Due to my absence from class on 4/2, I’ve choose to reflect on our assigned readings. Chapter 8 discusses the power of pairing the arts with social studies content. The chapter specifically uses literature, drama, and music to demonstrate how to deeper connect students to the content. I like how they used dramatizations in social studies and was intrigued by how many pieces of the deep learning framework were able to be demonstrated through this activity (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity). Through this exercise, teachers are able to engage students with varying intelligences and learning styles. I really liked the idea of having students role play. I think that this is a good strategy to make the content more than just the factual historical pieces, but also to engage students with feelings of empathy and deeper understanding by acting out particular emotions and/or responses from people during that time period. Very similar, I also think this could be accomplished through a readers theater lesson for younger grades. What resonated with me the most though, is connecting students to social studies using music. Teachers can play the music from a particular time period that they are teaching to transport students to a different place and time. Music is a very powerful force in my life and allows me to make personal connections to things all the time. I believe that it would be similar in these examples. I liked the idea of having students analyze lyrics. You could do many activities including “I wonder, I notice, I predict”, stickynote predcitions, or a writing prompt. Finally, the power of good literature. This entire program has taught me the importance of having great books in our classroom. The chapter definitely recommends having a large variety of books on one single social studies topic available to students during the unit. It will add to lessons, be useful for further research, and can be used to benefit early finishers. I will definitely reevaluate how I would like to use the arts in my classroom moving forward!
2 thoughts on “Week 11”
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Stephanie, thank you for reflecting on the readings since you could not be in class. We actually took lyrics from an old Woody Guthrie song about the Dust Bowl and analyzed them in class this past week in connection to the literature circle book OUT OF THE DUST. This activity connected to the one you wrote about. Using music and art to help teach social studies content can be a powerful tool in helping students make strong connections to their learning. I am glad that you agree with that!
I’ll second your thoughts on music. I had a college professor (biochemistry) who wrote songs about chemical processes, then handed out lyrics and taught us to sing them. I still remember some of them.
Music is a powerful motivator. In fact, we not only read the lyrics to a song in class, but listened to it while we analyzed it.