CHANGES AND ADDITIONS IN YELLOW – AS of 8/22/06
Methods of Teaching Middle Grades Social Studies, MGED
3432, Fall 2006
Department of Teaching & Learning,
Thursdays
8:00-11:50 am in COE
Classroom #3153
Instructor: Dr. Scott A.L. Beck
Office: Room
#4113,
Office hours: by
appointment
Contacts: (912)
681-0354 or sab44@cornell.edu
Course Description:
A study of the role
of social studies in the education of early adolescents, with emphasis on
understanding the historical and philosophical foundations of social studies,
curriculum organization, planning and evaluation of instruction, social studies
techniques and materials for early adolescent learners, and current trends in
social studies. Students will plan and
teach an integrated social studies / language arts unit in the middle school
classroom.
Prerequisites: MGED 3131 and TEP Admission Corequisites:
MGED 3332 and MGED 3731
Credit: 3 semester hours
Course Objectives and RELATIONSHIP TO STANDARDS:
The students will:
1.
define social
studies and the related objectives necessary to achieve the goals of social
studies education;
[NCSS Standards: 1-10; NMSA Standard: 7;
MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcomes: 2, 7, 33; NBPTS EASS Standards:
V, VI]
2.
understand the
history of social studies education in the context of American public
education;
[NCSS Standard: 2; NMSA Standard: 7;
MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcome: 1; NBPTS EASS Standard: III]
3.
analyze the
various curricular perspectives in the social studies education including the
national curriculum standards and the Georgia Performance Standards;
[NCSS Standards: 1-10; NMSA Standard: 7;
MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcome: 3; NBPTS EASS Standards: V, VI]
4.
study and apply
the multitude of appropriate instructional and assessment options for teaching
middle grades social studies;
[NMSA Standards: 1-3, 5, 7;
MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcomes: 4, 8, 11, 19-27, 29; NBPTS EASS
Standards: VII, VIII, IX]
5.
plan and develop
a variety of alternative assessments of student performance as part of the
integrated unit;
[NMSA Standard: 1; MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcomes: 20-26; NBPTS
EASS Standard: IX]
6. plan, develop, and teach a theme-based integrated unit
of study in a teamed setting that reflects a commitment to teaching a diverse
student body; [NCSS Standards: 1-10; NMSA Standards:
1-7;
MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcomes: 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15-18, 20-26,
34; NBPTS EASS Standards: I, II]
7.
demonstrate a
positive and developing commitment to reflective professional behavior in the
pursuit of teacher certification, both in class and during the team teaching;
and
[NCSS Standard: 10; NMSA Standard 7:
MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcomes: 35-41; NBPTS EASS Standards: X,
XII]
8.
integrate
technology into the integrated unit of study and in various class-based
presentations.
[NCSS Standard: 8; NMSA Standard: 4, 7;
MGED B.S.Ed. Program Learning Outcomes: 14, 41; NBPTS EASS Standard:
VII]
C.1 Commitment to
the Knowledge and Dispositions of the Profession: Candidates are expected to endorse a belief
that all students can learn and they are able to implement appropriate learning
strategies to achieve this goal.
Candidates are also expected to apply the content and pedagogy learned
in this methods course during their simultaneous practicum experience.
C.2 Commitment to
Diversity: Emphasis is placed on the diverse literacy
and learning needs of young adolescents, the diversity and uniqueness of young
adolescents, and other issues of diversity that affect students’
development. This course and the
simultaneous practicum experience provide candidates opportunities to develop
and apply a range of effective pedagogical skills that respond to the academic
and affective needs of a diverse student population.
C.3 Commitment to
Technology: Candidates will continue to develop and
refine their technological skills in this course through the use of TK-20 and
Internet resources. In addition,
candidates will be required to incorporate Internet resources from the Berson
text into their unit planning.
C.4 Commitment to
the Practice of Continuous Reflection and Assessment: Candidates are involved in reflection regarding the course material
through in-class writing and discussions.
Moreover, candidates are involved in on-going reflection on their
teaching and experiences throughout the simultaneous practicum experience.
Required TEXTS:
Edinger, M.
(2000). Seeking history: Teaching with primary sources in grades 4-6.
Hoge, J. D., Field, S., Foster,
S. J., & Nickell, P., eds.
(2004). Real world
investigations for social studies. per
Obenchain, K. M., & Morris,
R. V. (2003). 50 social studies strategies for k-8 classrooms.
EXCERPTS
and ARTICLES on WebCT:
Freedom Forum. (1999).
A teacher’s guide to religion in the public schools.
Georgia State Department of Education. (2005).
Kohl, H. (1995).
Should we burn Babar?
Loewen, J.
(1996). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got
wrong.
National Council for the Social Studies. (1994). Curriculum standards for the social
studies.
Welton, D. (2002).
Children and their world.
Required RESOURCES:
Berson, Micheal, et. al. (2004).
Social studies on the
internet.
Sandmann, A. & Ahern, J.
(2002). Linking
literature with life: The NCSS standards and children’s literature in the middle grades.
Williams,
J. (1988). Eyes on
the prize:
MILDRED TAYLOR… JIM
CROW SEGREGATION & CIVIL RIGHTS BOOK
CIRCLES:
|
|
Novels |
Novellas |
|
Mid
to Late 1800s |
The Land |
|
|
Early
1900s |
|
The Well |
|
1930s |
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Let the Circle be Unbroken |
The Friendship |
|
1940s |
The Road to |
|
|
1950s |
|
The Gold Cadillac |
COURSE PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES (ASSIGNMENTS & ASSESSMENTS):
1. Attendance, Participation, Daily Quizzes,
Reflective Writings, etc… (15% of this course)
There will be some form of assessment during most
classes. Many of these assessments will
be short quizzes or reflective writings that check your comprehension of the
readings due for class that day. If you
don’t do the readings, your daily class grades will suffer. If you read sloppily or without consulting a
dictionary or the glossaries, your grades will also suffer. If you fail to attend and participate in
class discussions and activities, your grade will suffer.
2. Integrated Social Studies/Language Arts Unit
for Methods I Practicum (40% of this course)
Middle Grades Program Key
Assessment 3: Assessment of Candidates Ability to Plan Instruction, NMSA
Standards 1, 3, 4, & 5)
You will plan, develop, and teach a 5-day unit
integrating both social studies and
language arts content and skills focused on a theme or topic
assigned by your Methods I supervising classroom teacher. During the planning of your unit, each of you
will a collect a variety of diverse, high-quality children’s and adolescent
books (see Sandmann text) and internet resources (see Berson text) relevant to
your theme to use in planning instruction.
One purpose of your thematic unit will be to contextualize and enrich
the interest and knowledge that your students will develop while reading these
books and accessing these websites and to develop substantive connections
regarding your theme across the entire curriculum. However, you cannot accomplish these goals
without the knowledge to critique, refute and/or extend the information
presented in the books and websites.
Thus you will also need to carefully research your theme using reputable
academic resources and carefully developed instructional materials.
Some strongly recommended social studies resources
include:
·
CountryReports.Org
[ http://www.countryreports.org/ ]
·
Hakim’s A
History of U.S.,
·
Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me,
·
NationMaster’s
Statistical Database [ http://www.nationmaster.com/ ],
·
Takaki’s A
Different Mirror,
·
The BBC’s Country
Profiles [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/country_profiles/default.stm ],
·
The CIA’s Country
Profiles [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ ],
·
The Economist’s
Country Briefings [ http://www.economist.com/countries/ ], and
·
Zinn’s People’s
History of the U.S.
With approval of the unit by both your supervising
classroom teacher and Methods Block I instructor, you will teach the unit in a
middle school during the middle four weeks of your Methods I Practicum. See the Methods Block I Packet and Unit
Evaluation Form for specific content and format requirements for the Integrated
Unit. Refer to the Unit Assessment
Rubric for specific evaluation criteria for the Unit. You will upload your final, post-teaching,
revised unit to TK-20.
Evaluation/Grading of the Written Elements of the Integrated Unit (15%
of this course)
·
Your FIRST LESSON PLANS will not be formally graded. Rather you will receive feedback and guidance
so as to improve your later, graded unit submissions.
·
Your COMPLETE 5 or 10 DAY UNIT PLAN will count as 5% of your total
course grade for each of the three Methods Block I courses.
·
Your REVISED 5 or 10 DAY
UNIT PLAN will count as 10%
of your total course grade for each of the three Methods Block I courses.
·
Your POST-TEACHING REVISED UNIT PLAN will not count as a grade for this
course. Rather it will count in your
Methods I Practicum (MGED 3731) only.
Evaluation/Grading
of the Teaching of the Integrated Unit (20% of this course)
A teaching grade will be earned based
on your teaching performance of your integrated unit. Refer to the Performance Assessment Form for
specific criteria. This grade will count
as 20% of your final course grade for each of the three Methods Block I
courses.
Evaluation/Grading
of Professionalism during the Practicum (5% of this course)
Each student is expected to attend
all sessions, to conduct her/himself in a professional manner at all times, and
to abide by GSU, COE and PSC Codes of Professional Responsibilities. You will earn a grade for professionalism
based on your total performance at your placement site. The university supervisor will determine the
professionalism grade in consultation with the cooperating teacher. Refer to
the Professionalism Rubric for specific criteria. This grade will count as 5% of your final
course grade for this course.
3. IDU
Interdisciplinary Unit / Book Circle Project … (25% of this
course)
(includes: Book
Circle, Field Trip, and IDU Plan & Presentation)
15%
based upon group’s IDU plan & presentation
10%
based upon individual work within group
You cannot teach what you do not know and
do. This includes reading and responding
to literature and making heart-felt connections with social studies
content. I know that, as a student, it
hard to find time to read a book for pleasure or invest time into researching
content. Nonetheless, don’t let yourself
get out of the habit of reading and researching. If you become a teacher who does not read and
research, your students will see this and they will also lose interest in
reading and fail to see the value in research.
If you do not model an interest and love for reading and knowledge, you
cannot expect your students to show any enthusiasm either.
That said, this semester, one of your
responsibilities will be to read some of Mildred
Taylor's award winning literature about Jim Crow segregation and the Civil
Rights Movement for pleasure and information and to discuss with a
circle of your peers. The books you will
have to choose from will expand and challenge your understandings of this
historical era. As you read your book(s),
your group will be expected to carefully research the context of the book(s) so
as to connect it with accurate social studies content and multiple perspectives
on the events described using the resources listed on this syllabus and others
that you will find yourselves.
Pay particular
attention to cultivate your individual, different responses to the book(s). Please don’t spend all your time agreeing
with each other. That will not make for
interesting discussions, nor will it expand your understanding of the events
described. One of the things that makes
literature interesting is the fact that we all bring different background
experiences to the reading process.
Don’t squelch these differences… celebrate and learn from them.
There will be discussion areas on WebCT for
each Book Circle / IDU group. These
areas are available for your convenience and will be helpful in communicating
with your group. This will provide
important documentation of your individual work within your IDU group.
Later in the
semester, you will take a field trip to the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum in Savannah as an example of the sort of community-based instructional
resources that are available to expand and challenge your students’ understandings
of social studies content.
After that field
trip, you and your group will develop an Interdisciplinary Unit that
illustrates a wide variety of content and methodological connections between:
·
Your group’s book,
·
The field trip,
·
Other resources (such as readings from LA Methods
and other children picture storybooks and young adult literature that you have
read.),
·
Other content learned about Segregation and Civil
Rights in class and through your research – particularly research re: primary
sources (see Edinger text),
·
Instructional methods discussed in this and other
courses,
·
and, of course the GPSs.
You will also
develop a one-page Ralph Mark
Gilbert Civil Rights Museum field trip
study guide designed for use by middle grades students who have read your
group’s book.
At the end of the
semester, your group will present a PowerPoint to describe your book and
Interdisciplinary Unit to the class. You
will show us how your Interdisciplinary Unit demonstrates your group’s
extensive content and methodological knowledge.
Finally, each circle member will
confidentially assess the contribution made by his or her individual
teammates. These assessments will take
into account your professionalism, courtesy, promptness, reliability, work
ethic, contributions, and cooperation in the team context. Based upon these assessments, my own
observations, I will assign an individual grade to each circle member.
4. Obenchain and Morris Method Jigsaw
Presentation (5% of this course)
Each of you will be responsible for explaining and
modeling for the class one of the methods described in the Obenchain and Morris
text. You will present your explanation
and model in about 10 minutes during class time on the day that your chapter in
the book is due for class. You will be
expected to lead an interesting and engaging presentation that gets your classmates
involved in the method and helps them understand the value of the instructional
method.
5. Comprehensive Final Exam (15% of this course)
The exam will cover material presented in readings,
discussions, videos, activities and presentations. It will serve to highlight some of the most
important points of the course. You may
be provided an opportunity to help write questions for the exam. No makeup exams will be given without advance
notice and an official written explanation from a medical or legal
professional.
Grade Chart:
|
Assessment |
Your Grade |
x % of Total Grade |
= Subtotal |
|
|
Attendance, Participation, Quizzes, etc |
|
15% |
|
|
|
Methods I Integrated SS/LA Unit |
Complete 5 Day Unit Plan |
|
5% |
|
|
Revised 5 Day Unit Plan |
|
10% |
|
|
|
Teaching |
|
20% |
|
|
|
Professionalism |
|
5% |
|
|
|
Interdisciplinary Unit / Book Circle |
Group |
|
15% |
|
|
Individual |
|
10% |
|
|
|
Obenchain and Morris Method Presentation |
|
5% |
|
|
|
Final Exam |
|
15% |
|
|
|
Total Grade: |
|
|||
Tentative Course Schedule:
|
Wk |
D |