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Session 1 - Tuesday, 31 August
Before class
- Buy (borrow, rent) a copy of the textbook: A Practical Guide to Middle and Secondary Social Studies (June R. Chapin, 2007; Amazon page -- also available in the LU bookstore)
- If you can, check out the course resources linked from the main course page: this wiki, the bookmarks list, the Moodle site.
During class (ppt)
- Introductions
- Tour of course sites, resources
- Textbook: A Practical Guide to Middle and Secondary Social Studies (June R. Chapin, 2007; Amazon page -- also available in the LU bookstore)
- Public face of the course: Wiki
- Intended curriculum: Map
- Enacted curriculum: Record, built session-by-session. See previous version of this course for an example.
- Private face of the course: CourseSite.
- You're probably familiar with Blackboard; we'll be using a different courseware system called Moodle. Lehigh has named theirs CourseSite.
- Note that Moodle is a free tool. If you're interested, you can set up your own Moodle and use if for teaching your classes--an example is here.
- Course bookmarks--some websites that you may find useful during the semester.
- And in case you don't have one already in front of you: classroom laptops
- Reviewing syllabus
- Static copy (pdf) vs. dynamic copy (Google doc)
- Please flag any corrections or questions as we go along! That's the whole point of the dynamic copy....
- Part 1: General overview, expectations
- Part 2: Assignments
- Static copy (pdf) vs. dynamic copy (Google doc)
- Conceptual work:
- What is social studies? (via Jigsaw(-ish) / LGL activity)
- Form SIX groups
- Group A: NCSS materials, publications (NCSS website)
- Group B: PA standards (electronic versions), textbooks
- Group C: Content-area groups' materials (links to content-area association sites)
- Group D: "Education market" materials
- Group E: Teacher materials; high school course catalogs.
- Group F: Discussion: What do you remember from your middle & secondary social studies experiences? What topics did you address? What did you read? Watch? Discuss? What sorts of tasks, assessments, or projects did you complete?
- Group work for 10 minutes
- Report out: Describe what you looked at, what you discussed. Instructor will make a list.
- Group: Look over the list and create GROUPS or blocks of items that appear (to you) to be similar to one another.
- Label: Identify each group by a short (1-4 word) label.
- Form SIX groups
- What is social studies? (via Jigsaw(-ish) / LGL activity)
- Instruction presentation: What is social studies? A natural evolution in education? A historical oddity? An ill-defined object? A battlefield?
- What is a social studies methods course?
- Content? Techniques? Lesson planning?
- Significance of model lessons: LGL / Jigsaw, Hilda Taba** Why does social studies matter?
- Closure: Discussion of WLT, original instructional materials assignments
After class
- Reading: Chapin, Ch. 1; NCSS, 1993
- Assignments
- WTL (start your thread in CourseSite forum)
- Please update your profile (e.g., add your photo) in CourseSite
- Start thinking about assignments: tech products, course plans, etc.
Session 2 - Tuesday, 7 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading; post in CourseSite--if you have questions about the upcoming assignments, post them in the 'Help Me!' forum
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual work
- What is a social studies educator?
- The playing field: Standards, organizations, journals, publishers, and interest groups
- The reality: Students, parents, administrators, teachers, and communities
- Paradox of democratic education
- One way to structure your experience and thinking: TPACK
- Teacher as gatekeeper; social studies that matters
- Teacher dispositions
- Demo lesson: Story of Aaron, with materials drawn from the Geography of Slavery database at the University of Virginia. Whole-class, collaborative examination of primary sources...very deliberate arrangement of materials.
- Who are you as a social studies educator?
- Social studies resources; we'll be using the course bookmarks for part of this. Be sure to experiment with concatenating tags. For example: TLT431+history; TLT431+history+games. (Unfortunately, there's no way to use 'not' or 'or')
- Building your toolbox as a social studies educator
- "Toolbox" concept
- Organizing your toolbox: Preview of Hammond & Manfra, 2009
- What is a social studies educator?
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Chapin, Ch. 1 (review)
- Shulman, 1986
- Thornton, 2001
- Hammond & Manfra, 2009
- Assignments
- WTL
- Complete first original instructional material product
- Start lining up classroom observations, HTCE participant
Session 3 - Tuesday, 14 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Demo: European voyages of discovery framed with a driving question, via Google Earth. Kml file here. Whole-class, teacher-centered
- Original instructional materials assignment, product #1: Get into pairs/trios and share.
- Conceptual work: Tasks of social studies educators
- Planning
- Standards: Pennsylvania state (and even more states') standards; national standards.
- Curricula / course plan.
- BASD social studies curricula page.
- It's worth pointing out Virginia's standards: note the amount of work put into developing not just the standards but also the curriculum framework and scope-and-sequence, assessment blueprint. Also: use of Backwards Design (Wiggins & McTighe) in curriculum framework. Pretty potent contrast with the line of thought that appears to guide the PDE standards (e.g., history--elementary [grades 3-8], secondary [grades 9-12]).
- Curriculum map / scope-and-sequence
- Unit plan
- Lesson plan
- 'Activity' or 'method' (i.e., what you're putting in your toolbox)
- Re-convene original instructional material groups: how does your 'activity' build your toolbox? Fit into standards / curricula / units / lessons?
- Looking at instructional planning documents
- Curriculum map / scope-and-sequence -- see curriculum map template in CourseSite and online materials (e.g., 6th grade curriculum maps from Worth County, GA)
- Unit plan -- see unit plan template in CourseSite; see also online materials (e.g., world history unit from Oakland, MI)
- Lesson plan -- see lesson plan templates in CourseSite; see also online materials (e.g., lesson plans from GEM).
- Reminder about toolbox metaphor
- Advice to social studies teachers
- Being present in communities of practice
- H-Net.
- NCSS.
- AP Central.
- World727 (global education) -- this page has info on the whole issue, scroll down to bottom for specific listserv info
- Knowing, teaching, and learning the content
- Knowing, teaching, and learning about young people
- Being present in communities of practice
- Discussion of instructional planning assignments, with particular attention to course planning:
- Picking courses for your 'course plan' assignment: Course catalog at Freedom High School (look at pp. 13-17), course catalog at Liberty High School (look at pp. 25-31)
- Finding relevant standards
- PDE standards on economics (secondary).
- CEE standards.
- AP Macroeconomics course description.
- Course plan -- see my sample.
- Curriculum map -- example from Hudsonville, MI = pretty much a straight run-through of the AP course description topics linked up with resources & assessments; note repetition in 'assessments for learning.' Would this approach fly with an urban, under-served population?
- Unit plan -- here's something that's identified as a unit plan|www.trinkner.org/Fed_UnitPlan_2009.doc|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||\; is it? If nothing else, contrast with our assignment specifications
- Lesson plan -- see CEE's Economics in action: 14 greatest hits for teaching high school economics (via Google Books). We'll be doing one of these lessons later in the semester.
- Planning
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Chapin, Ch. 2
- NAEP data (in CourseSite)
- Smith & Niemi, 2001 (skim)
- Barton & Levstik, 1996 (connect to HTCE assign)
- Assignments
- WTL
- Start second original instructional material assignment
- Work on first course plan---start with your own "big ideas", go to standards, etc.
- Work on first classroom observation
Session 4 - Tuesday, 21 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading; move forward on second original instructional materials, first course plan, and first observation
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual work
- Opening demo: Silent timeline
- Second demo: Early US History via GIS, using this file, courtesy of Mr. Jeff Snyder.
- Think back to: Story of Aaron
- Challenges of history ed
- Frameworks for thinking about teaching and learning: Bransford (et al.), Wiggins & McTighe
- Pedagogy that matters: Inquiry, active learning, and direct instruction (or, in my terms: Prompting, Making, Giving)
- Closing
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Chapin, Ch. 3, 4 -- read carefully, take notes!
- Hammond & Manfra, 2009 (review)
- Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000 (selections)
- Keeler & Langhorst, 2008 (to help plan for original instructional material product #2)
- Assignments
- WTL
- Complete your first course plan; see my (partial) sample for guidance, ask questions as needed.
Session 5 - Tuesday, 28 Sep
Before class
- Complete the reading.
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual work: History education and Wikipedia. See ppt for details; related links are...
- History Scene Investigations, housed out of William & Mary
- National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): Lesson plans and teaching activities (includes primary source heuristics)
- Becker, 1931: 'Everyman his own historian'
- Straight from the oracle: Sam Wineburg's Historical Thinking Matters.
- Adapted from the oracle: SCIM-C (Hicks, Doolittle, & Ewing)
- Yet more: National History Education Clearinghouse.
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Assignments
Session 6 - Tuesday, 5 Oct
Before class
- Complete readings
- Complete instructional material product #2
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual flipping: Geography and civics
- Conceptual work
- Re-visiting / closing off history ed (for now)
- Opening up civic ed
- Intersection between civics and history
- What's so special about civics?
- 'Doing' some civics
- Bill of Rights bingo (adapted from [this lesson plan|http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=533])...what kind of civic ed is this?
- Constitution Day, celebrated each year on September 17, MANDATED into school curriculum from 2005 onwards. Use thomas.loc.gov to figure out when & how this happened.
- Three views of civics ed
- Demo lesson: Branches of the government via PowerPoint mark-up
- What kind of citizen? Westheimer & Kahne...and the PDE standards. What kind of citizen do the PDE standards suggest?
- Content area organization to know: Center for Civic Education.
- Introduction to Project Citizen by Myron Yoder, ASD Social Studies Curriculum Supervisor. (See also: We the People project.)
- Opportunity to volunteer with students doing Project Citizen: Susan Siegrist, Jefferson Elementary
- Closure: Micro-teaching: expectations, sign-ups
After class
- Reading
- Chapin, Ch. 7 (3rd ed) or 8 (2nd ed)
- Westheimer & Kahne, 2004
- Smith, 2004
- Assignments
- WTL
- Complete (if you haven't already) your first classroom observation
- Work on second course plan
- Sign up for microteaching slots.
( PACING BREAK - Tuesday, 12 October - NO CLASS )
Session 7 - Tuesday, 19 Oct
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete your first classroom observation. If there's going to be a problem with this, LET ME KNOW. Please.
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Opening up microteaching (methods list, expectations, feedback forms): After expectations and process, a big hand for our starting pitchers...
- Cory K.
- Jeff S.
- Conceptual work: Geography education
- WTL opening post: In my opinion, geography education is/should be about...
- First, I need you to tell me about...your clothes. Seriously! It's less creepy than it sounds. I promise! Input form here.
- Sketchmaps: Draw me a map of...(world, North America, USA, Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley, Lehigh University campus)
- Geography vs. history/civics
- What is geography? Geography is...
- What is where? Looking at birds' nests; revising sketchmaps
- The why of where: Looking at our clothing. Follow-up: flickr.com/map.
- ...people: Video analysis, looking at images, and then an enactive activity. The enactive and some of the visuals are drawn from Geography Alive! by the Teachers Curriculum Institute.
- ...spatial thinking. For example, consider this geological formation: Siccar Point (a Hutton's Unconformity). Or consider the Great Pacific Garbage Patch...that's clearly a non-conformity...for the moment....
- FUN! Puzzle maps.
- ...a lie? Consider how we can lie (or distort) and even fool ourselves with maps.
- ...the future of social studies? Consider interest in global education (or education for globalization), Walter Parker's read on the arc of the field. A contrarian argument: GEOGRAPHY, not history, should be the centerpiece of the social studies.
- WTL closing post:
- In my (revised?) opinion, geography education is/should be about...
- One thing I'd like to do in a geography class / geography-integrated history or civics lesson is...
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Chapin, Ch. 8 (3rd ed) or 7 (2nd ed)
- Alibrandi & Sarnoff, 2006
- Assignments
- WTL: Brainstorm two or more ideas for integrating geography into a history or civics unit
- Complete your second course plan
Session 8 - Tuesday, 26 Oct
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete your second course plan
- Don't forget that I have some specific prompts for your WTL to follow up on the last session
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping: First classroom obs -- comments / files / grades up in CourseSite; role of placeholders.
- Microteaching
- Alec R.
- Josh H.
- Conceptual work
- Following up on geography ed: Geography as a 'lie' / misrepresentation / simplification. Consider: cartograms (e.g., worldmapper.org) -- is this moving closer to or further away from 'truth'?
- Does this same dynamic play out in history ed? Civics ed?
- Opening up economics ed
- Economics as integration: Classic lesson topic = Great Depression. Here's a sample lesson from Social Ed, but there are lots of other ways to get at this.
- Economics as a representation / simplification / model. Examples: micro S & D, macro AS & AD. Competing policy implications of different models of AS & AD. I'm using ThinkEconomics here -- it's worth playing with & exploring. Bookmark it for later.
- Demo lesson (and experience in micro S & D): A market in wheat. This is a CLASSIC lesson. I first encountered it in the 'Morton' books for teaching AP Econ--it's also available in a CEE publication via Google Books: lesson, entire book. [Honorable mention for more great econ materials: Play-Doh Economics, from Indiana's Council for Economic Ed. You can get the first edition online for free; the second edition you have to buy (Amazon).]
- Activity de-brief -- what was learned: concepts? Skills? Attitudes? Any citizenship development going on here?
- A critical stance on economics education (in the US, at least): where's the non-capitalism? Example of Islamic banking
- Opportunities to think critically & address citizenship/global citizenship: visualizingeconomics.com and the issue of microfinance (e.g., Kiva.org), et al.
- Closure: Bringing together geography, economics, civics, and history: gapminder.org.
After class
- Reading
- Re-visit Chapin on economics (Ch. 8 in 3rd edition, Ch. 7 in 2nd edition)
- Read Praxis materials, focusing on the sections about economics concepts
- Check out NAEP materials on economics
- Assignments
- WTL
- Complete curriculum map. If you're not going to turn it in next week, at least send me an email to let me know what to expect!!!
Session 9 - Tuesday, 2 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete curriculum map OR email me to let me know to expect it next week (i.e., by Tues, 9 Nov)
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching
- Wil D.
- Peter B.
- Conceptual work
- Election-related lesson: polling & prediction -- handout t/k
- Grand unification of social studies: GapMinder.org.
- Assessment & social studies
- Generic purposes & assumptions of assessment: sequestered, individual tasks; assessment OF learning vs. assessment FOR learning; accountability / the 'bottom line' vs. the challenges of failure (or being passed along)
- Assessment in the context of social studies: What's the bottom line, again? Significance of schema, level of non-information in traditional assessments. Examination of the work of Sam Wineburg, Gabriel Reich. Test items as text: compare primary source heuristics & test-wiseness
- Examples of non-traditional assessment: Take the assessment & then evaluate your work
- Digital documentary group
- Individually create your own digital documentary on the Civil Rights Movement
- View and evaluate a sample documentary by two 7th grade students
- Essay group
- Start with the Free Response Question. Individually examine the question and the images, then individually outline an answer. Then read the sample student response and score it with a rubric. Discuss your scoring.
- Move to the Document-Based Question. Examine the question and the documents, but skip writing your own answer. Examine the rubric, then look at the sample student response. Score it individually, then discuss.
- Collaborative test-taking group
- Answer the first ten questions on your own.
- Answer the second ten questions on your own; then stop and discuss them. Note places where you changed your answers and provide an explanation of why.
- Answer the last ten questions on your own. Then use a computer to explore these questions further. Change your answers as needed, and document your changes (i.e., provide new answer, explain your new understanding, and provide links to relevant sites).
- Transfer task group
- Individual task ('transferring out')
- Group comparison & discussion
- New individual task ('transferring in')
- Group comparison & discussion
- Digital documentary group
- Assessment & Backwards Design --> unit plan
- Other assessment reference points, for good or ill: NAEP, Praxis.
- What are your own 'bottom lines' when it comes to assessment? What will you value? What bargains will you strike?
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Reich, 2009
- Wineburg, 2004
- Chapin, Ch. 5
- Review rest of Praxis exam materials in CourseSite
- Assignments
- WTL
- Outline your unit plan
( SOCIAL STUDIES CONFERENCE - Tuesday, 9 November - NO CLASS )
Session 10 - Tuesday, 16 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching: Jessica & Jonathan; Peter?
- Conceptual work
- Closing off our assessment discussion / experiences
- Democratic classrooms
- Closure
After class
- Reading: Manfra, 2009
- Assignments
- WTL
- Complete HTCE
Session 11 - Tuesday, 23 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching
- (Peter)
- Conceptual work: Guest presentation on inclusive classrooms
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Cho & Reich, 2008
- Assignments
- WTL
- If you haven't already, complete your HTCE.
- Work on classroom observations, unit plan
Session 12 - Tuesday, 30 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching
- Travis
- Jennifer
- Sarah
- Brian.
- Conceptual work
- Closing off & bridging democratic classrooms, inclusive classrooms, and the mission of social studies
- Discussing unit plan expectations
- Closure
After class
- Reading -- none
- Assignments
- WTL -- use the special needs scenarios to guide your reflection.
- Complete your second/third/final classroom observations and turn in
- Work on your unit plan
Session 13 - Tuesday, 7 Dec
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual work
- Social studies, writing, and deliberation: Respecting the process.
- First, a quick look at a research overview: Risinger, 1987.
- What about the war between coverage and depth? And what preparation do social studies teachers receive regarding how to structure writing?
- Examples: Wiki about the French Revolution, and two contemporary people to pay attention to: Whitney Blankenship and Diana Hess
- Moving into dialog and looking for more detailed advice, structures
- Student vs teacher talk time; student- vs. teacher-initiated questions
- Wait time and other conventions
- Types of questions
- Dialoging with text: Example of dialectical notebook.
- Dialoging with one another: Quick look at the work of Hilda Taba.
- Social studies and gaming
- Let's all consider a couple games together
- Consider a drill game. A weird drill game. But clearly one about social studies!!
- And FYI: You can fit about anything into a drill structure. For example: "Third Grade Map Test".
- And here's a classic strategy game...
- DISCUSS: What might games be good for? What value might they add? By seeking to integrate games into social studies instruction, what are possible deadends / routes forward?
- Taxonomy: "Edutainment" vs. Commercial-off-the-shelf; instructional hooks vs. "frictionless" (no opportunity for learning / designing instruction)
- Then split up into groups
- Group 1 heads to Oregon! Note: USE FIREFOX, not Chrome. You'll have to install a plug-in. Note that this is obviously an archaic version (Apple IIe!!) of the game, but use it to judge more contemporary ones. Contrast with this (much shorter) game about Jamestown.
- Group 2: Geography games. Here is a visually clean, single-player game: Travel-IQ. Once you get the concept, try to match up against other players at [GeoSense.net|http://www.geosense.net/].
- Group 3: Some items to consider: Sims modding, Muzzy Lane, WoW guilds, an online lab for democracy?
- Group 4: Find something, explore it, and report back to the class!
- Then re-convene to discuss
- Let's all consider a couple games together
- Social studies, writing, and deliberation: Respecting the process.
- Closure: A methods student is a methods student forever.
- Evaluation: Feel free to add any additional anonymous feedback that you think of later.
After class
- Reading: Blankenship, 2009; Hess, 2009
- Assignments
- One last WTL. Topic: As I leave methods...what's in my toolbox? What areas do I want to develop next?
- Finish unit plan, turn it in (paper and/or CourseSite) by Dec 14
- And don't forget you can continue to add additional anonymous feedback
...go back to top?
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