EED 465 Interview And Investigate Standards

Throughout the master 's program, I have learned from a variety of classes about educational reforms, shifts in pedagogical practices, technology integration and the role of American education among other things. Authentic intellectual work has an important role to play in all of those areas. In BEF 503, we studied reform movements during the Progressive Era which called for school centralization, curriculum differentiation, and social reform through education. Those reform movements laid the foundation for future educational changes, and many of the things that drive politics in education today saw their beginnings during the Progressive Era. Even today, educational reformers are pushing for a change in educational standards and practices through common core. The biggest affect the common core has had on social studies is through the literacy standards, and the implementation of authentic intellectual work could increase the rigor, as well as student engagement in the social studies classroom. We also studied the National Assessment of Educational Progress which is a national report of student progress over time. Researchers argue that students who engage in authentic intellectual work show an increase in their standardized test scores. Therefore, students can only benefit from authentic intellectual work if implemented and assessed correctly. Since authentic intellectual work provides students with the opportunity to present information in a variety of

It is important to incorporate grade-level appropriate Social Studies books in a classroom library because it is essential for students in all grades to understand the history of our country and how it came to be. As Americans, it is important to know about critical moments in history that created this country. It is also important to include Social Studies books in your classroom library because it is being more common that Social Studies is not being taught enough or even at all in some schools. Often, teachers do not have a Social Studies block and it is important that the students still get a Social Studies education and one way to do that is to provide reading books for them to read as a way to learn this information. One argument against including this book in ones classroom library could be that since there is not enough time during the day when students read Social Studies books in the classroom library they will have questions because they are not familiar with the content. Sadly, because there is not enough time in the day teachers can not afford the time do devote to teaching Social Studies in fear that the students will fall behind in topics like Math or

Social studies ultimately about civic education, or civic competence. The idea being that all students need to have a certain amount of knowledge, skills, and democratic dispositions to be an active participant in their community (Chapin, 2013). The Arizona standards are quiet complex and thorough when it comes to social studies in the fourth grade, but only in some areas. Asking Mr. Aleman a few questions regarding his personal feelings on social studies as a content area, I was ill-prepared for the honesty of his responses. First, was the question of whether or not social studies was a subject that students needed. This teacher felt that social studies was extremely important because it was a way to connect students with their past and cultural identity. I think that this is reflective of the Arizona state standards, which emphasis learning about the history of civilizations in Arizona and the Southwest. While the focus is on Arizona, it stresses the

As I read and thought about the Social Studies Standards, I considered looking into the standards for First grade. I think that children in this grade level are at a good age to better understand Social Studies. I do realize that teaching Social Studies starts from pre-school however it can be further be understood by older aged students. The topics that are covered according to the Standards first grade should introduce settlements and cultures, civilizations, and different places around the world. In the standards for first grade there are five strands.

In addition, Ms. Preston-Grimes, discusses how the integration of social studies should be “to create children who will be able to use the disciplines to advance democratic thought and life.” The author goes on to explain that is about creating different ways of thinking and not just focusing on bits of information. In addition, social studies should not simply be about learning small pieces during a reading lesson. Ms. Preston-Grimes stresses that true integration of social studies allows students develop thought process which are applicable outside the classroom. It allows students to develop inquiry skills which lend themselves to excelling in other areas and real-world experiences. The disciplines, the author writes about, help students understand their world and investigating ways of solving problems. The term stealthy integration is mentioned in the article and defined in a way that is remarkably similar to what is often happening in the classroom. This stealthy approach sends the message that social studies is secondary to reading or writing and carries less value. Additionally, this stealthy approach is not effective and not healthy. Healthy integration involves the students gaining greater insight and developing an understanding of the world around. This type of integration involves primary and secondary sources, connections, reading and writing as part of the inquiry. Finally, the article reiterates the point that all areas of study are important and teachers must find a way of teaching social studies without fracturing the subject

All learners are presently enrolled in honors level reading or English courses in addition to the focus social studies courses. Students must also be familiar with concepts such as main idea, summarizing, outlining, cause and effect, historical time flow, and generalizations.

During my observation I had the opportunity to look at the social studies textbook that the 7th grade class was learning from. The textbook was Texas History by Houghton, Mifflin, and Harcourt. Mr. Bochniak told the students that they will be learning about US History when they go into the 8th grade. Teaching students about Texas history included but not limited to; Natural Texas and Its People, The Spanish in Texas, Prosperity and the Great Depression, The Modern Era, Texas Government, Local Government and Citizenship, and so much more. This textbook provided timelines, pictures of people and places, key vocabulary, and TEKS covered for each unit and chapter within the textbook. The students are able to explore graphs, timelines, and maps of destinations that were traveled and different wars that occurred. At the end of each chapter there were questions and activities to check students understanding and comprehension along with a chapter review to draw a conclusion on what they just read. The teacher could use think-pair-share and group discussion strategies to review each chapter with key objectives that were read and discussed to draw upon a chapter conclusion to check for

When I began my high school career, I had the opportunity to be exposed to a range of social studies courses in and outside of my high school, all of which have reinforced my interest in history, and have provided me with a different perspective on history. For instance, during my junior

Social studies covers many different topics that each contain an enormous amount of information. Educators are responsible for determining what topics to cover, how much information is to be taught on each topic, and how to go about teaching the information. There are several different approaches that a teacher can take. Teachers can teach out of a textbook, prepare the material themselves, or go outside of the classroom and purchase a commercial package to teach from. Some schools also use the integrated approach to teaching. Every approach to teaching has advantages

On the article, The Impact of NCLB and Accountability on Social Studies: Teacher Experiences and Perceptions about Teaching Social Studies by: Lisa Winstead she states that schools do not give enough care and importance to social studies classes. She examines and interviews 9 school teachers to get their view and to know how do they implement/ tried to implement social studies in their classrooms. Winstead begins stating that after the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act there was a shift on what was fundamental for children to learn and what was not. The NCLB act put emphasis on subjects such as language arts and math and left out social studies as a non-important subject. Since Social Studies is not assessed and is not measure by how well students perform on it, schools, administrators, and teachers dedicate about 20% of the week in a social studies teaching material. Sometimes teachers try to incorporate social studies material into other classes, they try to do interdisciplinary lessons, so in that way they will teach more social studies content blending it with subjects such as language arts. Moreover, the teachers used for this study feel like teaching more social studies will help students develop their voice as well as gain knowledge about how to negotiate their social and political worlds through participating in social studies classes and discussions (Winstead, 2011). At the same time, Social studies classes can also help ELL students because it can bring connections

As I read Cowhey’s book, it struck me how important of a subject social studies truly is in an Elementary School curriculum. In today’s society, there seems to be a growing consensus present that the only subjects that ‘matter’, and which should take precedence for teachers’ are math and science. One reason for this, appears to be the fact that our economy is becoming more and more global, leading to an extremely competitive labor market. Math and science, are seen as the subjects in which employers are most interested in, and thus will give our children a leg up over the competition. What this line of thinking overlooks, is valuable lessons and concepts present within social studies. As Cowhey demonstrates, children can learn about civic

The educator resource I chose to review is the website Edsitement (https://edsitement.neh.gov/subject/history-social-studies). I chose this website, because it felt very user friendly. This website is designed for kindergarten through high school students. User could choose either K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 grade levels, or more than one. Under each grade level, included numerous lesson plans to choose from. I chose grade level range 3-5. Numerous lesson plans populated covering several social studies disciplines, such as history, government, and geography. Included in these lesson plans are several options to choose from, such as readings, questions, maps, sources, and much more.

“A fundamental purpose of education in the United States is to prepare young people for civic life, and social studies is especially valuable for that purpose.”

To study Social Studies is to study the tapestry of humanity. Every thread is a different life that has its own unique color and texture. Each thread affects not only the threads that it comes into contacts with, but the entire tapestry. The knots of war and violence, the beauty of perseverance, and the joys freedom all weave together to form a never ending fabric that joins the past, present, and future. It is only through acknowledging and understanding the complexity of this tapestry that one can learn and teach Social Studies. The National Council of the Social Studies has created ten themes which when followed demonstrate understanding of the topic and all of its complexities. Evidence of my understanding of these concepts are displayed

This problem stems from two issues: 1) education of preservice teachers and 2) emphasis on high stakes testing. First, elementary education programs focus on the modern two cores, English and mathematics, paying only lip service to science and social studies. This leads to teachers becoming unconformable with the content in these two subjects. This level of uncertainty produces a focus away from social studies and a focus on the other two contents. The second reason for the marginalization of social Studies in the elementary classroom is high stakes testing that places great importance on mathematics and English, but barely recognizes the role social studies plays in a student’s education. Teachers recognize this discrepancy and naturally chose to downplay the role of any subject other than English and mathematics. After all, they will be graded based on how their students do on the standardized test that places little focus on social studies.