TLT 431, Spring 2025 - Course record

Mondays, 7:15-9:55 in Iacocca Hall room A-235

First class = Mon, 20 Jan; last class = Mon, 28 Apr; no class on 10 Mar (Spring Break)

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

Week 1 - Monday, 20 Jan

Before class

• Buy a copy of the textbook (Singer, 5th edition). You can get it from the publisher (Routledge) or (of course) from Amazon

• Cruise this wiki and the CourseSite.

• Preview the syllabus. We will discuss it during class

During class (ppt)

• Introductions, overviews

  • As a demo of the wiki, and as a follow up to our intro bit, here are a couple resources that might help you engage with getting-to-know-one-another routines for your classroom

    • 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/

• Trudging through syllabus and whatno

• Frameworks & illustrating activities

  • Social studies as a set of disciplines: If you want to read the 1916 report, it’s available via ERIC

  • Social studies as a job

    • School District of Philadelphia: Page of current job openings (probably want to shift to display 100 openings at a time…)

    • Looking at some local(-ish) courses of study in social studies

      • Bethlehem Area School District 2019-20 (start at p. 23): https://basdwpweb.beth.k12.pa.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/11/FINAL-District-POS-2019-2020.pdf

      • Southern Lehigh 2023-24 (: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NoL31ds_XugRLTI9LfxOIE__0BRdXaaW/view

      • Kutztown Area School District (K-12): https://www.kasd.org/academics/curriculum-assessment-and-professional-development/social-studies

  • Social studies teaching viewed through the lens of TPACK

    • GIS map for teaching about Rivers in Spain

  • Social studies as a journey. Retracing my steps…

    • Thucydides' Melian dialogue

    • GIS map for teaching about Jewish populations pre/post Holocaust (data sourced from Yad Vashem)

    • Wikipedia page on PA Congressional districts – see images of historical district boundaries at the bottom….

    • Rick Saccone – see his YouTube videos, if you like

• Let’s do a topic two different ways

  • Interactive lecture

  • Game-based learning!

  • Debrief

• Closure

After class

• Assignments

  • Starting working on your first Original Instructional Material (OIM)

  • Writing-to-Learn (WTL): Complete your 'Social Studies Autobiography' (see forum in CourseSite)

  • Download all of the standards in the folder in CourseSite. Save them on your computer in an easily-accessible space

  • BRING IN for next week’s class any sort of social studies resource! Doesn’t matter what it is!

• Reading

  • Skim the C3 standards ('College, Career, and Civic Life') from the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

  • Singer, Preface & Ch. 1 (just read enough to get a sense of who he is)

  • Read NCSS, 2023. In fact, the whole list of NCSS position statements is probably worth bookmarking!

  • Read Gaudelli & Laverty, 2017 (find it in the 'Copyrighted readings' folder in CourseSite. FYI: Gaudelli is the former dean of Lehigh's College of Ed, so give this a think!

  • Optional – again, you can find these in the 'Copyrighted readings' folder in CourseSite: Mehlinger, 1988; Crocco, 2004

 

Week 02 - Wednesday, 28 January 

Before class

• Complete reading

• Fill out your 'Social studies autobiography' WTL in CourseSite

• Download & organize standards documents

• Think about your OIMs

• Bring in a social studies resource

During class (ppt)

• Current events? -https://nationaltoday.com/today/

• Brief re-visit of frameworks from last week

• New framework: Goals / stances for teaching social studies

  • Illustrative activity: Image markup, looking at branches of government

• Purposes of social studies; what kind of citizen?

• Eco as a starting point for discussing civics & the civic-focused mission of social studies: 

  https://store.steampowered.com/app/382310/Eco/  

• Civics standards (light touch)

• Pedagogical strategies for teaching civics – let's mess around on the JamBoard (replacement for JamBoard?) here: 

  https://jamboard.google.com/d/1Z5Bgz3_SqYV1Wb0KzVQ9KntoOiGsW-NyRGXJZMFJ7o0/edit?usp=drive_link

• Closing up civics for now – will be referring to this 2022 study by YouGov

• And a little OIM discussion, started by playing around with a civics game that I created using ActionBound (adapting a game created by Julie Oltman)

After class

• Read civics standards: PDE + C3 civics section 

• Westheimer & Kahne (‘What kind of citizen’) – skim; go in depth if you wish

• Chapin, Ch. 7 (“Civic Education & Global Education”, in the 4th edition; note that I’m not fully engaging with the global ed part, but please do read it)

• Complete & bring to class your first Original Instructional Material (OIM)

• Writing-to-Learn (WTL) in CourseSite on standards & question of ‘What kind of citizen?’

Week 03 - Monday, 3 February 

Before class

• Complete & bring in your OIP #1

• Complete reading

• Complete WTL

During class (ppt)

• OIM show-and-tell

  • Connecting OIMs to TPACK, other frameworks & metaphors

  • Another instructional activity to deconstruct: Built environment / community resources scavenger hunt

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

    • (We’ll be doing this bare-bones, but here's a fancier version of this activity, one that uses ArcGIS Online & the Field Maps app to run it: https://lu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=e949efad87e142ef924c49d6617bf0de )

  • Connecting OIMs to standards, particularly civics standards

• Standards in social studies – I’m about to say something dangerous, or at least contestable….

• Act 35 in Pennsylvania: Civics, authority, and a permission structure for professional disrespect

• Instructional planning: FRAMES for planning instruction

  • Giving-prompting-making (for any content area)

  • Self-others-action (particularly for civics?)

• Closure

After class

• Reading

  • Chapin, Ch. 2 (instructional planning)

  • optional: Hammond & Manfra, 2009 (giving-prompting-making)

• Assignments

  • Create & turn in HTCE image set

  • WTL on civics (two-parter!)

  • Think about OIM #2

Week 04 - Monday, 10 February 

Before class

• Complete & submit your HTCE image prep

• Complete reading

• Complete WTL – keep in mind there are two things in there!

During class (ppt)

• Housekeeping

• Current events? I’m thinking about news.google.com – can you curate a version of the news feed to give you what you need for a civics class??

• Sequencing – civics-first is a relatively recent move for me…why??

• And a warm up civics activity: let’s have a debate!

• Rationales for the emphasis on civics

  • NCSS

  • (vs. the usual inertia)

  • my evolving rationale

  • re-thinking some classic civics moves

    • Re-thinking debates: Who gets to call too-close-to-call elections?

    • ‘Structures of government’ lesson – re-build this to emphasize democracy & its virtues??

  • Attempted social frame for my civics rationale

• A special case: Games & simulations for civics; games = civics …and civics = games??

• A very special case: Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes simulation (start at 5:00; trigger warning for language depending on how far we get!)

• More games (& simulations) for civics: iCivics.org/games …and my new favorite, You Are Jeff Bezos

• And a couple of metaphors that (I hope) drive home the need to emphasize attitudes / values

  • Tarantulas – warning! if you have arachnophobia, this is NOT your jam… clip from Dr. No

  • Articles on sinkholes from the Lehigh Valley region via LehighValleyLive.com

• Closure

After class

• Reading: Chapin, Ch. 3

• Complete & turn in OIM #2

• Complete WTL on iCivics games

 

Week 05 - Monday, February 17

Before class

• Complete reading

• Complete OIM #2

• Complete WTL

During class (ppt)

• Current events? https://presidentialgreatnessproject.com/

• Housekeeping & framing ideas to date

  • Dipping into the support materials for the Praxis social studies test (5581)

• Touching some final resources / activities for civics

  • iCivics: https://www.icivics.org/games

  • Project Citizen: https://www.civiced.org/project-citizen

  • Street Law: https://store.streetlaw.org/lessons/

  • Current events! Suggested principles

    • Local > non-local

      • https://whyy.org/articles/pennsylvania-school-religious-garb-ban/

      • https://www.phillyvoice.com/pa-senate-reverse-religious-apparel-ban-teachers-classroom/

    • Engage students: Seek relevance; leave room for voice/choice

    • Link to civic knowledge / skills / dispositions

      • PA Constitution: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/00/00.HTM

    • Set up routines

• Civics as the integrative discipline

  • Legislated civics

    • Constitution Day / Citizenship Day: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/fund/guid/constitutionday.html

    • PA Act 70 of 2014: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/li/uconsCheck.cfm?yr=2014&sessInd=0&act=70

  • Civics & geography

    • Water infrastructure: https://lu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=e4f2cc5fe9ce443cbf617166780b5153

    • What's in a state name

      • Spreadsheet

      • Map

  • Civics & history

    • Signers of Declaration of Independence: https://arcg.is/1q8K4S

  • Civics & economics

    • Food supply chain (rare complete example): https://aihstigers.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=455d0839ee4b4e2cb92978c8b9b38807

• Closure

After class

• Read Chapin, Ch. 4

• Complete & turn in Course Plan #1

• WTL: Write out (and/or draw a picture!) about how you mentally organize the world…

 

Week 06 - Monday, 24 Feb

Before class

• Complete reading

• Think about / work on your microteaching lesson

• Come prepared to go outside!

During class (ppt)

• Housekeeping

• Welcome to Geography education! I have no idea how far we are going to get through this; expect some of these to roll over to next week / week after...

  • Warm ups

    • Sketchmaps of the United States

    • “What’s in a State Name?”, or at least one version of it

  • Stances: TRADITIONAL: What's where and what's it called

    • A gameified approach: Stack the States / Stack the Countries

    • Who can name the most post-Soviet republics? Name which countries in Africa were not created via de-colonization? (Tricky question...)

    • Sketchmaps! Draw me a sketchmap of...Iacocca Hall? Canada?

    • What is the tallest mountain in North America? Let's take a look via Google Maps...

  • Stances: DISCIPLINARY - Tools of geography

    • Scaffolded geocache

    • Other coordinate systems: Try this? https://what3words.com/

    • Mapping an orange (see the lesson plan I'm adapting here: https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/dailylp/dailylp/dailylp009.shtml

      • Video: “orange globe”

      • Video: “Why All World Maps Are Wrong” (Vox) – first 45 seconds cover the main move of the lesson plan; rest is a pretty worthwhile discussion of projections, tech, etc.

    • Photos & video

      • Photos

        • Flickr map: https://www.flickr.com/map – my usual move is to search for 'mosque'

        • 'What the World Eats' activity (see ppt in CourseSite)

      • Video – I'll demonstrate this through a couple of things posted to YouTube...but I'm not going to link them in advance

  • Stances: DISCIPLINARY - The whys of where

    • So why did the name of the tallest mountain in North America change? Or should we instead say the name(s) didn't change so much as the pattern of use changed? And why did that pattern of use change? 

    •  More playing with names and their significance: What's in a State Name? See this spreadsheet, then this map

      • Follow-ups: Can you do this same thing with Canada? Fun trick: Look at maps of Canada in the English version of Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada ) vs. the French version (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada#Provinces_et_territoires )

      • How about Mexico? Guatemala? County names in Pennsylvania? County names in England?

  •  Stances: SOCIAL - Geography is power!

    • Initial example of what I'm talking about: "Town map of Bethlehem and vicinity", circa 1758: https://exhibits.lafayette.edu/s/lvhmc/item/35941

    • Maps that make a point: https://www.vox.com/2015/5/27/8618261/america-maps-truths  

    • Maps, analysis, and making decisions: Eagles and Wind Turbines (see Leeson et al., 2022)

After class

• Download and read geography standards – PDE, C3, plus any content-area associations you are interested in

• Read Chapin, Ch. 8 (geography ed)

• Skim Leeson et al., 2022

• Optional: Walker, 1916

• Work on (or at least think about) Course Plan #2

• Complete WTL on geography ed resources (can complete later, if needed – microteaching definitely takes priority!)

• Fill out this form with info about a textile and a pair of shoes that you own

 

Week 07 - Monday, 3 Mar

Before class

• Complete reading

• Think about your course plan #2

• Complete WTL on geography ed resources

• Fill out form on shoes & textiles

During class (ppt)

• Introductions!

• Starting off with something different: Lesson on AI literacy & social studies

  • Google form #1

  • Google form #2

  • Debrief

• Housekeeping – I’m running behind on grading; will catch up on course plan #1 by end of week….

• Back to geography education

  • Car manufacturing – first in generative AI, then in Google Earth

  • Weaving the Globe – first in Google Earth, then in ArcGIS Online

  • Planning for Zombie Apocalypse: (requires login) https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9058fcaeffa34968844b33b9f9d8842f

  • “Whose Land?” activity: Instructions

• Take aways

After class

• No reaching! But see the WTL on redlining & UHI to catch the readings there

• Assignments

  • Complete and turn in Course Plan #2

  • Think about the big sweep of after-Spring Break assignments: curriculum map, instructional unit, microteaching

  • Complete WTL on the geography-civics-history convergence of redlining & UHI or the WTL on the Coriolis effect hypothesis

Week 08 - SPRING BREAK! No class!

Week 09 - Monday, 17 Mar -early start! 6:15 pm in C-002. Will be done by 9:15

Before class

• Complete reading

• Complete WTL

• Turn in Course Plan #2

During class (ppt)

• Prepping to go outside for scaffolded geocache

• Scaffolded geocache

• Debriefing scaffolded geocache

• More tools of geography

  • Mapping an orange (see the lesson plan I'm adapting here: https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/dailylp/dailylp/dailylp009.shtml

    • Video: “orange globe”

    • Video: “Why All World Maps Are Wrong” (Vox) – first 45 seconds cover the main move of the lesson plan; rest is a pretty worthwhile discussion of projections, tech, etc.

  • Photos & videos as tools of geography: Two YouTube videos that I’m not going to link to so as to avoid spoilers

  • Coriolis effect hypothesis – this is an “I do, We do, You do” so you’ll need to log into your Lehigh ArcGIS account: lu.maps.arcgis.com

• Closure

After class

• Complete and turn in curriculum map, think ahead about unit plan and microteaching

• WTL: Write the history of the world

• Reading: Kangas, Hammond, & Bodzin 2019

 

Week 10 - Monday, 24 March

Before class

• Complete & turn in curriculum map

• Complete WTL

• Complete reading

During class (ppt)

• Housekeeping

• Getting start with history education: The Story of Aaron

  • See where I got the sources: http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/gos/

  • …and feel free to make your own version or go through the data to make an alternative take on this activity

• “History” vs. ‘history education’ (not the same thing!)

• History education as a means to an end