TLT 431, Fall 2014 - Course record

Owned by Tom Hammond
Last updated: Nov 24, 2014
13 min read

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 Session 1 - Monday, 25 Aug

Before class

  • Buy (borrow, rent) a copy of the textbook: A Practical Guide to Middle and Secondary Social Studies (June R. Chapin, 2011; 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
  • Conceptual work:
    • What is social studies? (via Jigsaw(-ish) / LGL activity)
      • Form SIX groups
      • 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.
  • 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 WTL, original instructional materials assignments

After class

  • Reading
    • Chapin, Ch. 1
    • NCSS, 2008
    • Mehlinger, 1988
    • Ochoa, 2001
  • Assignments
      • WTL (start your thread in the CourseSite): Take 10 minutes to answer these questions: What is history? How do we come to know about the past? Next, pick one specific topic or event from history (e.g., slavery, Pearl Harbor, sufferage, the Great Migration) and explain (a) what you know about it, and (b) how you learned this
      • Update your profile in CourseSite to include your picture
      • Complete your first original instructional material and bring it to class next week. Don't forget to include a paragraph explaining its intended use. 
      • Start lining up an HTCE participant

 Session 2 - Monday, 1 Sep

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • Review material from last session

During class (ppt)

After class

  • Reading
    • Standards documents relating to history ed (see CourseSite)
    • Textbook: Chapin, Ch. 1 (review), Ch. 6 (new)
    • Read and file: Primary source analysis: Hicks, Doolittle, & Ewing, 2004
    • Definitely read: Keeler & Langhorst, 2008 (to help plan for original instructional material product #2)
    • Optional: Teacher dispositions: Thornton, 2001
    • Skim Shulman, 1986 to learn more about PCK
  • Assignments 
    • Class-wide WTL – write the history of the world! In 20 minutes! Then comment on classmate’s work
    • Complete Orig Inst. Materials product #1, bring it to class ready to share!

 Session 3 - Monday, 8 Sep

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • Complete and bring to class: Original Instructional Materials, product #1
  • WTL

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Conceptual work
    • Sharing OIM #1
    • Working from instructional activities up to standards and back down again, using World History as a lens (and with a digression to nod to the primacy of aims / stances)
    • Understanding by Design  /  Backwards Design
    • History ed stances: Traditional vs. disciplinary
      • Starting point: Timelines activity. It's a traditional tool...but we can do it a few different ways.
      • Traditionalist view of history ed
      • Disciplinary view of history ed
        • GIS activity
        • Playing with primary sources: King Phillip's War
        • Digging into the research base
          • Work of Sam Wineburg
          • Work of Barton & Levstik
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading

    • Planning

      • Chapin, Ch. 2

      • What is an Essential Question?

    • Methods

      • Smith & Niemi, 2001

      • Alibrandi & Sarnoff, 2006

    • Stances 

      • Yeager & Davis, 1995, 1996

      • Barton & Levstik, 2003

  • Assignments
    • WTL: Write a strategy for teaching about Constitution Day / Citizenship Day: Check out the marketing and hoo-rah; you can also check out the US DOE's info about Constitution Day and Citizenship Day – although note that it's not yet updated for 2014. Feel free to consult other sources as well (with attribution, please!). After digesting this stuff, write a brief sketch of a lesson that you could employ on that day. After you've written your lesson, LABEL it – is it traditional? Disciplinary? Community-minded? Then review your classmates' work & respond – make a comment on someone else's post. Try to suggest a tweak that would introduce a different dimension – make a disciplinary lesson more traditional or more civic, for example, or bring out the civic/community-minded content in a traditional or disciplinary lesson.
    • Complete and turn in your OIM #2 and a reflection (see syllabus for details)
    • Complete forum post about Backwards Design (see CourseSite for session #4 for specific info)

 Session 4 - Monday, 15 Sep

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • Complete and bring to class OIM #2 – don't forget to include a reflection about your entire process (across both OIM #1 & OIM #2), noting what was easy/what was hard, where you turned to for help, what you would do given more time, how you might adapt this for different learners, etc. See syllabus for details. 
  • Complete forum post about your OIM #2: If you ran it through the Backwards Design process, how would it come out differently? See forum in CourseSite (under session #4) for more details.

During class (ppt)

  • Keeping up with current events: Constitution Day / Citizenship Day
  • Conceptual work
    • Re-visiting concept of three stances (traditional, disciplinary, civic), emphasizing their significance
    • Finishing disciplinary material
    • Grand challenge in instructional planning for history ed: Split into three groups and prepare lesson on the Spanish-American War. Each group follows/emphasizes one aim.
  • Closure: Discussion of course plan assignment

After class

  • Reading
    • Barton, 1997: Disciplinary piece (and an elementary ed piece), but it gets at some pretty important stuff about the challenges of teaching history, whether from a traditional, disciplinary, or civic stance.
    • Barton & Levstik, 2003: Advocates for sourcework (a disciplinary practice) but provides a civics rationale. Unfortunately, they don't develop a model for how to do this instruction and what the specific bridge to civics might be. I think it presumes a transfer that doesn't happen on its own...but how to promote that transfer?
    • Hammond, 2010: I'm generally reluctant to assign my own stuff, but this does directly speak to the issue of civics integration in history ed...and in a (relatively) explicit/direct way. To provide background: Check out the following student-produced digital documentaries
  • Assignments
    • Complete course plan  #1. Don't forget to check the syllabus for the requirements, and don't forget the reflection component.

 Session 5 - Monday, 22 Sep

Before class

  • Complete the reading.
  • Complete course plan #1 and the reflection. Be sure to check the syllabus for info on what's expected in the assignment and the reflection.

During class (ppt)

After class

  • Reading
    • Optional: Hammond & Manfra, 2009
    • Mandatory: Preview (and save to your computer!) geography standards
  • Assignments
    • WTL – this week it's a Q&A. I've posed two Qs, reflecting on our history ed work; you guys supply the As
    • Prepare and turn in your 'first installment' of fieldwork

 Session 6 - Monday, 29 Sep

Before class

  • Complete readings
  • Complete WTL
  • Complete your fieldwork assignment's 'first installment'...unless you need more time to have something to report!

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Conceptual work
    • Geography education...via concept mapping. Lots of tools out there; here's one list of 18 free tools!
    • Geography education methods
      • Image/video study
      • Enactive lesson – I'm borrowing something from the Teachers Curriculum Institute's Geography Alive!
    • Geography ed cross-over to multicultural ed: The danger of a single story
      • I'm borrowing from Chimamanda Adichie here – see her TED talk.
    • Time permitting: Getting into Google Earth
      • Refining macro-geographic understandings
      • 'Weaving the Globe' activity
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading
    • Chapin's chapter on Geography Ed – it's Ch. 7 in the 3rd edition, Ch. 8 in the 2nd edition
    • Carano & Berson, 2007
  • Assignments
    • WTL
    • Complete and turn in course plan #2

Pacing break - Monday, 6 Oct & Tuesday, 7 Oct 

 Session 7 - Monday, 13 Oct

Before class

  • Complete readings
  • Complete and turn in course plan #2
  • WTL on geography ed resources

During class (no ppt; everything runs off the links this week)

  • Housekeeping
    • Coming up = Microteaching – we need to schedule this; make your requests here. 
  • Conceptual work
    • Closing off geography ed
      • Plug for geospatial tools course via quick Weaving the Globe activity, waving GPS units around
      • 'Social studies methods toolbox' activity to bridge history ed & geography ed.
    • Pivoting toward civics
      • We'll kick things off with a smattering of activities here
        • Exhibit A: Pew Research Center News IQ Quiz. Does this matter to social studies? To history? To geography? To civics? To economics?
          • Selected questions from this quiz, to demonstrate classroom polling: First question, then hit 'Next poll' to move forward.
        • Exhibit B: Another quiz, this time with higher stakes: Citizenship test; here are some official, government-issued flashcards to study for it! 
        • Exhibit C: Another federal resource: "Helping Your Child Become a Responsible Citizen" – note the emphases. Can you Ctrl-F to find the word "vote"? How about "moral"? "Character"? (Also, while the book states that it has "activities for elementary, middle, and high school-aged children," it's heavily tilted toward elementary. I think 'high school' appears only twice – once in the title and once on p. 72.)  
        • Exhibit D: Three branches of government lesson, done a couple of different ways
        • Exhibit E: Bill of Rights bingo, courtesy of Utah Education Network
        • Exhibit F: Debate.org – not something I personally follow or have ever used for instruction, but...should I? It's pretty spammy, but here's a thread that shows what can/should go on through this site: Who Is Responsible for America's Debt? 
      • So what's so special about civics? 
      • An open-ended challenge: Lesson planning using...
  • Closure – discussion of curriculum map assignment. See templates in CourseSite

After class

  • Reading
    • Westheimer & Kahne, 2004
    • Chapin, ch. 5
    • Civics standards
      • Center for Civic Education
      • PDE
      • NCSS
  • Assignments

 Session 8 - Monday, 20 Oct 

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • Complete and turn in your curriculum map
  • WTL

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
    • Looking at microteaching schedule, expectations
  • Conceptual work – see ppt for info & links
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading
    • No new reading
  • Assignments
    • HTCE prep
    • If you're scheduled to microteach: Prep! Don't forget to upload your materials to the forum in CourseSite

 Session 9 - Monday, 27 Oct

Before class

  • Complete reading
  • If you're scheduled to microteach: Prep! Don't forget to upload your materials to the forum in CourseSite
  • Complete and turn in your HTCE prep

During class (ppt – we're just continued last week's ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Microteaching
    • Daniel MM: Cultural geography via augmented reality and interactive whiteboards
  • Conceptual work – finishing off what we couldn't get to last week
    • Sample debate, following the Lincoln-Douglas format
    • Looking at Center for Civic Education stuff, noting that Jeff will be hitting this in a couple weeks. There are lots of programs, but here are three I'd like to highlight
    • Working with two databases
      • Congress.gov – formerly Thomas.loc.gov; we'll be focusing on the legislative actions
      • OpenSecrets.org, from the Center for Responsive Politics.
    • What makes civics special??
      • Might there be a grand unifying purpose for social studies – and one with more teeth/direction – that we can uncover when we think about civics?
      • In this conversation, I might be referencing Richard Blanco and his poem "One Today".
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading – Vorhaus, 2005
  • Assignments
    • If you're scheduled to microteach: Prep! Don't forget to upload your materials to the forum in CourseSite
    • Complete and turn in your unit overview.

 Session 10 - Monday, 3 Nov

Before class

  • Complete readings
  • If you're scheduled to microteach: Prep! Don't forget to upload your materials to the forum in CourseSite

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping: Election tomorrow! (Podcast discussion?)
  • Microteaching
    • Wendi: DocTeach, from the National Archives. Will be doing a lesson on Nixon & China
    • John: History Alive!
  • Conceptual work: 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)
    • Reviewing things you (may?) already know – formative v. summative, etc.
    • 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: Quick look back at example of a digital documentary. (This was made using PrimaryAccess.) Other tools: Glogster, Prezi, good ol' powerpoint (albeit perhaps used non-traditionally), a discussion board, etc. 
      • 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)  

    • Assessment resources: see course bookmarks for full listing (delicious.com/tchammond/TLT412+assessment)

  • Closure: Don't forget that you will be assessed, too! Taking a look at the Praxis.

After class

  • Reading
    • Reich, 2009
    • Re-visit NAEP and Praxis links (above) as needed
  • Assignments
    • WTL
    • Turn in HTCE interview; if you can't get it done this week, give me a note to let me know when to expect it.
    • If you're scheduled to microteach: Prep! Don't forget to upload your materials to the forum in CourseSite

 Session 11 - Monday, 10 Nov 

Before class

  • Complete reading

During class (ppt)

After class

  • Reading
  • Assignments

 Session 12 - Monday, 17 Nov 

Before class

  • Complete reading

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Microteaching
    • Cody: Geospatial tools stuff – see Geospatial Social Studies for a full list of what's going on. And don't forget to take TLT 368, if this looks interesting to you!
    • Jeff: Center for Civic Education materials
  • Conceptual work
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading
  • Assignments


 Session 13 - Monday, 24 Nov 

Before class

  • Complete reading

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Conceptual work, topic #1: Assessment (& instruction!) with diverse learners: A lifetime of learning to be done here, but we will focus on building you a "survival kit" of strategies 
  • Conceptual work, concept #2: Economics education! Long-delayed, but here it is.
    • Economics & the curriculum & you
    • 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 lessons
      • 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?
      • 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. 
        • Activity de-brief -- what was learned: concepts? Skills? Attitudes? Any citizenship development going on here? – can't do activity; not enough students
    • A critical stance on economics education (in the US, at least): where's the non-capitalism? Example of Islamic banking, etc. Related links
    • Opportunities to think critically & address citizenship/global citizenship:
  • Closure: Bringing together geography, economics, civics, and history: gapminder.org

After class

  • Reading
  • Assignments

 Session 14 - Monday, 1 Dec

Before class

  • Complete reading

During class (ppt)

  • Housekeeping
  • Conceptual work
  • Closure

After class

  • Reading
  • Assignments

 

 

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