The Beginning of the Circle

I started with a career as a mental health counselor and felt a great sense of reward and accomplishment. I saw the positive impact of my efforts and knew that I was making a difference. Somehow, I got lost along the way and found myself working for twelve years as a research supervisor. This job was gratifying in some ways, but there was a big gaping hole -- there was not the same sense of reward and accomplishment.

My next journey began when I had the good fortune to be in a group of workers that were laid off. I knew this change was going to be my last opportunity to find my way back to where I started - making a difference. Yet I was not sure of my next step. As I was pondering and pursuing different avenues, a friend suggested that I substitute teach, while looking for this final opportunity. So I continued to look and then it hit me - what I was looking for I was already doing. The feeling of seeing an eight-year-old child light up when being told she was smart, or told he did a really good job, or told how proud I was of him. That child lit up → lit me up→ redirected me. And so the circle continues…

Blogging

I was so pleased to be able to set up my own blog page. I believe it was in the Power Tools course that we spent a brief time trying to set up a blog, I was unable to do so, which was frustrating. Being able to blog, in and of itself, enhanced my learning experience. Blogging was “my own small space” on the Internet. I worked diligently on my statement “view my complete profile.” What I wrote was too long to meet the standard “view my complete profile”. I had to reconfigure what I wrote, so people would still be able to view what I wanted them to read about me, if they so desired. My blog served as a reference where I can return at any point and see everything I was writing and thinking. This process was helpful in understanding how my knowledge, reactions, and insights evolved over a period.

There was one situation where the blog could have hindered my learning experience. After I wrote my discussion board response to the question about rewards pro and con, I started to read other responses, as I had to respond to two other responses. I found the answers my colleagues gave interesting enough that I read every classmates’ response to the questions about the pros and cons of rewards. I learned five distinct reward systems of which I was not aware, as well as re-familiarizing myself with two other reward systems. Even the responses where I did not learn something new, the thoughtfulness and intelligence of my colleagues’ writings were impressive. This experience relates to blogs in that the blog could have hindered my learning experience. While it is not a big deal to link to someone’s blog space, it requires one to two extra steps. For the question on rewards, I would have taken the extra steps. However, for other questions that might not hold as much interest to me, the extra steps could be the moderating variable against looking at other answers.

My views of teaching Social Studies have been changed profoundly since entering the course. The possibilities now seem endless in how Social Studies can be both relevant and educational. Many examples come to mind as I progressed from viewing Social Studies as something I would just have to teach, to something that has so much potential. For starters, I was given two geography objectives by my field experience teacher and was told to create two lessons. My initial reaction was “what a boring topic.” Of what seem to be the three main categories under Social Studies – history, civics, and geography, my sense is most people would consider geography the least interesting of the three categories. Most people certainly does not include everyone, as Mary Haas, in her article Teaching Geography in the Elementary School states, “There is a great need to increase the quantity and quality of geographic education in elementary schools to overcome ignorance of geography.” With that said, I was still faced with the reality that I had to teach those objectives. I was able to be resourceful and come up with lessons that the students found engaging and the teacher thought were good lessons.

These lessons lack the drama of the lessons I was able to plan for the American Revolution. I am still excited about my hook lesson. I can still see the look of amazement on the faces of the students when they walk into the room. I have since seen your feedback on my hook lesson and see how I took a really good idea and lost so much by my initial implementation. I also find the interdisciplinary way of teaching social studies to be an excellent way to integrate and maximize the learning experience for the students. Putting together my lesson on art and the American Revolution was a surprisingly fun and productive learning experience. In support of social studies being an excellent interdisciplinary way of learning, Leanne Nickelsen in her book Comprehension Activities for Reading in Social Studies and Science states, “The most logical place for instruction in most reading and thinking strategies is in social studies …. The reason is that the strategies are useful mainly when the student is grappling with important but unfamiliar content.”

I also found the concept of the backward design to be a novel and exciting approach to teaching Social Studies. This concept can also be used for other subjects as well. How brilliant to start at the end point, and then plot your course of action to get to the desired “essential question”. Also, the constructivist approach and the focus on making the social studies relevant, as described in the Maxim book, is a good base for teaching this subject.

My class presentation was fun to plan and to present. My initial reaction was “oh, no” what could I do for this assignment. I was excited when I came up with my idea for my lesson. I asked you since I was doing the presentation alone, could I do it in half the required fifteen minutes. I was disappointed when you said the purpose of the lesson still required the fifteen minutes. The irony was I had to redo my lesson about three times to cut it down to fifteen minutes, as I had to leave much of the lesson on the “cutting board”.

The Perspective of Bias

I find the question about perspectives, biases to be of interest. My political leanings are center left. I once was changing the stations on the radio and Rush Limbaugh was on one of the stations. I decided to listen to hear what the “other side” was saying. I found listening to him to be fascinating, as he was taking the same facts, that those on the left take, and reaching a diametrically opposed conclusion. On occasion, I have listened to Fox news and found this equally intriguing. These observations directly tie into perspectives on history. If someone with a Fox leaning were writing the history, as opposed to someone with a MSNBC leaning writing history, the history would be quite different. Each person, from each viewpoint, is usually convinced they are “right,” which is obviously impossible. Neither viewpoint is necessarily right or wrong. I choose to believe that I am right and they are wrong, but that comes through the prism of my bias, how my world has been shaped. Not quite sure “objective truth” exists, in certain aspects of life. This viewpoint does not even include the issue of the textbook film clip we saw last semester, in which they have their own biases for all kinds of reasons, none of which include the truth.

Regarding the ESL learner, one takes a challenging situation, i.e., perspectives and biases, and that just makes it so much harder for the ESL student to learn. When teaching, one should do one’s best to not let one’s bias get in the way of what one is teaching. While consciously this is certainly possible, the unconscious has a way of intervening. The ESL learner will have a special challenge because the nuances of bias and perspective will be so much harder for the ESL student to understand. The teacher will have to make an extra effort, above and beyond the usual support for the ESL learner, when dealing with issues related to perspectives and biases.

"If the textbook contains the answers, then what are the questions?"

I recently used the word oxymoron in response to the question on creativity vs. intentionality. Unfortunately, the concept of the textbook containing the answers, while not rising to the level of being an oxymoron, is highly dubious. It was not that long ago when we had the opportunity to view a film on the textbook industry. So this brings in question three aspects of the above quote. One, how valid are the textbooks? Two, are the answers accurate? Three, in reality are we asking the right questions to begin with?

Bob James, in reflecting on this question aptly states, “I can’t recall ever being in a course in which the content was explicitly framed around important, thought provoking questions during class….” I think Mr. James addresses what is becoming a common theme for those in “progressive” education. I am reluctant to just write the expected “correct” answer, which is essential questions and/or backward design. While I agree with both those concepts, these concepts are what I am being taught, so I become concerned about churning out answers that would be expected.

There is a great need to look both at the questions and the answers, as both the field of education and the country are at a great crossroad. The stakes could not be higher. I just watched a video two hours ago about 241 teachers just being fired in DC, not for budgetary reasons, but for incompetence. Michelle Rhee, the person in charge of the firings, was asking the right question. The right question is "are our students learning?” The answer was they are not. She held the teacher’s accountable. That is a start. Still so very far to go.

Annual Plans - the big advantage

My first reaction is that there are numerous advantages to the annual plan and few, if any, disadvantages. The main advantage of the annual plan is that it fits perfectly in the backward design. As we are just learning, the backward design is the best approach to get to where you want to go. The main concept is that you are first figuring out what you want as the desired learning result. Next, you would be figuring out the evidence the student must demonstrate to show they have reached the desired result. After that, you would do the planning for the project.
It is interesting to see how we have been doing everything in the reverse order, although in thinking this through, I do not completely believe that we have been doing this in the reverse order. On some levels we have to be thinking of the desired result, as we are carrying out our plans in forward order. This change in strategy would mostly impact the middle level. For once you decide on the desired result or the lesson plan, the necessary information one must obtain is the evidence that the goal will be achieved.
I specifically look back to one lesson that I had planned on doing. I had the idea for my lesson for at least 3 weeks and was excited about the idea. It was not until I flushed out the idea that I realized a major component of the idea was not “doable.” This process became clear when I was exchanging emails with my field experience teacher. Had I planned from the backward design, the flaw in my planning could have become apparent much sooner. The flaw was in the middle part of the process
This concept ties into the annual plan as we are figuring out the desired result, so when we arrive at our location, we will be in the correct spot.
The only potential disadvantage that I see is getting used to working backwards, as it is a different orientation. Starting with resources when designing units is essential, in that if you cannot find the resources than you cannot implement the plan.

A Meaningful Well-Planned Social Studies Lesson

There are many aspects to draw from in Maxim’s book Social Studies for Constructivist Classrooms, Chapters 1 and 3, regarding the attributes of a meaningful, well-planned Social Studies lesson. I will start by citing some excellent examples that are addressed in these chapters. At the end of chapter 3, the most compelling case for a well-planned lesson is centered on Thematic Units. The crux of the thematic unit is aptly addressed as “extended blueprints of instruction, created by teachers around a central idea; they contain an orderly sequence of lessons that provide a sense of cohesiveness, or unity, to classroom instruction. Experiences cut across traditional subject lines and are comfortably integrated with other subjects… It is an idea that centers education in a true “child’s world” where children are able to attach what they’re learning to the real world.” (p. 133)

Some other issues Maxim talks about as to important attributes are “when learning is fun, students become more interested and open to acquiring new knowledge.” (p. 6) Lastly, in quoting Maxim he talks of “effective social studies teaching, then, begins with a clear understanding of the subject’s distinctive instructional goals…include the categories of knowledge, thinking skills, and democratic values and beliefs.” (p.18).

Maxim’s reference to attaching learning to the real world is critical. Social studies used to be centered on the memorization of dates and events, without enough of a context to give the subject matter relevancy. I look back to one week ago when you asked us our memories of Social Studies. I am not sure, but you might have been as surprised as I was that there were a number of students who actually did have positive experiences. I also remember clearly stating a loud “no” in answer to the value of my Social Studies experience. My experience had virtually no real world relevancy and was about as far from “fun” as one can get.
One result of my social studies education is I would be challenged on the show “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?” as I would guess I got about half the states in the correct location on the map of the US. There was no context, no relevancy, so I am sure I learned the states and proceeded to forget them as time went on. Yet, last night, when learning the capitals in a fun, challenging way I went from knowing about 20 capitals to knowing 48 of the 50 capitals (just tested myself to see if I retained what I had learned).

In summary, relevance, challenge, and fun are three components that can contribute to a meaningful, well-planned Social Studies lesson. The thematic unit is but one approach for this type of lesson.