Elem Social Studies 04 (Deborah)

I always enjoy hearing from teachers giving their experiences straight from the classroom. The two women were very inspiring and demonstrated that all it takes is an idea and some collaboration to add something significant to the school year. The activity they described had so many dynamic elements to it, and I wonder if there could be some touch/movement activities incorporated to it. Perhaps adding an “acting” activity, or modeling the pilgrims’ ships and the Native Americans’ homes out of clay would have added another hands-on element.

I really like the idea of taking simple concept that needs to be taught and using the time allotted to create a fun, engaging activity. The content must be taught either way, why not take some extra planning to make it truly memorable and provide long lasting knowledge? On looking at a couple websites, there are so many ideas to draw from. For example a simple lesson about “What is a map” and “What is a globe” could be turned into “Which is better?” or “Do we still need paper maps?” Rather than just showing the students maps and globes, they are making and defending an opinion which will hopefully stick with them over time. I also liked how clearly the lessons are scaffolded, from explaining the basic concepts, to letting the students interact with artifacts and sources, discussing the question, and learning how to construct an argument. I feel like after one or two activities structured in this way, students will be already be much more comfortable with this type of analytical thinking.

I am always happy any time I get to spend time in a museum, particularly one as beautiful and diverse as the VMFA. I thought that the women leading the tours and the activities did a wonderful job of leading us through the activities as if we were students, and also explaining important elements to know as teachers. It always is so striking to me to learn about resources that are free and available for students to access, they simply need their teachers to be aware of them! This was impressed upon me in Elem Science when we went to the galleries on U of R campus and learned about their version of tours and distance learning. An important part of being an effective teacher is knowing about resources, knowing how to find resources, and then following through with actually taking advantage of them. If every teacher planned even a few enriching activities a year, that would add so much to the student’s experience. We are so lucky to live in a city like Richmond which has a wealth of all kinds of interesting and educational valuable sites. This got me thinking of what else might be out there, so I did some quick research and found the Three Lakes Nature Center which has a free aquarium, Henricus Historical Park which would be perfect for teaching about colonization and Jamestown, and the Black History Museum which would be valuable for almost any subject or grade level. There are so many possibilities!

This was the most helpful class yet for me personally, as I feel that we covered topics that I have wondered about and have not yet gone over so far in TLP. In every course in this program we discuss how important quality assessment is, but this is the first time I have had someone break down exactly what elements are needed for a strong assessment to this detail. I really appreciated the examples of poorly written questions and poorly formatted worksheets as these are the types of errors that new teachers (including myself) are sure to make unless explicitly instructed on how to do otherwise. In a previous course we discussed how the field of teaching has a high rate of new teachers dropping out of the profession in the first few years, and I feel that simple things such as going over how to write test questions could prevent the types of errors and anxiety that may drive new teachers to jump ship.

My other thought from the night was a connection I made to my current job teaching individuals with Autism. I was wondering to myself why I was so excited about the prospect of writing rubrics and enjoying the topic so much, when I realized that it was because this would be a strength for me after my training at my current school. I am already used to breaking down tasks and behaviors into discrete and objectively defined steps, and this is the same type of thinking process involved with creating a rubric. Every day I am thinking about what nuanced, specific aspect of a skill I am targeting or assessing, so it comes naturally to think about graded assignments in that way. There are many connections between my current teaching duties and those in general education, and it is interesting to see the overlapping skill areas.

This class reminded me of some projects that I had completed myself in school, and have also heard mention in other courses. Some of them included family heritage projects, where students worked with their families to construct family trees that extended as far back as they could go. That was a common activity when I was growing up, and I remember making a family tree with my parents in elementary school. I wonder how this activity has evolved as we are learning more about the different family structures that exist, and the possible inequities that may be magnified from a project like that. How can one celebrate the different types of families and backgrounds of all students and also teach the importance of personal history while also being sensitive to students whose family life may be painful or non-existent? I am noticing more and more that almost every activity or project could benefit from looking at it through the lens of trauma informed teaching.

The other main thing I noticed this class was how personally engaged I felt because of the interaction with the authentic documents. This further reinforces the idea that the delivery of content should be through meaningful and engaging tasks that have many open ended and deeper thinking questions as well as answers.

There were two highlights of this class for me, one was the literature circle, and one was the concept of teaching content through these strategies. The literature circle was such a fun reminder of how much I love to discuss books and reading with others, especially with people who have actually dedicated time to thinking through some talking points and opinions, which my group had. I really could envision how beneficial a literature circle could be even for young students, as it really builds your confidence to learn that your insight and views about a text are valid and worth expressing, and I think that the lit circle roles help with that realization. The roles provide a structure and guideline to help understand how to look deeper into a text, and how to pull out relevant or interesting pieces. It also empowers people to look into and speak about aspects of the text they may not typically have the confidence to but making them the “expert” of that aspect. Having only discussed literature in this way as an adult in college, I feel that I would have been more confident and better equipped to express my voice if I had grown up practicing it on simpler texts.

My second main take away goes back to my first reflection, when I discussed the importance of integration. This class emphasized that again, with the idea that one should use all these strategies to analyze a primary source and to make inferences and big picture claims in order to teach the content. It is not only a two for one deal in that way, but it also teaches students that there are many approaches to content, and that there are a wide variety of reasons and end goals one has when accessing content.

A concept that really drew my attention during this class was the idea of front-loading. For something that seems to make so much sense, and be truly common sense, I was surprised to find from my Google search that for some this idea is still controversial. Front-loading seems to be a crucial element to students success not only for literacy, but also for almost any subject or situation you could think of. I feel that front-loading naturally resonates with me as a special education teacher because this is such a natural and important part of our instruction. I would never introduce a concept, materials, experience, or even a new location without providing a foundation of information and visual or auditory supports before hand.

This train of thought brings to mind the idea that the best practice supports for students that require additional help due to disabilities, are really just best practice supports for all students. It seems as if although teachers do learn this about differentiation, the fear of taking too long to teach something and falling behind on pacing is preventing them from implementing them in a general education setting. Shifting from the “traditional” way of teaching that many teachers have been raised on to one that incorporates more research backed strategies that may take more time initially, requires a leap of faith, and some guts on the teachers part. I think that as new teachers come into schools and model these strategies that they have learned, others will see their success and follow suit.

My expectations for myself in this course start with actively tapping into my prior knowledge and experiences related to Social Studies instruction during class. This applies to not only the knowledge I have acquired in my TLP experience so far, but also as a commitment to build my knowledge before coming to class with the assigned readings and videos. It is vital for everyone in the class to come in with the same preparation and level of understanding to ensure that we are able to move at the pace expected. This should be paired with a willingness and openness to learn from my fellow students, as well as the instructors.

My other main expectation for myself is to truly embrace the concept of integration, and to be using it as a backdrop for everything I learn in this class. The idea that all the strategies, concepts, and information I learn this semester should be applied in tandem to one another, as well as generalized to other subjects and situations.

My expectations for the instructors is for them to maximize my time in class by choosing activities and topics of instruction that will be directly useful in the classroom. I also expect the information to be up to date and applicable to the newest teaching approaches.