Five months ago, at the end of our first term, I submitted a course evaluation for our 8F01 cohort class. The emphasis of this course, as well as the subsequent 8P02, was diversity and equity in the classroom. In my evaluation I detailed how I felt that the materials were glossed over, as opportunities for critical reflection were often lacking and readings were never followed up upon. While we talked a lot about our feelings towards diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom, a practical understanding through ministry documents was never fostered.
In 8P10 social studies the weekly tasks supported our understanding of practice and theory in a much more effective manner than ever achieved in our cohort sessions. While the quizzes in this course were essentially "busy work" and all of the answers could be easily found through a handy CTRL+F search, they introduced a familiarity with the location and structure of a variety of ministry documents beyond the typical curriculum subjects. The addition of pre- and post-class forums posts allowed us to reflect on not only the meaning of the content in the documents, but the practical applications of it as well. By relating the content to our own unit planning tasks, the material took on a realistic context that differed from the theory-based approaches on many of our courses.
The activity presentations for this course (as well as with music) were very well executed and could easily be used in the classroom. I attribute this primarily to the instructor's role in helping guide and shape the content of each, and I feel the formative feedback we received along the way is what made them particularly effective. Beyond this, I enjoyed the lesson review task as it gave us an opportunity to explore and critique the work of others in order to develop our own skills in self-reflection and lesson planning.
Finally, while the unit planning task was a huge undertaking, it never felt that way due to how it was broken up throughout the weeks. By covering major themes in class and on the forums alongside our unit development, we were quickly and easily able to draw on and apply our understanding to our culminating task. This seems to reflect the nature of the task itself, as we were told to always keep the culminating task in sight and to keep links to this task clear in everything we did.
While I never thought social studies was a particular strength of mine, I realize now how closely many of the expectations reflect the science curriculum with which I am familiar. However, social studies does not only integrate with science, but all curriculum strands and subjects, and the incorporation of math, language, science, and the arts into our unit plan is evidence for this. I now view social studies as less of a subject and more of a lens through which we can teach all of the other aspects of the curriculum in a relevant and engaging way.
