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.