Social Studies Final Project

Over the past months, I have been working with a group of five teacher candidates to create a unit plan, with 10 subtasks. Our "big idea" or inquiry question for this unit was: 

How do human behaviours, occupations, physical environments or resources within a province contribute to Canadian identity? 

After completing our final inquiry social studies project, there is a lot to reflect upon. This was certainly not an easy task, but something that I am proud to have contributed to and completed. I have learned about the importance of collaborating with my peers, creating a big idea that fosters higher order thinking and integrating other subjects into my lesson to engage my students. 

When we did have class time to work on this project, it was difficult to come to a collective agreement about what our unit should focus on. It took more than one class to come up with a question that we were all satisfied with. Once we had done so, we developed our culminating task and then individually created subtasks that corresponded with the culminating and the big idea. Independently creating these subtasks was difficult for me. I was not used to completing a unit plan in this manner. I had always been taught to create a sequential unit plan with lessons that connected and feed off of each other. After reviewing what we had completed in the end, however, I was surprised at how well the lessons connected, even though we had not collaborated on the subtasks. This was probably my "aha" moment during the unit planning process. 

We came so far and I honestly did not believe that we could do it. It's amazing to think that we could complete this unit plan and I hope to someday use it in my classroom. I learned that my peers often have ideas that will strengthen my lesson plans and my understanding of curriculum content. I still want to find out more about the new social studies curriculum and inquiry based learning, but I feel like this course and this project has given me an opportunity to understand how a unit occurs in the classroom. 

Here is my unit plan! Check it out!

Chapter Book Talk Presentation and Collaboration Reflection

This week, in my Education course at Brock University, we did a presentation on a chapter in our social studies textbook. Our presentation covered the conclusion of the text and included information about unit planning, assessing and evaluating. It contained a lot of helpful information about how to develop and assess/evaluate social studies unit plans, providing practical examples of tools that could be used in the classroom. We included a wealth of information in our presentation, but I will try to summarize it as best I can in the following post. Please do not hesitate to comment and ask questions about anything I discuss!

Primarily, we discussed the six components that are required for successful unit planning. This includes: the context, the rationale, the major goals, the scope of subject matter, the objectives and the sequence of lessons. All of these six components pertain to student interest and using the curriculum expectations to make the student's learning relative, practical, attainable and logical. Making the units based off of student's prior knowledge, their abilities, their real life and their interests is really only going to enhance your lesson plans and unit. You are not necessarily going to follow your unit plan exactly how you laid it out, but developing and thinking about these ideas before actually presenting them to your students will only benefit you and the students in the future.

Next, we discussed different types of assessment tools that could be used in the social studies classroom. One point that really resonated with me, was that there was a difference in types of criteria that teachers could use to assess students. Descriptive criteria is very knowledge-based and involves students listing or naming different things that they have learned. Evaluative criteria, however, involves having students take their knowledge to a deeper level by extending their comprehension of descriptive learnings. I think that developing evaluative criteria would certainly be something that I would strive for in my future classroom. The portfolio was also a useful type of assessment, that I think I will integrate into the social studies classroom. Portfolios allow teachers to look at a progression overview of students work over a period of time. It also challenges the students to use  self-reflection skills to develop and meet learning goals that relate to their work. I think that this is a great type of assessment tool to use and could be very helpful in teacher-parent conferences to show student work.

Overall, there was a wealth of information covered in the conclusion of this textbook, however, I think that I have highlighted some of the key concepts that can be taken away from the read. Of course, unit planning, assessment and evaluation go hand-in-hand, and should always be considered in any subject taught by teachers. All of the information discussed above, can certainly be applied to all subjects and are all great resources that teachers should keep in their back pocket!

'Till next time,
Rebecca Johnson

Social Justice in the Classroom

As discussed in my previous post, we have decided to create a culminating activity that requires students to hypothetically "re-locate" to another province and describe how, based on their geographical knowledge, this transition would contribute to their cultural identity and Canada's identity as a whole. This would certainly connect to many Social Justice issues, but for this blog post, I am going to focus on the workplace and the issue of unemployment. 

When students are moving to another province, they need to consider the employment rate in that location. Based on these numbers, students need to realize that in some areas of the Canada employment is not as available as in other areas. As they are taking on the role of this new person in a new area, they will have to deal with this social justice issue and consider what they would do if there were no jobs in their field. Answering questions like how would my unemployment affect or contribute to my identity as a Canadian or do the stereotypes concerning Canadian society support this social justice issue, which impacts many people in a variety of regions throughout the Country? These consideration alone, will hopefully get students thinking from different perspectives about the social justice issues that may be right under our nose as Canadian citizens. 

Within this inquiry, I would certainly provide students with resources that would allow them to explore unemployment statistics in a variety of regions throughout Canada. An interactive map on the CBC  website allows students to document the unemployment rates in each province and click on resources to discover more information about the areas of unemployment in each region. Further, this link actually has an option where researchers can "chose another province" and gather information about the unemployment rates of that location. This will allow students to easily compare and contrast the unemployment rates of two different provinces in Canada. 

Integrating social justice issues into the social studies, history and geography subjects is key to engaging student interest, and making learning relative and realistic for students. Issues that connect to the world around students, that although sometimes may be controversial, can be most engaging for them. Social justice issues and themes are related to the real-world and also need to be addressed in our classrooms in order to inform students and make them more responsible citizens. Sheltering students from the social justice circumstances that formed our past or are informing our present are vital to helping them comprehend their identity within Canada and around the world. Playing a blind eye to issues that may be controversial, does not make them go away, but further perpetuates and stigmatizing marginalized individuals or unfair circumstances. Of course, the teacher should always be tailoring their lessons to student interests and needs. Social justice should not be used as a scare tactic by any means and therefore, more controversial or "mature" issues should be covered at the intermediate grade level. It is all about knowing your students, knowing what they can handle and knowing their maturity level to determine if their grade level can handle these issues. You never want social justice to become a joke for your students, so if you don't think that they're ready to tackle these larger issues, maybe save them for a later day or start small and progress from there. Making the material relatable and real for students is key to engaging them and teachers should use the same philosophy to guide their social justice lessons in social studies. 

Social Studies Lesson Plan

Below is a lesson plan for Social Studies where students will be using inquiry skills and critical investigation to dissect the stereotypes that are associated with Canadian Culture. Students are expected to use critical thinking skills to comprehend how Canadian stereotypes are formed and what geographical information contributes to generalizations concerning our Country. They will be looking at stereotypes related to social dynamics, climate, occupation, human activities and physical characteristics of the land to try to debunk and explain the origins of these stereotypes. Students have choice in this investigation and are coming to conclusions based on individual wonders that are discussed during class. Students are also asked to use critical thinking to dissect and discover why stereotypes were created and in which regions these practices are still in place. 

Unit Plan for the Next Couple of Weeks

Dear Parents and Guardians,

During the next couple of weeks, we will be exploring the relationships between social position and occupations, and cultural identity. We will focus on cultural identity, comparing our own personal identities to cultures around the world. We will have class discussions on home life, recreational activities, immigration and stereotypes in relation to a variety of different cultures. I encourage you to ask your child about what he or she is learning about cultural identity and to share with them whatever experiences you have had with these themes.

This unit will consist of conducting research, discussing current events, writing, developing oral and poster presentations, and creating personal reflections. We will host a final wrap-up celebration showcasing the students’ projects on Friday February 13^th from 1:40- 2:40pm. We hope you can attend.

If you are available to assist with any of the activities, please contact me at 519-276-7748 or rebeccaj2727@gmail.com.

For more information about this unit and upcoming homework assignments, please visit my blog at http://teachingsocialstudiesrj.blogspot.ca. For more information about cultural identity in general, please visit the Canadian Heritage website at http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1363203445747 . 

Sincerely,

Rebecca Johnson

Curriculum Strands and Overall Expectations

Strands:
B. Natural Resources Around the Word: Use and Sustainability 

Overall Expectations:

B1. Application: analyse aspects of the extraction/harvesting and use of natural resources in different regions of the world, and assess ways of preserving these resources 

B2. Inquiry: use the geographic inquiry process to investigate issues related to the impact of the extraction/harvesting and/or use of natural resources around the world from a geographic perspective 

B3. Understanding Geographic Context: demonstrate an understanding of the sources and use of different types of natural resources and of some of the effects of the extraction/harvesting and use of these resources 

• Students will be able to analyze how different regions around the world use natural resources
• Students will be able to assess ways of preserving natural resources around the world 
• Students will be able to determine the social impact that natural resources have on a region.
• Students will be able to explain how the occupations (i.e. harvesting, farmers, miner etc.) available in a region contribute to cultural identity
• Students will be able to recognize and explain the relationship between natural resources, cultural trends and environmental impact. 

My Thoughts about the Social Studies Curriculum

Over the past couple of days, I have taken a very close look at the Social Studies Curriculum. I have come to understand some of the big ideas for each grade level and can see how many of the social studies concepts interconnect and build off of one another. Key themes, such as, significance, patterns and trends, interrelationships, perspective, continuity and change, and cause and consequence, are seen across the curriculum expectations. Although each grade may cover different content, aspects of these concepts are prevalent at all grade levels. This following picture is taken directly from the curriculum document and describes how these 6 concepts are integrated within the social studies curriculum

I also feel like this document fosters student interest and inquiry-based learning. The expectation requirements or topics are fairly general. For example, in the grade 7 curriculum, students are often expected to investigate a social studies "issue," or the interactions between various "groups." Because these topics are so general, teachers are able to incorporate student interests into lessons. Real life events can also be incorporated into lessons so that students can relate "issues" in their surrounding environment to social studies concepts.

I found that the verbs used within each social studies expectation are very specific. For example, verbs such as analyse, communicate, demonstrate, describe, identify and evaluate are used within the expectations. These are all verbs that should inform a teacher's lesson. Each verb represents a skill, and these skills are key to student success in an inquiry-based classroom, where questioning, analyzing and proving are extremely important.

As I read through this document, I began to think about the resources that students and parent could use at home, in order to develop these important "verb skills." I came across a couple of resources that I think will help to achieve this goal. The website BrainPOP provides a variety of different activities for students to complete, based on the social studies expectations. Students can participate in games that require them to answer questions and discover new meaning through analyzing brief scenarios. Students also have a wealth of choice on this website and are able to pick from a variety of scenarios that would apply to multiple interests. Here is a link to the website page with these resources. Feel free to check it out and write comments about your experiences below this post.

If you are looking to learn more about inquiry-based learning, a teaching strategy that the new social studies curriculum encourages, then check out this video. It explains what inquiry-based learning is and how it can be used in a classroom.

Welcome!

Hello!

This is a blog that I have created for my EDUC 8Y29 course in hopes of developing an online presence, sharing my new knowledge about Social Studies and communicating with parents and students. Feel free to explore the various pages that I have developed and view the monthly schedules that I have created. I hope that you enjoy the links, information and topics about Social Studies that I post on here and feel free to leave comments :)

Rebecca Johnson

P.S. Click here to access the board website.