Final Reflection

As I reflect on this class, I think of many things. I think of the projects we completed, the lesson plans we wrote, and the strategies we learned. What sticks out to me most, though, is how best practices were modeled for us.

One question I had going in to this course was how in the world do I make social studies interesting for kids?! I loved history so much that I have a degree in it, but not everyone finds history as interesting as I do. I really enjoyed stepping into the role of the student in our class because I had to work hard to analyze the content and work collaboratively to find the answers.

My favorite lesson was one of the first. We were shown a painting of the first Thanksgiving and asked to look at it for a few minutes. We were told to think about what we  notice and wonder. As a teacher, it is easy to pull the students back together before they really have enough time to process it. However, we had best practices modeled to us in this situation and so many more. There were pieces that my classmates noticed and I had not. I came away with questions I would not have had if I were only given one minute to look at the painting.

I will keep this lesson and so many more in my toolbox to use when I have my own classroom. Thank you for a wonderful semester!

 

Reflection 4/16/19

This weeks class forced me to think about some very uncomfortable things about myself. However, as uncomfortable as I was, it is important to think and talk about these things.

It is easy to think that I am being considerate of the culture of those around me. Lynne helped me realize there are still some areas I need to be careful of. She was telling about an incident she had with a student who was being disrespectful and she told him he needed to address her with, “Yes, ma’am.”

I did exactly the same thing with a student that day. I have a group of students that I work with who are very difficult every single session. One of those students is an African-American boy, one student is an Asian girl, and two students are white girls. The boy and one of the white girls were being very rude and disrespectful after we had a whole conversation of expectations that day. I ended the session early and was telling them why I had done so when I was interrupted by these two students. I said, “Excuse me. That’s yes, ma’am to you.” That’s how I would speak to my children and it just came out of my mouth in a moment of frustration.

I did not feel good after that exchange, but it was because I had to be firm with my students. Again. But I didn’t think my words were inappropriate. After class I reflected on how I can handle that situation differently next time and instead I will model how I expect students to respond. It will be with a clear yes or no, but ma’am will not be attached to it.

Despite how careful I am, I’m sure there will be many other situations that I think I am handling correctly that I’m not. However, all of these situations will allow me to reflect and grow.

Reflection 4/9/19

When I was a student, my social studies teachers did not show us pictures from history and have us ask questions. I really liked how we were to come up with the questions we had about the picture with little to no background knowledge. We were forced to analyze the picture instead of having facts spewed at us.

I will be using this strategy in my classroom, or some variation that fits with my students, in order to engage my students and create interest.

I think I could use this with students in all grade levels, but how I execute it will be differentiated based on the needs of my students. I could also use this as a differentiation technique with high level learners and lower level learners.

Overall, I thought this strategy was fantastic and turns the thinking and instruction back to the students.

April 2, 2019 Reflection

Tonight’s class taught me another great strategy to use in my classroom. I have used the jigsaw strategy before, but never as explicitly as I did tonight. By being able to become an expert on my document, I was able to have a greater understanding of the dust bowl. Honestly, I never learned about this in school so much of the information was new to me, just as it would be for my students. Listening to what other “experts” had to say as well helped me to fit all the pieces together to see the big picture of what was going on in the Midwest during the Great Depression.

I would love to use this strategy in my classroom, but don’t know how often it is realistic to use it. There are so many great strategies to use and I understand the benefit of mixing it up for all of my students. Would I use this once every 9 weeks, more often, less often? I could also use this across the content areas, as well, as a way to differentiate for my high-level learners or my low-level learners. I really love this strategy. I just need help to figure out how often to fit this in to my curriculum.

March 26, 2019 Reflection

Children’s literature integrated in the social studies curriculum is a great strategy to deepen the understanding of the social studies content in an engaging and meaningful way.

  • I have always known there were biases in books, but I was shocked to learn that the Who Was series was included in the list of books that were not appropriate. On the surface, many of these books seem like they would teach children the facts of our history. However, this just proved to me why I need to read each book I am considering for my class. I also need to preview the illustrations. I am shocked there was a picture of a person hanging in a children’s book. The wording and illustrations in some of these books would not be beneficial to the students in my classroom and would perpetuate the biases among these students.

I learned a valuable lesson this week: DON’T judge a book by it’s cover… Or maybe you can. But having a critical eye when looking at the books I will consider for my class will ensure they have the highest quality of books to learn from.

 

March 19, 2019 Reflection

I really enjoyed this week’s presentation of Blood on the River. My daughter read this book after her teacher used it as a read-aloud in her 4th grade class, but I wasn’t quite sure how this book fit into the elementary social studies curriculum.

After hearing the presentation, I will definitely be using this book in my classroom if I am teaching this level. I would love to use this in a reading group or literature circle, depending on the level of my students. If necessary, I will use it as a read-aloud but i think students would gain more from the content in a group discussion.

I don’t know that I would pair the nonfiction text but would rather have that book as a resource in the classroom, as Lane said. I wonder if I did pair the two texts, if students would become bored with the content (especially considering that the two books were so similar, according to Lane and Molly).

Overall, their presentation introduced me to another book to add to my classroom library.

March 5, 2019

The presentation tonight on using DBQ’s in the classroom was interesting, but also a little intimidating. I enjoyed seeing how the kindergartners used the gallery walk and the books to learn more about Native American’s and Pilgrims. I also thought their question was a great question: Would you rather be a Native American or a Pilgrim? Why? I see the numerous benefits of using DBQ’s, such as deeper understanding and higher engagement from the students.

My concern is… when I’m just getting a grasp of teaching, how do I incorporate this into my classroom? I will likely be teaching third-fifth grade high-level learners or identified gifted students and I know they will greatly benefit from the differentiation I can provide them through an activity such as this. But how do I fit this into my day? What if the school I teach at doesn’t use DBQ’s in their curriculum and it is my job to implement this teaching tool from scratch?

I am excited about using this method in my classroom because I think it will be engaging for my students and they will likely learn much more from an activity such as this than from me simply providing the information for them.

February 26, 2018 Reflection

The VMFA is a place I have taken my children for years. Last night, I learned how to incorporate my love of the fine arts into my classroom. Even though our guide, Sarah, said distance learning was not available for elementary school yet, there are many ways I can use their resources.

I plan on teaching grades 3-5. If we cannot take a field trip or have a virtual field trip to the museum, I could download an image related to what we are learning and create a lesson around that. For example, 4th grade students in Chesterfield are learning about the Revolutionary War right now. I could find a painting of key Virginians or key events to help them visualize what life was like then. Similarly, I could find images of artifacts for children to analyze.

I think opening children to the world of fine arts is integral in their education. Yes, they have art and music, but including pieces into their core curriculum enhances the learning for each student.

February 19, 2019 Reflection

The way assessment options were presented during Tuesday nights class was interesting for a few reasons. First, I had always been under the impression that giving multiple choice tests doesn’t teach the child the information but how to take a test. But what I heard Tuesday night was that multiple choice was a good method to test knowledge of a topic. I do realize these tests can be created either with low or high quality questions and answers.

Short answer questions can gauge if a child knows the material well enough to talk about it. Isn’t that the goal of teaching? I am looking at teaching upper elementary school, so I would expect students to be able to write down their answers and be able to defend them (This is the answer because….).

I guess what I  am concluding is that there needs to be a balance among testing methods. I realize short answer is not practical sometimes but I also think some teachers rely heavily on multiple choice tests in order to teach students how to complete an SOL.

February 12, 2019 Reflection

This week I was able to take a lot away from the readings. I have always wondered best techniques to build background knowledge. How do you know how much background knowledge each student comes into your classroom with? Where should I begin instruction? How much background knowledge is necessary for success within the topic?

Chapter 2 in our text book was interesting because it gave me quite a few techniques to use in my classroom to help students build background knowledge. The tea party strategy seemed as though it would be the most interesting to students. Most anything that gets kids up and moving is a great idea in my eyes. This strategy forces children to discuss different ideas or aspects as it pertains to a particular topic, then analyze what they discussed to make predictions and activate background knowledge.

My question with this, though, is how will I incorporate this into my social studies block? The text suggests using a few minutes for this activity and then discussion, but will I have time in my day to allow this type of interactive activity? The social studies block is so short compared to math and language arts. I would hate to take valuable instruction time away. Also, what ages would this activity be most effective? I know my procedures must be in place and effective for this activity to work without turning into chaos in the classroom.

In my opinion, this would be a great activity to get students excited about what they will be learning next!