Elem Social Studies 14 (Sarah)

I am incredibly grateful for the invaluable skills I learned throughout the semester. As I said last night, I dreaded this class and the content. Social studies has never been an area of strength for me and I was afraid my personal feelings may be detected by my future students. Kiddos can sense insecurities and I was afraid I would be ripped apart…not so much anymore!

Now equipped with DBQ, question formulation, I say, you say, and so, I wonder, and so many other amazing strategies for teaching the SS content, I am no longer weary. While I may not be  amazing in my execution of all of these techniques during my first few years of teaching, I know that through practice I will get better.

I also appreciate the opportunity to reflect in so many different ways as we did on the giant sticky notes. My only “issue” is that I never feel like I know what to say/how to respond to such prompts in the moment. It is only once I have had an opportunity to truly sit with a thought that I am able to come up with some type of response. However, being able to see what my classmates wrote was super helpful as I remembered things I would not have otherwise reflected upon. (not sure that makes sense, but hopefully you understand). I’m also grateful for these blog posts as an opportunity to just word vomit what I’m thinking and feeling. I haven’t looked at these as a formal paper, rather an opportunity to get whatever I’m trying to process out in some kind of written form and just be real. So, thank you. Thank you both for everything!

This class made me a bit uncomfortable. When I asked about teaching difficult subjects, I was mainly thinking about a black kid telling me I didn’t know anything because I was white. I’m not sure why, but I had narrowed my thinking in terms of race and failed to think about all of the other possibilities of running into a sensitive subject for which I’m unprepared. I tend to think of myself as a fairly open minded person. I don’t think I’ll have any issue with any diverse population, my “issue” will be the possibility of not knowing what to say when a student asks an off the wall question. I know this because I can’t even begin to count the times one of my boys has done the same. While I agree with learning everything you can about the topic to be as prepared as possible for the unexpected, sometimes that’s not enough and that scares me. However, I think the fact that I’m aware of this possibility is enough to allow me to tread lightly when it comes to delicate subject matter.

I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around the situation Lynne told us about when she asked a student to address her as ma’am. While I can understand the parent’s perspective, I don’t know why it wasn’t about teacher student and had to be about race. Lynne may have been a white woman but she was/is also a teacher and in a position of authority. I guess maybe it’s the way I was brought up…? I’m just still having trouble wrapping my head around that situation. I do, however appreciate her sharing because I would have never thought something like that could be an issue.

I appreciate the time to work on Virtual Field Trip stuff. I think I got so excited about all of this new technology that I’ve learned about in Drew and Ryan’s class that I may have over-complicated things. Leave it to Dr. Stohr to bring me back down to reality. 🙂  Seriously though, I would love to think of working in a school with access to basic technology resources, but am afraid it may not be possible. If that’s the case, I’m going to have a difficult time adjusting but will definitely manage.

I’m still trying to process this last class. To be honest, I feel like I’ve been doing that a lot over the past few weeks, because rather than being in the moment during an activity, my brain is constantly rolling and trying to figure out how I would use said activity in the classroom. Note to self: slow down, focus, then reflect.

I tend to keep KWL charts in the forefront of my mind as a very effective way to pre-assess and activate prior knowledge. By being on the student end of both the questioning activity and a KWL chart, I now see that there are more effective ways than the KWL. I appreciate how the questioning activity allowed all students to participate in a low stake setting. While I do my best to ensure all students have a chance to participate, it became evident to me that the whole class KWLs I had been doing in previous lesson plans, that students were being left out.

It was also interesting being in the same group as Lisa (love her to death) who had a ton of knowledge about massive resistance, how I noticed myself stepping back and not contributing due to someone else having super obvious previous knowledge. On the other hand, when I worked with a different group on the questioning activity, I was the one with the previous knowledge yet the dynamics all seemed equal (does that even make sense?). Being told all questions mattered may have helped. So was this a better activity or would the KWL chart be just as good if we stressed that all thoughts and questions mattered?

Sorry this is a bit all over the place. I use this as an opportunity to just get the thoughts out in a low stakes way. As I said, I’m still processing…

 

I really enjoyed last night’s class. I felt as if it was not only super informative, but the activity allowed us to be interactive all while learning just how impactful the jigsaw method can be!

Thank you for allowing us time to brainstorm lesson plan ideas. While I feel somewhat confident in my ability to create a decent lesson plan, I realize I always have something to learn (and always will). Talking things out allowed us to understand how others go about the lesson planning process and provided meaningful insight into ideas I otherwise would not have thought about. Further, talking out my ideas with others allowed me to see gaps I would not have seen/noticed otherwise.

As far as the actual content discussed in class, I am a bit fascinated by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Most of my fascination comes from my having recently taken a course on the subject, but I never really thought about ways to teach it. Using different forms of documents (maps, letters, etc) really gave deeper meaning to the content. Additionally, jig-sawing out was an extremely effective method for all of us to learn about all of the documents in a fraction of the time. Sure, not everyone in the jigsaw would have as much knowledge about the other documents, but if nothing else, as the teacher, I could take solace in the fact that students were able to take away at least one thing.

If I were to teach on the subject, I would most definitely use the non-fiction piece presented in class in culmination with multiple documents/maps. I feel like this subject is dying to be a PBL :).

I never realized just how much bias is found in children’s books. Every night, my husband and I read three books to each of the boys. As we read, I focus on their reactions and we talk about each book afterward. The conversations with the twins are usually fairly superficial but Jackson, my 6 year old, is extremely tuned into the world. If someone looks different than he thinks they should, he will be the first to speak up and ask why, but as I sit here and reflect on everything you and I see as bias, I can honestly say, he has never caught on. I chalk that up to kindergarten innocence, which I am completely jealous of…how amazing to be that innocent??? I got to thinking, I want to raise humans who question, who stand up against stereotypes and I want students who do the same.

Of course I will make a conscious effort to preview texts before presenting it to both my boys and students, but I wonder if I could almost do a lesson like we did in class to teach citizenship and how to demyth stereotypes. Is that too advanced for 3-5th graders or even too daring for me to attempt? A lot to think about…

As a lifelong resident of Virginia, learning about Jamestown has essentially been a lifelong thing. I remember learning the basics in lower elementary and then in more detail once I hot 4^thgrade. Of course, a highlight of my elementary school years was the field trip we made to Jamestown. I remember the trip so vividly. We walked around and saw actual artifacts from the time of settlement. We spoke with reenactors and even watched glass being blown. What I don’t remember is my teachers doing anything beyond taking us to the settlement to enhance instruction. I don’t remember exposure to primary sources that we could discuss and touch. I don’t remember any connections having been made to fictional texts to enhance our understanding of the content and allow for a different perspective. Who knows, maybe they did, but just not in a memorable way. For the record, I have a pretty good memory and am able to name off a decent amount of lessons that have stuck with me since my elementary school days. Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to say is that now that I know super-efficient strategies to enhance instruction, I can’t help but wonder, were those strategies not prevalent in education when I was in school or did teachers just not care/see the value in utilizing different strategies?

As far as class was concerned, I really enjoyed the opportunity to hear about a non-fiction and fiction text that would enhance instruction. I also loved the map activity. Being able to work collaboratively was an amazing was to combine what we already knew and think critically about a primary source related to the content. As a student, what I had discussed with my group, as well as what I read on the charts displayed around the room, would stick with me throughout the Jamestown unit. I see incredible value in a student being able to take what they got out of that activity and use it throughout the unit to become more engaged.

With Jamestown in our backyard, the opportunities to enhance instruction are endless! I’ve always been on the fence about whether or not I would want to teach 4^thgrade, leaning more toward a yes, but now I’m pretty excited about the opportunity to get my students excited about all things Virginia, Jamestown included.

While this class was super informative, I have to admit, I was a tad bit overwhelmed.

I love the idea behind the Virgina Quality Criteria Review Tool, but I’m super overwhelmed by the thought of having to refer to it with each assessment. I know Dr. Stohr said maybe 4ish times a year, but with the shift toward performance based assessments, I can’t help but wonder if it will become the tool which we will have to place all of our assessments against. I’m probably getting ahead of myself(shocker, huh?) but I can’t stop thinking about what that will look like. Will this become second nature? Will I feel more comfortable once I am more familiar with the tool? Even though the VQCRT is used for the big assessments, will it become the norm for all assessments?

Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out, I feel better. Time to focus on the exciting part of class-when Megan and Diane showed us how to implement DBQs. Having the two of them present and not only tell us how it was done but SHOW us was huge. The handout on DBQs was great, but seeing how it would actually play out was super helpful!  I would definitely incorporate this strategy into my instruction especially given how DBQs also go hand and hand with UbD and incorporate all 6 deep learning competencies, both ensuring student success!

I have lived in the Richmond area for almost 34 years now and can honestly say that I had no idea of the educational resources offered by the VMFA.

Growing up in Chesterfield County, field trips to the VMFA were fairly frequent. I have fond memories of walking through the galleries with either my teacher or a tour guide and hearing about various works of art. One thing I don’t remember, however, is interpreting the pieces. I want to say if we had, I would remember it as the interpretation gives more meaning to the piece and creates a memorable experience.

 

 

Tests give me anxiety. Thinking about creating tests, gives me anxiety. Maybe it’s because I had so many bad experiences with tests, I don’t know.  Throughout this program, I’ve been thankful for the heavy emphasis on formative assessments. I even had a recent class in which we spend the entire class discussing authentic assessments and their effectiveness.  The time spent discussing and emphasizing the importance of formative assessments gives me hope and has opened my eyes to a way of measuring knowledge in a way that can be successful for most students, relatively speaking.

While I’m grateful that so much time was spent on the dos and don’ts of creating a typical summative, I can’t help but groan when I think about that type of test. I understand students have to have exposure to typical tests, especially in this day of testing, but how much is enough? Could I get away with just giving the ones issued by the county to ensure they’re ready for the darned SOL tests, or do these types of tests need to be regular practice?

I don’t really know what else to say because my mind is spinning with so many questions, the biggest being: if we are moving toward project based learning and have the VQCRT, why are we still talking traditional summatives?

I guess I just fear making a child anxious and giving negative feelings about school through the anxiety one of these traditional tests can cause.  I also hate the necessary evil of giving these tests only to ensure the student does well on the SOL. Don’t get me wrong, I want them to do well but I just prefer project based ways of measuring knowledge.

 

(I’m sorry if these seems a bit jumbled or doesn’t make sense in some areas. I totally get testing to ensure that the students do well on the SOL, I really do. I guess it just finally hit me that while we can do all of these amazing formatives, we still have to teach to a test…to a degree.

I’ll be fine, I promise 😉 )

First let me say, I am all about some front-loading. Definitely team “Front-load information” over here. With that being said, I’m reluctant to admit that while I understand the need for it, have read the research supporting it, and have every intention of including it in lesson plans, I’ve never really seen such a clear example of it’s effectiveness or how it is done. That is, until my observation last week and then again with the super fab Ms. Wicket.

I always thought to front-load information was to basically just verbally go over things. I’m not sure why my mind went there, but I just didn’t really make the connection to actual instruction during this part. (I’m not a doofus, I promise haha). I think the reason being is because I never had to create a lesson plan in which it was necessary. I always selected an SOL and started from the beginning. I wrote as if this was the first time students would be exposed to this plan. Herein lies one of my complaints about being an education student-writing lessons not knowing your students, or audience, but it’s the norm and to be expected. (insert one of the reasons I am super excited for student teaching! Can I get a woohoo for real living breathing kiddos? woohoo!

Anyways…I’m not quite sure of the technical name of what she did, but I’m going to call it sandwiching (sort, powerpoint, read-aloud, back to the sort. The sorts are the bread, the rest are the toppings/meat). I loved how she incorporated so many different types of assessments (pre- with the sort, think pair share, thumbs up/down, etc) all before she even got to the main point of her lesson. Even more so, the sandwiching! (food analogies for the win). By coming back to the sort, the students understood the purpose of the activity. They were able to make sense of all of the information and (hopefully) put together all of those pieces floating around in their head.

I am a bit anxious about being how, as a new teacher, I may look if I am unable to keep up with pacing guides due to time spent on front-loading? One would hope it would all work itself out by the end of the year but who knows. Only time will tell!