TLT 412, Fall 2024 - Course record

Thursdays, 7:15-9:55 in Iacocca Hall room A-235
First class = Thur, 29 Aug; last class = Thur, 5 Dec; no class on 28 Nov (Thanksgiving) – voter registration deadline in Pennsylvania = Mon, 21 Oct; check your voter registration status at https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/Pages/voterregistrationstatus.aspx

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15

Week 1 - Thursday, 29 Aug

Before class 

• Buy a copy of the textbook (Maxim, 2017, Dynamic Social Studies for Constructivist Classrooms; currently in 11th edition, but earlier editions are fine). Amazon has it; Lehigh bookstore should as well 

• Cruise this wiki and the CourseSite.

• Preview the syllabus. We will discuss it during class.

During class (ppt; whiteboard)

• Introductions – and here are some classroom-appropriate ideas / suggestions and explanations of why this matters...

  • https://www.teachingexpertise.com/classroom-ideas/first-day-of-school-activities/

  • https://psychlearningcurve.org/10-tips-for-creating-rapport-in-the-classroom/

  • https://smartclassroommanagement.com/2015/08/08/how-to-build-rapport-on-the-first-day-of-school/

• Looking at our toolbox: CourseSite, wiki, etc.

• Reviewing syllabus

  • Assignments and grading

  • First step: Completing your first WTL entries

  • Questions thus far?

• Conceptual work

  • What is social studies? Starter activity, drawing upon the work of Hilda Taba. We'll be using the following Google Docs...

    • Group A

    • Group B

    • Group C

    • Group D

  • Getting into our running JamBoard (linked in CourseSite), playing with organizing our teaching methods for social studies

  • 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

• Closure
  

  • Review of what's where (wiki, CourseSite)

  • Any questions?

  • Stick around for portfolio work, if you wish

After class

• Reading

  • (Borrow something from me! Read or skim it! Talk about it next week!)

  • Maxim, Ch. 1 (What is?)

• Assignments

  • WTL for this week: What is the purpose of 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) 

Week 2 - Thursday, 5 Sep

Before class 

• Complete reading

• Don't forget to do the WTL in CourseSite!

• Do the CourseSite updating (it helps me remember names/faces!)

• Think ahead on your assignments

During class (ppt)

• Starting off with something fun: A scavenger hunt! About the built environment

  • (I'll have this printed out, but here's a handout; feel free to take it & adapt to your own teaching, if you wish)

  • (Feel free to email me your photos so I can share them; you can also join the Zoom URL from your device to show)

  • (And here's a fancier version of this activity, one that uses ArcGIS Online & the Field Maps app to do the activity: https://lu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=e949efad87e142ef924c49d6617bf0de )

• De-brief of the activity – how is this social studies? What kind of social studies?  

• Social studies as a set of related social science disciplines – makes it easy for us, largely irrelevant to students. Just make it interesting for students; don't tie yourself up in knots about serving the discipline

• Among the big four, we are starting with GEOGRAPHY

  • Why start with geography?

  • What is geography, anyway?

  • A look at some geography standards

• Wading into social studies methods

  • PDE

  • Five Themes

  • (National Geography Standards, if anyone wants to look at those, too: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED375073.pdf) 

  • C3 Framework

• Time for another geography method: Sketchmaps

• Purpose(s) of social studies

• Discussion of OIM #1

• ...can we meet early next week??

After class

• Reading

  • Maxim, ch. 8 (geography)

  • PDE geography standards (download these to a convenient folder; you'll need to refer to them)

  • C3 framework, geography section (again, download to a convenient spot...)

  • NCSS, 2009 (powerful and purposeful elementary social studies)

• Assignments

  • Complete & bring in OIM #1; be prepared to show-and-tell!

  • Complete this Google Form for an in-class demo of a lesson called "Weaving the Globe" (form)

  • Complete WTL for week 2