Class 14 – Virtual Field Trips and Course Reflection

Virtual field trips belong in every classroom! Thanks so much for dedicating the majority of a class period to the virtual field trip presentations! What a great way to create a memorable image of what a virtual field trip is by allowing us to see it in action from a variety of interpretations! We each got a chance to experience what a virtual field trip is as a student and as a teacher.

As a student going on the virtual field trips hosted by my peers, I found myself wanting to experience the full field trip and wanting to learn more about each topic. I was truly engrossed in the Statue of Liberty field trip from the point when Lisa showed us how we would travel from Virginia to New York to get there. What a great visual and use of maps! I have been to the Statue of Liberty in person, but it has been almost 20 years, and I don’t remember learning that level of detail about the statue’s skin. What a fantastic way for kids to make a personal connection! They can almost relate to the statue by imagining it to have skin like theirs; placing pennies at each table to describe the thickness (2 layered pennies) created such a powerful, lasting image that is so understandable for students because it is concrete. Additionally, I agree with Caroline and Sarah (State Capital field trip) that kids will be more engaged in the trip if they see their teachers actually on the site of the field trip. It makes the field trip seem less distant by showing students, “Hey, I’ve been there, and this is what I saw while I was there.” Also, teachers can speak with greater authority and confidence about the location by having a first-hand eyewitness account of the location. There are just so many great opportunities for kids to make connections through virtual field trips – imagining you are on the Susan Constant traveling to Jamestown listening to the sounds of the ship (“which space will you pick as your own”), imagining the base of the pyramid as larger than a football field, picturing what the Monticello dome room could be used for, etc. If I get excited watching the virtual field trips, the kids will feel that way too! Just because the SOLs say that students need to learn 2-3 bullets on a certain topic doesn’t mean that the lesson needs to be limited to only those 2-3 bullets and that they need to be restated over and over. Why not instead create context for the 2-3 bullets that creates a long-lasting image of the topic for the students and a desire to learn more.

As a teacher taking notes about how I will implement virtual field trips in my future classroom, I was so impressed by the presentations of other students and excited to try to implement some of their research into my future virtual field trips. I paid attention to resources that I could use (ex: National Park Service website, Nearpod, http://virtual-tour.battlefields.org, etc.). I also took note of the way the material was presented. For example, I love how Deborah had great quality images with very friendly, student-facing language and she really invited the students onto the ship by the way that she engaged them and the directions that she provided to students. I loved Marlea’s use of the Nearpod questions as formative assessments. I haven’t previously used Nearpod, but I hope to use it soon. I think Stephanie’s use of QR codes to encourage student-directed learning was great. I have some experience using QR codes, and I think they would be a great addition to virtual field trips. I was really curious to see where the links would take you, and I am sure that students will be equally curious.

Across the course, I have learned skills that I can implement in my future classroom because we were able to try out so many techniques during the semester. The textbook, articles, and videos are great resources that I will to refer back to, but what has been most helpful has been the amount of collaboration that we have had with peers where we have actually practiced techniques (literature circles, analyzing source documents, critically thinking about literature, determining cause and effect, creating meaningful rubrics and assessments, understanding document-based questions, building background knowledge, teaching vocabulary, etc.). Hands-on experiences are so valuable because they create a lasting memory of how you used that technique and how it made you feel as a learner. For me, it makes me much more likely to use those techniques with my students because I have experienced first-hand how much more effective that technique was versus having the teacher lecture the same information or ask the students to read it alone independently. What I have learned this semester is how interesting social studies is and how engaging it can be for your students. It does not have to be and should not be rote memorization. History, civics, economics, and geography are full of stories and interesting cause and effects. As teachers, we just need to know our students, know the information, and plan ahead for how to make the information meaningful for our students. It does little good to have students memorize information for a test and have them forget it the next year. The social studies teacher’s role is to ignite student’s interest and passion for social studies by teaching them how to analyze the information and create their own interpretation of the evidence and make them excited to learn more.

Class 13 – Teaching Challenging Topics/Hard History

This week’s lesson gave me some helpful tips to add to my teaching strategies. First, I found it reassuring to hear Professor Bland say that even she sometimes consults with other experts when she is not sure of the right answer (like in the example she shared about the Helen Keller simulation of being deaf and blind). It is comforting to know that teachers out in the field truly use their professional learning communities and also resident experts at their schools to bounce ideas off of and get advice. Second, the emphasis on “sticking to the facts” when communicating with students and parents really resonated with me. For example, I found the example of what to include in the letter home to parents on sensitive topics to be very useful. It makes perfect sense to not include in the letter that the topic may be controversial and to instead just communicate the SOLs that will be covered and highlight the activities that may be involved (and of course run the letter by the principal as well). However, before this class I may have naively included the word “controversial” or “sensitive” in a letter home when mentioning such a topic, but now I understand why there is no need to say that in the letter. Let the parents decide for themselves if they have any concerns over the skills to be addressed or the planned activities, but don’t unnecessarily create concerns. Third, I agree that teachers need to make meaning of the lesson for themselves first and prepare a list of questions that students may ask on the topic in advance so that they can be prepared regarding how to respond. This is really not all that different than planning for any lesson. With each lesson, the teacher should always do the exercises or worksheets first in order to anticipate where students could struggle and need extra help. I think this planning process is even more critical though when teaching hard history or controversial material. When teaching difficult topics, teachers cannot wing it and hope it goes as planned. Teaching with intention is so important when covering difficult topics so that you are not distracted when teaching them (i.e. figuring out what’s next in the plan); instead you need to be really listening to what each student is saying and truly understand the topic that you are speaking on in depth so that you can remove any emotion and remain grounded in the facts.

In our articles this week, I was surprised to read about Sophie Blackall’s link to the controversy over A Fine Dessert, a story about four families, in four different cities, over four centuries, making the same delicious dessert, blackberry fool. Sophie Blackall is the illustrator for this book that has become controversial because of its depiction of slavery as being easier and more pleasant than it was in reality – due to the enslaved mother and daughter being together, the smiles on their faces, and the page where they are eating the dessert in the closet. I was surprised to see Sophie Blackall’s name in this context of controversy about her drawings after listening to her speak during her visit to the University of Richmond. From her visit, I learned about her work with UNICEF and her advocacy for students from other cultures and the significant amount of research that she dedicates to each of her books. For this reason, I was taken aback to see her name as a target for criticism of her depiction of race issues. On the other hand, I can also understand and appreciate the concerns raised by critics. This is the perfect example to illustrate how sensitive slavery is as a topic to teach to children and how important it is to know all of the facts and to stick solely to the facts.

Class 12 – Civil Rights Movement, Question Formation Technique, and the Four Reads Technique

The question formulation technique really clicked with me. I think I will definitely use this strategy in my classroom. I love that it hopefully gets all of the students talking and contributing in their individual groups, and I think it is an easy way to enable student-directed learning. I like that all students have an opportunity to have a question or thought to offer even those who may not have otherwise had prior knowledge to offer because they can feed off of the starting cue/prompt. I like that the teacher can get a picture of the students’ thought processes and use that as a starting place for the lesson, but the teacher still has control and can redirect the lesson back to the intended objectives if students don’t ask all of the intended questions.

I also found the Four Reads technique to be useful, and I think I would use this strategy with my students as well. I like how it seems sort of like a hybrid between a whole group and a small group activity. The whole class can do the same activity but with different materials that could be differentiated based on reading levels, abilities, or student interests. It seems like many teachers encourage students to highlight as they read to look for key pieces of information, but I think that this activity would create higher interest and would encourage a much closer read than highlighting alone. I like the four step, incremental approach where students dive a little deeper into the reading each time. I think this activity would help students that have trouble focusing because it provides very detailed instructions about what should be done during each read. Since each read has its own purpose, I don’t think students would get bored from reading the document. I can see how this process would really help to improve student comprehension.

I find it helpful that we are practicing so many strategies in our class. This past week I tried to implement the jigsaw puzzle strategy in my 2nd grade biography lesson on Helen Keller. I am sure that it could still use some adjustments, but I enjoyed the practice of trying to create a lesson plan from scratch by choosing a strategy and then looking for the materials that could be used to go along with the strategy. I am interested to hear your thoughts and feedback on the lesson plan.

It is helpful to hear the stories that Professor Bland shares about the real pressures that we will likely be faced with in our first teaching jobs – pressures to follow the County’s planned strategies and planned curriculum pacing guidance. It is helpful to hear that we should be confident in what we have learned as best practices and to not necessary give up on doing a strategy that we believe will work well just because someone else does not agree with it (i.e. like the 4th grade teacher who improved her students SOL test scores by teaching the social studies content in her Language Arts block). I love the idea of teaching with your heart or with what you know in your gut is best to help your students learn and develop a desire to learn more.

Class 11 – Biography Lesson, The Dust Bowl, and Jigsaw Puzzle Lesson Plan

Biography Lesson  – I felt that I didn’t make the best use of the time to work on the biography lesson plan. It could be that my process of creating lesson plans is not the best process, but at this point I am not quick at producing them, and it is hard for me to work on them in a group setting if I don’t have something prepared in advance to bring to the table. I wish I had know that we were going to have this time in class, then I would have prepared a possible idea or questions to ask of a partner. It takes me a long time presently to prepare a lesson plan, but a lot of the time is spent just on “google,” teacher sites, social studies sites, reviewing the SOLs and Curriculum Framework, etc. looking for ideas that might work. This research piece of the process is hard for me to do in a paired or group setting. I personally felt a little at a loss of what to do with the time, since I wasn’t well prepared for it. That being said, I feel like I have enough ideas from the readings this week and some of the ideas within my foursome table to work with to create a lesson plan after further research.

Dust Bowl/Jigsaw Puzzle Lesson – I loved this part of our class. It gives me an idea of how I could do station-like/rotation work with students. I liked the template/graphic organizer we had to use as a visual as we completed the activity, and I think that this sort of lesson would provide students with all of the knowledge that they need for the SOL. I like how it appealed to lots of different styles of learners – with the use of the music, maps, correspondence, and an image. It was helpful to consider that there are many different types of primary and secondary document types to choose from. Also, the example questions handouts from the National Archives were nice resources to try out. This is definitely a lesson plan structure that I would use in my future classroom. My only question would be, when using this lesson plan, how would you manage students who really struggle in class? If you have any students with significant behavioral issues, would you make sure that they are not the only student in a particular group for the “expert” piece that will report back on that piece to their original group? Would you make sure that instead 2 members from that group participate?

 

 

 

 

Class 10 – Colonial America, Bias in Children’s Literature, Lesson Planning Practice

This week I enjoyed the opportunity to practice lesson planning and discuss lesson planning with peers. It is very valuable for me to have time to discuss with others how they approach their teacher-in-training lesson planning (Ex: how long does it take, where do they begin, which portions of the lesson plan do they struggle with the most, what are some “go-to” activities they like to use in their lesson plans, what types of formative assessments do they like to use). We didn’t have sufficient time to get to all of these questions during the class, but it was really nice to share ideas with one another. For me, I have trouble quickly rewriting an example lesson plan on the spot into the UR lesson plan format as though I was making it my own. For me, it would be helpful to be able to do this type of exercise as a homework assignment and then come back to class prepared to discuss my results in small groups. I liked the opportunity to work on the assessment project independently, and I would love to see how my results compared with others. I think this “make this lesson your own” activity could work very well in the same manner – if we each think about it individually and then come back together to discuss.

I am not sure that I communicated it very well in our last class, but what I was trying to say with my closing comment is that I think the reason that you don’t provide us with “ideal” lesson plans is that we need to figure out how to create a lesson plan on our own first and then compare what we have done to a model lesson plan. Although it would be great to have some sample lesson plans, I think that it wouldn’t fully teach us how to make the additional lesson plans that we need to create. For example, if we have a great sample lesson plan on the Civil Rights Movement, it is not going to help us to create a lesson for photosynthesis, for biomes, or even for another social studies topic because we will need to know a variety of ways to teach the material and assess students’ progress. It’s not just a copy and paste exercise. I really struggle with lesson planning and it takes me way longer than it should, but I do find value in the productive struggle, and I think this practice will help me once I need to write real lesson plans for my future teaching job. I would, however, love to hear helpful tips about how teachers learn to do this process more efficiently.

Finally, I enjoyed the review of children’s literature and the helpful resources that were shared. I think it will take practice to make sure that we are providing our students with materials that are free of bias, but I think I learned some great strategies that will be helpful as I begin to establish a classroom library.

Class 9 – Jamestown, VA – Strands of History, Geography, Economics, and Civics

I am excited about how the next four weeks of classes are structured. I like the pairing of the group presentations on books for a particular time period with examples of possible instruction choices to cover that time period. I really enjoyed literature circles and the Depression era book selections, so I am excited to hear the other presentations to learn more about potentially using those books in the classroom.

The close look at the Jamestown map exercise was interesting. It is useful to practice doing the same exercises that we will ask our students to do. I would definitely use this type of activity with my students. I think many students will find maps to be interesting. My children have always loved reading maps from Busch Gardens or Kings Dominion, and I think students will enjoy time to work in groups to discuss what they notice and wonder about maps that are new to them. I could even introduce the activity by asking students about what types of maps they’ve used previously, if any, and why they used them. It does make the map much more meaningful once you consider the purpose and the intended audience, especially when the students have time to decide what those might be based on their background knowledge and what they see. I love the notion of comparing and contrasting the past map to the present map and discussing what must have been important to the users in both instances and discussing how we come to those conclusions (what support we have). I think this activity allows students to think critically, logically, and analytically while they are also learning the required social studies standards.

I am curious about going to the Jamestown Archaearium. I had never previously heard of it, and it would be interesting to see the collection of the Colonial period American Indian artifacts. I think I will try to plan a trip with my own children this spring or summer. It is great also to know that they are familiar with Blood on the River and will incorporate relevant details into a planned school tour. Do you have a list of some of the field trip locations that you mentioned potentially having teachers visit the next time you teach this course? If you have a list of these places or at least a few of them, I would love to check them out. Sadly, I feel like I don’t know our history as well as I should, so I am trying to relearn as well as learn new information as much as I can before I begin teaching.

I am still a little confused on which grade levels the following SOL standards (Va Studies, US 1, US II, etc.) are covered in different VA schools. Is there a way to know which localities cover which standards each year? Is this on each local school divisions website? Otherwise, I think the class is going well. I am just continuing to build up my comfort level with the subject matter and with taking some risks as I build my lesson plans and learning and growing from my mistakes as I make them.

 

Class 8 – Performance-based Assessment / DBQ

The Document-based Question presentation demonstrating how this type of assessment and experience can be applied with a Kindergarten classroom was very valuable. I learned a lot from listening to both teachers share experiences from their first year trying out this technique. The step-by-step photographs of local students presented made it easier to imagine how I could apply this technique in my own classroom. It was great to hear genuine stories from the teachers about what they and their students thought about the experience. It was also helpful to see some of the end products (drawings, writings, oral statements) created by the students. My initial reaction prior to the presentation would have been to think that this type of instruction and assessment might be too complex for the Kindergarten grade level. However, after seeing a first-hand account of how this can be done, I understand how DBQ can be used in a primary classroom. Also, I understand how this experience could provide the students with a much deeper understanding of the content they are learning. I love how the teachers activated the students’ background knowledge at the start of the lesson by taking time to learn about what students know about Thanksgiving, and I also love how they incorporated the required standards about past and present into this lesson. I think students would love the movement and interaction that this type of experience provided. It was almost like an in-house field trip with the gallery walk of images set up in various school hallways. I love the tip that the teachers shared about managing students’ behavior by teaching the students that when they go to a museum they must be quiet and polite and respect the works that they are examining.  Rather than feeling like strict rules for the students, I imagine this explanation of what was expected of the students probably added to the excitement by making it feel like a special experience.

Class 7 – VMFA Field Trip

One of my biggest fears as a future teacher is the feeling of not knowing the right thing to say or not knowing the answer. With field trips, teachers need to get comfortable with this feeling of not always knowing the answers. I would think that in many cases the museum expert or tour guide will be much more knowledgeable than the visiting teacher at the topic covered by the trip, and that is okay. When I completed a long-term substitute teaching job, I remember a staff meeting where the teachers talked about it being okay to not always know the answer and that it was good to model in front of students what to do in this situation. It is important to show students how you would approach finding the answer when you don’t know it. I think this goes along with what has been discussed at our teaching courses at UR as well – that it is the thought process that is so much more important than the actual answer and that we need to teach kids how to logically problem solve. With so much information available after a couple of clicks on a device, it is so much more important to teach students how to think and how to know what to do with information. While I know this in my head, it still is a challenge for me to let go and know that I don’t need to have all of the answers. Also, since I tend to be an analyzer and introspective, it is a challenge for me to remember to think out loud and share my thoughts with students.

I think the VMFA field trip was a great opportunity and learning experience for me because it gave me a chance to observe what a field trip with students might look like. It gave me a chance to learn how to help students find “the maybe.” (i.e. maybe the gentlemen is a lawyer, maybe family is important to him, maybe the columns indicate his position in society, etc.) and promote their curiosity. I had no idea how much information was on the VMFA website. I love all the tools that are out there as well as the guide cards that were in our informational materials. These resources will be very helpful to practice the skills of modeling for students how I SEE, THINK, and WONDER.

Class 6 – Quality Assessment

The assessment resources shared this week in class are very helpful. In past semesters, I found it challenging to write assessments for elementary math and elementary science, and I am still developing in my knowledge of constructing assessments. We have talked about some similar strategies of backward design (writing assessments early in the unit planning) and matching assessments to the learning targets/objectives, but I am still growing in this skill of trying to find the best match. I imagine that it will take many years of practice to become strong at building ideal assessments, and I appreciate all of the great examples shared in class of do’s and don’ts of assessment writing.

For me, rubrics can be very confusing – both as a parent when my children bring them home from school and as a future teacher trying to design a rubric that measures what it intends to measure and that is clearly written. Lisa’s question about the difference between the 4 and the 3 in the example shared in class is similar to questions that I have. Sometimes it is very hard to see what distinguishes a 3 from a 4 without an example of each to go along with it. This is why I really like the idea of providing examples of each category for students and teaching them to self-assess their own work against the rubric.

I am excited to learn about the Virginia Quality Criteria Review Tool. I had never previously heard of this resource. I think that it will be helpful to spend some time working with this tool and using it to assess the quality of other rubrics. Personally, I still need some work brainstorming ways to measure student progress through performance assessments. It always seems easier and less time consuming to have the students do a written test, but I am interested in learning more about and planning for performance assessments that assess students ability to apply their knowledge. I had an “AHA” moment during the course reading this week when it talked about how project scoring often places disproportionate weighting on attributes like the neatness or colorful display, etc. versus the true subject matter content or skill that the student was supposed to be developing. I have often seen this to be the case with assignments that my children have completed. I will definitely try to keep this in mind when I am developing rubrics for my future class projects.

The theater box video shares a great example of a possible summative assessment project that could be used in an upper elementary classroom. I love that it incorporates intelligences outside of the traditional mathematical and linguistic intelligences that are the most frequently focused on at school. This project allows the students to be creative and showcase their talents in their own way. What a great idea to have each student share their own “special secret” about the time period they are researching to add to the excitement of the project. I hope to use this same activity in my future classroom.

Class 5 – Lesson Alignment

This week I really enjoyed learning about how the different school systems manage sharing lesson planning tools (i.e. Canvas in Chesterfield, and Google Drive Toolbox in Henrico) and how some schools see greater pressure from the SOLs in their lesson planning choices. As I am winding down to my final few classes in the UR program, it is nice to get a glimpse of some of the realities we will deal with as teachers as we enter our real working lives. Hopefully, I will end up in a school that understands the importance of front-loading instruction and of taking time to incorporate primary and secondary documents into social studies instruction, but it is good to be prepared and know that you may not always have the flexibility to teach as you wish that you could.  I also really enjoyed the opportunity to watch the Harriet Tubman lesson plan video and discuss as a group which similarities and differences we see to the elements of the UR lesson plan. I have often thought that it would be helpful to get a chance to share and discuss the lesson plans that we develop for our assignments with other members of the class, but this type of discussion has not been frequently incorporated into the teaching classes that I’ve had so far (outside of a few of microteaching experiences). For me, I learn a lot about my own lesson planning by reviewing other lesson plans available online, and I think it is very valuable to have a chance to hear the thoughts of others on what works best and what may not be effective in a lesson plan. I know there is a lot of material to cover so it may not be possible, but I would love the opportunity if possible to discuss and share the lesson plans that we create with other in our classroom if time allows so that we can receive and give feedback to one another and discuss what challenges we had in our lesson planning.