Governance -
This one came from Kitsilano. They called this program 'Vinery'. It involved struggling students including 16/17 year old grade nines. Instead of a regular year long or semester style course load, these students worked independently on ONE subject for an entire month. This helped keep the students from overloading with too much information. When that subject was done, the student would move on to the next. The teachers involved worked with these students on a first name basis, almost like a friend. However, the teachers still had high expectations.
Resource/Material -
Also from Kits. A teacher and the librarian worked together on a unit plan involving the full use of the library. The students go through stations (reading books, looking up articals online, finding information in magazines, etc.) and have to answer questions for each one that they hand in. The entire process took 4-5 classes (60 min. classes) with 20 stations. Especially with socials, this could work great for developing the necessary research skills for your students.
Activity/Teaching Strategy -
This one came from Claremont and a Confederation unit. At the very beginning of the unit, the teacher got the students into groups. Each group represented a province. Then, each group did research on thier province as to the pro's and con's of joining confederation. Each group then presented to the class their findings, except this was done in a role play. Each group was applauded in and out. Each group started off their findings with 'Good day my worthy deligates.'
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
MY ARTICLE REVIEW
Click on the title to see article.
"LITERATURE IS FROM VENUS, SOCIAL STUDIES IS FROM MARS: LET'S WORK IT OUT"
Not until my third year of university, and never since, did I see a fictional piece of literature used to enhance a history or social studies class; therefore, I was drawn to Waters’ article on children’s literature as a resource in the social studies classroom. Waters sees a natural link between socials and literature, as literature “is the window to the world of human experience” (Waters, 1999, p.2. Note: article page breaks not noted online; therefore, page references reflect the order in which the article was printed) and social studies is the study of those experiences.
Waters looks at five main reasons for using literature to compliment social studies in both elementary and secondary classrooms. First, “literature makes social studies content more relevant to the lives and needs of the student” (Waters, 1999, p.2); second, “books bring...historical events; geographic locations; and people from various times, places and cultures” (Waters, 1999, p.2) to life; thirdly, “literature is an excellent resource for fostering the development of thinking skills essential to social studies” (Waters, 1999, p.2), such as being able to see alternative perspectives or positions on an issue and constructing alternative consequences; fourthly, literature can be used to “facilitate young peoples’ understanding of abstract concepts” (Waters, 1999, p.2). Finally, Waters believes in using literature in social studies classrooms to present role models from various times and cultures to young people.
Waters emphasizes two points above all others. The first is relevant to his third rationale for using literature in the socials studies classroom, that is, developing critical thinking skills by working on “sequencing, hypothesizing, problem solving, determining cause and effect, and predicting outcomes” (Waters, 1999, p.4). Literature, says Waters, can be used to help young people see the world from multiple perspectives, and enhances ones own already held beliefs and values.
The second point Waters emphasizes, is how best to use literature in a classroom to get those critical thinking skills working to their utmost. Waters feels reading aloud and retelling are strategies which will best accomplish this. The suggestions he makes about how to retell a tale are excellent, and range from acting out a scene in a book without using dialogue, to a creative dramatization.
Though I agree with most of what Waters presents, his fourth and fifth rationales were somewhat perplexing, as I felt he was underestimating students and idealizing the teacher’s role. He claims, in his fourth rationale, that literature can be used to introduce concepts he considers abstract, such as “justice, equality, diversity, freedom and democracy” (Waters, 1999, p.2); and the books he uses to emphasize these concepts all draw upon heroic stereotypes. I would not say he is wrong to use such books, but I wonder if he is intentionally ignoring an entire genre of literature, the dystopian novel, which often introduces the same concepts by emphasizing their extreme opposites. Suggesting it is best that we as teachers seek out only heroic tales of bravery and morality, is to underestimate students’ abilities and distort the teacher’s role.
Further to the point of the teacher’s role, I was uncomfortable with Waters’ fifth rationale, in which literature is used to present role models. I would disagree entirely. It is dangerous for teachers to try and impose upon students a model of what makes a good citizen. Today history is seen from all perspectives and there is rarely one which, when held up to scrutiny, is ideal. I am not saying we ignore diverse texts with strong protagonists and heroic, moral characters, just that we want to be careful with the intent with which we introduce the material.
I will definitely use some of Waters’ ideas, especially his use of drama as a means of enhancing a lesson. An idea he inspired, would be to look at “The Diary of Anne Frank” and have students recreate the conversation those who housed her family surely must have had before they chose their path, drawing from whatever other compatible resources I could find.
Overall, though I disagree with his fifth rationale altogether and am unclear about the intent behind his fourth, Waters’ article is valuable, as it bridges the gap between literature –particularly fiction- and social studies. Waters reminds us that the study of society and history is not limited to facts and dates, but can include fictional interpretations, even biased interpretations, of those facts, and that ultimately the point is to nourish the young minds entrusted to us as teachers.
REFERENCES:
Water, D. Scott. (1999) Children’s literature: A valuable resource for the classroom. Canadian Social
Studies, 33(3), 80-83
"LITERATURE IS FROM VENUS, SOCIAL STUDIES IS FROM MARS: LET'S WORK IT OUT"
Not until my third year of university, and never since, did I see a fictional piece of literature used to enhance a history or social studies class; therefore, I was drawn to Waters’ article on children’s literature as a resource in the social studies classroom. Waters sees a natural link between socials and literature, as literature “is the window to the world of human experience” (Waters, 1999, p.2. Note: article page breaks not noted online; therefore, page references reflect the order in which the article was printed) and social studies is the study of those experiences.
Waters looks at five main reasons for using literature to compliment social studies in both elementary and secondary classrooms. First, “literature makes social studies content more relevant to the lives and needs of the student” (Waters, 1999, p.2); second, “books bring...historical events; geographic locations; and people from various times, places and cultures” (Waters, 1999, p.2) to life; thirdly, “literature is an excellent resource for fostering the development of thinking skills essential to social studies” (Waters, 1999, p.2), such as being able to see alternative perspectives or positions on an issue and constructing alternative consequences; fourthly, literature can be used to “facilitate young peoples’ understanding of abstract concepts” (Waters, 1999, p.2). Finally, Waters believes in using literature in social studies classrooms to present role models from various times and cultures to young people.
Waters emphasizes two points above all others. The first is relevant to his third rationale for using literature in the socials studies classroom, that is, developing critical thinking skills by working on “sequencing, hypothesizing, problem solving, determining cause and effect, and predicting outcomes” (Waters, 1999, p.4). Literature, says Waters, can be used to help young people see the world from multiple perspectives, and enhances ones own already held beliefs and values.
The second point Waters emphasizes, is how best to use literature in a classroom to get those critical thinking skills working to their utmost. Waters feels reading aloud and retelling are strategies which will best accomplish this. The suggestions he makes about how to retell a tale are excellent, and range from acting out a scene in a book without using dialogue, to a creative dramatization.
Though I agree with most of what Waters presents, his fourth and fifth rationales were somewhat perplexing, as I felt he was underestimating students and idealizing the teacher’s role. He claims, in his fourth rationale, that literature can be used to introduce concepts he considers abstract, such as “justice, equality, diversity, freedom and democracy” (Waters, 1999, p.2); and the books he uses to emphasize these concepts all draw upon heroic stereotypes. I would not say he is wrong to use such books, but I wonder if he is intentionally ignoring an entire genre of literature, the dystopian novel, which often introduces the same concepts by emphasizing their extreme opposites. Suggesting it is best that we as teachers seek out only heroic tales of bravery and morality, is to underestimate students’ abilities and distort the teacher’s role.
Further to the point of the teacher’s role, I was uncomfortable with Waters’ fifth rationale, in which literature is used to present role models. I would disagree entirely. It is dangerous for teachers to try and impose upon students a model of what makes a good citizen. Today history is seen from all perspectives and there is rarely one which, when held up to scrutiny, is ideal. I am not saying we ignore diverse texts with strong protagonists and heroic, moral characters, just that we want to be careful with the intent with which we introduce the material.
I will definitely use some of Waters’ ideas, especially his use of drama as a means of enhancing a lesson. An idea he inspired, would be to look at “The Diary of Anne Frank” and have students recreate the conversation those who housed her family surely must have had before they chose their path, drawing from whatever other compatible resources I could find.
Overall, though I disagree with his fifth rationale altogether and am unclear about the intent behind his fourth, Waters’ article is valuable, as it bridges the gap between literature –particularly fiction- and social studies. Waters reminds us that the study of society and history is not limited to facts and dates, but can include fictional interpretations, even biased interpretations, of those facts, and that ultimately the point is to nourish the young minds entrusted to us as teachers.
REFERENCES:
Water, D. Scott. (1999) Children’s literature: A valuable resource for the classroom. Canadian Social
Studies, 33(3), 80-83
Friday, November 6, 2009
jeopardy in the classroom
i would love to share some resources that i was given. so, any fellow students interested in some great jeopardy powerpoints for teaching socials 9 and would like to reciprocate with a great lesson or unit etc. send me an email and i will take the time to return it with some jeopardy games.
kimmii16@uvic.ca
kimmii16@uvic.ca
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Engaging in controversial issues
ProCon.org is a neat resource for social studies classes on current events, politics and public policy. The site poses a controversial issue (mostly from a U.S. perspective), gives an overview/background, divides the topic into pros/cons and provides sources such as books, news articles and quotes. It also has a separate teacher's corner, lesson plan samples and ideas on debating, role playing, extemporaneous speech and essay writing!
Some of the issues covered:
Should the U.S. have attacked Iraq?
Social networking -- good for society?
Born gay? Nature or nurture.
Another cool resource: Free technology for teachers
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
Critical Review Summary
'I've been in the Reichstag': rethinking roleplay. By: Luff, Ian, TeachingHistory, 00400610, Aug2000, Issue 100 Database:Academic Search Complete
I decided to summarize my critical review article because it seems most fitting for the article I wrote on. The article that I used provided a justification for the use of role play in the classroom as well as five different detailed examples of role plays. First, I will list some of the justifications for role play,then a quick description of the examples that were given. The author justified the use of role play with a few explanations. First, he claims that role play can be an inclusive tool to provide stimulation for all students in the classroom. A student with weak reading skills but strong oral skills could be included in a way that is not always available to them. Or, a quiet student may find a way to branch out and develop news peaking skills which they cannot do in a regular classroom setting. He also expresses a belief in the importance of historical empathy, writing that role play can ease students out oftheir personal life contexts, gradually placing them within the situation and emotions that people of the past faced when history occurred. As a result, students may be able to look at a difficult situation (such as therise of the nazi party) and understand how they gained power through democratic (or pseudo-democratic) means. Though the justification is nice to have, it is not backed by much research or cited information. This article is based more upon personal experience in the classroom. This can be valuable, but does not hold as much weight as one might expect out of an article in a journal. Despite this, the article is valuable because of the examples provided by the author.There were five examples or role play provided, some big, some small:
1) The first was a society game designed to mimic almost any era of British society but could be applied to almost any historical society. It involves passing out character cards to each member of the class who are given instructions on how to act them out or are told to research how each character would live.
2) Success in the army- involves demonstrating how particular military powers were led to success. Keys involved army discipline, leadership, and marching practice. It involved the practice of marching in step and imparting discipline upon those doing so poorly or acting out of role. This was meant to demonstrate how militaries become strong through disicpline.
3) Use of roads- (could be almost any transport).
Using the desks of your classroom, tell the students to create bottlenecks and disorder in order to slow movement in the area. Ask two volunteers to represent the roman legions (or occupying forces). Have a person in the middle of the classroom signal a rebellion (using an arm signal). Have the legions move in to stop it by tapping the rebels on the shoulder. This should take some time because of the disorder of the desks and when they get close, you can have other rebellions start in other corners of the room. This is to demonstrate how important roads or transport are for armies.
4) Rise of Hitler-This role play is a little to complicated to include in the summary but essentially recreates the state of the Reichstag at the time of Hitler’s rise to power. Used to quell questions of how Germans could elect such a radical party to lead their country.
5) Interrogation of an indiviual-Use a historical figure real or made up and have the class ask interrogation style questions to you, or a student who is playing that role.
Suggestions include: - the defence of apartheid policies infront of liberal South Africans
- Custer's ghost before an audience of families bereaved by the Little BigHorn massacre
6) Slave Transport:To demonstrate the conditions found on slave transport ships, the author suggests placing some desks together and finding same-sex volunteer who are willing to lay down in close quarters to squish on the desks. Explain to students during this (once the laughing has died down) that this was a regular situation on slave ships but without the volunteers being chained up with limited food and toilet facilities. You can follow this up with a look at an historical slave ship.
Though argumentative part of the paper has value, the greatest value ofthe article came in the presentation of different role plays. They suggest that teachers can use role plays for almost any topic and involve many different situations in the classroom. The main suggestion that I took out of the article was that there should be few limits for role play in the classroom, and that they are an effective way to promote higher level learning and promote a better learning environment for students.
I decided to summarize my critical review article because it seems most fitting for the article I wrote on. The article that I used provided a justification for the use of role play in the classroom as well as five different detailed examples of role plays. First, I will list some of the justifications for role play,then a quick description of the examples that were given. The author justified the use of role play with a few explanations. First, he claims that role play can be an inclusive tool to provide stimulation for all students in the classroom. A student with weak reading skills but strong oral skills could be included in a way that is not always available to them. Or, a quiet student may find a way to branch out and develop news peaking skills which they cannot do in a regular classroom setting. He also expresses a belief in the importance of historical empathy, writing that role play can ease students out oftheir personal life contexts, gradually placing them within the situation and emotions that people of the past faced when history occurred. As a result, students may be able to look at a difficult situation (such as therise of the nazi party) and understand how they gained power through democratic (or pseudo-democratic) means. Though the justification is nice to have, it is not backed by much research or cited information. This article is based more upon personal experience in the classroom. This can be valuable, but does not hold as much weight as one might expect out of an article in a journal. Despite this, the article is valuable because of the examples provided by the author.There were five examples or role play provided, some big, some small:
1) The first was a society game designed to mimic almost any era of British society but could be applied to almost any historical society. It involves passing out character cards to each member of the class who are given instructions on how to act them out or are told to research how each character would live.
2) Success in the army- involves demonstrating how particular military powers were led to success. Keys involved army discipline, leadership, and marching practice. It involved the practice of marching in step and imparting discipline upon those doing so poorly or acting out of role. This was meant to demonstrate how militaries become strong through disicpline.
3) Use of roads- (could be almost any transport).
Using the desks of your classroom, tell the students to create bottlenecks and disorder in order to slow movement in the area. Ask two volunteers to represent the roman legions (or occupying forces). Have a person in the middle of the classroom signal a rebellion (using an arm signal). Have the legions move in to stop it by tapping the rebels on the shoulder. This should take some time because of the disorder of the desks and when they get close, you can have other rebellions start in other corners of the room. This is to demonstrate how important roads or transport are for armies.
4) Rise of Hitler-This role play is a little to complicated to include in the summary but essentially recreates the state of the Reichstag at the time of Hitler’s rise to power. Used to quell questions of how Germans could elect such a radical party to lead their country.
5) Interrogation of an indiviual-Use a historical figure real or made up and have the class ask interrogation style questions to you, or a student who is playing that role.
Suggestions include: - the defence of apartheid policies infront of liberal South Africans
- Custer's ghost before an audience of families bereaved by the Little BigHorn massacre
6) Slave Transport:To demonstrate the conditions found on slave transport ships, the author suggests placing some desks together and finding same-sex volunteer who are willing to lay down in close quarters to squish on the desks. Explain to students during this (once the laughing has died down) that this was a regular situation on slave ships but without the volunteers being chained up with limited food and toilet facilities. You can follow this up with a look at an historical slave ship.
Though argumentative part of the paper has value, the greatest value ofthe article came in the presentation of different role plays. They suggest that teachers can use role plays for almost any topic and involve many different situations in the classroom. The main suggestion that I took out of the article was that there should be few limits for role play in the classroom, and that they are an effective way to promote higher level learning and promote a better learning environment for students.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
BCTF - Another "Favourite"
Short and sweet: here's another link to add to the favourites. Once we become teachers we pay dues to the BCTF for them to represent our "best interests." We need to be aware of their actions and know who is representing us, and essentially the students, on their board of governors.
But for now, they can be of great use!! Find on this site: salaries for teachers by district since 2004, code of ethics, job postings by district, more teacher resources, TOC resources...keep your eye on this one.
But for now, they can be of great use!! Find on this site: salaries for teachers by district since 2004, code of ethics, job postings by district, more teacher resources, TOC resources...keep your eye on this one.
An Earth Adventure - Constructivist Learning
Warner, A. (2009). Creating earth adventures: Self-guided programs to connect children with nature. The Green Teacher, 85, 3-8.
Summary of an outdoor constructivist lesson
An Earth Adventure is a program developed to help youth rediscover the natural environment. An Earth Adventure includes:
-hands-on activities
-an engaging storyline with a final discovery
-time to reflect in nature
-links to local natural history and environmental information
-opportunities to work together
-suggestions to reduce our environmental impact (4)
Essentially, students participate in an adventure through nature. They play a role in the adventure and actively help to progress the storyline. In doing so, the student has a chance to uncover information about the past, present, and future of their story's setting.
A successful Earth Adventure takes practice in program design, "environmental education...creativity, writing skills, and attention to detail" (7). However, the greater the planning and preparation, the greater the success of the program will be.
Why is this article relevant to teaching?
An Earth Adventure is a somewhat alternative approach to teaching than the well known lecture-based style. This approach is based on the constructivist learning theory.
What Wiki Says about constructivist learning theory -
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_%28learning_theory%29)
Dallas's Wiki Summary
- Knowledge and meaning is created from our own experiences.
- Mainly adopted from Jean Piaget's ideas of internalizing knowledge.
- Learning is seen as unique and guided by more knowledgeable individuals.
- The student determines the importance and truth attributed to shared knowledge and is thus responsible for their own learning.
- Subsequently, motivation for learning is internal instead of being applied externally.
- In the classroom, the student and teacher relationship needs to be changed. The teacher becomes a facilitator who asks questions and converses with the student to aid the student in reaching their own understanding of material.
-Meaningful learning comes from social and environmental interaction. Students should not be isolated but should help build the collaborative knowledge of the classroom.
- The teacher, as part of the classroom, does not hold the "correct" viewpoint, but instead holds another viewpoint in which the students can use to solve a problem.
- Diversity in a classroom is important for developing deeper meanings.
- Students need to learn in many different contexts. If the students are expected to learn how to think from a feminist perspective, they need to take part in a feminist activity in which the feminist context is identified and applicable feminist thinking is modeled by the teacher.
- (Side Note) In addition, Albert Bandura would argue that effective modeling requires students to be attentive, motivated, and able to access and retain pertinent information, as well as, be able to present a clear reproduction of the modeling being presented.
- Assessment no longer involves testing, but instead is based on the dialogue between the teacher and student.
- Knowledge is not divided into strict disciplines but instead flows between subjects.
- The classroom should be a challenging environment for the student, and the students should be showing mastery of problem solving and well as the problems involved.
- Constructivist learning is not a free-for-all. There needs to be a balance between the underlying structure which guides the student towards a particular outcome and the student's freedom to pursue the knowledge they find relevant.
Criticism
- How can constructivist approaches work within the Mathematics and Science disciplines?
- What about students who do not have experience in free thought?
- Students learn in different ways, what about those who do not want to participate?
Criticism of Criticism
- Problem-based learning is structured and constructivist.
- Learning should revolve around behaviour and change, not just memorization.
Criticism of Criticism of Criticism
- If you start children with "learning by doing" they will develop slower cognitively.
- Lazy teachers will simply turn discovery learning into just discovery.
- The fundamentals of mathematics cannot be learned through simple discovery.
Criticism^4
- Constructivist learning does not need to abandon structure. However, as youth get older, less and less structure should be provided to the student.
- At the core of constructivist learning is expert guidance.
Cheerio.
Dallas.
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