As the photograph to the right suggests, your knowledge of the world and your ideas about teaching offers a starting point for planning, teaching and assessing student learning.
In this class and continuing next semester in Education 743, you will be designing and creating engaging, memorable learning experiences for students.
This week there are three virtual workshops for you to complete.
Assignment Due August 31 at 4:30 PM
Activity 1: Reviewing and Responding to Curriculum Frameworks
Activity 2: Describe a Day in Your In-Person or Remote Classroom
Activity 3: Lectures, Attention Spans, and Creating Active Learning Experiences
Submit your written responses to Robert Maloy at
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Workshop 1: Reviewing and Responding to Curriculum Frameworks and Learning Standards
This workshop has two parts
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Part 1: Review the Massachusetts History & Social Science Framework
Massachusetts History & Social Science Framework
2018 Massachusetts History & Social Science Curriculum Framework
Write a 2 page Response
- Look through the Massachusetts History & Social Science Curriculum Framework for the grade level or topic area of the classes you will be teaching this year. For example, if you are going to be teaching the first half of United States History, look at U.S. History I.
- Identify and list two learning standards you feel very confident in being ready to teach. Very confident means you can start planning learning experiences students right away, you know where to look for resources, you can discuss the history clearly because you know it well.
- Identify and list two learning standards you feel less confident in being ready to teach. Less confident means you are not ready to start planning learning experiences students, you are uncertain where to look for resources, you cannot discuss the history clearly because you do not know it well.
- Review the resourcesforhistoryteachers page for each of the 2 learning standards you feel less confident in teaching. Identify and list two resources on the page that have provided you with information you can use in designing learning experiences for students.
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Part 2: Review the NCSS Standards, and One Other Framework of Your Choice
National Council for the Social Studies
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: The Themes of Social Studies
United States and World History Standards, University of California, Los Angeles
U. S. History Content Standards for Grades 5-12 & World History Content Standards for Grades 5-12
Civics and Government Standards
National Standards for Civics and Government
Geography
National Geography Standards, National Council for Geographic Education
Economics
National Voluntary Content Standards for Economics
Write a 1-2 page Response
- What are your initial impressions of the NCSS Curriculum Framework and the one other National Framework You Chose to Review?
- What are its strengths for teachers and students?
- What are its shortcomings for teachers and students?
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Workshop 2: Describe a Day in Your In-Person or Remote Classroom |
REVIEW: National test scores or History, Geography and Government from the most recent NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress)
- There is a decrease in scores across all selected percentile levels except the highest.
2018 Test Scores in U.S. History, Geography and Civics at Grade 8
Better Performance on Tests and Improved Learning for All Students Requires Us to Rethink How Teaching Happens in the History/Social Studies Classroom
Infographic by Torrey Trust, Ph.D. is licensed under CC BY SA NC 4.0 | @torreytrust
PDF version available at torreytrust.com/projects/
Describe What Happens in Your Class on a Typical Day
Imagine You Are Preparing to Teach One of the Following Learning Standards:
- Grade 7. Describe the contributions of Roman civilization to architecture, engineering, and technology (e.g., roads, bridges, arenas, baths, aqueducts, central heating, plumbing, and sanitation).
In a 1-2 page response, describe what will be happening during a single instructional period (50 minutes) as you address either the Grade 7 or the U.S. History II topic in your classroom.
You as the teacher can present information to students, but your teacher presentation can be only a short amount of time. You must include materials other than your own voice (primary sources, audio, video, artwork, and student discussions). You must give students opportunities to create knowledge, working individually or in small groups.
How will students present ideas and information to each other?
How will students be working, individually or in groups?
How will students be engaged in designing, building, inventing, discussing, writing, or other ways of expressing themselves creatively?
How will the class create opportunities for students to learn?
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Workshop 3: Lectures, Attention Spans, and Creating Active Learning Experiences
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READ:
Why Do So Many High School History Teachers Lecture So Much? from Grant Wiggins
View
Write a 1 to 2 Page Response to the following SCENARIO:
You are developing learning experiences for students about human origins as part of a world history class. The Massachusetts curriculum standard is
Grade 6/Topic 2/Standard 1:
Describe the great climatic and environmental changes that shaped the earth and eventually permitted the growth of human life.
Lecturing and teacher-centered presentations of information, widely used teaching method in history and social studies classes, promotes learning for only a small percentage of the students. Most students, like most of us, learn new ideas and information when they can try it out for themselves in minds-on, interactive, teaching and learning situations.
Rather than simply present information using PowerPoint and Question & Answer Discussion, you have an opportunity to utilize the following different instructional modes to support how students learn the material:
MUSIC
INTERACTIVE WEBSITE
GRAPH
VIDEO
INSIDE OR OUTSIDE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
MUSIC
Eric Idle of Monty Python's Galaxy Song is a fun romp through the last several million years.
INTERACTIVE WEBSITE
Geologic Time from the University of California Museum of Paleontology is an interactive website on the history of life on earth.
GRAPH
History of the Earth in a 24-hour Clock from the website, Flowing Data.
VIDEO
Evolution of Life on Earth
INSIDE OR OUTSIDE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Go outside on a street in your neighborhood or to a nearby park or field and do a Walk Back in Time.
In this Walk Back in Time, you will be walking the timeline of the appearance of life forms on EARTH, stepping back in time to the very beginnings of what we call the beginning of life.
Choose a cup or some other marker and walk backward from today to the appearance of the first bacterial life.
Here is outline for the walk based on David Drew's book, Millions of Years Ago.
10 million years equal 1 Step
1/2 Step = First Human
6 steps = Last Dinosuar
8 1/2 steps = First Bird
5 steps = First Mammal
4 steps = First Dinosuar
8 steps = First Reptile
5 steps = First Amphibian
13 steps = First Fish
5 steps = First Shellfish
10 steps = First Jellyfish
285 steps = First Bacterial Life
These 356 steps equal 3500 million or 3.5 billion of the 4.5 billion years of the earth's age
View pictures for the walk back in time in 1000 Events That Changed the World, from HistoryStack
- About 3.5 - 3.8 billion years of simple cells (prokaryotes).
- 3 billion years of photosynthesis.
- 2 billion years of complex cells (eukaryotes).
- 1 billion years of multicellular life.
- 600 million years of simple animals.
- 570 million years of arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids and crustaceans).
- 550 million years of complex animals.
- 500 million years of fish and proto-amphibians.
- 475 million years of land plants.
- 400 million years of insects and seeds.
- 360 million years of amphibians.
- 300 million years of reptiles.
- 200 million years of mammals.
- 150 million years of birds.
- 130 million years of flowers.
- 65 million years since the non-avian dinosaurs died out.
- 2.5 million years since the appearance of Homo sapiens.
- 200,000 years since the appearance of modern humans.
- 25,000 years since Neanderthals died out.
Write one or two paragraphs explaining which of the five instructional modes or what combination of all five instructional modes - MUSIC; INTERACTIVE WEBSITE; GRAPH; VIDEO; PHYSICAL ACTIVITY -do you think would be most effective in helping students learn and remember the material and why?
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Overflow/ not part of the assignment
Who Needs Lectures? Vermont Medical School Chooses Other Ways to Teach, The Boston Globe (February 1, 2017)
Respond
Why do you think student learning in history, government, and geography as measured by these tests is not improving, and even declining for some student groups?
Is it that the test does not measure what students know?
Is it how the subjects are being taught in schools?
Is it that students just do not care?
How will student learning be different in your classroom? That is, how are you going to make history, government and geography come alive for students and inspire them to learn?
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The Science of Attention: How To Capture and Hold the Attention of Easily Distracted Students
Michael Yell on Making Every History Lecture Engaging from TeachingHistory.org
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