(2/24) Instruction and Assessment

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Emily Nicholson

Hi everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the sun today – I can’t believe there was snow on the ground only a week ago!

This week we discussed instruction and assessment. I really enjoyed exploring how to select and analyze assessments, and I found the worksheet “Constructing and Evaluating Assessment Types” to be especially beneficial. I found it incredibly useful to see examples of poorly written assessment questions alongside improved versions, and I think this will be a useful tool when evaluating potential assessments in the future. One key takeaway I had from this activity was the importance of consistency. Consistency is key not only in the clarity of individual questions, but across the entire assessment from the format of the test to the balance of true vs. false statements. One of my favorite insights from this discussion was the idea of questioning why we would ever feel the need to “trick” students on an assessment, and to consider what the true purpose of an assessment is – to measure student understanding, not to catch them off guard or make them feel inadequate.

I think my biggest takeaway from this week’s class is that as educators, we are not just responsible for ensuring the assessments that we use are well-constructed, but also for carefully examining the materials we inherit or adopt from other sources. It is easy to assume that a lesson or assessment is effective simply because it has been used before, but educational standards and best practices evolve, and it is crucial to ensure that instructional materials remain relevant and high quality. Some lessons may contain outdated perspectives, assessment methods that do not align with objectives, or instructional approaches that do not engage students in meaningful learning. Using tools like the Virginia Quality Criteria Review Tool can help determine whether a lesson/assessment should be modified, replaced, or used as-is. This process ensures that both formative and summative assessments truly measure student understanding rather than just checking for memorization.

I found the Virginia Quality Criteria Review Tool to be a useful jumping off point when evaluating previously made lessons/assessments. Have you come across any challenges when revising or replacing inherited lesson plans and assessments? Is there a way to ensure that we’re using high-quality instructional materials without constantly having to reinvent the wheel? Are there small modifications that could make a big impact?

Thanks for reading! Let’s continue the conversation in the comments!

-Emily

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2/17 Blog Post: Blood On The River

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Mackenzie Tewksbury

Hi everyone! I hope you have had a great couple of days since class, and hope you all enjoy this snowy day! As we have been learning about Jamestown and Virginia’s history, as well as teaching these subjects, we read Blood On The River by Elisa Carbone. I found this book to be a very fun and interesting read, that kept me very entertained all the way through. As I did not grow up in Virginia, I never really learned much about Jamestown or other specific Virginia history, so this book, as well as Richmond’s Unhealed History were basically the first I had read about this. I found Blood On The River to be a much more fun read, and I enjoyed how the book was written from a first-person point of view, with characters that we were able to get to know and form opinions about. I think this aspect in particular would make this book a great read for elementary students, because it could keep them more into the book, while also learning lots!

If I were to use this book in my classroom, I think that as an activity I would have my students pick a scene from the book that stood out to them, and have them explain why it stood out, and what it meant to them. A scene that I would pick that stood out to me was when Sam went to Namontack’s home: “Namontack is right, I think. His home is much better than James Town. There is more food and more joy to be had in one night here than in a whole year in James Town (163).” This scene stood out to me because it really shows how peaceful and joyful the tribes that already inhabited the land were. In U.S. history, they can be painted as violent, and the narrative exists that the land was ours, when really, these tribes were peacefully living in the places they had rightfully discovered, when we took that away from them. I like how this scene shows their happy lives before we took over. I also love how this scene perfectly demonstrates looking at other cultures/people through a non judgemental lens, with Sam even admitting that this home is better than his own. This non judgemental view is crucial to understand when teaching about other cultures or tribes, and Sam did this very well, and even “adapted” to another culture!

Growing up, had you learned much about Virginia history/ Jamestown history? If so, how did your teachers present and teach this information? Were their strategies beneficial, or how would you have taught it differently? Do you think you would have benefited from reading Blood On The River, and do you think you would include this book in your future teaching?

What did you think about the first-person point of view in this book? I noted that the first-person point of view was one of my favorite aspects of the book- what was one of your favorite aspects of the way the book was written?

If you were to teach this book, would you choose to have the students pick out a scene that stood out to them? What was a scene that stood out to you, and why?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and respond to this blog post! I look forward to hearing from all of you! I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I’ll see you all next Monday!

Mackenzie Tewksbury

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“Blood on the River” Discussion

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Mackenzie Woody

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying the snow day! This past week, we read and discussed Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone. We used an anticipation guide while we read and looked at how we could use primary sources in the book.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It grabbed my attention right away. I liked how there was a quote from a primary source at the beginning of each chapter that connected with what happened in the book. I always remember learning about Jamestown being boring other than when we went on the field trip. If I had read this book in 4th grade, I would have enjoyed learning about Jamestown more. 

I would like to use this book in my future classroom. It is a great way to help students understand and relate to the story of Jamestown more than just the facts. The book also teaches other things than Jamestown. It discusses friendships, working with others, and persevering through difficult times. 

When teaching this book, I would use an anticipation guide. It helped me guide my reading and notice some of the more significant details. I would also like to show students primary sources to show the actual events from the book. 

Did you enjoy reading this book? What was your favorite part of the book? Would you use this book in your classroom? Why or why not? What activities would you like to use before, during, or after reading Blood on the River? 

Thank you so much for reading! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about this book and if you would use it in your classroom.

Mackenzie Woody

 

Posted in Class Reflection, Student Post, Things to Think About | Tagged | 12 Comments

Reciprocal Teaching and Four Reads Strategy When Reading in the Classroom

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Sadie Williams

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the snow and day off this week! This week in class, we discussed and practiced the methods of reciprocal teaching and the four reads strategy, which both focus on helping students process and think about what they are reading. We focused on how these might help students read and comprehend primary and secondary sources in social studies. 

Reciprocal teaching involves students comprehending the reading by predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. Depending on their reading levels, students can work independently, in groups, or even as a class. Students usually use a graphic organizer or chart to organize and complete each of the four steps. 

The four-reads strategy is a step-by-step guided reading strategy that enables students to pay attention to each detail of what they read. It is typically done as a class, with the teacher guiding students through each step so that they understand the argument, purpose, context, and credibility of the reading. 

These strategies stood out to me because they help students dive deeper into whatever they might be reading. In social studies, these help students analyze and comprehend primary and secondary sources. I would like to use both of these processes in my own classroom when reading primary and secondary sources because they only help students understand the text and its meaning. Would you use either of these strategies in your classroom? Which strategy would be more effective for struggling readers or younger students? What modifications could be made to reciprocal teaching or the four-reads strategy to better fit diverse learning needs? What are some potential challenges teachers face when implementing reciprocal teaching or the four-reads strategy? How could these challenges be addressed? Are there other strategies that you think would work better than reciprocal teaching or the four reads strategy? 

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to reading your responses! 

Posted in Class Reflection, Student Post, Things to Think About | 12 Comments

Deep Learning Tools in the Classroom

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Cecilia Aguilar

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying your week and the beautiful weather we’ve had the past few days! For my blog post today, I’ve been thinking about some of the content from Chapter 3 of Visible Learning for Social Studies, Grades K-12 : Designing Student Learning for Conceptual Understanding by Hattie, John, et al.. In the chapter they list and explore tools teachers can use to promote deep learning. These tools were:

  • Graphic Organizers and Concept Maps 
  • Class Discussions 
  • Close Reading 
  • Metacognitive Strategies 
  • Reciprocal Teaching 
  • Feedback to the Learner

I’m wondering if you have a certain tool that either you like to use in your own classroom, or hope to use in your future classroom? In addition, which of these tools have you not used, and after reading about them are you intrigued by? I also wonder how these specific tools can assist the teaching of primary sources in the classroom? I personally hope to use graphic organizers in my classroom as I’ve used them often in my Education classes here at Richmond, and seeing how they’ve helped me organize my thoughts make me more inclined to one day use them. I thought the metacognitive strategies described in the reading were something I had never thought about before, and a tool I hope to learn more about so I can include it in my teaching. I look forward to hearing your responses! -Cecilia

Posted in Student Post, Things to Think About | 14 Comments

Welcome to Spring 2025!

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Tricia

Welcome! I am excited to be working with you this semester.

This blog will serve as a place to access assignment guidelines and course readings, share current news of interest, and further reflect on what it means to teach social studies using pedagogical approaches that encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and creativity.

Use the menu to navigate to course resources.

  • Click on Readings in the menu to find the readings for each class session.
  • Hover over Assignments in the menu to find guidelines for the semester’s work.
  • Click on Google Slides to find the slides for each class session.
  • Hover over Helpful Resources to find links to useful websites.
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Welcome to the Summer 2024 Semester

Posted on May 17, 2024 by Tricia

Welcome!! I am excited to be working with you during this summer semester.

This blog will serve as a place to access assignment guidelines and course readings, share current news of interest, and further reflect on what it means to teach social studies using pedagogical approaches that encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and creativity.

Use the menu to navigate to course resources.

  • Hover over Assignments in the menu to find guidelines for the work of the semester.
  • Click on Readings in the menu to find the readings and videos for each in-person and self-study session.
  • Click on Google Slides to find the slides for each in-person and self-study session.
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Teaching Economics in Elementary

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Tera Robinson

Hello Fellow Classmates,

As I write this blog post, I have to admit even though I enjoy math, studying economics is not the most exciting topic to me but after our class on Tuesday, I now see how wrong I was! I never imagined that our economics lesson would include reading diary entries and studying artwork. I liked that we began the class with a turn-and-talk on the core economic principles, then moved into the decision making model and important ideas including key vocabulary to provide to students. This class helped me to understand the importance of preparing an interactive lesson and providing students with an opportunity to experience economics in different ways. Such as Dr. Bland telling us about a grocery shopping experience with her daughter when she was learning about opportunity cost in school.  Throughout history we see the importance of economics and our students will need to know these principles to function as good citizens.  As we saw in class, economics touches all parts of our lives, so we have to ensure our students are getting the foundation needed to reach their full potential. It seems we are now moving to a more cashless system for buying and selling goods. How do you think this will affect our society and how do we prepare our students for this? Here’s an interactive link from PBS kids that may be helpful with economic learning:  Cyberchase . Topics . Money | PBS KIDS

Our activity of reviewing primary source documents of Ephraim Coleman, an ordinary 68-year-old man who kept a diary was fun and comparing different sections of the diary to get insight into his daily life over the period of a year was interesting.  This is another great way to have students look for economic principles in everyday life.  I especially liked utilizing the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) to help with researching an important person in American history, although I did find it hard to think of just questions without stopping to discuss, so I was tapped once 😊 by Dr. Bland. I would never think to teach a history lesson in this manner, it was an “aha” moment for me. At the beginning of the semester, I really saw history as just facts and figures to learn, which is how I was taught history in school. We did not have any interactive activities to make history exploratory, exciting, and wanting to dive deeper to learn more. I don’t remember hearing about economics until high school and it wasn’t a study of it, but essentially just a definition to learn so this has been eye-opening to me. In our slides for this week’s class, Drs. Stohr and Bland have provided great links on teaching economics in elementary education. One in particular, the Virginia Council on Economic Education, provides entire lesson plans for interactive teaching of economics to elementary students. I reviewed a few of them and will keep as a resource for lesson planning. I now understand how important it is to start economic education early. Here’s a couple of links I hope will help you regarding this: yl_220304.pdf (socialstudies.org) ;  Economics For Kids And Teenagers | PBS LearningMedia

So, my final questions are: for this week’s class, did you have an “aha” moment? If so what was it? Also, do you remember when you were taught about economics in school? What was your experience? Any other thoughts on this session? It really was a lot of fun with economics and it is always so helpful to me to hear your thoughts; I get a better perspective on what we’ve learned. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks, Tera

Posted in Class Reflection | 19 Comments

Do Maps Tell Us Stories About Places and Spaces?

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Mimi Bainbridge

Hi everyone!

This week’s class session on the importance of geography was truly enlightening for me. Prior to last night, when I thought of the term “geography”, the environment and land structures was all that came to mind. However, now I know that geography encompasses much more than that. It allows for us to study the connections between people, places, and their surroundings.

We also had the privilege of taking an in-depth look at John Smith’s Map and having the opportunity to create our own. Our introduction world map activity was significantly eye-opening for me. It brought to my attention the glaring fact that I have lost a majority of geographical knowledge over the years. Did you have a similar experience?

Personally, I recall using selective maps throughout my elementary instruction, but I struggle to remember what specific lessons they were utilized for. Therefore, my questions for you are: were maps included in your K-12 experience? Did your thoughts on the importance of maps evolve throughout our class session? Lastly, what do you think are the most engaging ways to include maps in lessons across all subjects?

I also attached a link that provides some great resources discussing activities that involve maps: https://serc.carleton.edu/k12/maps.html

I am looking forward to hearing your responses!

-Mimi Bainbridge

Posted in Student Post | 12 Comments

Getting The Most Out of School Trips

Posted on March 23, 2023 by Emma Holcombe

Hello Class! 

After our trip on the walking tour, I was filled with many ideas on what to create my blog post on. I kept coming back to an idea I shared during dinner about going on field trips as a young student, but never learning as much as I did on our visit. I have lived in the Richmond Area for most of my life and did not know most of the information shared on our trip. After leaving our field trip, I had learned more about the city I live closest to than ever before.

My question is how do we make field trips impactful for students? How or what can we do to design field trips that leave students feeling engaged, interested, and educated on the subject of the trip? 

Here are a couple of links on the benefits of field trips and how to optimize a trip:

National Education Association: https://www.neamb.com/work-life/how-field-trips-boost-students-lifelong-success#:~:text=%E2%80%9CToday’s%20students%20are%20visual%20learners,to%20worlds%20outside%20their%20own.%E2%80%9D

Education Week: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-response-field-trips-are-powerful-learning-experiences/2016/12

These sites provide some insight into the importance of field trips and ways in which to increase the benefits of these field trips. But what can we do to make their field trip as impactful as our walking tour? How can we as educators get students intrigued by the location of the field trip and the content surrounding said trip? What are some options for making sure that students stay engaged throughout the trip? 

I’m excited to see your responses! Thanks! 

– Emma Holcombe

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