TE 401: Teaching Subject Matter to Diverse Learners, Social Studies September 4, 2008 The Purposes, Content, and Representation of Social Studies

Agenda Consent forms Reflections and Questions The Hook: Social Studies Memories What is social studies? A history of social studies For next time Teaching for understanding

Consent Forms Please complete the surveys on discussion. WRITE YOUR NAME ON THE TOP OF THE SURVEY These are private and I will not see the results of this survey (your individual responses) until after the course is over.

Reflections and Questions Pedagogical purposes of a walk around? What questions do you have from the syllabus?

Digital Storytelling PhotoStory 3

The Hook: Social studies experiences Two-minute pause - write about the following experiences: 1.Your favorite memory of social studies and why? 2. Your least favorite social studies memory and why?

The Hook: Social studies experiences Connect this hook activity with number smart learners: Find commonalities Create categories (i.e. projects, memorizing facts/dates, field trips, etc.) Graph Analyze data for patterns

BREAK

A Current Events Minute Think back to all that happened in the world and the United States since last Thursday... What, most likely, would elementary kids talk about or discuss related to these current events? How do we, as teachers, take these discussions and ground them into the purposes of social studies?

For next time... Brophy and Alleman, Ch. 4, 14 Weinstein and Mignano, Chapter 7(This is the classroom management textbook from the science section.) If you have not already done so, watch/follow the remaining part of the Republican National Convention

The State of Social Studies: A National Random Survey of Elementary and Middle School Social Studies Teachers * Purpose: Gain some level of understanding of what exactly is going on nationally with social studies in elementary and middle schools. Focus: Public elementary and middle schools where formal history and civic education allegedly begins. Data collection: Nationally representative telephone survey of 1,051 randomly selected second-, fifth-, and eighth-grade social studies teachers through the University of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis Results:  (1) Less importance placed on social studies than most other subjects  (2) 2nd and 5th grade teachers spend little classroom time on social studies  (3) acceptance of cultural diversity most important reason for teaching social studies. * Source: Leming, James S.; Ellington, Lucien; Schug, Mark, Social Education, v70 n5 p Sep 2006 (Journal from NCSS)Ellington, LucienSchug, Mark

Purpose of Social Studies Social studies helps answer the essential question: What does it mean to be human? Chapter 1 of Brophy and Alleman supports this notion: - Uncovering powerful ideas about basic human conditions - What else? What are competing visions about what social studies should be? (p.5)

Social studies bears a special responsibility to citizenship education... helping young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. Brophy & Alleman,

Social Studies is citizenship knowledge skills values

Purpose of Social Studies NCSS Website - erful/ erful/ Document title: A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy But, what does powerful teaching look like? And, how does a person plan for it?

Background of Social Studies Chapter 1 of Brophy and Alleman NCSS formed in 1921 SS replaces “stand-alone” history and geography curriculums

Question: How does the NCSS make this definition meaningful? The NCSS divides social studies into 10 strands. The strands are thematic in nature and provide the basis of social studies.

How NCSS defines social studies Social studies is the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences. The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.

NCSS Thematic Strands I. Culture II. Time, Continuity, and Change III. People, Places, and Environments IV. Individual Development and Identity V. Individuals, Groups, and Institutions VI. Power, Authority, and Governance VII. Production, Distribution, and Consumption VIII. Science, Technology, and Society IX. Global Connections X. Civic Ideals and Practices What disciplines correspond with each of these strands?

Scope and Sequence of Social Studies in the Elementary Schools The question is how to place thematic strands and disciplines in a logical sequence for the grades Currently in U.S. public schools, “expanding environments” provides the sequence

K: Me Expanding Environments

K: Me 1 st Grade: Family and School

K: Me 1 st Grade: Family and School 2 nd Grade: Local Communities

K: Me 1 st Grade: Family and School 2 nd Grade: Local Communities 3 rd Grade: Regional Communities

K: Me 1 st Grade: Family and School 2 nd Grade: Local Communities 3 rd Grade: Regional Communities 4 th Grade: States

K: Me 1 st Grade: Family and School 2 nd Grade: Local Communities 3 rd Grade: Regional Communities 4 th Grade: States 5 th Grade: the United States

K: Me 1 st Grade: Family and School 2 nd Grade: Local Communities 3 rd Grade: Regional Communities 4 th Grade: States 5 th Grade: the United States 6 th Grade: Western Cultures* Sometimes Eastern Hemisphere

Criticisms of the Expanding Environments Approach? (B&A, p ) Boring; covering material with which children are already familiar Traditional and focused on stereotypical middle- class experiences and values Does not allow children to experience the long- ago and far-away Alternatives? E.D. Hirsch and cultural literacy; Brophy and Alleman’s “cultural universals” However…EE is not going away

Expanding Environments Currently in Michigan: Michigan grade level content expectations (GLCE’s) do not follow the traditional expanding environments curriculum any more since. Michigan is now in third grade U.S. History in fourth grade Integrated U.S. History in fifth grade This is the first year teachers are implementing the new curriculum so it might be somewhat chaotic this year as teachers work out the transition.

Teaching is like an iceberg…

There’s the visible…and the invisible…

Teaching ( What’s visible in the classroom during a social studies lesson?) Teaching ( What’s not visible in the classroom) 1.What problems/challenges teachers face in planning to teach social studies 2.What teachers must know and be able to do in order to plan, design, and enact lessons that help students learn the social studies 3.How teachers make informed, professional decisions about what they teach and how they teach, and what methods they use to determine the impact of their teaching

How does Brophy and Alleman recommend trying to make social studies “powerful”? (pg ) Meaningful Integrative Value-Based Active Challenging What do each of these mean?

Metacognitive Moment: Shape it up 1 Question that circles around my brain 2 Goals that squared with me 3 points that I will remember