The service learning activity I selected is called Senior-Senior Prom for 11th or 12th grade students. This community service activity can be used in a variety of subjects ranging from language arts to culinary art and visual art. The activity consist of high school seniors or juniors that work together to create a prom for senior citizens at a local retirement home. Not only will students engage with senior citizens but they will conduct oral histories where they will discuss the experiences and points of views of the citizens. Through these interviews and discussions students will obtain primary sources such as pictures, letters, and diaries from the senior citizens that will help them better understand the historical events their studying in school. For example, the civil rights movement took place in the 1960s, roughly 50 years ago, many of these seniors were either teenagers or adults when it took place. Students can ask the senior citizens questions pertaining to their own experiences and perceptions of these era. For instance, did they attend a segregated school while growing up, how did they feel about the civil rights movements, did they participate in the movement, did they ever imagine there would be a black president? This will stimulate awareness of controversial issues as well as students’ curiosity and motivation. Students will obtain information that is not covered in their textbooks, limiting the authors and teachers’ biases.
In addition, students will master a variety of skills and learn additional subjects while collaborating with fellow classmates. Students will be divided into communities: decorations [art, flora;], food preparation [culinary arts, mathematics], invitation and prom program [language arts], photography [visual arts], and music and entertainment [music and drama]. Afterwards, students will write and present a reflective essay or project of what they learned about the senior citizens and history in general. Students will discuss whether their views of senior citizens and history has changed an anyway and how. They will also share their project and experiences with other members of the community, teachers, and students and post their final project on-line for others to view and comment on.
The benefits of the senior-senior prom is that it connects social studies lessons to the lives of individuals. This allows students to think and act like social studies researchers and better understand historical texts. Students will conduct interviews, essays, and projects while analyzing, collecting, critiquing, and comparing the information from their textbooks with the experiences of the senior citizens. Students will have the opportunity to sharpen their critical thinking skills and take responsibilities of their learning. Moreover, students will create their own meanings while learning through their own pace.
Possible challenges or concerns that teachers may face with this service learning project is students’ lack of participation and engagement. Students may not take this project seriously or not work productively with other students. There is always the possibility of one students doing more than others or taking charge of the entire assignment. Teachers should make it clear to students that full participation is part of their class grade or requirement such as community service. Teachers can also assign individual tasks for students while monitoring their participation and interaction with other students.
http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php?simple=1&ep_action=results&option[stream][]=122&search=senior+senior+prom&option[state]=
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
blog 3
Inquiry learning is essential to social studies because it engages students in the class curriculum and helps them better understand the material their studying. It can also be integrated in almost any other discipline such as math, science, social studies, and English. The benefit of inquiry learning is that it allows students to question the material their studying and gets them involved in the lesson plan. Megan Putnam’s chosen article, Creating Thinking and Inquiry Tasks that Reflect the Concerns and Interests of Adolescents, stresses the importance of allowing students to choose the class activity because it often increases their interest for that topic and engages them to the lesson plan. The article states that students tend to learn more when they work in small group inquiry rather than individual inquiry. Group inquiry exposes students to different points of views and they learn from their peers’ experiences and explanations.
Moreover, the article includes a variety of inquiry learning examples that teachers can integrate in their classrooms. For example, as a teacher I can let my students select a movie that deals with historical events then have them research information about that particular time period. Students will have the opportunity to research from a variety of sources such as textbooks, encyclopedias, the internet, and the movie itself. After watching the movie they will compare and contrast the information they obtained from the different sources. This will teach them how and why its important to question everything they see, hear, and read. By comparing primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, students will acknowledge the many different perspectives that people have of the same event and learn why its important to research from different sources. Students can also post what they learned on their wiki or blog and inform other students why it’s important to critic and analyze everything they come across.
The article also gives explicit examples how teachers can use real world scenarios that people come across on a daily base and turn them to educational lessons or relate them to historical events/issues. The benefit of this activity is that students can connect history or any other social studies subject to current events or their lives. For instance, if a new students, from another country or even state, arrives in your classroom you can have your students work in groups to research information about that students’ country of origin. Therefore, your pupils can better understand the cultural differences and similarities of their new classmate, instead of stereotyping him or her. In addition, students will learn more about a different country while at the same time getting to know their classmate better. Students can also recorded their class presentation on podcast or with a digital camera and show their class what they learned from that country. A class party will also be a great idea because everyone will celebrate the new student’s culture and make him or her feel welcome and appreciates in their new class. Other ways students can use technology is by posting what they learned on their class website and sharing it with other teachers and students.
What would you have done differently or how would you relate social studies to students’ everyday lives in correlation with technology?
Memory, D.M., Yoder, C.Y.,Bolinger, K.B., Warren, W.J. (2004). Creating Thinking and Inquiry Tasks that Reflect the Concerns and Interests of Adolescents. Social Studies, 95 (4), 147-154. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier (AN 14222731).
Moreover, the article includes a variety of inquiry learning examples that teachers can integrate in their classrooms. For example, as a teacher I can let my students select a movie that deals with historical events then have them research information about that particular time period. Students will have the opportunity to research from a variety of sources such as textbooks, encyclopedias, the internet, and the movie itself. After watching the movie they will compare and contrast the information they obtained from the different sources. This will teach them how and why its important to question everything they see, hear, and read. By comparing primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, students will acknowledge the many different perspectives that people have of the same event and learn why its important to research from different sources. Students can also post what they learned on their wiki or blog and inform other students why it’s important to critic and analyze everything they come across.
The article also gives explicit examples how teachers can use real world scenarios that people come across on a daily base and turn them to educational lessons or relate them to historical events/issues. The benefit of this activity is that students can connect history or any other social studies subject to current events or their lives. For instance, if a new students, from another country or even state, arrives in your classroom you can have your students work in groups to research information about that students’ country of origin. Therefore, your pupils can better understand the cultural differences and similarities of their new classmate, instead of stereotyping him or her. In addition, students will learn more about a different country while at the same time getting to know their classmate better. Students can also recorded their class presentation on podcast or with a digital camera and show their class what they learned from that country. A class party will also be a great idea because everyone will celebrate the new student’s culture and make him or her feel welcome and appreciates in their new class. Other ways students can use technology is by posting what they learned on their class website and sharing it with other teachers and students.
What would you have done differently or how would you relate social studies to students’ everyday lives in correlation with technology?
Memory, D.M., Yoder, C.Y.,Bolinger, K.B., Warren, W.J. (2004). Creating Thinking and Inquiry Tasks that Reflect the Concerns and Interests of Adolescents. Social Studies, 95 (4), 147-154. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier (AN 14222731).
Sunday, September 6, 2009
social studies blog, podcast, and wiki
The reason I chose http://civilwarsallie.wikispaces.com/ is because it’s user friendly and educational. This website allows social studies teachers to integrate technology into their classroom while at the same time engaging their students in interesting lesson plans. CivilwarSallie.com is a website about a teddy bear name Sallie Ann who was made in Gettysburg, PA. Sallie travels across the United States in search of museums or schools that are learning about the Civil War. Sallie does not only teach students about the Civil War but she also teaches them how to use technology. Sallie gets invited to several schools around the U.S. where she stays for as long as a week. The purpose of Sallie visiting different classrooms across the U.S. is to gain more knowledge about the Civil War and share it with other students.
Once Sallie arrives to your classroom students are responsible for twittering her arrival and departure. In addition, the classroom must post a blog of what they learned in class and what they taught Sallie, as well as post pictures of Sallie. This website is very engaging for students to use because they can post videos or pictures of what they learn in class, in terms of the civil war, and share it with classrooms all across the global. Moreover, students use technology by creating a twitter account, blog about what they learned in class, and post pictures of Sallie online.
I thought this website was amazing because it belongs to a 5th grade classroom in Medford, Oregon. The first web link is the class’s welcoming page which takes you to the class’s blog, wiki, and podcast. This website is a primary example how teachers can integrate technology into their classrooms, no matter what grade level they teach. If these 5th graders are learning how to use technology then what’s stopping middle and high school teachers from doing the same? Ms. Cosand is the 5th grade teacher who created this website for his class and has posted his students’ work online for others to view. The second website takes you to the class’s podcast episodes where you can hear the students talk about their classroom assignments and research. These are all interesting ideas that teachers can use in their classroom in order to engage and teach their students about technology and social studies.
http://www.dreamextreme.us/Welcome.html
http://www.dreamextreme.us/podcast/
This website illustrates meaningful ways of how teachers can integrate technology into their social studies classroom. For example, Mr. Young is a social studies teacher who uses blogging to communicate with his students. He posts all his classes’ agendas and assignments on his blog page so this students can learn how to navigator the internet and communicate on-line. Through blogging, Mr. Young’s students are becoming aware of their importance of using technology in their classrooms and homes.
Before teachers start to integrate technology into their classrooms or make a class blog they should take the time to teach their students about the pros and cons of blogging or using the internet, in general. Teachers should stress the importance to their students of not providing personal information on any websites for safety reasons. Teachers should also mention to their students the importance of using technology for educational purposes.
http://youngatvanier.blogspot.com/
Once Sallie arrives to your classroom students are responsible for twittering her arrival and departure. In addition, the classroom must post a blog of what they learned in class and what they taught Sallie, as well as post pictures of Sallie. This website is very engaging for students to use because they can post videos or pictures of what they learn in class, in terms of the civil war, and share it with classrooms all across the global. Moreover, students use technology by creating a twitter account, blog about what they learned in class, and post pictures of Sallie online.
I thought this website was amazing because it belongs to a 5th grade classroom in Medford, Oregon. The first web link is the class’s welcoming page which takes you to the class’s blog, wiki, and podcast. This website is a primary example how teachers can integrate technology into their classrooms, no matter what grade level they teach. If these 5th graders are learning how to use technology then what’s stopping middle and high school teachers from doing the same? Ms. Cosand is the 5th grade teacher who created this website for his class and has posted his students’ work online for others to view. The second website takes you to the class’s podcast episodes where you can hear the students talk about their classroom assignments and research. These are all interesting ideas that teachers can use in their classroom in order to engage and teach their students about technology and social studies.
http://www.dreamextreme.us/Welcome.html
http://www.dreamextreme.us/podcast/
This website illustrates meaningful ways of how teachers can integrate technology into their social studies classroom. For example, Mr. Young is a social studies teacher who uses blogging to communicate with his students. He posts all his classes’ agendas and assignments on his blog page so this students can learn how to navigator the internet and communicate on-line. Through blogging, Mr. Young’s students are becoming aware of their importance of using technology in their classrooms and homes.
Before teachers start to integrate technology into their classrooms or make a class blog they should take the time to teach their students about the pros and cons of blogging or using the internet, in general. Teachers should stress the importance to their students of not providing personal information on any websites for safety reasons. Teachers should also mention to their students the importance of using technology for educational purposes.
http://youngatvanier.blogspot.com/
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