SOCIAL STUDIES FOCUSAt this point in the semester, you have been learning the components and importance of social studies in ECE in TCH 277. Additionally, you have considered when and how you will conduct your social studies lesson in your clinical classroom and may have observed social studies practices there. Draw on this knowledge and these experiences in this discussion. What have you noticed about social studies instruction and assessment in your setting?
- When does it take place? Does it take place? Think critically.
- What does it encompass?
- During social studies instruction, what does your CT do/ say?
- What do students do/ say? How do they respond?
- What are your opinions/ feelings about this?
- How does what you observe about social studies at this site connect with past clinical experiences/ early childhood theories/ and or social studies practices you have been learning about at ISU?
- How does knowing this inform what you will do when teaching and assessing social studies (either this semester, next semester in student teaching, and/or next year)?
After being in my clinical four times now, I have realized I know very little about how Social Studies usually runs in the classroom. As many of you know, I had a sub the first two times I was at Sheridan. I taught Social Studies the day I met my teacher, and today was my first formal lesson in Social Studies. I learned that Sheridan uses Second Step, which is a scripted lesson template. It uses script, puppets, and scenarios with the children. Since I have never seen Mrs. Bohac teach this subject in person, I was nervous to begin with no prior experience ever. Usually, this subject takes place in the morning around 9:30ish. The first time I taught a lesson, I did it with puppets and completely scripted. I was unprepared, and very out of place. Puppets, in my opinion, was not the way to teach social skills to Kindergarteners. I believe they need real life experience and hands on activities to get them thinking about situations. Mrs. Bohac says that prior to me being there, Social Studies has not taken place since November. I think that the students are getting used to me teaching and getting used to my style of teaching. Since I was not comfortable with the puppets and script, I have decided to incorporate video clips, hands on activities, and class engagement. I think this will allow students to bounce ideas off of each other and hopefully learn a lot more from the lessons. I will be taking over Social Studies for the remainder of the semester, and I will be writing a lesson plan each week to show Mrs. Bohac what I am doing. I find this a bit intimidating since I have not seen her teach the subject before, but also a bit relieved because I am able to make it my own. The students seemed to respond a lot better to these activities, such as the video, game, and group discussions than when I did the lesson the previous week. I feel like Kindergarteners definitely need to learn these skills and about these topics so that they can handle situations better. Since I have never seen Social Studies before, besides one lesson right before Thanksgiving in a second grade classroom, I am learning by doing. I see how different Social Studies is between grades, while Kindergarteners are learning social skills, second graders are learning about explorers to America. From what I have seen in my clinical, I do not think it relates to what we are learning about in 277. Social Studies should be a social thing, where students work together in small groups, and in my classroom it is not. I also think that the lessons should be brought up by relevancy to what is happening in the class, not going strictly by units. I believe we should be taking advantage of teachable moments and using that to plan lessons. When I am teaching further into the semester, I know that I will continue to feed off my ideas from today and make it an engaging lesson. I want students to come away from the lesson knowing skills they can use in real life. I do not want that knowledge put in the back of their mind or them forgetting about it. That is another reason I believe that the lessons should be taught from experience in the classrooms. I will also be better prepared next semester for student teaching and the future since I will be teaching these lessons every Wednesday so I hope that it will help me to become a stronger teacher.
Below I have included my ideas for my lesson on Caring and Helping coming up the week after spring break!
http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/2820.html
I thought I would read the story to them. Ask the students what ways Horton helped the whos, why he cared about them, etc. I would bring in a premade flower like the book and ask the students to come up with ways to protect their friends who are on that flower, instead of them making their own. Any suggestions would be awesome!
Jordan, it was great reading and catching up with how you are doing at your clinical site! I’m so excited for this opportunity that you have to implement social studies every week in the classroom. I think it’s great that you have challenged yourself with making the lessons fit your teaching style while keeping the students learning in mind. I know that this will be a rewarding learning experience for you and the students (your CT too!) and that this is preparing you for student teaching.
ReplyDeleteIt is disappointing that your CT has not been keeping up with social studies instruction in her classroom. I can tell that you have been doing a lot of reflecting on what you can do while you are there and in your own classroom. I especially liked when you said, “I also think that the lessons should be brought up by relevancy to what is happening in the class, not going strictly by units. I believe we should be taking advantage of teachable moments and using that to plan lessons.” I think this is a great plan to implement in your classroom someday. Although I do think that this takes even more planning and also being very aware of what your students are saying and doing. I love your idea for your next lesson by the way! Maybe you could write their ideas down on a poster board that has the flower on it? I think the discussion would stay more organized than just brainstorming out loud. Sounds like a really fun lesson!
I think your blog post about your social studies clinical experience was inspiring, and I enjoyed reading it. Even though your CT doesn't focus as much on social studies, I think it's awesome that you have taken an interest into teaching your students the importance of this discipline. I also like that you're focusing on higher concepts, such as social responsibility. Social studies is not just history or geography, it incorporates a lot of different subjects, like government and civil duty. I also liked when you said, "I want students to come away from the lesson knowing skills they can use in real life," because I think that is one of the most important things in the classroom. Things that are only used for standardized test scores will not be useful in the future for these kids. Nowadays, it seems that a lot of teachers only care about how their class performs on tests, as opposed to what they’re learning to have a successful life in the future. I also liked your Dr. Seuss lesson plan idea, because who doesn’t like Dr. Seuss? Like Leah said, I think writing down the kids’ ideas will help the discussion stay focused. Maybe you could let them write their ideas on the board too, to keep them actively involved and not just sitting. You could also have them talk in groups to foster discussion between themselves. Just ideas though! :) I like what you’ve come up with!
ReplyDeleteJordan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing in such detail what you have and haven't seen regarding SS thus far. I would love to know how your opinions of this have changed since you have taught some of these lessons! I agree with Leah and Yeseul that it is sad that SS in its entirety has not been more of a priority in this classroom. The SS are all around us, all of the time, so teaching with and about them does exactly what you find meaningful--it brings the relevance into our teaching! Thinking about your daily schedule at this site, what might you change/ alter to make SS/ science be something on the schedule every day? What would have to give?
:)Kira