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TLT 412, Fall 2025 - Course record

TLT 412, Fall 2025 - Course record

Wednesdays, 7:15-9:55 in Iacocca Hall room E-106
First class = Wed, 27 Aug; last class = Wed, 3 Dec; no class on 26 Nov (Thanksgiving)

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

Week 1 - Wednesday, 27 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 acceptable). 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)

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

  • 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...

    • 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 - Wednesday, 3 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 some methods. We’ll be doing three things

    • Making a map about our lives, using lu.maps.arcgis.com

    • Looking at maps of the United States

    • 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: Map Viewer )

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

  • Social studies as a set of stances, each asserting what social studies is for

  • 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 – introducing our spreadsheet of methods (shared only to class members)

  • 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

 

Week 3 - Wednesday, 10 Sep

Before class 

  • Complete Google Form on shoes/textile (link above)

  • Complete reading

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

  • Complete & bring in OIM #1

During class (no ppt – we’ll just work from last week, getting to what we didn’t cover)

  • Meet in lobby of Iaccoca at 6:45! We'll start from there

  • First thing tonight = scaffolded geocache. I will share starting materials here; if you want the full set, just ask

    • Handout with simple visual intro to lat/lon

    • List of coordinates for starting point, targets, and finish location

    • Decision-making scaffold, if anyone needs it

    • (If I were teaching this with elementary students: I'd actually start with this photoset to see locations along the Equator & Prime Meridian before going outside) 

    • (Alternatively: Here's a webpage [StoryMap] with info about latitude & longitude. This was written for older folks, not elementary students, but it has the images I would use with elementary students. Note that it also has embedded images on the map.)

    • (Since this activity does lots work in Google Earth: I encourage you to download Google Earth onto your laptop – https://www.google.com/earth/versions/ .  It's WAY more powerful as a downloaded program than something that runs in your browser.)

    • (And if you want to get into 'real' geocaching, go here: https://www.geocaching.com/play )

  • Once we’re done, we’ll pick back up with what we didn’t get to last week (see slides from Week 02)

  • Time permitting: sharing what we made for OIM #1!

  • Closure

After class

  • Reading

    • Barton & Levstik, 1996 - skim to get the idea about how to build image set for HTCE assignment

    • Optional: If you liked the scaffolded geocache, save a copy of Hammond et al., 2014

  • Assignments

    • Prepare & turn in HTCE image set; see syllabus for details

    • WTL on school activities that relate to calendar events: Sept 11, Constitution Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, etc.

Week 4 - Wednesday, 17 Sep

Before class

During class (ppt)

  • Warm up: It’s Constitution day!

  • Methods / getting into our spreadsheet (this is also linked from CourseSite, but for convenience I’m linking it here as well. Note that it’s shared specifically to your Lehigh email address, so this won’t stay visible forever)

  • Discussion: Teacher stances – what do they think social studies is for? What does this look like in terms of geography education?

  • Illustrating stances … and building our methods toolboxes

  • Discussing standards

    • PDE Geography standards

    • “Five Themes of geography” framework

    • C3 standards for geography

  • Mapping as a binding glue: Sketchmap activity

  • We MIGHT have time for this demo: ‘Transforming the Globe' (I also call it ‘mapping an orange’), borrowed from this lesson plan. If you want to go further with this idea, try this video: The Impossible Map (1947) 

  • Closure

After class

  • Reading:

    • Optional: Gaudelli & Laverty, 2017

    • Read (or re-read) PDE Geography standards & C3 standards on Geography

  • Assignments

    • WTL = geography education resources; elementary geography curriculum materials

    • Complete & turn in your OIM #2

Week 5 - Wednesday, 24 Sep

Before class

  • Complete reading

  • Complete WTL in CourseSite – keep in mind it's a little different than usual

  • Complete & turn in OIM #2 – don't forget that there's a reflection component! (See syllabus for details) 

During class (ppt)

  • Sharing OIM #2

  • Some frame-setting, or rather re-visiting

  • Exiting geography

    • Discussion of standards for geography education – with a foray into the Five Themes

    • One last method: Sketchmaps

    • Closing out geography, for now

  • Getting into civics

    • Opening activity: Looking at a diagram, then getting into some image annotation, then getting back to the diagram and marking it up

    • Big Reveal: Civics <--> Geography!! OMG!

    • Looking at civics standards

    • Another activity: Functions of government via a neighborhood walk …simulated

  • Closure

After class

  • Reading

    • Maxim, chapter on civics (Ch. 9?)

    • Civics standards: PDE & C3 (in CourseSite – see folder of standards)

  • Assignments

    • WTL on civic ed – play an iCivics game and report back!

    • Think ahead on your curriculum map assignment

Week 6 - Wednesday, October 1

Before class

  • Complete reading

  • Complete WTL on iCivics

  • Think ahead on curriculum map!

During class (ppt)

  • Upcoming assignments

  • Instructional planning

  • Going deeper on civics

  • Closure

After class

  • Reading

    • Maxim, Ch. 4-5-6

    • skim: Westheimer & Kahne, 2004 (what kind of citizen?)

    • optional: Westheimer & Kahne, 2009 (should social studies be patriotic?)

  • Assignments

    • Do WTL on civics standards

    • Turn in fieldwork assignment, first steps

    • Work on curriculum map assignment

    • Keep moving (or get started!!!) on field work

Week 7 - Wednesday, 8 October

Before class 

  • Work on reading Maxim chapters – highly worth it but may take you some time

  • Skim / download Westheimer & Kahne articles

  • Do WTL

  • Work on curriculum map

  • Work on fieldwork; turn in update

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping

  • Re-setting on big ideas about Civics

    • Digression about the DART mission

  • Methods for teaching civics; games, simulations, and models have a special place...

    • Finally slowing down to take a look at the Southside Bethlehem Government game…

    • Re-visit looking in a classroom #2 (Jane Elliott)

    • Looking in a classroom #3: Mr. Salvaterra

  • ...and I have taken this special connection to an extreme: perhaps civics & games are mirrors to one another??

    •  Gerrymandering game

    • Playground rule-making

  • "Doing Democracy", Project Citizen (Center for Civic Education) – https://www.civiced.org/project-citizen

  • And a pedagogical thing about civics...but it also applies more broadly: Giving, Prompting, Making

  • And one last digression, about demographic change as a challenge to teaching civics (and other social studies content...)

 

After class

  • Reading

    • Finish off Maxim, Ch. 4-5-6

    • optional: Hammond & Manfra, 2009

  • Assignment

    • Complete and turn in curriculum map (+ reflection!)

Week 08 - Wednesday, October 15

Before class 

  • Complete and turn in curriculum map assignment – don't forget the reflection!

  • Finish reading

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping – questions / comments about curriculum map? Touching on next upcoming assignment, instructional unit overview

  • Some stage-setting as we sneak up on history ed...

  • ...but not before some last comments about civics ed

  • Getting into history ed

    • First, an experience for us as adult learners: The Story of Aaron

    • History vs. history education – some attempted demonstrations of the differences

      • Emmanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware / "heroic narrative" version of US history

      • StoryMap about signers of the Declaration of Independence, viewed through their history enslavement; since we already touched on this, I’ll probably substitute with something else – for example, this map of Holocaust data is a great example of how history is both impossibly complex and how history education is only ever a thin, distorted slice of the historical record

      • William Penn & enslavement

    • "History of immigration to America" activity

    • History education...is either pro-democracy or pro-authoritarian?? 

    • Closure

After class

  • Reading

    • Maxim, ch. 9 (history ed)

    • History standards (see folder in CourseSite)

    • Optional readings

      • 1619 Project,

      • 1776 Project

      • Any of the history ed pieces under this week’s material in CourseSite – lots of great ideas / models for elementary history ed

  • Assignments

    • Starting working on instructional unit overview

    • SKIP THIS - WTL on citizenship test

    • WTL on instructional objectives

 

Week 09 - Wednesday, 22 Oct

Before class 

  • WTLs

  • Complete reading

  • Work on instructional unit overview (at least read the specifications in the syllabus, no?), but it’s not due this week

During class (ppt) – we will NOT be getting through all of this tonight….

  • Housekeeping

    • Curriculum maps - returned?

    • Microteaching planning

    • Instructional unit overview due next week - discuss? 

  • Going further with history education

    • Last week: Pretty heavy concepts. Let's start out with something more fun and concrete – lots of work with images!

    • This week: Getting into the main pedagogical pillars for elementary history ed

      • Images! If you want to see where I'm drawing these images and ideas, see this page from the National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos

      • Timelines – I’m going to get very weird with it; but you can easily adapt things

        • Statue of Liberty timeline – sorting task!

        • “Multi-dimensional” timelines

          • Poster of WW2 thematic timeline