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Session 1 - Monday, 25 Aug
Before class
- Buy a copy of the textbook (Lee, 2008, Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods). The bookstore has it; Amazon has it; used copies are fine.
- Cruise this wiki and the CourseSite.
- I have paper copies of the syllabus; you don't have to print out a copy yourself.
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Introductions
- Looking at our toolbox: CourseSite, wiki, bookmarks, etc.
- Reviewing syllabus
- Assignments and grading
- First step: Completing your first WTL entries
- Questions thus far?
- Conceptual work
- What is social studies?
- Jigsaw(-ish) / LGL activity
- Form five groups
- Group A: Use the collected memories from our WTL exercise.
- Group A: NCSS materials, publications
- Group B: PA standards, textbooks; other-content area groups' materials. Use the paper materials plus this link.
- Group C: "Education market" materials
- Group D: "Heritage market" materials--paper items plus these links: A, B, C.
- Group E: Re-purposed non-educational materials
- Group: Look over your collection and create GROUPS of items that seem to be similar.
- Label: Identify each group by a short (1-4 word) label.
- Form five groups
- Jigsaw(-ish) / LGL activity
- What is social studies methods?
- Content?
- Techniques?
- Lesson planning?
- Notes on the "unfunded mandates" in the class
- Social studies / methods class and arts integration
- Methods class and portfolio updating
- Who am I as a social studies educator?
- Further resources for social studies ed
- Standards
- PDE: Old standards and new standards are both available in CourseSite – look down at the bottom of the page.
- National organizations. (Note the big four content areas, plus the umbrella/integrated organization, NCSS)
- Lesson plans & curricular materials
- PDESAS
- Curriculum in elementary social studies = pretty patchy. But do note the organizational scheme of Big Ideas, Essential Questions, Essential Concepts, etc.
- Lesson plans, activities, etc. – be sure to start at the "Advanced Search" page.
- Given the absence of unified curriculum at the PDE level, I've bookmarked a number of district-level curricula, both within Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
- Schools of California Online Resources for Education has some pretty useful stuff.
- The national organizations also feature important resources – for example, we'll be highlighting EconEdLinkfrom the Council for Economic Education.
- PDESAS
- "Stuff"
- Look through the course bookmarks; try concatenating terms (e.g., http://delicious.com/tchammond/TLT412+maps) or following tags to find what you need.
- Get comfy with fancy search engine work. For example, did you know that you can create your owncustomized search engine?
- Start bookmarking useful resources. For example, Google is (at the moment) hosting a bunch of images from LIFE.
- Standards
- What is social studies?
- Closure
- Review of what's due next week – reminder about filling in info for "Weaving the Globe"
- Review of what's where (wiki, CourseSite)
- Any questions?
After class
- Reading
- Lee, Ch. 1 (What is?) & 2 (Reflective)
- Crocco, 2004 (as an overview and critique of the field – if nothing else, this should teach you to be an informed, critical consumer of social studies materials)
- NCSS, 2009
- Assignments
- WTL
- 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)
- Fill out the “Weaving the Globe” input form.
Input your portfolio URL ASAP
Session 2 - Monday, 1 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
- Fill in your "Weaving the Globe" info, here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHo2UG13ZC1fMFFnQmdmWnYzR2RQV1E6MA
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual work
- Opening activity: Sketchmaps
- Sketchmaps & schema
- Examples of how social studies schema are complicated / slippery / layered
- NCSS on the purpose of social studies
- Curricular frameworks
- A proposed, deliberately provocative framework of aims: A three-ring circus
- NCSS and powerful social studies
- Digging into geography
- Standards – analyze these for suggested / implicit curricular frameworks and aims
- PDE (all via CourseSite)
- old geography.
- new geography, 3-8
- new geography, preK-2.
- NCSS.
- NCGE
- old = "Five Themes".
- new = "Geography for Life".
- PDE (all via CourseSite)
- Curricula: Focus on material from
BASD. --For whatever very odd reason (I can't think of a good one!), this now requires a login! - Parsing it a little more simply
- Geography as "What's Where and What's It Called?"
- Geography as "The Whys of Where"
- "What's in a Name" activity
- Geography as whys of where & what's it to me?
- Geography as "What's Where and What's It Called?"
- Standards – analyze these for suggested / implicit curricular frameworks and aims
- Closure
After class
- Reading
Lee, Ch. 6 (Geography) & 4
(Standards; connect to discussion of frameworks)– we're going to save this for laterRe-visit NCSS, 2009
Brophy & Alleman, 2002
optional: Wade, 2002
skim: Keeler & Langhorst, 2008 (to get ideas for orig inst materials assigns)
- Assignments
- WTL
- Complete instructional product #1, bring it to class ready to share!
Session 3 - Monday, 8 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete and bring in your Original Instructional Materials product #1
- WTL
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping–some of this is going to happen at the end, but be sure we talk about (1) the second OIM, and (2) your HTCE prep work.
- Conceptual work
- Last week vs. this week
- Sharing OIMs – feel free to share class forum as well!!
- I'll be modeling with a SmartBoard file I made that works as a puzzle map of South America.
- From teaching activities on back up to the whole spectrum of instructional planning steps. I'm making an editorial point, but there are also some specifics for you to nail down.
- Aims: We're revisiting the three-ring circus from last week, checking it against the NCSS statement and also something new: excerpts from the PA School Code.
Example of the politicization / muddled-ness of social studies: Constitution Day! Check out the marketing and hoo-rah. (You can also check out the US DOE's info about Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. Looks like they haven't (yet) updated it for 2014....
- Standards – analyze these for suggested / implicit curricular frameworks and aims
- PDE (all via CourseSite)
- old geography.
- new geography, 3-8
- new geography, preK-2.
- NCSS, et al.: C3 Framework. (also available in CourseSite)
- NCGE
- old = "Five Themes".
- new = "Geography for Life".
- PDE (all via CourseSite)
- Curriculum
- BASD used to make its curriculum documents publicly available on the web. Now they're behind a login. What gives?
- Aims: We're revisiting the three-ring circus from last week, checking it against the NCSS statement and also something new: excerpts from the PA School Code.
- Tools of geography ed–there's a lot here, but we're just hitting a few topics
- Dynamic maps & globes: Highlighting a few dynamic maps
- Google Maps, particularly the "My Places" feature. Sample.
- Flickr map.
- Map projections–see bookmarks about projections. (FYI: "Mapping an orange" is an old activity. Here's anequivalent lesson plan.)
- Age structure diagram
- GIS (i.e., geographic information systems)
- Dynamic maps & globes: Highlighting a few dynamic maps
- Closure
- Next OIM
- HTCE prep
After class
- Reading
Lee, Ch. 11 (Planning); review Ch. 6 (Geography)
Geography standards: PDE, C3; see other nat’l orgs as you see fit
Preview Chimamanda Adichie video.
If you can do it now: Read Barton & Levstik, 1996 (understand context of HTCE assignment)
- Assignments
- WTL: None this week!
- Work on original instructional materials assignment, product #2
- Please consider sharing your OIM #1 by uploading to the Forum in CourseSite for this week’s class
- If you can: Complete HTCE prep work
Session 4 - Monday, 15 Sep
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete and turn in your HTCE prep...unless you don't have time. You can turn this in later in the semester, too; I'm just recommending getting it done now so you can cross it off your list.
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- OIM #1 returned
- HTCE prep questions?
- Current events stuff
- Any observations / comments on Sep 11th (aka Patriot's Day) observances in schools?
- Coming up this week: Constitution Day / Citizenship Day on Wed, Sep 17.
- US Dept of Ed page on this.
- Dedicated website on the topic.
- Conceptual work
- Re-capping three stances, emph. on geo ed.
- Digging into geo. ed, this time aiming at human geography (but with some human-environment interaction
- Families and Food activity --> discussion of pedagogical stances to meet up with our 'aims' stances.
- Population density activities / materials
- Set of YouTube videos
- Population density enactive, adapted from the Teachers Curriculum Institute geography lessons.
- Other visual materials on population in this place, time.
- Social studies and (de-)"othering"
- I asked you to check out Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk. I'll just play a few bits.
- Single stories in social studies contexts
- Maps
- Textbooks
- Attending to multiple stories: Lots of different ways are possible, but I'll single out the Families Of the World video series as one way of introducing the idea.
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Lee, Ch. 3 & Ch. 8
- OPTIONAL: Hammond & Manfra, 2009
- Assignments
- WTL
- Complete OIM #2 – don't forget the reflection component!
- Work on other assignments as needed. (E.g., if you punted on the HTCE prep, don't let it languish!!)
Session 5 - Monday, 22 Sep
Before class
- Complete the reading.
- Complete and turn in the second Original Instructional Materials product. Don't forget to write a reflection! (See syllabus for details on what you need to address in the reflection.)
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual work
- Moving from geography ed to history ed
- History ed...using a variety of image-based teaching techniques
- Pedagogical stances: A new twist to add to our discussion: Trivial, interactive, and authentic activities.
- Connecting back to the "three stances" idea
- Ambitious history ed: Challenges
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Lee, Ch. 9
- Tiemann & Fallace, 2009
- Assignments
- WTL – this week we're doing a Q&A forum. I've posed two Qs having to do with history ed & history; you supply the As. No right/wrong answers!
- Complete and turn in your fieldwork 'first installment' (soft deadline)
Session 6 - Monday, 29 Sep
Before class
- Complete readings
- Complete WTL – remember there are TWO questions, please answer each. No wrong answers!
- Complete and turn in your fieldwork 'first installment'...unless you need more time to have something to report
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Conceptual work – wrapping up history ed (with any luck)
- Why teach history?
- Three stances: Can tell you WHY...but none of them are perfectly convincing
- Methods: Some cross over from geography, some are unique to history, and some are things I've been cogitating upon
- Primary sources – I'm using several sources from the Geography of Slavery database from the Virginia Center for Digital History.
- Timelines, 3 different ways – there are plenty more ways to do them!
- Wikipedia
- "Three Questions"
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Lee, Ch. 10
- Jensen, 2008
- Assignments
- WTL (curriculum map brainstorming)
- Complete & turn in your curriculum map!
Pacing break - Monday, 6 Oct & Tuesday, 7 Oct
Session 7 - Monday, 13 Oct
Before class
- Complete readings
- Complete and turn in your curriculum map
During class (ppt)
HousekeepingConceptual workClosure- Alternate plan to get us out of the room: A quick trip back to teaching geography, this time using some moderately fancy technologies (GPS units) and a pretty ubiquitous tool (Google Earth) that you've seen before but perhaps not played with.
After class
- Reading – none!
- Assignments – none!
Session 8 - Monday, 20 Oct
Before class
- (Think about your instructional unit!)
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Discussing microteaching: Sign up for spot in sequence, what the expectations are
- Discussing unit overview expectations, purpose.
- Conceptual work
- Putting last week's work in context: Why teach geography this way? What are the pay-offs? What are the opportunities?
- To demo the pay-offs, let's try that forum activity again
- To demo the opportunities: Consider what can be done with GPS units for local inquiry
- More putting our work up to this point in context: A ridiculous matrix of social studies content and methods
- Digging into economics
- What is economics and why isn't it in our textbook?
- Why this is a crying shame: Econ is fun, econ is practical, econ is important, econ integrates beautifully. (And it's in the PDE standards)
- Some econ resources
- Ohio State University Research Foundation materials
- Day, 2006: What is Economics?
- VanFossen, 2003: suggestions for teaching econ in elementary SS
- Council Economic Education
- website.
- standards.
- lesson plan database: EconEd Link.
- The classic: Play Doh Economics (to be demo'd in a few minutes)
- Some econ activities
- Warm up: The economics of candy consumption
- And now for a slam-dunk: A lesson adapted from Play-Doh economics.
- Putting last week's work in context: Why teach geography this way? What are the pay-offs? What are the opportunities?
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Econ articles & resources
- Download and store for future reference
- Play Doh Economics (this is the first edition; the second edition is much nicer)
- OSURF, 2009 student and instructor files
- Day, 2006
- VanFossen, 2003
- Download and store for future reference
- Econ standards – just skim as needed; if you choose not to focus on this, it's fine. But you at least need to check out the documents
- PDE: preK-2 & 3-8
- NCSS (C3 Framework)
- The content-area organization: Council for Economic Education. These guys have very, very good stuff. Great combo of standards AND examples AND discussion. A very nice resource.
- Econ articles & resources
- Assignments
- Complete and turn in your unit overview
- If you haven't already, sign up for your microteaching time slot.
Session 9 - Monday, 27 Oct
Before class
- Complete reading
- Complete and turn in your unit overview
- If you haven't already, sign up for your microteaching time slot.
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- I'm recruiting volunteers to assist with a history activity at Moravian academy – I WILL HAPPILY COUNT THIS AS PART OF YOUR FIELD HOURS. Here's a link to sign up; I'll explain the context in class. It's a very cool opportunity; please give it careful consideration.
- Previewing microteaching schedule, expectations.
- Conceptual work: Assessment, social studies, & elementary learners
- First a little sidebar on the Praxis
- Here's what's currently required for elementary cert (skip down to p. 3).
- Sample practice test – social studies items are 20, 34-42; answers are on pp. 58-59.
- Assessment & schema – i.e., how to keep things focused on INSTRUCTION and not just ACCOUNTABILITY
- Engaging prior knowledge
- Memories from elementary?
- Prior teacher ed coursework?
- What you've seen in your field placements?
- Overviewing assessment terms, purposes
- Assessment resources: see course bookmarks for full listing (delicious.com/tchammond/TLT412+assessment)
- PDE SAS section on "Fair Assessment".
- NAEP Questions Toolkit.
- Example of publisher items.
- Example of a "thick slice" of student schema: Digital documentary created in PrimaryAccess.
- Taking a look inside the digital documentary creation process. (Click on "Make Movies" and then log in with "sitedemo" / "sitedemo")
- ...how does this tap into schema as well as facts? How does it provide both formative and summative feedback?
- Assessment, schema, and ecology
- Assessment suggestions
- Engaging prior knowledge
- 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
- Teacher behaviors: Lots of possibilities, but I'll focus on sheltered instruction
- Experience it
- Go to http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/mcontent/behavior-understanding-sheltered-instruction/
- One partner watch video #1 while the other one watches video #2.
- After you watch: Write down what you think the teacher's lesson was about, then compare. The viewer of video #2 should have a MUCH clearer idea of what happened – why?
- Watch video #3. Again, this should be easier for you. Why?
- Think through the implications for your instruction – what did these experiences teach you?
- Background info
- Note how this used to be something that only ESL teachers did: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9210/english.htm
- ...but now it's part of inclusive practices in mainstream classrooms, too: http://englishlanguagenow.com/uploads/Sheltered_Instruction_for_Mainstream[1].pdf
- Now you think it through in terms of your own instruction – re-visit one or both of your microteaching lessons – how would / should you change it to include the techniques of sheltered instruction?
- Experience it
- Modifying materials
- Modifying documents: Read http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/23560 – be sure to follow the links to the sample documents
- Modifying assessments: Go to http://www.scsk12.org/scs/subject-areas/ESL/PDFs/Hurleys-ESL-Modifications.pdf and read the "Assessment Modifications" on pp. 2-3.
- Finally, go to http://www.pdesas.org/module/assessment/Search.aspx and retrieve some PDE-recommended assessment items. (I recommend "History", "5th grade"– to see less textually-driven questions, also add "constructed response".) Try your hand at adapting these items (both text-only and visually-driven) for ELLs.
- Differentiation of student assignments – many possibilities here, but we're going with RAFT (Role-Audience-Format-Topic)
- Go to http://delicious.com/tchammond/RAFT and review the links – start at the bottom and work your way up. View things with a critical eye.
- Discuss: What merit does this approach have? In ways can a RAFT be inclusive?
- Prepare one or more ideas to present to the class.
- Graphic organizers – in general, you want to be multi-sensory; within that advice, I recommend being as visual & spatial as possible – graphic organizers let you do both!
- Two different typologies of graphic organizers
- (Feel free to include material from other classes, if you can)
- Re-visit one or both of your microteaching lessons – how would / should you change it to include the techniques of sheltered instruction?
- Two different typologies of graphic organizers
- Teacher behaviors: Lots of possibilities, but I'll focus on sheltered instruction
- First a little sidebar on the Praxis
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Lee, Ch. 13 (assessment)
- Assignments
- (Work ahead: HTCE, fieldwork)
- If you're microteaching next week, prep!
- WTL: Examine
Session 10 - Monday, 3 Nov
Before class
- Complete readings
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping: Election tomorrow!
- Microteaching
- Hannah P.
- Riley B.
- Danielle C.
- Conceptual work: (Finally!) Digging into civics ed
- Civics is special
- It's the one example of a high-stakes content area within social studies, at least for some folks. Proof: USCIS flashcards.
- It's the single most-applied area of social studies? (handwashing example)
- It's the 'Prime Directive' of social studies
- I think it's the key to good work in other disciplines such as history, geography
- All other disciplines appear within it
- I struggle with it, at least the elementary level – there are a LOT of things that could be called 'civics'...but they're very, very different
- So what does this look like??
- Materials from the Center for Civic Education
- K-2 materials (Foundations of Democracy Primary)
- grades 3-4 materials (Foundations of Democracy Elementary)
- "We the People" elementary materials.
- (And apropos of not much: their "60-Second Civics" podcast– I think it helps illustrate a tension at work in what we call civics ed.)
- ...de-brief
- Materials from iCivics
- About page – be sure to check out some of the info under "Our Impact" to get a sense of what grade(s) they think this is for and how they feel they're doing.
- Scope-and-sequence – just get a sense for what topics and methods they have going on. Note that they don't make any statements about what grade levels should work on which topics!
- Games – these are all Flash-based and therefore might not work on some mobile devices. I picked a timely one: "Cast Your Vote"
- ...de-brief
- And now some other materials, that you'll hopefully have more context for by this point
- Yes, that "Schoolhouse Rock" video that everyone remembers. (More of the same here.) My question is: Which vision of civics is this about?
- From the US Dept of Ed: "Helping Your Child Become a Responsible Citizen"– again, I'm after the question of 'what kind of civics do we have here?' If you search for different terms, you'll get a sense (e.g., search for 'vote' vs. 'moral')
- Returning again to the USCIS – they have a "Citizens Almanac" that is, if nothing else, a source of interesting things to hang on your classroom wall....
- So where does this leave us?
- Materials from the Center for Civic Education
- Civics is special
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Lee, Ch. 7 (Civics)
- Civics standards: PDE, CCE, NCSS
- Assignments
- If you're microteaching next week, please prep for it!
- Turn in HTCE paper. If you need an extension on this, I have no problem with that – just let me know!!
Session 11 - Monday, 10 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching
- Kayleigh D.
- Kristin S.
- Katie C.
- Conceptual work
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Assignments
Session 12 - Monday, 17 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching
- Kathleen K.
- Kayleigh F.
- Kaitlin D.
- Conceptual work
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Assignments
Session 13 - Monday, 24 Nov
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching
- Kim C.
- Caitlyn M.
- Jessica K.
- Conceptual work
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Assignments
Session 14 - Monday, 1 Dec
Before class
- Complete reading
During class (ppt)
- Housekeeping
- Microteaching
- Stacy B.
- Amanda G.
- Conceptual work
- Closure
After class
- Reading
- Assignments
...go back to top?
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