA 18018 – see Google Map pin). We will be playing an augmented reality game about colonial Moravian history, used by 2nd graders at Moravian Academy.
After class
- Complete WTL about civics, civic education
- Fill out form to sign up for a microteaching time slot
- Complete and turn in your instructional unit overview
- Watch for an email from me about next Monday's history game on the Northside; respond to let me know who's coming
Session 9 - Monday, October 25
Before class
- Complete WTL
- Fill out microteaching sequence form
- Let me know if you plan to meet up for the augmented reality game at Moravian Academy! It's used for teaching 2nd graders about colonial history
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Getting microteaching organized
- Where things stand with curriculum map grading
- Field work substitution – I wrote up the alternative assignment: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FbD8a0EMJBhim1mcLH838Q7B9Do9GKe6bZ-czcswSlk/edit?usp=sharing
- General plan for turning things in from here to the end of the semester: Pace yourself; there are no hard-and-fast due dates except for the end of the semester
- Conceptual work
- Geography vs. civics vs. history ed
- Discussion of primary sources – let's jump over to our JamBoard for this
- Looking at a specific set of primary sources. I'm drawing from this set at the Geography of Slavery database from the Virginia Center for Digital History
- Brief discussion of history standards
- Looking at some additional images. These are drawn from the National Archives' DocsTeach database, specifically the work of Lewis Hine. Here's an example of an activity built using one of his photos: https://www.docsteach.org/activities/student/photographer-lewis-hine
- Discussion of history stances
- Different stances → different sorts of history education
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- History standards (see folder in CourseSite)
- Maxim, Ch. 9 (history ed)
- Read 1 additional history ed piece (see options in CourseSite)
- Assignments
- If you’re due up for microteaching, prepare!
- WTL on Wikipedia…I have a thing for Wikipedia.
Session 10 - Monday, November 1
Before class
- IF YOU CAN, prepare and turn in your HTCE paper
- Work on Field Work replacement assignment – as a refresher here are the instructions
- If you're microteaching, prep! Please share your materials ahead of time in the forum provided in CourseSite
- Complete WTL on Wikipedia
- Complete reading
During class (no ppt – just running from the wiki for tonight)
- Microteaching
- Natalie
- Bella
- Conceptual work
- Some conventional history ed methods
- Maps, of course, just like in geography...but also historical maps! See, for example, the Library of Congress' collection of Sanborn maps – Here's the collection for Bethlehem, 1892
- Primary sources: Historical maps, of course, but also: Text (example), images (example), audio (example; entire collection), film/video (example)
- But whatever primary source you're working with, be sure to use a heuristic (aka, "thinking guide") to help students view the source as TEXT and not just INFO. Here's a set of heuristics: https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets
- (And here are a bunch of techniques that can also support working with primary sources: https://www.docsteach.org/tools
- Chronology: This is the thing that history does more than any other social studies discipline–put things on a timeline!
- Example of a so-boring-its-dangerous timeline: https://arcg.is/uP4ii
- Quick activity to demonstrate why we might wish to explore a fresh approach to making / using timelines
- And an example of an 'anchored' timeline (with both fencepost dates and visuals), for one-time or iterative use
- But here's a problem: EVERYTHING in history is a hyperobject...so what to teach? And what part of it to teach? And what's important about it, anyway???
- And now for a really non-standard history ed method: WIKIPEDIA. Here are some URLs that we're going to work through
- This article: Pledge of Allegiance
- The 'Talk' page about this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Pledge_of_Allegiance – it mentions state pledges. For example, in Texas, you'd recite TWO pledges: one to the US and one to Texas! Yikes! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Texas_state_symbols#Pledge_to_the_Texas_flag)
- The 'History' page of that article: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pledge_of_Allegiance&dir=prev&action=history – take a look at the earliest version and walk forward through history, observing the edits...and editors!
- And a challenge: Can you find corroborating information for this image? It's in the Pledge article...is it legit?? https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Students_pledging_allegiance_to_the_American_flag_with_the_Bellamy_salute.jpg
- Wikipedia as a vehicle for all three stances of teaching history
- Traditional: Teaching 'what happened' – see especially the 'Simple English' version of Wikipedia. (Example: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty; contrast with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty)
- Disciplinary: Who gets to write history? Look at the editing / authorship of (relevant) articles in Wikipedia, or at least demonstrate that our accounts / representations of history change. (Example: Compare the date of the first version of the Wikipedia article on Neanderthals with the first version of the article on Denisovans!)
- Community-centered: Who gets to write history? YOU get to write history! For example: The simple.wikipedia.org article on the Lenni Lenape could use a little expanding...or create an article about your school or your neighborhood....
- (And yes, Wikipedia demonstrates the fact that everything in history is a hyperobject... and the articles often have embedded primary sources... and there are thousands of timelines in Wikipedia... and there are sometimes entire articles about certain historical maps.... You get my point.)
- Some conventional history ed methods
- Closure: Let's add some methods to our JamBoard...this time focusing on methods for teaching history ed!
After class
- There's a WTL to complete on 'Why teach history?'. Don't let this question drive you crazy – just jot down some thoughts
- If you're due up to microteach, prep it!
- Work on your final assignments! Move forward with whatever is remaining; turn it in when you can...earlier is better than later
- HTCE paper
- Field work paper (revised)
- Instructional unit overview
- Final instructional unit
- And here's an OPTIONAL article on history education, my favorite piece of social studies research ever: Schweber, 2008: “What Happened to Their Pets?”: Third Graders Encounter the Holocaust. It's long but well worth the read. Really demonstrates the challenges and complexities of teaching history ambitiously, whether at the elementary level or even in the older years!
Session 11 - Monday, November 8
Before class
- Work on final assignments!
- Complete WTL on history ed ('Why teach history?')
- Prep for microteaching, if you're due
- If you already did your microteaching: Write up a reflection and email me!
- Take a look at the optional reading. It's well worth your time.
During class (no ppt; again just running from the wiki; note that there are some embedded slideshows here)
- Microteaching: Marlena, Denise
- Wrapping up history ed
- First, let's reflect on what we've done thus far in discussing / encountering history education
- Some work with images (examples)
- Some work with maps (examples)
- Some discussion of primary sources (list of heuristics)
- Some work with timelines
- ...and an oddball thing with Wikipedia. That's a 'Dr. Hammond' thing; pretty much no one else thinks this is a good idea
- Next, let's pause to process where we our with our toolbox of methods – let's add to our JamBoard of methods, specifically building out the history section
- Now let's put history ed to bed. Two big ideas, and two recommendations
- Big Idea #1: History is incredibly hard to teach.
- Hard for students to understand (presentism, bias towards personal motives, irregular pace of change, lack of context)
- Constantly changing. Examples: Procopius, accounts of the Renaissance, history of the Maya; history of early humanity (Neanderthal research history, Denisovan discovery in 2008)
- You just might be presented with nonsense – here's a running list of nonsense in history education contexts
- Big Idea #2: History is volitional. It's incredibly vast; people only take from it what they want. Examples: Scottish history, history of King Phillip/Metacomet, shifting purposes of the 'master narrative' of history
- Suggestion #1: Make it active. If you're just going to lecture at elementary students, you might as well not do it (unless the curriculum demands that you cover it). Do a field trip, have a guest speaker, or do something very hands-on. Example of the latter: Triangular Trade, via a JamBoard
- Suggestion #2: Make it inclusive. Embrace the volitional nature of history...and why not make it something that affirms and strengthens a multi-racial democracy? (Examples: Re-thinking representation in the Lewis & Clark expedition and the Civil Rights movement.) The alternative is to continue to build the road towards white supremacy, whether intentionally or inadvertently. I INVITE YOU TO TAKE FROM IT WHAT YOU WANT. To re-purpose the statement attributed to Gandhi: Teach the history that you want to see in the world. Yes, this sounds like an invitation to propagandize. Given the lack of solid rationales for history education at the elementary level, this doesn't bother me too much, assuming that you are not teaching something actively harmful.
- Big Idea #1: History is incredibly hard to teach.
- First, let's reflect on what we've done thus far in discussing / encountering history education
After class
- Microteaching: If you just finished, write your reflection! If it's coming up, prep it!
- Work on final assignments
- WTL: How to prep a Veterans' Day lesson...that's inclusive
Session 12 - Monday, November 15
Before class
- Microteaching: Either write your reflection, prep your lesson, or bask in the fact that you're all done with it already!
- Work on final assignments: HTCE, instructional unit, fieldwork paper
- Complete WTL
During class (ppt)
- Microteaching: Joe and Evan
- Conceptual work for tonight: Talking about assessment in social studies
- Assessment resources
- PDESAS assessment section: https://pdesas.org/Assessment/Assessment/AssessmentQuestions
- NAEP questions tool: https://nces.ed.gov/NationsReportCard/nqt
- (You might also have access to publisher items)
- Example of 'thick' presentation of student schema: https://viseyes.org/pa/?29 – see https://viseyes.org/primaryaccess/ for more about this tool
- Praxis for elementary social studies
- Here's what's currently required for elementary cert (skip down to p. 3).
- Sample practice test – social studies items are 20, 34-42; answers are on pp. 58-59
- Assessment resources
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Re-visit Maxim, Ch. 2 – section on assessment
- Schurr, 'Assessment that emphasizes learning'
- Assignments
- WTL on assessment in your instructional unit
- Work on final assignments! Field paper, HTCE, final unit
Session 13 - Monday, November 22
Before class
- Microteaching prep or reflection, depending
- Work on final assignments
- Complete reading
- Complete WTL in CourseSite
During class (no ppt; just working from the links here in the wiki)
- Conceptual work: Discussing inclusion / adaptation & accommodation for diverse learners
- I am by no means an expert on this, but this is a HUGE topic for social studies, for at least two reasons
- Practicality: Given that social studies isn't a high stakes-assessed area in Pennsylvania, it's the content area in which LEAs are most eager to show inclusive practice.
- Ideology: If social studies is about preparing citizens...we need to have an inclusive classroom. In fact, an inclusive social studies classroom in which adaptation & accommodation need to take place is a SUPERIOR environment for social studies ed, rather than a more homogeneous classroom.
- Here's what I have for you: Four different approaches to the topic. I'll have you explore one of these as part of a group. Discuss within your group: What about this is familiar? What about it is new? Think back to the microteaching lessons your group members have done – how would / should you change it to include this approach?
- Teacher behaviors / changing the way you teach, right down to the microbehaviors: Lots of possibilities, but I'll focus on sheltered instruction (if you had me for SpEd/TLT 404, this is a strategy that I enacted...badly)
- Experience it
- Go to https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_activities/independent/IA_Understanding_Sheltered_Instruction.pdf
- One partner watch video #1 while the other one watches video #2.
- After you watch: Write down what you think the teacher's lesson was about, then compare. The viewer of video #2 should have a MUCH clearer idea of what happened – why?
- Watch video #3. Again, this should be easier for you. Why?
- Think through the implications for your instruction – what did these experiences teach you?
- Background info
- Note how this used to be something that only ESL teachers did: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9210/english.htm
- ...but now it's part of inclusive practices in mainstream classrooms, too: http://ritell.org/Resources/Documents/General%20Education%20Resources/Sheltered_Instruction_for_Mainstream%5B1%5D.pdf
- Now you think it through in terms of your own instruction – re-visit one or both of your microteaching lessons – how would / should you change it to include the techniques of sheltered instruction?
- (And if you liked what you saw in the videos from Vanderbilt, see their whole module on working with English Language Learners: http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/ell/
- Experience it
- Modifying materials / changing the media with which you teach
- Modifying documents: Read http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/23560 – be sure to follow the links to the sample documents
- Modifying assessments: Go to http://www.lakewoodcityschools.org/userfiles/2191/Classes/8975/Hurleys-ESL-Modifications.pdf and read the "Assessment Modifications" on pp. 2-3.
- Finally, go to http://www.pdesas.org/module/Assessment/questions/search/ and retrieve some PDE-recommended assessment items. (I recommend "History", "5th grade"– to see less textually-driven questions, also add "constructed response".) Try your hand at adapting these items (both text-only and visually-driven) for ELLs. If this isn't giving you access, try this DBQ (document-based question) from a different source; try not to laugh at the grammatical mangling in the Task instructions.
- Think back to your microteaching lessons – how might you modify those materials?
- Differentiation of student assignments / change what you ask of students – many possibilities here, but we're going with RAFT (Role-Audience-Format-Topic)
- Go to CourseSite and find the 'Inclusion materials' folder. Review the materials on RAFTs.
- Discuss: What merit does this approach have? In ways can a RAFT be inclusive?
- Think back to your microteaching. What work did you anticipate students doing at the end of the lesson or the end of the unit? Might you use the RAFT strategy?
- Graphic organizers (and some heuristics) – in general, you want to be multi-sensory; within that advice, I recommend being as visual & spatial as possible – graphic organizers let you do both!
- Lots of pages provide information about graphic organizers; here is a sampling of sites w/graphic organizers specific to social studies
- https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/graphic-organizer/
- https://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/english-language-learners/24130
- https://doingsocialstudies.com/2017/10/17/5-graphic-organizers-youre-probably-not-using-but-should-be/
- http://minds-in-bloom.com/5-graphic-organizers-for-social-studies/
- http://www.readingquest.org/graphic.html
- (And that last site has lots of additional info filed under 'Strategies for Reading Comprehension' which, come to think of it, is one of the primary uses for graphic organizers: http://www.readingquest.org/a-z-strategies.html)
- And to reach back to an earlier resource: The National Archives has lots of teaching materials: selected digital resources for the classroom plus a plethora of analysis worksheets: https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets– different ones for photos vs. cartoons vs. written documents, etc.
- Think back to the instruction in your microteaching lesson. Did you use a graphic organizer? Could you have used one?
- Lots of pages provide information about graphic organizers; here is a sampling of sites w/graphic organizers specific to social studies
- Teacher behaviors / changing the way you teach, right down to the microbehaviors: Lots of possibilities, but I'll focus on sheltered instruction (if you had me for SpEd/TLT 404, this is a strategy that I enacted...badly)
- I am by no means an expert on this, but this is a HUGE topic for social studies, for at least two reasons
After class
- Review links & documents from this week's discussion!
- Skim through the readings provided in CourseSite – they put some of the ideas discussed tonight into greater depth
- WTL: Share one idea you have for accommodating one of the diverse learners in your unit
- (And I forgot to move this into last week's materials: Let me know if you have any questions about the Praxis! I added a WTL forum in CourseSite for this week)
- Complete and turn in any remaining assignments!
- We're going to do an economics activity next week...and it will require Play-Doh (or something equivalent). Please have some handy for while we're on Zoom!
- Bring in something to share from your instructional unit – think of it as the show-and-tell portion of the 'original instructional materials' assignments that started the semester
Session 14 - Monday, 29 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
- Work on final assignments
During class (ppt)
- Sharing items from your unit
- Conceptual work: Digging into economics
- What is economics and why isn't it more prominently featured?
- A couple of counter-examples. One isn't really economics, and the other one is...painful. It's econ, but it's painful.
- And an example, albeit an outside-the-box out: Re-purposing children's literature. Two examples here
- A selection from Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day?
- A book written to explain what microfinance is: One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference
- Why this is a crying shame: Econ is fun, econ is practical, econ is important, econ integrates beautifully. (And it's in the PDE standards)
- Some econ resources
- Ohio State University Research Foundation (OSURF) materials
- Day, 2006: What is Economics?
- VanFossen, 2003: suggestions for teaching econ in elementary SS Council Economic Education
- website.
- standards.
- lesson plan database: EconEd Link.
- The classic: Play Doh Economics (to be demo'd in a few minutes)
- Some econ activities
- If we were face-to-face, we'd warm up with something I cooked up, "The economics of stickers"
- And now for a slam-dunk: A lesson adapted from Play-Doh economics ... we'll be attempting it using this JamBoard
- What is economics and why isn't it more prominently featured?
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Maxim, Ch. 12
- Read, or at least save, the econ materials in CourseSite. You don't need to read these immediately, but do save them for future reference. They're extremely useful, and they're rare!
- Assignments
- Wrap up whatever you haven't finished: HTCE, field paper
- Complete final unit. BE SURE to read the rubric. And if you need extra time, ask for it!