Exploration - Students and Myself



We are reaching the end of our first unit in Mr. Scott's class. Students are currently wrapping up a short project where they researched two or more explorers from the Colonial Era. They were instructed to find information such as where they were from, when they took their voyage, who sponsored their journey, where they landed and explored, and what they found, among other criteria.

 

Upon completion of their research, they created identification cards with some of this information, photographs, and other graphics through Piccollage, where they then would upload them to Schoology to be assessed. As a class, they created this Exploration Timeline (pictured below) on the window. They created QR codes that linked to their Piccollage creation so they can be scanned and brought directly to their identification card.

 

 

 

My classroom time has been a bit limited lately because of time changes for my class to spend more time unit planning. It has been valuable to have that extra time, but I'm seeing a little less of the students in my classroom as a result. Part of my time in my classroom on Wednesday was spent preparing for a lesson I will be teaching next week. I am excited, but nervous to teach. I think the big juggling act is figuring out how to frame my lesson (on the Salem Witch Trials) within the larger unit as it is coming to an end, while also keeping it in line with some of the main themes of the unit. I'm currently finding primary source documents for students to analyze. I am also toying with the idea of having students look at a couple different theories for the causes of the behavior of individuals in Salem during that year and at the end of the lesson, express their thoughts on what they think is the most significant cause of the odd behavior.

 

My thoughts have been a bit jumbled for the last few days as I think about my practicum and where I'm going next. A lot of this will straighten out as I get my lesson plan a little more solid in the next 24 hours. We'll see what happens next!





Reading about Elections

Weekly Reading:
"(Not so) Unprecedented: Media Analysis of the 2016 Presidential Race and its Historical Precedents." by Sox Sperry. Social Education 80(4).
"Political Polling in Past and Present." by Syd Golston. Social Education 80(4).

 My weekly reading was focused on pieces that could help me dive into my unit plan. It may seem a little out of place, but by reading a few articles surrounding my unit, it gave me new ideas and new ways of thinking about my direction. For that reason, I'm really thankful that I decided to dive into reading that was related to media and elections. I feel like I've made a lot of progress as a result of that decision.

Sperry's article is directly related to the concepts I am going to study and my central theme, the media. Upon reading it, I was really excited when I noticed that there was a graphic titled "Six key concepts in media analysis" and that these concepts were lining up with what I believed would be my guiding concepts for my unit.

This graphic is one of my three things that I want to remember. Anytime I get confused on my direction, I want to refer back to this graphic. I want to compare my proficiencies against this graphic. I also would share this with my students so they could refer back to it as well. An additional thing that I want to remember from my reading is how to draw in history while still studying the current election. There were multiple examples on how to do this, but one such example would be to assess political posters from an election far in the past to try to determine which political party it was biased toward. They could analyze that and then move on to analyzing current media documents on our presidential candidates.

There were great media literacy questions that I want to use myself, such as "who is the target audience and how is this message targeted to them?" Another example that could connect to history is to ask how the portrayal of candidates has changed over time. Students should be asking themselves if a source is credible, what makes it that way, and what the author may be selecting to leave out and why they would leave information out if they did.

This article was significant for me because it opened my eyes to new possibilities in my unit. Of course media literacy would be a big part of a unit on media bias, but I'm having a better understanding on how to frame it.


The second reading I did gave me ideas on how to connect and integrate polling and math into my curriculum. I was immediately drawn into this article when I read "the trends that are shared with the American public influence party deliberations, election strategies, turnout, and voting booth decisions" (206).This touches on so many components that I want to discuss.

One essential piece that I come out with is that bias can happen without even trying. Golston provides an example that is significant:

"The problem comes if the sample isn't really random. After what was perceived as a disastrous first debate for Barack Obama against Mitt Romney in 2012, Democratic voters became less likely to answer surveys, as they just didn't want to talk about politics, while newly enthusiastic Republicans did. As a result, poll results shifted towards Romney, even though his actual support didn't increase: it's just that the samples were biased towards Romney voters. If the sample is bad, the results follow" (207).

This is huge! Even if the poll was intended to be a fair sample, it didn't happen that way, and it may not be the fault of the person running the poll. But this information still goes out to the media and they use it - fairly or unfairly. Being aware of how that can happen, even when you're trying not to be biased, is a big piece for students to understand. Another big issue is how questions are worded. One idea I've come up with is to ask students questions (with anonymous responses) where I ask the same question twice but once with positive connotations in the language (programs for the poor) and others with negative connotations (welfare). It could be done with a number of different issues. Then students can see if they voted differently for the exact same thing simply based upon how the question was phrased. It may be eye-opening for some students based upon their responses.



While these readings were short, I spent a lot of time considering the implications for my unit. I think a lot of this will really come in handy when I go to plan the final pieces of my unit. But I'm glad that I'm seeing possibilities of where I can go with my ideas, as I can already see that they fit perfectly within my standards and larger concepts that I would plan to teach. The graphic shows me that, and if I do it all correctly and authentically, I think it would be engaging for students as well. So while this is not my typical content area reading, this was really significant for me in understanding where I'm headed with my unit plan and coming up with a cohesive plan.

Planning, Planning, and more Planning

The pressure is on and the clock is ticking. My time in the classroom today was much different than usual. I actually spent very little time with students because it was a shortened day and my class met at a different time than usual. A happy consequence of this, though, is that I got to spend an hour with Mr. Scott during a planning session - something we haven't had since I first met him before the school year started!

When we met, he was interested in seeing the unit plan I'm developing for my own course purposes. It was really exciting to get to show him my work and explain some of the breakthroughs that happened for me today. What's better is that he liked the direction I was taking and is interested in having me develop lessons under this unit plan to come in and teach. This gives me even more motivation to work through my issues in the unit plan that way I get it right for students. It makes it much more real for me knowing that I'll actually be using this.

Over the first week in October, we're discussing me actually teaching two different lessons. One would be related to my unit plan around elections and taught during "skinny blocks" which are shortened periods they have in the afternoons. The other lesson would take place during the morning sessions that I take part in typically and would actually get to relate to my idea of media bias. I'm really excited about the plan that we're developing; it will be about the Salem Witch Trials and their "media" (which was really just town gossip in a sense). We'll analyze a study that says that bread poisoning may have been causing individuals in Salem to hallucinate and may have caused a lot of the symptoms that led to their absolute insanity. In that study, there's mention of primary source documents (which they have been working on). Then we'll talk about who their primary sources came from - typically older men - and how that affected the message they were sending - bias against women. I'm figuring out the direction still, but we're both really excited about this lesson.

The other really great component of my day was getting new resources from Mr. Scott. He taught me about HSI - Historical Scene Investigation (hsionline.org) as a good source. He also showed me how to use the site Quizizz as an alternative to Kahoot or Quizlet. Then he showed me Nearpod, which only would work with iPads but it looks absolutely incredible.

Like I said, this day was much different than usual but it was a great day. I'm optimistic about the next few weeks because a lot will be happening for me in the classroom. I'm starting to really learn from this and I'm feeling prepared. There will be SO much planning over the next week and a half but I'm excited to get started.

Unit Plan Question

I pose this question here so I don't forget it by the time I return to my unit plan. I've spent some time tonight reading my copy of Social Education because I realized the entire issue is related to my unit plan. The article "(Not so) unprecedented: Media analysis of the 2016 presidential race and its historical precedents" has given me great ideas (that I will blog about at length tomorrow) but also left me with a question.

The first paragraph includes a section that says "helping students to develop media literacy skills - the abilities to access, analyze, evaluate and produce media messages - is one way to support habits of inquiry consistent with social studies learning. The C3 Framework makes it clear that social studies teachers must teach students to do close evidence-based analysis of diverse texts, to compare conflicting claims, and to evaluate the point of view and credibility of sources" (194).

This sounds exactly like my unit plan, or at least what I'm aiming to achieve by the end of my planning. So my question is, how do I add this piece about media literacy in my unit plan? It's already there through the standards but do I call it media literacy somewhere within the big ideas section? Is this part of my essential understandings section? And is there an additional proficiency somewhere in the C3 Framework that I need to add now?

Change of Heart

I've expressed this in my posts lately, but I am really happy with my Practicum and that I'm in Mr. Scott's room. I've started to really connect to the students. Today was even better than yesterday in that respect.

I remember when I entered the education program, I was adamant that I wanted to teach high school. I had it in my mind that middle school students would drive me crazy for a variety of reasons. When I say that I was dead set on ONLY teaching high school, I really mean it. Over the last two or three years, I've slowly evolved but when people would ask me my ideal age group, I still replied high school. In a matter of a month, that has completely changed. Now I sort of question if I would want to teach high school after seeing how much fun teaching middle school can be.

I came to this realization today when I saw how excited and intrigued the students were. As I have mentioned before, the class is run as a game. The story behind the game is very in-depth and will require an entire post in the future to explain it in detail. Part of the game, though, is that a female individual sends us information and missions to complete through Schoology. We refer to her as the Patriot, and her identity is unknown. The Patriot helps us through our journey.

At first, so many students were skeptical regarding the Patriot. Is "she" really just Mr. Scott? Is it just the woman from the computer lab down the hallway? Maybe it's the Social Studies teacher from the floor above on a different team. Over the last couple of weeks - it's a total turn around. Today the Patriot sent a message with what appears to be code, and it ended with: "I must go. They are coming. Complete the challenge. Find me." "They" refers to the leaders of the Imperium, we believe, as she is helping us to find information which is strictly against the rules of the Imperium. The students loved it. They are questioning who the Patriot is. They were so excited to start working on the challenges. The second group in particular ran with it; one student kept urging the students at his table to hurry through the assignments so that they could find the Patriot. Unfortunately for him, the challenge they are completing is a research project that will take the better part of a week to complete.

Not every student is going to love the journey. I'm sure that there were students who are just going along and doing the assignments because they know that is the expectation. For so many students, though, this appears to be incredibly engaging and gives them an additional reason to complete their assignments. This enthusiasm makes me see why I want to teach. Furthermore, it's convincing me that I want to teach middle school rather than high school. I'm not saying that it isn't engaging for high school or that there isn't room for excitement in that classroom either. This month has just made me see the whole experience a bit differently and it has shown me that content can be guided in so many ways, not just because we have certain units to work through.

Confusion and Bias

I visited Mr. Scott's classroom today rather than last Friday because there was a field trip. This gave me an opportunity to see two classes that I don't typically see - the 7th grade groups. I'm glad I was able to join them today because I learned a bit about fixing things as you go and on how quickly you can uncover misunderstandings when you leave students on their own for a bit.

Both groups completed a short review of primary and secondary sources, but the heart of today's lesson was within new vocabulary and completing half of a Venn diagram. Regarding the vocabulary, I got new insight on a misconception that the entire class had with the second group today. One of the vocabulary terms is Genocide. One student asked if somebody shooting people at a concert was considered genocide because we discussed that it is large scale murder, among other criteria. It took a bit of explanation to get students to think more about the Holocaust and massive scale over an extended period of time rather than deaths in the dozens. This was valuable to me because there was such a misunderstanding on what "large scale" really means. Mr. Scott and I were thinking in the hundreds of thousands to millions while they were thinking in terms of hundreds. That was a valuable lesson for me.

Mr. Scott also provided me with a good idea on how to present bias. Students were really struggling with this definition until he provided context that they could relate to: playing a sporting event out of town and having both of the refs live in the town of the opposing team. This was something that every student could either personally relate to, had seen before while watching an event, or could wrap their head around how that bias could occur. While the example isn't perfect, it gave students an anchor to remember the definition. 

The final relevant piece I witnessed today was changing plans on the fly. For the first group, they were given just the Venn Diagram and told to practice their note taking skills and jot down anywhere from four to ten notes that they thought were significant in the three pages in the textbook. Some students nailed it, but most seemed confused, got wrong information, or simply just didn't know where to start. As a result, it was taking forever and it was missing the point. Thankfully, there was a disruption as it was school picture day, so Mr. Scott was able to use that time with the students downstairs to adjust the plan. He created a structured Venn Diagram where he chose 8-10 pieces of information from the reading that he thought was essential and removed one or two key terms from the sentence, and students would fill it in as they came across the information in the text. This helped students to be much more successful in the following class. But there were still misunderstandings as many students still wrote that Christopher Columbus was from Spain and was the first European to explore the Americas. With this template, though, Mr. Scott and I were able to spot these misunderstandings much more quickly and address them on the spot. 

Whitewashing Reality

 Weekly Reading:
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen, Introduction and Chapter One (Handicapped by History; the Process of Hero-making)
 "Which Candidate Should We Elect and Why? An Inquiry Approach to Teaching about Elections" by Brett L.M. Levy. Social Education 80(4).


I took two different courses for my weekly reading. My first reading was the introduction and first chapter of Loewen's Lies my Teacher Told Me. To make it simple, he outlined how textbooks have gotten it wrong and teachers who stick to these bad textbook accounts are not helping students to really learn history. In essence, history is boring to many individuals because it is a glazed-over version of events that isn't always accurate. Furthermore, many individuals are not seeing representation of themselves in these textbooks (women, minorities, low socioeconomic status, etc.). We have made individuals into heroes over the years as well. Why do we constantly hide the uglier parts of our history? They happened! Yet textbooks, for a variety of reasons, choose not to broadcast (or will lightly mention them without placing blame) these shortcomings. In the first chapter, this is assessed by considering President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller. It was eye opening as I didn't know many of the details about them that Loewen revealed. If I hadn't read these chapters, would I have passed on misconceptions about them both to my students? Unfortunately, the answer is probably yes.

The second path I decided to take for my reading this week is related to my mock unit plan on elections. I was interested in this article because moving forward I want to have an idea of what a good election unit would look like. I'm glad I read the article because it gave me great ideas and resources that are directly related to the standards I chose. Levy provided insight on the whole process; begin by discussing prior knowledge, then move on to introducing a central question regarding the role that the student could play and which candidate should be elected and why (201).

In class we had discussed making my unit more "problematized" to make it more interesting. This article will help with that because students will compare issues that they are most interested in (say gun rights, abortion, immigration, etc.) and compare their beliefs to the positions of each candidate. They will also figure this out by looking at various news sources and spotting bias within sources. There are two great tables that I want to use in my unit if possible:

As Levy said, this exercise will not only help students figure out their own positions and really engage with the election, but they will also develop media literacy skills while working toward meeting their proficiencies. 

Three Things I Want to Remember:

• The realities about Woodrow Wilson. He did some great things, but it is also super important to know and remember the horrible things he did as well. Blatant racism is something that we can't ignore and pretend that it wasn't a part of his history. It certainly had an effect upon his presidency and our government.

•  Levy's research that found that students in 2012 "found political discussions, especially those about the election, to be among the most interesting activities of the semester" (203). I want to remember this because it means we really have to get these lessons right. We have to peak their interests and let them do some inquiry into topics that they're interested in and see where the candidates line up in comparison to their beliefs. I think making it more real will help students to enjoy these units, and figuring out how to carry that over to other units would be beneficial for the classroom. 

• Loewen asserted that "five-sixths of all Americans never take a course in American history beyond high school" (5). To me, that is crazy. This fact makes it even more important that we get it right when we are teaching history to our students. We need to make it more engaging. Students should be able to look into their own interests within history to make it even better. If we do this, then maybe more Americans would continue to study American history after they graduate.

Two Controversial Ideas:

• A quote from Loewen on what whitewashing and the heroification of white men is doing to our textbooks and the message it is sending to students: 

"While there is nothing wrong with optimism, it can be something of a burden for students of color, children of working-class parents, girls who notice the dearth of female historical figures, or members of any group that has not achieved socio-economic success. The optimistic approach prevents any understanding of failure other than blaming the victim" (Loewen, 3).

•  Educators are also at fault for this misunderstood version of history that students are learning. Rather than teaching what really happened or about the reality of the world sometimes, we give an idealistic version of sorts. As Loewen expressed above, it's okay to be optimistic but if the events are not portrayed realistically, then why are we even trying to say that we are teaching history? It is okay to encourage students, but they also deserve an accurate picture of the world.

"The notion that opportunity might be unequal in America, that not everyone has 'the power to rise in the world,' is anathema to textbook authors, and to many teachers as well. Educators would much rather present Keller as a bland source of encouragement and inspiration to our young..." (Loewen, 24). 

One Question:

•  How should we bring these new "versions" of history to light about individuals who have been made into heroes in prior history classes and textbooks? Do we treat these as misconceptions and use misconception strategies to address it? Is there enough information out there to convince students that they have, in fact, been made into heroes and that these other accounts are true and should be believed?

Sources & New Tools

My practicum yesterday was probably my best day yet. I'm feeling way more comfortable in my classroom and I'm starting to get to know the students better as a result of that. I'm happy that we are all getting used to each other!
 

With the curriculum, it was the first day where students dug deep into concepts while I was in the classroom. They were finishing a mission where they had to choose which sources were primary and which were secondary. Below I copied the essential question, tasks, and objectives that students knew they had to complete and understand before their mission was complete. Students have access to this through their Schoology account and they are required to view it prior to beginning any of the assignments or making any submissions:

Essential Question: How can I tell the difference between a primary and a secondary source?

Objective	Tasks
Be introduced to the concepts of primary and secondary sources	Describe both primary and secondary sources
Brainstorm examples of primary and secondary sources	List examples of primary and secondary sources
Analyze scenarios and records to demonstrate ability to differentiate between primary and secondary sources	View examples of different sources Determine if they are primary or secondary
Students will define, in their own words, the terms "primary" and "secondary" sources	Define the terms in your own words via an exit ticket

I really like that Mr. Scott has incorporated this into their missions and put it on Schoology for students to see that way if they ever question what they are supposed to understand as a result of the mission, they can simply look at the briefing again. The ability to revisit this page and see what tasks they are expected to complete and what they are supposed to understand as a result of it will make it more accessible to students, in my mind.
 

The next task students had was to analyze this map:

Students went to this address:  http://www.loc.gov/teachers/primary-source-analysis-tool/

Using the analysis tool, they learned how to not only begin analysis of a primary source (the map), but how to use the website for analysis of primary sources in the future. They chose map as their source and were able to use questions from the website to guide their observations, reflections, and questions.
 

Initially, many students didn't realize that the site generated helpful questions if they clicked the bubble with the question mark in it. Once it was pointed out to them, they were excited about the task. Many students made observations on the land forms and questioned why they look that way. Others realized that the orange lines along the coast were actually words written in Latin. When they came together and discussed, they realized that they knew a lot more about this map than they initially had thought they did. The use of the analysis tool from the Library of Congress helped guide them to new understandings about the map.
 

One question that a student asked really stuck in my mind for the day. Stephen asked "does being an active participant in an event make you a better primary source than somebody who just watched it happen?"

 

This question brought the class to a great discussion on how your opinions and perspective on what's happening could skew how you see the events taking place. The fact that one question brought us to a discussion on bias and perspective was great. It reflects that the students were already making connections with this relatively new knowledge to aspects of their life outside of Mr. Scott's classroom.

Misconceptions and New Ideas

Social Studies for Secondary Schools: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach by Alan J. Singer: Chapter 3 (What is Social Studies?)

"How a Primary Teacher Protects the Coherence of Her Social Studies Lessons" by Janet Alleman, Jere Brophy, and Barbara Knighton. Social Studies and the Young Learner 21 (2).



The chapter "What is Social Studies?" was not the most exciting course reading I have completed, but I was interested in reading some of the sample lesson ideas at the end of each tidbit on the discipline. The reading provided an overview on what the social sciences are and what disciplines make up the social sciences. The meat of the chapter really explores each discipline and makes suggestions for lessons. I'm glad I read it as it provided me with new ideas, but it didn't provide me with a ton of new knowledge.

The article "How a Primary Teacher Protects the Coherence of Her Social Studies Lessons" is about Barbara Knighton and her elementary classroom, but I still find it to be relevant to secondary education. One paragraph stuck with me on how Barbara approaches teaching social studies in her classroom. She sticks to a big idea and will begin by "defining it carefully and explaining several of its prototypical examples or application" before digging deeper and getting it in students minds fully (28). Once she is sure that students have grasped the main idea, then she will present misconceptions and anomalies, because at that point she is sure that they can handle the information that initially could have thrown them completely off track. She will bring in an anomaly earlier only if she believes that a student will bring it up so that it will be presented in a way that will not disrupt the rest of their learning, as it might if a student brought it up and it took a strange course (29). This reading also looked at how to create coherence across lessons so that students may connect the big ideas. Barbara looked to help students organize their thoughts and knowledge by using repetition, foreshadowing upcoming lessons, revisiting lessons that they already had to connect the knowledge and ideas, and connecting it all to their lives.

Two things I want to remember

One thing I don't want to forget is this quote and statistic: "One study found that 25 percent of the curriculum-related ideas that stuck in students' minds had been verbalized by a classmate rather than the teacher, and many of these ideas were distorted or even wholly incorrect" (Alleman, Brophy, & Knighton, 29). This is super important because it makes it even more important in our planning process to consider some of the misunderstandings that students may bring. While we may not be prepared for them all, having an idea of what questions or potentially incorrect statements that may be made will give us a better opportunity to correct the misconceptions before students get the wrong ideas in their head.

The way that Geography is presented in the Signer chapter is something I don't want to forget. In my mind, I have always thought of geography as just studying maps and understanding how to locate different places, people, and things. This chapter presented how geography has changed recently, though, and it opened my mind up a little bit on how our lessons could be shaped differently. Connecting geography to current environmental crises could help with engagement and really provide a purpose with a geography lesson. My lessons in geography were always boring, so this reading helped open my eyes to new possibilities on bringing the geography into the lesson without really being the base of it.

One controversial idea or disagreement

I had to disagree with a part of addressing a misconception. It expressed that sometimes it's best to bury the misconception that you may have presented because it was said in passing or was brief. To some extent, I can understand it. On the other hand, I personally feel like I would rather spend the thirty seconds to elaborate and correct my statement just to be safe rather than potentially having to correct myself down the road when I've fostered a misconception because I thought they wouldn't really notice it.

One question I still have

This is a question that I know we will address in class soon, but I still want to know and understand strategies for dealing with misconceptions a bit better. Is it really a valid idea to bury the misconception and hope that it was not noticed if it was small? But what is the best way to stop yourself and call yourself out on saying the wrong thing or giving the wrong idea without losing too much class time by addressing it?

Citizenship in the Classroom

Today's lessons in my practicum centered around citizenship. Students had to consider the different levels of citizenship, beginning in their homes and ending at the national level. They had to consider the sources that give them their rights and responsibilities at each of those levels - from the United States Constitution, down to their student handbook and the adults that they live with. Students discussed their rights: to free speech, to vote someday, to receive a free and appropriate public education, use local parks, attend athletic events, and have food on the table, among thousands of other rights.

Students engaged in great conversations. They asked if individuals with dual citizenship have to pay taxes to both nations. They considered what it means to be a good citizen and what that looks like. Beyond that, I saw what happens when a lesson doesn't go quite as planned and when to do to adjust when students become disengaged. The first group discussed citizenship with a Powerpoint presentation guiding the way. While students did well with it at first, they lost interest as time went on. In order to adapt for the next group, Mr. Scott switched it up and ditched the Powerpoint presentation and instead started as a whole group discussion before having students partner up and read about each of the pieces of citizenship and continue their discussion together. The lesson remained the same overall, but Mr. Scott was able to show me how to adjust quickly so that the lesson would go more smoothly for the next group.

While the day was low-key, it was productive as I notice that students are becoming more comfortable with me being in the classroom and I'm beginning to get to know them better.

All Fun & Games (while learning!)

For the first time in my life, I feel a little behind in the world of technology. In class yesterday, students introduced me to Schoology and Notability. While this concept seemed odd to me at first, the classroom runs as if it is a video game at a point three hundred years in the future, and the students are part of a society that withholds information from them, but they have found a device (iPad) that has allowed them to illegally obtain that information for themselves. While the game storyline is much more complicated than this, this concept guides the entire class, including classroom management, as students complete assignments and earn points. They also can gain or lose points based upon their classroom behavior. If they help another student, are particularly active in discussions, or do any number of great things for others, they earn extra points that day. If they are disruptive or otherwise causing distractions that are particularly negative for the learning environment, they stand to lose a few points that day. Because Carter was really helpful and volunteered to explain Notability and some parts of Schoology to me and the rest of the class, he was able to earn 50 extra points on the first day.

Through Schoology, the game storyline continues. Units of study (referred to as quests in our classroom) are uploaded where students have different tasks to complete. These include what Mr. Scott calls missions (mini-units within the larger topic), mission briefings (introductions to each mini-unit), recon (vocabulary), challenges (assignments for submission), intel (discussion forums), and encounters (projects, tests, summative assessments).

As I previously mention, for each of the assignment types I listed above students earn points, pre-determined by Mr. Scott. Students can't earn points unless they complete the task and do what is asked of them. These points give students the opportunity to "level up" in the class and move their way through different ranks within their branch of government. They were evenly split between legislative, executive, and judicial and were given a beginning occupation. As they gain points, they gain prestige and make their way up through the society. Furthermore, students can "purchase" activities and advantages using points. For instance, they may be able to earn the right to eat a snack during class, add emojis to their secret username that appears on the leaderboard (so nobody else knows who is doing the best or worst), change their secret username, etc. Essentially, the points can incentivize being an active participant in the classroom and being a good classmate.

I still don't understand the whole system as it is just being set up, but I love this concept. The students all seemed really into the idea of having a storyline to set the stage for the class, and they loved being able to earn points. It seems to already be working in terms of engagement - they were excited about earning points for the pre-test they had to take. I could also tell that they were happy to show me the ropes when I didn't understand what their apps were capable of.

It was a very informative day and I'm excited to see how this whole storyline plays out over the coming weeks and months!

Why Study and Teach History?

Social Studies for Secondary Schools: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach by Alan J. Singer: Chapter 1 ("Who Am I?") and Chapter 2 ("Why Study History?").

For my weekly content specific reading, I chose to read the first two chapters of Social Studies for Secondary Schools. I chose to start here because I liked how each chapter answers a broad question. For instance, chapter one is Who Am I? and chapter two is Why Study History? Likewise, following chapters ask big questions that I think are particularly important and will give me a great place to start.

As I mentioned, the first chapter focuses around the question of who am I? Singer considers this from the lens of a teacher, of a student, as a human being, and how who we are affects who we are as teachers and what he had to do in order to adjust his teaching to become better over the years. Early in the chapter, he expressed that some lessons went really well and then others would flop for no reason that he could recognize. He said, "sometimes it seemed like I had the entire class in the palm of my hand and I could do no wrong. On other days, the students acted like I was not even present" (5). This really spoke to me because I think it is a common fear for a new educator. He went on to explain that taking the advice of others, patience, and perseverance would help.

The second chapter focuses on the question why study history? One of my favorite pieces of this chapter came through the explanation as to why we should teach social studies. "Providing a context that broadens people's understand of our world and gets us to question our assumptions about it is a primary reason to study and teach history and the social sciences" (14). I also appreciated that he emphasized that history plays a major role in how we understand our current world as everything that has happened in the past has shaped our societies and cultures to be the way they are. Further topics he looks at in this chapter include different approaches to teaching history, the importance of multiculturalism in our teaching rather than only teaching about the west, a significant list of further reading to learn more history, and highlighting the differences between fact and theory.

Three things I want to remember:

The concept of transculturation. Singer defines it as a "focus on the dislocation of people's lives" when "entirely new culture are created as old patterns of behavior are destroyed and new ones are formulated" (20). I have never heard of transculturation before and want to look into it more deeply.

Organizing curriculum around themes and concepts rather than chronology. I have never experienced a history course that did not follow chronology, so this is a bit of a tough concept for me to consider. But, I think I would prefer it. My question is how do we explore a concept or theme while still separating historical events, covering everything we need to cover, and have it all make sense?

A classroom activity that he suggests is a current events assignment that connects to history. He has his students evaluate different articles and "decide whether they include important historical facts and whether there are historical explanations that connect any of the articles" (17). I really appreciate this idea because I think it connects what is taking place today to what happened in the past. It makes history feel a little more real and can bring it to life a bit for students.

Two controversial ideas or disagreements:

Traditional American History programs versus multicultural teachings. Singer noted at length that there is a divide in many states on what pieces of history should be emphasized in the classroom. Some states encourage traditional history that may ignore some of the darker pieces of our history. If we ignore those pieces and promote that agenda, what message is being sent to students? We can't ignore racism, prejudice, oppression, imperialism, social inequality, etc. that took place in the past and is continuing to take place today (15).

The debate around whether or not teachers should express their opinion or point of view in their classroom. Singer does not make it clear where he stands on this issue, but I personally feel like teachers should be able to express their point of view as long as it is done tastefully and if it is discussed at length with students to hear their perspective. It should not be put out there before students begin the discussion because then students may be afraid to speak up if they disagree with your opinion. I am just interested to see if my own opinion on this changes as I read and learn more.

One question:

Historical explanation identifies patterns and classifies information and events into categories to explain those events (30). But what happens if our categorization is an oversimplification or an incorrect generalization and we define it incorrectly? We can reclassify, but how do we correct those generalizations with our students if we place an event in an inaccurate context?