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.
Showing posts with label 8P10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 8P10. Show all posts
2016/05/11
Grade 4 Heritage & Identity: Early Societies 3000 BCE-1500 CE (Reflection)
Unit planning can sometimes seem like a daunting task. The number of expectations packed into each curriculum document can be overwhelming for any single person, and the goal of covering every expectation can detract from the learning experience. Thankfully many opportunities for collaboration exist in education today. Whether with teachers from the same department, board, or even province, there are numerous ways in which we can collaborate using the technology of today in order to break unit planning into a more manageable task.
For this term we had two unit planning tasks---social studies and science---and I decided to take different approaches for each based on my experiences from last term. In our first term we had several lesson planning assignments. Unfortunately, the majority of the work was collaborative, and I never felt that I personally had a firm grasp of the process as a result. For this reason I took the approach of doing my science unit plan individually, and the social studies plan collaboratively, in order to have both experiences.
Aside from the obvious benefits of a shared workload, collaborative planning introduced a strong element of technology into the workflow. The incorporation of shared Google Docs and Slides not only allowed for more efficient work on our end, but made it apparent how these tools could be implemented effectively into the classroom. The ability to streamline this aspect of collaboration is important to both students and teachers, as all changes are saved and accessible from anywhere, which is a far cry from when I was in elementary school and we were saving to floppy disks. As convenience can drive motivation, the simplicity of these tools will benefit all parties in the process. Collaborative planning was also a great way for the diverse interests of participants to shine through. Each lesson took a unique approach to the content and delivery and this helped break the tedium of planning and sequencing a large volume of lessons all at once.
The breakdown of the course content into weekly themes worked well with the unit planning task. Each week we were able to individually read and reflect on certain topics, before bringing our knowledge into the classroom and our work period as a group. Having prior knowledge and ideas of how to incorporate the course's themes into our unit and TLCP chart made the planning process very straightforward even when we were covering such a wealth of material.
For me personally, I took this project as an opportunity to employ my skills in creating presentations. As my background in industrial chemistry exposed me to a countless number of seminars, I feel I have a good grasp for what makes or breaks a practical presentation. It is very common that presentation materials lose all meaning when the context of the speaker is removed, and I do not feel that this ambiguity is an effective way to present a unit plan. Therefore I made it my goal to create slides that could stand on their own as an overview of our unit, but at the same time were not bogged down with text. I feel as if I have achieved these goals through the effective use of imagery and tables that highlight the critical components of each lesson, and I believe the slides convey the important aspects of our TLCP chart, both of which are listed below.
Overview Presentation
Link to TLCP chart
Integrating Equity and Inclusive Education
"...racial prejudice against visible minorities is so notorious and indisputable that its existence needs to be treated as a social fact (R. v. Spence, [2005] 3 S.C.R. 458, para. 5)."
While diversity is one of the most discussed topics in education and human rights today, ongoing debates over refugees, walled borders, and which bathroom people are legally allowed to use demonstrate that we're not as inclusive as we would like to think. This issue is particularly visible in the US, where despite the repeal of laws mandating school segregation in 1954, segregation remains alive and well in many areas of the country today. And while we as Canadians will be quick to jump in defense of how welcoming we are to other cultures, we must not forget that it was only 20 years ago that the last residential school closed its doors. Places with exceptional mortality rates and where nationwide experiments were conducted on children, it is no surprise that the federal government had bulldozers at the ready when they finally locked the doors.
Ontario's Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy serves to lay out the foundations for inclusive practices in our schools that address diversity in all forms, including FNMI peoples, visible minorities, and newcomers, as well as differences in family structure, sexual orientation, language, and religion. An inclusive model of education helps promote interest in school and student achievement, minimizes behavioural problems and dropout rates, promotes a sense of belonging by eliminating barriers, and meets the needs of all learners. Equity and inclusion in the classroom go well beyond the typical concept of differentiation, as they are not only a classroom practice, but a mindset as well. By having our teachers model these behaviours we are promoting the achievement of all learners and creating not only an inclusive classroom, but an inclusive society as well.
Integrating Primary Resources
Here in the digital age information can be disseminated instantaneously across the planet. The internet has allowed us to blog, vlog, tumbl, and tweet anything we want, and devices have enabled us to do it from wherever we want. And while information is more accessible than ever, the origins of much of the information spread online remain dubious. Plagiarism runs rampant in online communities where content can easily be saved or copied and pasted, with services like Tumblr even allowing customizable HTML that can be used to omit source credit for reblogged material entirely. Some users that have been singled out for plagiarism even go so far as to create dummy accounts that they can "credit" as a source (NSFW comment section).
Teaching students about identifying and accessing primary documents is of utmost importance. Students will not only be provided with the traditional benefits of primary resources (e.g. engagement, critical thinking, understanding of context and bias) but they will now have the ability and means to search for them on their own. Students will learn to think critically about information they encounter, and develop ways in which to confirm its veracity, a skill particularly important with regard to information encountered on social media. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allow anyone to create an account and share information freely, and as such are flooded with bias. How will students know what to believe? By teaching students how to seek out sources and dig further into information by using primary documents, they will have the skills to do their own fact checking so that they remain (properly) informed citizens.
When studying early societies we rely almost entirely on primary resources to develop an understanding of history, and we analyze art, architecture, sculpture, and engravings to explore the societies as they were in the archaeological record. Unfortunately, due to abilities of some materials to weather better than others (e.g. stone), many primary resources simply no longer exist for early societies.
To incorporate primary resources, I am having students examine photographs of Egyptian and Mayan architecture and measure and describe their function and form. From this activity students will be able to develop their own understanding of how building practices in the two societies were similar and different. In addition to this exercise, students will have the opportunity to look through an online database of Mayan engravings and sketches to experience authentic Mayan art. Through analysis of the art students will identify some of the symbols used by the Mayan people (e.g. corn) and reflect on its importance in their society. By using primary art resources content becomes integrated by drawing connections from our interpretations.
2016/04/10
Integrating Environmental Education
The goals set out by the Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow document are that students will acquire knowledge, skills, and perspectives that foster understanding of their fundamental connections to each other, to the world around them, and to all living things; to increase student engagement by fostering active participation in environmental projects and building links between schools and communities; and to increase the capacity of system leaders to implement evidence-based environmental education programming, practices, and operations.
Interrelationships between human activities and the environment play an integral role in the teachings of many cultures, including Canada's FNMI communities, however this aspect of life has traditionally been overlooked in Western education. Human expansion and prosperity are often discussed in a vacuum in which they are completely separate from topics such as environmental education. This however cannot continue to be the case as environmental issues and policies have reached the forefront of every economic debate of today. Whether having to do with climate change, tar sands, coal fired power plants, or the Tesla Model 3, the environment again shapes the actions of modern societies after taking a backseat for much of the 20th century.
Integration of environmental education can now be seen as the basis for a holistic approach to education as a whole, and through this inclusive perspective (that also encapsulates FNMI views) students develop the ability to relate all actions to their impact on the world around us. This understanding of the relationships between humans and the environment is instrumental in meeting the first goal of Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow and from this foundation will produce citizens with a lifelong environmental conscience that will naturally meet the second and third goals of the document.
Beyond the goals of Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow, environmental education comprises and entire strand of the Science curriculum. This means that by teaching environmental policy in other subjects such as Social Studies, teachers are creating an integrated curriculum in which both the concepts of Social Studies and Science are given context and meaning.
The big idea for our Early Societies unit plan is that the environment has played an important role in the development of each. The main aspect we have been considering for this topic is that each society developed in a unique way based on their local climate and available resources. While this big idea will allow students to draw connections between human activities and the environment, it does not necessarily address the aspects and goals of the Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow document.
One way to align our Early Societies unit with the document would be to consider whether the practices of each civilization were sustainable, and what impact this had on them. Students might explore how climate change hindered agricultural practices of the Egyptians and Mayans, effectively leading to the collapse of the civilizations, or how deforestation on Easter Island led to the collapse of the local ecosystem and left inhabitants without the means to build boats for fishing.
These ideas could be elaborated on using field study. Students could explore the local ecosystem to observe what physical resources as well as species of plants and animals are present, whether the local community could be sustained on these resources alone, and what would happen if these resources were depleted.
Through reflection on the practices of early societies and our modern infrastructure, students will be able to develop an idea of how we can incorporate sustainable practices into our society. Whether through rooftop gardening, solar panels, community gardens, or even bike infrastructure, students will have an opportunity to brainstorm how we can take the best practices of the Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow document and make them their own reality.
We have subsequently adapted our culminating task to reflect this idea of bringing these practices into our daily lives. Rather than having students create their own ancient civilization based on the topical knowledge of the unit, they will have the opportunity to design a modern society using the best practices of each ancient civilization. For this I might propose having each student create a Google Doc in which to record the aspects of each society that they think would be most useful when designing their own. This way at the end of the unit each student will have a personal record of elements to use in their own design, and therefore each design will be unique.
2016/04/01
News, Undone
It was a bad day for umbrellas. That is apparently the best headline that Ontario's 4th largest paid circulation newspaper could come up with. Is this an April Fools' joke? Please tell me it is.
Articles like this are the reason media literacy is part of the Ontario Language Curriculum. The objective of "helping students develop the skills required to understand, create, and critically interpret media texts" is that they will become informed and responsible citizens and consumers of media in an age where information is readily accessible and extremely transient.
How can it be that a few broken umbrellas on a windy day take precedence over the abysmal living conditions in First Nations communities, spilled industrial waste leaking into city sewers, or the growing need for youth mental health services?
2016/03/30
Collaborative Planning
One of the main benefits to collaborative unit planning is that all work immediately becomes peer-reviewed. This aids in the planning stage by having someone vet ideas and sequencing, as well as helps highlight cross-curricular connections in order to create rich and engaging lessons. Another aspect related to this is that collaborative assessment planning allows teachers to ensure that success criteria are being met and assessed in the same manner for all students.
A few years ago collaborative planning of a task revolved around email. One person would send an email to the group, then it would be a series of reply-alls until the original content of the message was so watered down that everyone had a different idea of what was happening in the project. It was always fun to be awoken at 3:00 in the morning by a notification on your BlackBerry that Person 4 had replied "ok" to Person 2, who had emailed to say which days they could not meet in response to Person 3's email about when they were going to get a book from the library....And so on. It was like the game telephone we all played as kids that invariably descended into chaos and incoherence.
Thankfully Google Docs (and many other resources) now exist. Docs allows files to be shared across a group of people and edited in real time. This is a big upgrade from files stored on networks (like at Xerox where I once worked) where only one person could edit any file at a time. Files could be opened by several people at once, but the edits all overwrote each other. It was a nightmare. Docs avoids this. You could have dozens of people collaborating on the same file at any given time, and all changes are recorded and visible to others. And what's more is that changes are all logged so that you can go back in the document history should there be any disasters. Docs also allows you to add comments, which notifies participants via email (should there be any important updates), and share the final document in a read-only capacity with outsiders.
I had no personal experience with collaborating over Google Docs until term 1, when my group used it for a collaborative unit assessment plan for grade 7 math. In order to organize the work we broke the material into a chart and assigned each member a section that they were to work on. Text was coloured so that members could easily see who had made changes and where, and this made it apparent when certain group members took charge thereby introducing a degree of accountability in the work.
Integrating Financial Literacy
Some of the main benefits of integrating financial literacy into the curriculum are that students will learn aspects of how money works and how to manage money from an early age. While it would be easy to dismiss this topic for young learners as they have little experience with handling money, the key concepts of sharing, equity, and poverty are relevant from an early age. Even from the primary grades students would be able to examine topics such as who has money and why, what do they do with it, how do they share it, and what privileges they see from possessing this wealth. Students would then be able to draw more complex connections using these ideas in the junior and intermediate divisions.
Teaching students about financial literacy well before they are employed will help shape their vision for themselves and their society early on. Whether it is through discussion of municipal budgets and LRT infrastructure in Hamilton, or the pros and cons of building the Northern Gateway pipeline, students will begin to see how money plays an important part in not just social studies, but all aspects of their education and life. And because economics is so closely tied to everything we do as a society, financial literacy can be integrated into all of our classrooms, sometimes without even modifying course work. Beyond this, financial literacy is an opportunity to discuss human rights with your students. Rights such as food, housing, health, and education are often taken for granted in Canada, but are we meeting these expectations as a society? Recent news of skin diseases in the Kashechewan First Nation community suggest otherwise. Then there is the discussion of refugees. How should we balance our ethical obligations with being a financially responsible society?
When talking about financial literacy and early societies the first things that will probably come to mind are silver and gold. Precious metals served as a form of currency for many civilizations, and one could spend a fair amount of time studying and discussing this component of those societies. But that isn't all that financial literacy is meant to discuss. It isn't just about money in terms of physical currency, but a more general scope of wealth.
In our unit on early societies the big idea is that the environment played an important role in the establishment of societies. Not all of these societies had forms of currency, but they all did take resources from the Earth. These resources, or wealth, had to then be used efficiently and intelligently by the people, as they recognized that natural resources were limited and therefore possessed some intrinsic value. While forestry is one of Canada's largest industries and we take it for granted that we have access to wood, deforestation on Easter Island led to the decline of the Rapa Nui people there.
The exchange of resources between the Earth and humans, as well as from person to person, is a perfect opportunity to incorporate financial literacy in the classroom. How did early societies get what they needed? Did they take more than they needed? Did they share evenly among their people or trade with others? Why did some societies last longer than others? These are all questions that can be used to not only address the expectations of comparing early societies in the Social Studies curriculum, but would also cover all of the concepts of financial literacy without ever having to talk in terms of dollars or cents.
Teaching students about financial literacy well before they are employed will help shape their vision for themselves and their society early on. Whether it is through discussion of municipal budgets and LRT infrastructure in Hamilton, or the pros and cons of building the Northern Gateway pipeline, students will begin to see how money plays an important part in not just social studies, but all aspects of their education and life. And because economics is so closely tied to everything we do as a society, financial literacy can be integrated into all of our classrooms, sometimes without even modifying course work. Beyond this, financial literacy is an opportunity to discuss human rights with your students. Rights such as food, housing, health, and education are often taken for granted in Canada, but are we meeting these expectations as a society? Recent news of skin diseases in the Kashechewan First Nation community suggest otherwise. Then there is the discussion of refugees. How should we balance our ethical obligations with being a financially responsible society?
When talking about financial literacy and early societies the first things that will probably come to mind are silver and gold. Precious metals served as a form of currency for many civilizations, and one could spend a fair amount of time studying and discussing this component of those societies. But that isn't all that financial literacy is meant to discuss. It isn't just about money in terms of physical currency, but a more general scope of wealth.
In our unit on early societies the big idea is that the environment played an important role in the establishment of societies. Not all of these societies had forms of currency, but they all did take resources from the Earth. These resources, or wealth, had to then be used efficiently and intelligently by the people, as they recognized that natural resources were limited and therefore possessed some intrinsic value. While forestry is one of Canada's largest industries and we take it for granted that we have access to wood, deforestation on Easter Island led to the decline of the Rapa Nui people there.
The exchange of resources between the Earth and humans, as well as from person to person, is a perfect opportunity to incorporate financial literacy in the classroom. How did early societies get what they needed? Did they take more than they needed? Did they share evenly among their people or trade with others? Why did some societies last longer than others? These are all questions that can be used to not only address the expectations of comparing early societies in the Social Studies curriculum, but would also cover all of the concepts of financial literacy without ever having to talk in terms of dollars or cents.
2016/03/24
Unit Planning Placemats
For the grade 4 Heritage and Identity: Early Societies strand, our group had discussed having students create their own civilization. Prior to this activity, students would have had the opportunity to study several early societies as a class, to do a small group task studying the aspects of one particular society, and to see artifacts from the civilizations through a field trip to the ROM. All of this will lead to the culminating task where they will have to draw on their knowledge of the cultures and eras of early societies to create their own in a particular geographic location and era.
In this culminating task students will have to explore what resources would be available in their geographic location, what technologies would exist, what other societies would they trade with, what might they trade, what types of structures would their people build, what sorts of clothing would they wear, what sort of hierarchy would there be, and what might their religion be. Cross-curricular connections could be drawn by incorporating environmental sustainability from the Science curriculum; Art through the use of music, art, dance, and visual arts to represent their civilization; and finally a written, oral, or media text to display their work in a showcase or gallery walk.
The big idea for our unit was that the environment played an important role in the development of early societies. Originally we had considered having the big idea examine how early societies differed, however we felt that the revised idea encapsulated this comparison as well. In class we did a placemat activity in which we wrote our big idea on a chart paper and other groups asked questions and suggested revisions. One of the biggest questions that arose was what constitutes "development?" Is Canada more developed now because we have bigger cities, or was it more developed hundreds of years with the sustainable practices of the indigenous people?
The most contentious aspect of our big idea was the cause and effect of the phrasing. Should it be phrased to reflect that the environment influenced people, or that people influenced the environment? There were many views on the topic, however I personally felt, and still feel, that while people have an effect on the environment, this effect is dependent largely on human settlement patterns, which are in turn dictated largely by environmental conditions. It was described as a chicken or the egg sort of dilemma, and I would be inclined to agree.
In this culminating task students will have to explore what resources would be available in their geographic location, what technologies would exist, what other societies would they trade with, what might they trade, what types of structures would their people build, what sorts of clothing would they wear, what sort of hierarchy would there be, and what might their religion be. Cross-curricular connections could be drawn by incorporating environmental sustainability from the Science curriculum; Art through the use of music, art, dance, and visual arts to represent their civilization; and finally a written, oral, or media text to display their work in a showcase or gallery walk.
The big idea for our unit was that the environment played an important role in the development of early societies. Originally we had considered having the big idea examine how early societies differed, however we felt that the revised idea encapsulated this comparison as well. In class we did a placemat activity in which we wrote our big idea on a chart paper and other groups asked questions and suggested revisions. One of the biggest questions that arose was what constitutes "development?" Is Canada more developed now because we have bigger cities, or was it more developed hundreds of years with the sustainable practices of the indigenous people?
The most contentious aspect of our big idea was the cause and effect of the phrasing. Should it be phrased to reflect that the environment influenced people, or that people influenced the environment? There were many views on the topic, however I personally felt, and still feel, that while people have an effect on the environment, this effect is dependent largely on human settlement patterns, which are in turn dictated largely by environmental conditions. It was described as a chicken or the egg sort of dilemma, and I would be inclined to agree.
2016/03/04
Reflection: Benefits of Inquiry
One of the most refreshing things about the presentation was that Kristy gave us ideas for activities that really turned on an inquiry mindset and were accessible to all learners. In my placement I really struggled with differentiating for students of all levels, though this was partially due to the fact that it was a very 'traditional' classroom. This meant that activities and worksheets had a very narrow focus, checking off specific expectations one or two at a time, and differentiation was a matter of having an entire catalog of materials at the ready for every lesson.
While worksheets were the norm in my classroom, I spent a large amount of time modeling and deriving equations and relationships with my students. This was an idea that Kristy touched upon with respect to geometry. When teaching my fractions unit I emphasized the understanding of the core concepts of fractions---what the numerator and denominator represented, and the different ways to represent this---and not equations. My students were all rather unenthusiastic when they heard we were going to start the fractions unit, and I found that this was due to their tenuous understanding of the foundations. My students all knew how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, so I always asked them to apply their knowledge of these concepts to fractions. My lessons were always executed using a stream of questions (e.g. What is a half plus a half? One whole or two quarters?) and I found the students were very receptive to working things out in this manner, whether as a class or individually. On the occasions when I used direct instruction for a concept, I found my students had more trouble digesting the idea and generally made more mistakes than with other concepts. So even though I wasn't calling my teaching inquiry at the time, my lessons often incorporated that element of questioning, and I saw firsthand how effective this was for the class as a whole.
Most resources related to inquiry that I have encountered thus far put a strong emphasis on modeling activities and questioning for a class. In a project for my cohort class I investigated teaching strategies for ELL students in mathematics. I consolidated my research by having students complete a survey about what methods and aspects of my lessons they found helpful. While modeling was emphasized in the literature for ELL students, my survey indicated that all students found a combination of modeling and discussion to be the best way for them to learn. This means that students will benefit greatly from an inquiry-based approach because they will have that exposure to modeled thinking and behaviour in order to draw deeper connections and understanding.
2016/03/01
Learning Activity Demonstration: Inquiry
Introduction
For our collaborative social studies activity presentation our group took on the role of teaching inquiry. To do this we took on the grade 6 Heritage & Identity strand of the curriculum and posed the question What does it mean to be Canadian? This is a very open question that gives students the opportunity to draw deeper and deeper connections should they so choose. In order to facilitate this process, we chose the web platform Lino where students could post sticky notes to a collaborative graphic organizer. From here, students are given the opportunity to take an idea from the brainstorming session and develop it further using Google Docs. This is a simple example of an activity that is differentiated for all levels and easy to implement in the classroom.
Activity
Social Studies Grade 6 Focus: Canadian Identity Big Ideas: Communities that have made significant contributions to Canada's development. Overall Expectation: A3. Understanding Context: demonstrate an understanding of significant experiences of, and major changes and aspects of life in, various historical and contemporary communities in Canada. Specific Expectation: 3.8 identify and describe fundamental elements of Canadian identity. Inquiry Question/Central Lesson Theme: What does it mean to be Canadian? Minds On: (5 Minutes)
Alternative Method
This activity could also be done through a Google Form. General questions could be asked with open dialogue boxes for student responses. The responses are then saved to a spreadsheet which could be distributed or displayed on a blog. This method could be used for activities that call for less collaboration or where students might benefit from having a physical record of the results.Reflection
This activity generated many interesting inquiry questions that could potentially be explored by students. The number of questions attained however was somewhat disappointing as a result of technical difficulties setting up, but this is easily overcome as students could continue working on such an activity even when not in class. When facilitating such an activity there was a clear benefit to having pre-made documents with clickable links provided to the students, and it was found that students would benefit from having a column in the Google Doc with an example provided.
2016/02/25
2016/02/19
Integrated Curricula
Ken Robinson describes how subjects are often "hermetically sealed" from one another in schools and how emphasis is generally placed on math, language, and science. While these subjects are important, it means focus is lost on other topics such as art and humanities, despite the fact that they are interconnected with every other area of learning.
One example of integrated learning that I particularly liked was mentioned by Drake and Burns, and was writing opinions on the disposal of hazardous waste. While this seems like a very straightforward task, it can be used to incorporate elements of the language, social studies, and science curricula. Ideas of environmental stewardship are part of both social studies (e.g. responsible land and resource use) and science (e.g. protection of natural habitats and ecosystems) and can be brought together using the language curriculum as a framework for the expression of ideas. Student products could take the form of reports, essays, oral presentations, or even a technology such as a podcast. This is just one example of how different strands can be brought together to bring meaning to a task or project, rather than simply having students do things like read a book and write an essay about it, which is too common in language classes. The isolated nature of our subject areas means a loss of potential learning opportunities for all students, and I can identify with this gap personally. The example of providing opinions on the disposal of hazardous waste spoke to me because it would be an opportunity for someone such as myself that is very interested in science and nature to fulfill requirements of the language curriculum, rather than simply being asked to analyze a given book, which I have no personal interest in.
One of the main goals of teaching an integrated curriculum is to teach to "tomorrow's" workforce, or to 21st century learners. Both of these labels are somewhat dated, but express the idea that there has been a shift from fact-based to skill-based learning. Skills identified by the LCISD are collaboration, problem-solving and innovation, knowledge construction, skilled communication, self-regulation, and use of ICT. These are mere elaborations on the "four Cs" of modern education: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. By integrating curricula you allow students to identify connections between different aspects of their learning as well as real life, which helps develop enduring understandings (the "big ideas") about the world in which we live.
The New York Times just published a rather harsh review of numeracy in America. In the article Andrew Hacker relates how students "can't see how the formulas connect with the lives they'll be leading" and that more emphasis needs to be placed on "citizen statistics," or the everyday uses of mathematics. A decade ago, I would have scoffed at these assertions, but the more time I spend in front of a class, the more I realize there is a clear disconnect between math class and reality.
I did my placement in a grade eight classroom, teaching only math. I must admit that I love math, and excelled at it when I was in school, but after applying to McMaster for the math program, I eventually switched to chemistry. Here I did math all day long, but applied it to another discipline. Taking this idea in hand to my placement, I thought I would incorporate concepts from science into our fractions unit. I threw velocity and energy questions (all using the fractions concepts we were learning) into the mix, and the students vehemently objected. "This is science, not math." One student said. I nearly fainted.
The older I get, the more I realize everything in life is connected. Perhaps I spend more time reflecting nowadays, or perhaps I was just brought up to think that every strand of the curriculum existed in its own little bubble. I'm not sure. But there really needs to be more emphasis on this idea and practice in our schools. An integrated curriculum will help students learn to adapt and apply concepts in a wide range of situations, and not just fall back on claims like "This is science, not math."
I began by mentioning math because I see so many connections between math and social studies. Demographics, land area, climate, and economy are just a few of the many ways data management crosses over between the two subjects. And while statistics are just one way math can be applied to social studies, critical thinking and reasoning skills from social studies could also be very useful in math. My students were very good at doing rote calculations of mean, median, and mode (during my observation days), but fell flat when it came to making inferences and drawing connections between context and data. By giving students real world applications of mathematics via the social studies curriculum, it will allow them to make meaningful connections in their work and improve their retention of knowledge in both strands.
One example of integrated learning that I particularly liked was mentioned by Drake and Burns, and was writing opinions on the disposal of hazardous waste. While this seems like a very straightforward task, it can be used to incorporate elements of the language, social studies, and science curricula. Ideas of environmental stewardship are part of both social studies (e.g. responsible land and resource use) and science (e.g. protection of natural habitats and ecosystems) and can be brought together using the language curriculum as a framework for the expression of ideas. Student products could take the form of reports, essays, oral presentations, or even a technology such as a podcast. This is just one example of how different strands can be brought together to bring meaning to a task or project, rather than simply having students do things like read a book and write an essay about it, which is too common in language classes. The isolated nature of our subject areas means a loss of potential learning opportunities for all students, and I can identify with this gap personally. The example of providing opinions on the disposal of hazardous waste spoke to me because it would be an opportunity for someone such as myself that is very interested in science and nature to fulfill requirements of the language curriculum, rather than simply being asked to analyze a given book, which I have no personal interest in.
One of the main goals of teaching an integrated curriculum is to teach to "tomorrow's" workforce, or to 21st century learners. Both of these labels are somewhat dated, but express the idea that there has been a shift from fact-based to skill-based learning. Skills identified by the LCISD are collaboration, problem-solving and innovation, knowledge construction, skilled communication, self-regulation, and use of ICT. These are mere elaborations on the "four Cs" of modern education: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. By integrating curricula you allow students to identify connections between different aspects of their learning as well as real life, which helps develop enduring understandings (the "big ideas") about the world in which we live.
The New York Times just published a rather harsh review of numeracy in America. In the article Andrew Hacker relates how students "can't see how the formulas connect with the lives they'll be leading" and that more emphasis needs to be placed on "citizen statistics," or the everyday uses of mathematics. A decade ago, I would have scoffed at these assertions, but the more time I spend in front of a class, the more I realize there is a clear disconnect between math class and reality.
I did my placement in a grade eight classroom, teaching only math. I must admit that I love math, and excelled at it when I was in school, but after applying to McMaster for the math program, I eventually switched to chemistry. Here I did math all day long, but applied it to another discipline. Taking this idea in hand to my placement, I thought I would incorporate concepts from science into our fractions unit. I threw velocity and energy questions (all using the fractions concepts we were learning) into the mix, and the students vehemently objected. "This is science, not math." One student said. I nearly fainted.
The older I get, the more I realize everything in life is connected. Perhaps I spend more time reflecting nowadays, or perhaps I was just brought up to think that every strand of the curriculum existed in its own little bubble. I'm not sure. But there really needs to be more emphasis on this idea and practice in our schools. An integrated curriculum will help students learn to adapt and apply concepts in a wide range of situations, and not just fall back on claims like "This is science, not math."
I began by mentioning math because I see so many connections between math and social studies. Demographics, land area, climate, and economy are just a few of the many ways data management crosses over between the two subjects. And while statistics are just one way math can be applied to social studies, critical thinking and reasoning skills from social studies could also be very useful in math. My students were very good at doing rote calculations of mean, median, and mode (during my observation days), but fell flat when it came to making inferences and drawing connections between context and data. By giving students real world applications of mathematics via the social studies curriculum, it will allow them to make meaningful connections in their work and improve their retention of knowledge in both strands.
2016/02/11
How Will I Inspire Students to Love Social Studies?
My background in social studies was not the best. I found the courses dry and overall a miserable experience. But this does not come from the fact that I hate subject matter. I love ancient history, geography, and cultural studies, but I learned about these topics primarily from my other classes. I never found that social studies was very engaging in my elementary experience.
I hope to change this using my love of science, math, language, art, and technology to make learning about social studies an integrated and meaningful experience for my students. While my education focused on facts, facts are now available at our fingertips. Therefore I can leverage the easy access to information in order to draw connections that address both the curriculum and the interests of my students, and allow them to do the same. I am particularly interested in health and sustainability, and spent most of my time as a chemist working in these fields. These topics are pervasive in our societies and provide a common ground for all students to relate. I hope my interest in these subjects will spill over in my lessons to the students.
I hope to change this using my love of science, math, language, art, and technology to make learning about social studies an integrated and meaningful experience for my students. While my education focused on facts, facts are now available at our fingertips. Therefore I can leverage the easy access to information in order to draw connections that address both the curriculum and the interests of my students, and allow them to do the same. I am particularly interested in health and sustainability, and spent most of my time as a chemist working in these fields. These topics are pervasive in our societies and provide a common ground for all students to relate. I hope my interest in these subjects will spill over in my lessons to the students.