Discuss and assess the approach to lesson planning in social studies used in your field placement school. If you do not see social studies, you may speak about it in general terms. From this analysis, determine what qualities constitute a good lesson plan.
Monday, February 22, 2010
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I haven't really seen much of social studies in my placement so far.
ReplyDeleteBut, I have been surprised by what I have seen. My teacher claims she has a "integrated curriculum" My students read social studies articles and answer questions based on them. The articles are always from edhelper.org. I do not think this is quality lesson planning. I feel as though there is so much more you can do with social studies rather than just reading articles or taking notes. My teacher wants me to teach a social studies next week. It includes a leveled reader about the Mayflower, and questions that follow up. I predict my students will be so bored.
The students usually sigh whenever these articles are handed out to them. It consists of memorizing and reguratating information. I would love for it to be more interactive and hands on. Instead of always reading about the Mayflower, why don't they read about the Mayflower and then act out what it is like. Or have a mock debate with half of the classroom being Native Americans and the other Pilgrims.
Today my class had social studies, but I left the room to observe science because I hadn't yet this semester. However, I did observe social studies last week and the students read in a textbook. They learned about the Great Plains and the Central Plains and did a worksheet after they read. They use worksheets a lot during the school day.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the social studies curriculum is pretty dry at my placement and I have not seen the students be assessed in social studies when I have been there. Social studies methods block class is more fun than the social studies classes I observe in my placement! :) I kind of pity the students. I think they need more engagement and active learning than just reading and doing worksheet. The students don't get enthusiastic about social studies and I'm not sure they really absorb the information they learn.
Today when I observed science, the students played a jeopardy game, which I thought was pretty neat and fun for the students. The students should have activities like this when learning social studies as well so they can get into the lesson and learning.
My school confuses me when in comes to social studies... Mrs. Keefer "plans" for it once a week for about 30 minutes, as in it is on the schedule. When I asked about it, I was told that she really doesnt have time for it and chooses to do PSSA prep again... BORING!!!
ReplyDeleteBut since I have been there, the students have been working on their President and American Hero projects (they had to research their person, write a "paper", draw a picture, make a poster, memorize and present a speech) A LOT. They started it in late December and we just finished today! The students routinely presented their speeches over a span of 2.5 hours (A VERY LONG TIME FOR THRID GRADERS and the teachers who stand there with them) for classes, teachers and houseparents who came to watch. All of the students took pride in their posters/speeches and obviously learned a lot but I feel the amount of time this took was unnecessary.
Also, all of the teachers involved dressed up like secret service agents for the day (with sunglasses, black suits, ear phones...)! Because all of us were so into it, the kids were more excited/engaged. Fun/engaging/inventive teachers and excited/engaged kids make for a good lesson :)
Thus far I have yet to see social studies being taught in the classroom. Since I am in an AM/PM Kindergarten class, my teacher has a very limited amount of time with the students each day. To create lessons, my co-op uses a basal reader that integrates both science and social studies into the reading instruction. I know social studies is being taught throughout the year but unfortunately I just haven't been there the weeks it was taught since the basal switches randomly between the two subjects.
ReplyDeleteMy co-op has already expressed her disappointment with the lack of depth in some of the lessons so she chooses to branch out and beef them up a bit. How much is actually added to the lessons I'm not really sure. All I know is that she uses the basal reader and add in her own twists where she thinks it is needed.
As far as what makes a good lesson, I have to agree with what Cristen said. For this low of a grade level or any grade level for that matter the lessons need to be engaging. Students must be active when learning the material or else their brain will shut down very quickly. I know my students love going to centers everyday because all the activities keep them active and engaged. If these type of activities could be used with social studies instruction, I guarantee the students would enjoy it.
There's no social studies instruction at all in my class. We only work on reading and math. The closest thing we got to social studies this week was a read aloud on Jesse Owens, but there wasn't much discussion about him or his importance. We simply read the book.
ReplyDeleteAs for lesson plans, from what I've seen all of the lessons come straight from either the basal reader, the phonics book, or the math workbook. These lessons are ok, the students generally understand everything's that taught and are fairly engaged but I think it'd be nice to have a little variety. I've literaly seen the exact same type of lesson for every new topic. If there's leftover time at the end of the lesson we spend a few minutes playing or watching related games and videos. My teacher mentioned she doesn't really plan out lessons, she just goes along with what's in the book and then adapts if necessary. I'm teaching a math lesson coming up in a few weeks and I am going to use the book as a framework but I'd like to maybe try something a little different and see how it goes.
I would love to try and integrated reading and social studies lesson at some point later in the semester. Social studies is my favorite and I'd love to try an engaging lesson and see how the kids enjoy it. I'm going to discuss this with my co-op and see if it would be ok since the school is so strict on following the reading and math curriculum.
There is not a social studies cirriculum in my class. The daily schedule consists of reading, math and specials (for 20mins). A majority of the lessons for reading and math come from basals. My co-op says that she tries to integrate social studies into the reading lessons whenever she can. But she says that it is hard to do. She wishes that there was time to teach a full period on science and social studies and is not happy that she has to "limit" some of her teaching to the basals because of assessment.
ReplyDeleteI am teaching a reading lesson next week. My teach gave me the book to read and the activity that I will be doing along with the book integrates math. I would like integrate socials studies into my lesson plans as the semester goes on. When I was younger, social studies was one of my favorite subjects. I think that may have been a result of my teachers and that it was introduced to me right away. I hope that my kindergarteners get the chance to experience socials studies as well.
Although I see social studies being taught every week, I have not seen any actual lesson plans. I actually had the opportunity to teach social studies to my students this week. Mr. Keefer gave me the social studies text book, which contains a variety of questions to ask the students. Since I only found out that I was going to lead social studies that day, I didn't have the time to prep. I went over the vocabulary from the chapter with them, which they have written in a notebook and then they took turns reading the chapter. I called on students to take turns reading. As they read, I stopped them to ask some of the questions, but I tried to make them my own, which was hard to do since I was in the middle of a lesson. I think this is something that comes with time. I also wanted to interject any stories that I could to help make the content more relatable. Each time I have been in the classroom, this is how social studies is taught. I would imagine they do it the same way every day, but I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteMost of the instruction in social studies comes right from the textbook. I have not seen any hands-on activities related to social studies since I have been there. I would love to plan some activities to engage the students in social studies because I think reading from the textbook is probably quite boring! Overall, I think a good lesson plan is engaging, meaningful, and realistic. Social Studies is such an intriguing subject and it can be really meaningful to students if they are actively engaged in activities. Students need to be able to make connections with the lesson so they can understand what they are learning. As a future teacher, I want to strive for engaging social studies lessons. I want my students to enjoy social studies and really see it come alive! =)
In my first grade class, social studies is covered every other day, so after four visits to the classroom, I have had limited exposure to the planning aspect. The entire school has been asked to follow the principal’s journey to China to adopt a child; so much of the focus has been on this country in my classroom. I have seen the children color Chinese dragons, and I have observed a discussion about the meaning of family.
ReplyDeleteBesides the topics dealing with China, my students have covered famous people in history (MLK, Collin Powell, Sacagawea) and locations (famous cities). Many of the lessons are taught using songs, big books, and videos. When the children seem confused or uncertain about the topics, my teacher has a vast supply of supplementary items like, coloring sheets, videos, and photographs ready to reinforce the discussion.
I think a good social studies lesson plan, or any lesson plan, requires good planning which in turn requires thought and time. Integrated lessons are probably the best way to teach social studies because the amount of material covered under the heading of “social studies” is so broad. Introducing new topics like government or geography can be done in fun, artistic, musical, or playful ways with younger students who enjoy hands-on activities which permit them to have fun learning new topics.
Good integration supports the social studies portion of the lesson, but I believe that integration for the sake of integration is pointless. Rather, activities need to be appropriate, and like my teacher, I believe it is better to over prepare than struggle to help the children understand new concepts. Having books, pictures, videos, web pages and other written resources (brochures, pamphlets, travel guides) ready to supplement the lesson are important.
Also, I feel that children have to experience social studies not just memorize facts. My goals for planning and teaching social studies are to focus on key issues and develop basic concepts so that the students can gain knowledge and understanding of topics but attempt to do so with fun, hands on activities as often as possible.
I have not seen any formal social studies instruction in my classroom. There is a block of time on her daily schedule that is labeled for social studies, however my co-op told me that she always uses this time for extra work on reading and math since she is running behind in these subject areas.
ReplyDeleteThe only way that my students are exposed to social studies is through read alouds and videos. Before I started placment my co-op had been reading to the studnets about Martin Luther King Jr. and a few other things that had to do with the Civil Rights movement. Sadly, there was no enriching of the information that they were exposed to. The studnets simply listend to a book and never discussed it again.
These past two weeks my co-op has been reading books to the students about Abraham Lincoln. Again there was no enrichment of the topic, but the students did seem to enjoy listening to each book. Today for their indoor recess all of the first grade classrooms watched a video about Lincoln. I was not able to watch this video because I stayed in the classroom to help students who had not finished their math work from earlier in the day. I am not sure if the video was new information that they had not heard before or if it was simply a review of information they had already heard.
To me the information that they have been exposed to through a read aloud or a video would be more meaningful to the students if the teacher were to take the information presented and worked with it more. She could incorporate working on the students writing through these topics, among other things.
I have not seen social studies thus far in my placement. My students switch to go to social studies and so far I have not had the chance to go along with them. My co-op teaches science which I see most every week. This week I will definitely try to go to social studies with the students. I do know though, that they have been learning about the state of Pennsylvania in social studies class. I am interested to see the kind of lessons and activities that have been presented in this class, which I plan on observing this coming week.
ReplyDeleteHowever, she set aside some time so that I could teach social studies. I taught about the history of the Olympics and some symbols that are incorporated with the Olympics. The students enjoyed this very much.
Although I have not been able to see the lessons fully I think and know that social studies needs to be integrated into the classroom. Since my class has social studies instruction time, I don't think it is integrated as much.
When planning a social studies lesson or any lesson, planning is very important. Time needs to be a priority so that students are able to gain the factial knowledge to understand the subjects covered under social studies. There is so much material involved in social studies that it is important for proper activites to be incorporated and lessons to be taught to explain aspects of the subject and all subjects to students. Hands on activities and experiences are important as well because the students need real life experiences to help them reflect on their learning.
When teaching social studies again, I want to focus on hands on learning and incorporating all different activities besides just hand outs and homework. I am looking forward to experiencing social studies at Centerville Elementary!
Well these students just started social studies in their regular routine. They have been doing science all year and finished that book to begin social studies two weeks ago. I've often heard the teach complain about the book they use. Their curriculum is a step by step following of the book and it's too advanced and too dry for 4th graders. She does her best to find activities to expand on it but the majority of teachers don't know how to improve the content provided. They are doing a unit on explorers and the book simply describes each explorer and then gives ideas for meaningless activities to expand on it. They are things like "write a poem about this person." Activities that aren't meaningful or on level are abundant. She has come up with the idea to have each student research an explorer in depth and then put together a brochure (like a travel brochure for a time travel company) for people to visit the explorer. It seems to be a fun idea for the students but it limits their range of knowledge in this area. Social studies isn't respected at the school because it isn't tested. It's unfortunate and frustrating. The social studies curriculum is not existent. They are to follow the book and do what they can with that. It's hard to believe that they care so little about history and teaching the future leaders of America. They really aren't learning much.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen much of social studies in my field placement either. In the first week, however, I helped students as they read a book, completed a graphic organizer,and made a "report" on the historical figure they read about. The people they wrote about included Alexander Graham Bell, Squanto, Harriet Tubman, etc.
ReplyDeleteI just felt if this was how children are introduced to social studies, they will not enjoy it further into their education. I could tell the students did not enjoy the assignment at all. While they could tell me facts about their historical figure, they weren't enthused about it.
When making a lesson plan, there needs to engagement. Social studies shouldn't be taught through just books! There should be involvement by the students in learning social studies. Students shouldn't have to just read books. If they start out this early only learning through books, they will not enjoy it later in their school careers.
Mrs. Ober switches between social studies and science for her unit period. Convenintly, she is now on social studies after spending most of the year teaching science. On my first day, Mrs. Ober made it clear that she was not too happy about teaching social studies. Last week I was given the opportunity to teach it and as she photocopied the textbook for me she explained that the text is extremely dry and boring. She also said that the text book is advanced for a lot of the kids which makes it hard for them to read and comprehend. After all of her negativity towards the social studies curriculum I was hesitant to teach it. I wanted to spice it up so I wasn't reading straight from the book and the kids were not bored. I decided to read the text, but also stop frequently to ask questions in order to assess comprehension. After reading, I also had the kids incorporate art into the main idea of the unit lesson. They seem to like this project and also get more from the lesson. Although, I wish their social studies curriculum could be better and more creative, I think that it could definitly be worked with. I think that presenting the units in more interesting ways and also having other activities to enhance the lessons will make a positive advance in the curriculum.
ReplyDeletePrior to today, my teacher incorporated social studies into her everyday lessons because she describes herself as “old school” and felt that since that is the way she always learned, that is the way it should be taught. I was originally supposed to teach a social studies lesson today but she ended up calling it off because she has decided to completely nix social studies until the PSSA’s are over. Although this is sad, she said it needs to be done because they are behind in what they need to learn before the dreaded test. I did not get to see much social studies taught in the prior days that I observed, but when I did, my teacher used their social studies textbook and basal readers to incorporate it. When talking casually with some students, I asked what their favorite subjects were and three out of four of them claimed to “hate” social studies because it is “boring”. Although it may be assuming, I believe that what they are being taught in terms of social studies is pretty cut and dry. The one time I observed social studies was when they were reading about Harry Houdini which was integrated into a basal reader. The basal did not seem too bad and the teacher even let them watch a short movie on Harry Houdini, which the students seemed to enjoy. Besides these things, I have not seen social studies go much more in depth than this. I know my teacher believes social studies is important and tries to incorporate it as much as she can, but at the same time I know she is really focusing on the PSSA’s so the social studies and science curriculum probably does not get as much attention as it deserves. I know once the PSSA’s are over, she plans to go much more in depth with social studies and science. The good news is that the week after the PSSA’s are over will be when we will be spending our full two weeks in the classroom, and my teacher has already told me to start planning a five day long social studies unit about the Middle Colonies!
ReplyDeleteIn my school, the teachers try to make social studies relate to the students as much as possible (such as the web chat with the chinese class the previous week and an upcoming session with a class from Michigan). My co-op is kind of annoyed at the upcoming Michigan conversation just because it does take up so much planning time. I taught a social studies lesson that I was supposed to have 30-40 minutes for, but because of the MI prep, I only had 20 and the lesson was rushed. Normally, an anthology with different stories is used, so the students all have a large textbook that they have to read stories about the topic out of.
ReplyDeleteEffective instruction of social studies relies on a decent amount of time being set aside through the day, but unfortunately it is last-priority. I think that the students do enjoy the stories and I am glad that the teachers do go above and beyond to try and help the students see how social studies affects their lives.
The social studies teaching that takes place in my field placement is through reading and projects. They always listen to the chapter on tape and the teacher stops at all the questions to discuss them with the class. They seem to follow along very well and are ready to answer the questions, but after so many times this could get pretty boring. The kids also do projects. They did one a few weeks ago on different explorers. They had to find a minimum of three interesting facts about their explorer using whatever resource they wanted. They made art projects to hang in the hallway from the information they found.
ReplyDeleteMy coop likes to have activities to go along with the text to make sure the students are comprehending what is being read and that they will remember the importnat information. She will ask the students to make a chart or write down questions. Before the class period is over, she goes over the answers and has the students explain them if necessary to make sure they understand the big ideas of each chapter.
For an effective social studies lesson, planning and preparation is important (as with any lesson). I would like to see something happen other than listening to the chapter on tape. The discussions that follow seem to help some of the students in the class.
In my placement, Social Studies is split with Science. So, the first quarter my students had Science, the 2nd they had Social Studies, right now they're in Science and next quarter they'll have Social Studies again.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, I have yet to see Social Studies instruction. I did, however, gather materials from the Mrs.Willis(who teaches social studies)and they use the Harcourt Brace Basal and each of the students has a packet outlining activities and information they will go through throughout the unit. I haven't seen a lesson in action yet, but from the materials given to me I can surmise that the students do a lot of integrative writing (there are tons of graphic organizers and prompts in the packet) and that they discuss the material at hand.
Hopefully, they're doing more than just reading the text aloud during class.
In my classroom, we do integrate social studies, though. My students have been reading and discussing Time for Kids articles, as well as reading and discussing historical fiction in conjunction with Black History Month.
I really think that to craft a good lesson plan, you need to know what things you'll be connecting the information to that the students can also relate to. To make the lesson effective it has to be interactive, and we need to plan time into the lesson for the students to actively be doing things.
I'll find out next quarter how social studies goes for them. Hopefully well.
There is no Social Studies incorporated into my classroom's schedule. My co-op explained to me on Thursday that there is a 15 minute block each day that is technically deidcated for "content" (being Science and Social Studies) but this time does not get used (I mean it's 15 minutes...), because it overlaps with transitioning back into the homeroom and end of the day dismissal.
ReplyDeleteThere have been some mentionings of social studies like topics in some of the readings that we have done from the Basal Reader, however, like Jessica said, not much besides reading them is done.
As far as lesson plans, my teacher sticks to the book, but I also see her doing her own thing when necessary to keep the children engaged. I have seen the same general lesson-plan format for the past couple of weeks, and am wondering if she ever branches out a little more. These kids are very bright, and I sometimes feel that some of them are not quite engaged enough and so the teaching isn't as effective as it could be.
To incorporate all of the necessary information into a lesson plan, it is important to connect everything together in exciting and effective ways. I have seen a few examples of engaging connections in math instruction.
Overall, I feel that it is important to incorporate engaging material into what you are teaching in order for it to be effective. As I start teaching lessons, I am going to try to incorporate the strategies for effective lesson plans that we have been taught in order to get these students interested and engaged.
In my classroom there is not set way in how social studies is taught. It alternates with science at the end of the day, while most of the day is left for reading and writing. When I work with students in small groups, my co-op sometimes gives me a scholastic news to read over with the students. I have the students take turns reading a small section of the pamphlet. Along with the scholastic news there is usually a worksheet that the students answer. The worksheet helps the students look back to the text in order to answer the questions. My co-op gives me plenty of time to work with the group of students. This gives us time to discuss some of the vocabulary, ideas, etc that is presented. I really think that scholastic news are a great way to incorporate social studies as long as you give the students enough time to discuss the material. Besides that, all the second grade teachers worked together with the Chinease New Year which was very benificial for the students. I also taught a lesson about the olympics and had enough time to include everything that I wanted.
ReplyDeleteFor Social Studies this past week, the class worked on The Pledge of Allegiance. For this, they did a shared reading of a story that had the Pledge, and broke it down by one or two lines per page. Then, at the end, the last page had the whole Pledge on it. The students did a very good job of memorizing the Pledge, and Mrs. Moritz had each individual in the class say it individually, and they handled it very well. Along with memorizing the pledge, Mrs. Moritz taught the students how to sign the Pledge of Allgiance with sign language. This was obvioulsy a little awkward for me because I don't know all of the sign language for it. I liked how on the shared reading lesson, Mrs. Moritz stopped on each page and the class dissected the Pledge by talking about the meaning per every line, going over terms like "indivisible", and "liberty" and "justice".
ReplyDeleteAfter every student recited the Pledge of Alligeance, Mrs. Moritz had them do an art activity where they had to paste four red strips, and one fat blue strip on a white piece of paper. Then, they had to cut out lady liberty and paste it over the strips, so that it would look like lady liberty and the flag.
Overall, I thought that the social studies lesson was a good lesson, and will be very useful for the students. I know that the art lesson was virtually pointless, but it did not take long and kept the students engaged.
So far, this seems a very typical trend for Mrs. Moritz's SS curriculum: plenty of useful information, and a wrapup art activity. For a Kindergarten class, I do not see anything wrong with this, and I think that the students are learning a decent amount of SS.
I haven't seen "Social Studies" yet however I have seen students reading Scholastic magazine articles which would make excellent Social Studies content and discussion, however instead they are simply being used as time fillers so that the class has something to do while students are missing. This seems extremely counterproductive and useless to me. As the students read they have good questions and comments however they are never addressed and the articles are never used to further knowledge. Instead once they are read they are put away and not referenced anymore. I think a wonderful lesson plan could be developed with a Scholastic Magazine issue or simply one article. The students simply need to be allowed to follow through with the article, ask questions, and do an activity that allows them to expand their knowledge past the content they read in the article.
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