This is my first blog post for Social Studies 307!
I am so excited for this course. I am ready to be challenged, work hard, and practice beneficial work that will be impacting for my future classroom. In the past month, we have jumped right in and already started working hard and at full speed. I have had to be very careful about time management because this class does have a large workload. Working ahead will keep me up to speed and aware of what is going on well before due dates approach.
Starting this class my first thought was, "Why are social studies important in an elementary classroom?"
I did not really know much this question before really taking time to think about it and also do a little bit of outside research. Social studies are important for so many reasons. Social studies help kids to be educated with the world around them and in turn helps them grow into functioning members of society because they are well-equipped with all of the information they need to know. They cover a wide variety of topics such as politics, sociology, history, archeology, economics, and law. In one of our first class meetings, we talked about the difference between a topic and a concept. A concept is something that is universal,timeless, and can be "transferable." For example, the if I was to concept of soil, the topic could be the environment. Teaching with a concept-based curriculum helps kids learn how to better process information and apply it where necessary, instead of just memorizing straight facts and regurgitating them on a test. I think that concept-based teaching really goes along with the NCTCS Teaching Standards. Specifically I think it relates well to standard 3B. Standard 3B says that "teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty" and that they make it relevant to their students. "Concept-based instruction is driven by “big ideas” rather than subject-specific content. By leading students to consider the context in which they will use their understanding, concept-based learning brings “real world” meaning to content knowledge and skills." I really want to incorporate this kind of learning into my classroom because even though I have not been taught in this way yet, reading about it and incorporating it into my unit plan is already making so much sense and making lesson plans seem so much more beneficial to the learner.
I think concept based curriculum is especially important in social studies.
https://worldview.unc.edu/files/2013/07/Getting-the-Big-Idea-Handout.pdf
Concept based instruction helps students develop more critical thinking at increasingly higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy....This means they are thinking more deeply and truly learning instead of just memorizing!
Wisdom From Experience:
The Wisdom From experience project has really been a great learning experience for me. Getting advice from real teachers who are actually in the field with real experience is so much more help than just doing online research. I truly feel like I have seen so many things that I want to incorporate into my future classroom and found so much inspiration in interviewing these teachers. I ended up doing 4 interviews total because I was not getting responses back very quickly so I was getting nervous. Sometimes studying all the time and working can get dry and boring but being in a classroom and taking to passionate teachers really makes me feel like this reality is happening and that my dream of becoming a teacher can truly be a reality if I am passionate and work hard.
I agree with you that what we have learned of concepts and the use of them go hand in hand with NCTCS 3b. Using concepts is a great way to make learning relevant to students. These big ideas cover many different things and because they transfer so well students can make so many different connections with them. I was wondering could clarify your thoughts when you use soil as a concept and environment as the topic though. I feel like these would be switched, if anything.
ReplyDeleteCarol,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you are able to make connections in our class so far. Be sure you are making those deep connections to the NCTCS and specifically applying all you can to your future classroom. You are right - the structure of knowledge is a great way to think about the instruction you will need to provide to your students.