What I have learned in the summer session…

This summer session has flown by, but in my opinion, has been the best learning experience.  In undergrad we had what we call our Methods courses on how to teach the core subjects with aspects of integration. This semester allowed me to further my knowledge on integration as well as the best practices in how to do so along with gaining knowledge about the Common Core Standards and Essential Standards.

I think it is only fitting that I begin this blog posting with what I learned about reflective assessment (from Daniels and Bizar, Chapter 7).  Daniels and Bizar (2005) state that students should become “self-monitoring, self-regulating individuals who take charge of their own learning, set ambitious goals, monitor their own progress, keep their own records, adjust their efforts, make good decisions, and become part of a collaborative community that grows by the means of healthy and measured mutual feedback” (p. 222).  Not in just this semester but now, halfway through out graduate career I believe that most, if not all of us have achieved all of these ideas.  Therefore reflecting on myself this semester I believe that I have learned to my fullest potential. Of course, from this chapter I was also able to further my knowledge on different types of assessment and how they should be used. 

The most important Chapter that I read was Chapter 8 Integrative Units in Daniels and Bizar (2005), which to most will make sense since the basis of our class was on integration. It is important to remember that when teacher’s use the “separate subject approach” it leaves students with “a disconnected view of knowledge and fails to reflect on the way that people attack real problems in the real world” (Daniels and Bizar, 2005, p. 270).  The integrated units at the end of the semester were a good depiction of the knowledge we gained of how to integrate and make lessons meaningful for students.  It would be easy to write and tell you all of the things that I learned this semester but it is better to “see” them in our integrated unit “Catching the Train to Integrated Curriculum” based on Historic Murfreesboro and the Murfreesboro Railroad.

FINISHED!!!

It felt amazing to come home after work today and have our integrate unit complete! Looking at with with fresh eyes today allowed me to make a few edits, but other than that we're ready to present it tomorrow.  I believe that that integrated united is a great representation of our semester as it allowed up to apply our knowledge into something useful for other teachers.  Although reading and discussing the information is adequate for learning it, but being able to apply it makes mastery!

I look forward to seeing all of your unit tomorrow and hope that your enjoy ours! By clicking here you can view our "Catch The Train to Integrated Curriculum" website that was based off F. Stephenson's book The Murfreesboro Railroad.

Reflective Assessment

Chapter Seven of Daniels and Bizar is about assessment which is a huge topic in education and a word that makes me cringe.  I personally reflect on my assessments which were typically paper based and multiple choice. Personally I am not a good test taker; I over analyze and second guess myself.  I have always preferred essay based tests or portfolios (letting me tell the assessor what I know). I am not a far of standardized test as I do not believe one test can tell all that a student knows.  I wish that students could build portfolios over the year as their assessment.  I also believe that teachers should assess students frequently and using a variety of methods.

I found this image and thought it was definitely fitting!

Authentic Experiences

Chapter Six of Daniels and Bizar is about authentic experiences.  An idea presented in the chapter is "Me Portfolios." The idea is to have students bring in items that represent them and share with the class. I think this is a stellar idea to use in the beginning of the year to allow students to get to know one another.  After reading the section it made me think of a lesson I was teaching during my student teaching on whales.  The students read about whales, saw pictures and we discussed them but none of them had actually 'experienced' being near a whale.  I had the idea to bring in pictures of me at Sea World with whales on Friday as a fun activity.  It amazed me how much more knowledge the student gained by seeing and hearing my story about the whales at Sea World.
My next thought as a spin of off the "Me Portfolios" is to have the students share "me" stories throughout the year to supplement lessons.  As we all know we must know our students and that is definelty a component of this idea, but you can also have students brainstorm experiences and things they like at the beginning of the year to get to know them and use the information for this purpose.  After collecting the experiences and things students like the teacher can try to correlate one experience of every student to a weekly lesson.  (I hope that makes sense to you guys!)

North Carolina Museum of Art's ArtNC Website Lesson Plan

Using the Social Studies Common Core Standard 3.C.1.1 Compare languages, foods and traditions of various groups living in local and regional communities I would implement a lesson integrating art, language arts, science and social studies. This idea stemmed from the ArtNC activity Crops Here and There.   Their lesson idea it the following:

Discuss the types of crops farmed in your region. How are these crops different from those grown in Mali, such as millet? What factors affect the type of crops that grow in a particular region? (weather, soil, economy) As an extension, compare the types of farming techniques and tools used by American and African farmers. Consider how technology has changed the way we farm today.

 I would have the students review a work of art compared to what they know and have observed in our community to compare and contrast and narrate what is going on in regards to the local community and the work of art. They would use their prior knowledge and visual clues to infer why plants best grow in the community assuming students have already learned about soil which is part of the third grade curriculum.  Using ArtNC's Related Links I found  the following work of art "North Carolina Farm Painting":

 

The students should be able to see that this artwork is a scene near the mountains and should be able to compare and contrast it to the coastal plain where our community is located. 

Incorporating Service Learning

I chose Strategy 10 to adapt to a lesson. Although I am not in the classroom I decided I would use my previous experience and knowledge to adapt the lesson. I conducted my student teaching in a third grade classroom in North Carolina where the Standard Course of Study for Social Studies focuses on Citizenship.  Strategy 10, Incorporating Service Learning, is about having students start a community service project which would be a great strategy to tie into citizenship. This strategy would be an asset to objective 1.01 identify and demonstrate characteristics of responsible citizenship and explain how citizen participation can impact changes within a community.  Knowing the school I was in as well there are character traits that were emphasized every month that could be tied into the strategy as which traits are exemplified in chosen community service projects. Given that the character traits are taught throughout the grades this strategy could be used at any point during the year when objective 1.01 was covered.  I would like to think that it would be done at the beginning of the year so that students would have the chance to actively particiapet in their service project for an extended amount of time and be able to see the difference they have made. 

("Task 2"  Unit II of Melber & Hunter's Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies - Strategy 10)

Teaching Social Studies for Understanding

Chapter four discusses topics, themes, concepts and big ideas which are all way of planning and teaching a unit. In social studies topics are clear and concise ideas that define a unit. Topics are usually people, places or events with specific facts on that particular topic. Themes is a topical way to teach social studies with several topics under one theme. Themes allow for integration across the curriculum and allow students to see connections between subjects. Concepts are like themes however they focus on social studies and not integration across the curriculum. Concepts focus on ideas, facts and examples that allow teachers to activate and reinforce prior knowledge all while allowing for connections. The Big Idea is "important, engaging, thought-provoking, and transferable within, across and beyond the curriculum. In our integrated units I believe that building our integrated unit around a theme will best suit the purpose for out activity.   Using the idea of themes will allow us to integrate other subjects and be able to pull in other ideas rather than just focus on one topic.




("Task 1" from Teaching Social Studies A Literacy-Based Approach by Schell and Fisher)

Scanning and Clustering

Since we are beginning our integrated lessons I thought it would be appropriate to share ideas and facts about scanning and clustering standards for integration according to Drake and Burns (2004). As stated by the authors the scan and cluster process is "crucial for effectively integrating a standards based curriculum" (p. 59). To begin the process one must scan vertically through the subject areas to know what students have studied in the past and what they will study in the future. The next step is to "chunk" the standards together. The authors say that the KNOW/DO/BE bridge is an "interpretive filter" of the curriculum which is essentially scanning and clustering.  I found our chapter online and thought I'd share the link so if you would like to print the charts and keep them for reference: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103011/chapters/Using-Standards-to-Integrate-the-Curriculum.aspx

Primary Sources: Ideas from a Colonial America lesson plan video

When reading about primary sources I remembered a video I watched in undergrad. The video was on using primary sources a fifth grade In this video Kathleen Waffle a fifth grade teacher at John Muir Elementary School in San Bruno, California is teaching on unit on Colonial America (predominantly Colonia Virginia).  In the beginning of the video her students were asked why it is important to learn to learn about Colonial Times.  One student’s answer was that it is important to learn what they did back then (referring to Colonial Times) and why because it can help us today

The focus of the video was on Primary Sources.  A primary source is defined as “a document, speech, or other sort of evidence written, created or otherwise produced during the time under study. Primary sources offer an inside view of a particular event” (Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, 2008).  The focus of the activity was to have the students understand the connection between the past and the present by connecting Colonial Times to modern day America.  First the Ms. Waffle had the students analyze an advertisement in the Virginia Gazette (a paper from Colonia Virginia in the 1770’s).  One particular advertisement was from a silversmith; Ms. Waffle had the students focus on that advertisement.  She told the students that being a silversmith was a trade during colonial times and there were about 76 trades during those times.  She had the students, as a class, complete a graphic organizer comparing the Colonial advertisement with advertisements today.

The second part of the lesson was to have the students analyze a contract between a master and an apprentice during Colonial times and relate it to modern day.  The students were to ready the contract and with a partner translate it into modern terms that are easier for the students to understand.  Ms. Waffle stated that before starting a lesson that had unfamiliar terms to the students she would review the vocabulary prior to the lesson (which in this case she did) or have a word bank provided for the students.  She stated that it is important, however, to have challenges for the students because she feels that when they are challenged they learn more.

Ms. Waffle wanted the students to have empathy for business owners today and from the past.  For the final assessment she had the students write an advertisement for a trade of Colonial Times and compose a contract between a master and an apprentice. The students were also required to give an oral presentation as well as have Colonial Day where they cooked food from Colonial Times and some students dressed up in outfits from this time.

This was video was a great tool to give insight to primary sources.  I believe that after watching the video it is key to do more research on primary sources to fully understand them as well as the difference between primary and secondary sources. The website is video is:  http://www.learner.org/libraries/socialstudies/3_5/waffle/index.html. For further information on primary sources you can visit the following website that I used to define a primary source:  http://www.knowledgecenter.unr.edu/instruction/help/primary.html .

Integrated Curriculum -- What I think about this way of teaching...

After reading Chapter 2 in Susan M.  Drake and Rebecca C. Burns Meeting Standards Through Integrated Curriculum I began to feel even more convicted in my views on integrating curriculum.  I first think it's important to define integrated curriculum. Our book pointed out that there are three approaches to integration: multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. They are defined as follows by Drake and Burns:

• multidisciplinary - one uses the disciplines as focus and standards are organized around a theme
• interdiscplinary - ones uses common standards accross the curriculum to form lessons
• transdisciplinary - ones uses students questions and censers to create the lesson. 

Now having defined integrated curriculum through its approaches one can can conclude that, put simply, integrated curriculum is including more than one 'curriculum' in a lesson. I 100% agree that no lesson should be taught without the integration of curriculum. With that said I do want to remind you of the three approaches to integration.  We constantly remind ourselves that learning must be meaningful to students and we all want to make it relative, so what not make one thing relate to another and integrate our lessons?

Coming out of undergraduate and going straight to graduate school without 'joining the profession' puts me in a different category, for lack of better words, than my peers.  In one hand I came out having it drilled in that I should always integrate curriculum, but I hear so much of how it is so hard when teacher are driven to "teach to the test." I believe that teachers should integrate curriculum as much as possible to make sure lessons are relevant to students and they can make connections in their learning. 

Introduction

Hello All!

This blog will be used to reflect on topics from EDUC 520 Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies. I hope that through blogging I will be able to gain insight on topics in the course as well as tips to use for the future when I am in the classroom.

I will be discussing ideas and citing from the following texts:

Daniel, H. & Bizar, M. (2005).  Teaching the best practice way: Methods that matter, k-12.  Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

 Drake, S.M.  & Burns, R.C. (2004). Meeting Standards through integrated curriculum.  Alexandria, VA:  ASCD. 

Melber, L.M., & Hunter, A. (2009). Integrating language arts and social studies: 25 strategies for k-8 inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Schell, E. & Fisher, D. (2007). Teaching social studies: A literacy–based approach.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Pearson/Prentice Hall.