Professional+Practitioner+Portfolio

TE 407 Teaching Social Studies to Diverse Learners Fall 2011 Michigan State University College of Education

PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER PORTFOLIO

SECONDARY SOCIAL STUDIES TEAM

FALL 2011

Name: _________________________________________

Placement: _____________________________________

Subject: ________________________________________

Mentor: ________________________________________

Instructor: ______________________________________ PORTFOLIO CONTENTS

ITEMCompletedSelf ratingInstructor rating
 * Letter to mentor_____N/AN/A
 * 5 field placement logs_____N/AN/A
 * 1) Social studies textbook analysis_______________
 * 2) Educational website resource analysis_______________
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pop culture resource analysis _______________
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Primary text resource analysis_______________
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">News media resource analysis_______________
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Place-based resource analysis _______________
 * 7) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Social studies standards analysis_______________
 * 8) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Adolescent learner interview_______________
 * 9) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Community connection meeting_______________
 * 10) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beliefs on social studies survey_______________
 * 11) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Philosophy of education narrative_______________
 * 12) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Individual lesson plan_______________

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">RATING DESCRIPTIONS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 - Piece is written well with clarity and conventions suitable for an audience of education practitioners. Demonstrates strong application of ideas from readings and experiences to the issue. Provides sufficient detail for an outside audience (i.e. administrator, colleague).

3 - Piece is adequately written, but may be vague or unclear in places. Demonstrates an understanding of ideas from readings and experiences to the issue, but may need to make more connections. Provides some detail for an outside audience (i.e. administrator, colleague).

1 - Piece is not representative of writing suitable for audience of education practitioners. Demonstrates only a few or no applications of ideas from readings and experiences to the issue. Provides few or no details for an outside audience (i.e. administrator, colleague).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">FIELD PLACEMENT LOG

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NAME: ___________________________________ PLACEMENT: _______________________


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">VISITATION 1 ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">VISITATION 2 ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">VISITATION 3 ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">VISITATION 4 ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">VISITATION 5 ||

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">INSTRUCTIONS: (1) Please record the time and date of your visitation. (2) Note the number of hours spent during the visitation. (3) Summarize in 1-3 sentences the instruction you observed and describe any instruction you lead or engagement you had with your placement. (4) Please have mentor sign and date at the end of each log. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LETTER TO MENTOR

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Autobiographical writing is a genre of writing teachers frequently use for a variety of purposes. From grant applications to Advanced Placement certification, from handouts for Open House Night and cover letters when applying for teaching jobs, teachers often have to write about their educational background, their perspectives on teaching and learning, and/or their vision for their students’ achievement.

For your mentor teacher, compose a full-page letter introducing yourself that includes the following five paragraphs:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Your educational background (where you have lived (including at the present); schools attended from K-12 through MSU; major/minor areas of study in college; activities and accomplishments from high school and college)


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Your work background (any relevant experience working with youth -- camps, daycare, LatchKey, religious organizations, youth services, substitute teaching, previous placement work in schools, etc.)


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Your passion for social studies (which areas of social studies you are pursuing certification to teach, which units of study you find most interesting, your beliefs about teaching and learning social studies, insight you gained in content area coursework in college)


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Your goals for the field placement (what you hope to gain from this experience, how you plan to set up your schedule, when you’re available to observe, express your willingness to work together on creating and teaching lessons)


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Additional information (this is up to you -- what do you want to say, or not say, about yourself to your mentor teacher?)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Please include a copy for the portfolio and a printed copy of your mentor teacher(s).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. SOCIAL STUDIES TEXTBOOK ANALYSIS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Using a social studies textbook of your choice (for middle or high school students only), analyze the instructional features of a section of the textbook. A section is typically 6-12 pages in length and usually looks similar to this excerpt from the middle school textbook America: History of Our Nation (2011, Pearson Prentice-Hall):

Your analysis should respond (but is not limited) to the following:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How is the section organized and divided? What headings set apart the readings in the section?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What can you infer to be the purpose of this section? In other words, why would students be assigned this section to read and study? How does it “fit” with the goals or themes of it subject matter discipline? For example, in the example above, how does “The Earliest Americans” fit within a middle school US history course? Would you include this section or this material in your curriculum?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are the strengths of this section (aspects or features you find worthwhile or useful)? What are its limitations (aspects or features you do not find worthwhile, useful -- or would omit?)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How might students struggle with this section? Is it difficult to read? Easy to understand?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How might you use this section in your own instruction?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. EDUCATIONAL WEBSITE ANALYSIS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Locate a website that you can envision using in your social studies curriculum. The website can be of any topic, but it must be an interactive website, not a “teacher site” or a “lesson plan site.” It is easy to locate “Social Studies Links for Teachers”, but such sites are often not rich in content and only offer pre-packaged suggestions for teaching. It is more complex to make use of a website that is educational in nature, but not designed specifically for school use. For example, see below a screen capture from The New York City Taxi Drivers Oral History Project. This website makes available oral history interviews to the public. Social studies educators could use the website when studying about city life in America (history); urban geography; immigration; social class and occupations (sociology); and more.

Your analysis should respond (but is not limited) to the following:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How is the website organized?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What questions could you ask students about the website? What information or new understandings might students discover from the content of this website?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Is there any detectable bias present in the content of the site or it is layout? Is the bias something you would want to have students consider as they use the site? Before or afterwards?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What technological limitations might you encounter in a classroom if you use the site? How would you use it in a lesson -- as an at-home activity? in-class activity in a computer lab? another way?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. POP CULTURE RESOURCE ANALYSIS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pop culture is a noun phrase that is often used to mean “commercial culture based on popular taste.” It is different from folk culture or vernacular culture in that is often mass produced for mass numbers of consumers. The forms of which pop culture exists in the United States are seemingly infinite: from action figure toys to TV soap operas, from Hollywood blockbuster films to hip-hop artists and their music that play on the radio. Since many adolescent learners consume pop culture in almost all aspects of their lives (and in many places), it is important for social studies educators to both know what forms of pop culture are en vogue with their students and to teach them how to “read” pop culture (making the familiar strange) and how to use pieces of pop culture in their teaching of enduring understandings in social studies (making the strange familiar through pop culture in the disciplines).

For this artifact, select one example of pop culture (TV program, feature film, recording artist, manufactured toy, entertainment franchise, such as Twilight) and interrogate the artifact. Be sure to respond to the following in your analysis:
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A thorough description of the pop culture artifact (its origins, use, reception, and influence)
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What we can learn from the artifact that pertains to the social studies
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How a teacher can use this artifact of pop culture in a lesson and/or unit for a social studies class

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. PRIMARY SOURCE ANALYSIS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">First, write a 1-3 sentence definition of what a primary source is that you believe seventh grade students could understand (discuss primary sources with a colleague or consult online reference sources if you feel unsure as to how you might define a primary source). Next, locate a primary source through one of the following websites (be sure to copy the ULR or other identifying information so other course members can access the site on their own):
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.archives.gov/__]
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.smithsoniansource.org/__]
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html__]
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://civilrightsteaching.org/?q=node/45__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Textual Analysis” of a primary source can be a great way of bringing students into the process of learning history by looking at what is right in front of them (and is another way to integrate social studies and language arts content).
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Begin by selecting a document/photograph from a period of history in which you are interested and knowledgeable.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Create a list of questions about the source that guide the student in learning or conjecturing as much as possible from the source without having additional information available. Begin with lower-order questions about what the source might be (a letter, a photograph, a button, etc) and proceed to ask more higher-order questions about what information is conveyed by the source and what clues help students make such inferences (e.g. “What are people wearing? What are they doing? What time period/country/environment is this from?)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. NEWS MEDIA RESOURCE ANALYSIS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Select a news media source your students may commonly see and/or have easy access to using. This includes local television news reports, an Internet news website, a local newspaper or the radio. Read/Listen to a news report. Next, write a list of open-ended questions that you could have students respond to regarding the news. Once you have written out the questions listen to/watch/read another news report and answer the questions you created. Next create a set of questions around a certain theme, for example gender representation in the media and repeat the activity. Include your questions and then respond to the following:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What sorts of things could your students learn from the media.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What questions could you ask to help them compare and critique different media sources.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What does this teach you about what your students are exposed to in the media on a daily basis.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does this impact their thinking around social studies themes? How does it impact your thinking?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6. PLACE BASED RESOURCE ANALYSIS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Select and visit a historical place such as a cemetery, monument, museum, or other historical marker. Prior to visiting research as much as you can about the place and what you might see or learn there. When visiting try to put yourself in a student’s mindset with what they may or may not learn about by actually visiting the site. Reflect on your experience using, but not limiting yourself to the following questions:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What can be learned from this site?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What information do students need before visiting this site?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What would be the primary purpose of taking a class to see it?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What learning objectives could be met by the site visit (both content and skill based)?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What activities could students participate in at this site?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What logistical challenges would you meet in trying to take your classes to this site?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If it proves impossible to actually get the students to the site, are their other ways you can access the site or bring the site to them? Could visiting this site be assigned as homework in a way that would be fair to all of your students given their different social and economic restraints?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">

7. SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS ANALYSIS

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Take some time to look over the State of Michigan Social Studies Standards found both on the Faulty Lounge Wiki and on the Michigan Department of Education website. After perusing the standards take some time to think and write about the following:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Are ideas, issues, or specific pieces of content you find absent in the standards?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do these standards attend to what you identify as the purposes of social studies?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Is there any one perspective or viewpoint that is more present at the expense of others?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How would you adapt this in your own instruction?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Which standards may be more difficult for you to meet in you classroom? Why?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Which standards get you excited about teaching? Why?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are your beliefs about content standards in social studies?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What do you think your students would think about the standards?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">8. ADOLESCENT LEARNER INTERVIEW


 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Find an adolescent, maybe a family member or the younger sibling of a friend who is willing to let you pick their brain about what life in high school is like.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prior to interviewing your participant, try to think back to what was most important to you in high school (this is frequently what you remember most). As teachers it is occasionally difficult to remember that students are more worried about friendship groups, relationship issues, and what they are doing on Friday night than about the articles of the constitution.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As you develop your interview questions, identify what you need to know about your students in order to better connect social studies to adolescent learners’ lives.
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You might want to ask the adolescent about who her or his favorite teacher is and to discuss that teacher in detail.
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">See if your participant can identify what helps her or him learn the most and what keeps him or her from learning.
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ask about challenges your interviewee faces both socially and academically at school.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When writing your report please you a pseudonym for your adolescent interview participant to help maintain her/his privacy.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">9. COMMUNITY CONNECTION MEETING

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is crucial for teachers to be attuned to the needs of the communities their students live in as well as the concerns of their students’ parents. Find a local school board or parent group meeting to attend. Most school board meetings are open to the public and the schedule can be found online. Attend the meeting (you can go in pairs if this makes you more comfortable) and take notes on what issues are being discussed. See if you can identify from those notes what is important to the community (there is not guarantee that what is discussed in them meeting is important, but you can make your own judgement on this). Respond to, but do not limit yourself to, the following questions:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who was at the meeting? What or whom were these persons representing?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were the major concerns discussed at the meeting?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were any students at the meeting? Did they speak? What did they say?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were any teachers at the meeting? Did they speak? What did they say?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Was anything discussed at the meeting that students should have input on?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was discussed at the meeting that would affect your classroom if you were teaching in the district?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 10. BELIEFS ON SOCIAL STUDIES

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Take approximately half an hour and do a free-write, open-ended response to the first set of questions below. Afterwards, select three of questions to ask of at least three other people. These people do not have to be social studies teachers or experts in the social studies disciplines. They can be friends and family members. Record their responses and then finish the reflection by responding to, but not limiting yourself to, the second set of questions.

SET 1
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is social studies teaching about? Why bother? What should our purposes be?
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What general questions should we lead our students to ask about their world? About our society? About their lives?
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What content should we include in the curriculum?
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are the most important goals of social studies in terms of what students should know, be able to do, and value as a result of taking social studies?
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why are these goals valuable for a democratic society?
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do issues of cultural diversity, power and privilege, an multiculturalism inform you thinking about both content and methods of social studies?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">SET 2
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did anyone respond differently than you did?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did anyone change your mind?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are ways that we as social studies educators and curriculum designer can balance or respond to everyone’s opinion on what is important in social studies?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Should you respond to everyone’s opinion or just stick to your own?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">11. NARRATIVE OF BELIEFS ON TEACHING

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As you develop your own framework for teaching this year it is important that you also develop a stance on what you believe education is and what it is for. While this may seem overly philosophical, your daily decisions in the classroom, as well as curricular and pedagogical decisions, will emerge from your beliefs about your role sand purposes as a social studies educator. Therefore, it is important to start examining and developing your beliefs about education. The questions below are intended as prompts. Respond to the questions that feel most useful for you and generate provocative thought. Be mindful that your “philosophy of education” will change as you advance through this course and as you teach. However, it is always helpful to know where you stand. In addition, you will be asked to write such a narrative for most job applications. It can be one of the most challenging pieces you will write as a novice teacher and will say volumes about who you are. It is best to start defining your stances on these beliefs now.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are your basic “I Believe” statements about social studies curriculum, social studies pedagogy, and the social context of schools?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What overarching pedagogical approaches should we choose? What are the main alternatives?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Which specific approaches are most consistent with my beliefs? What are my commitments?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What approach to social studies teaching should I choose?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What specific skills and values will your students learn in your social studies course?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How will you make decisions about what constitutes worthwhile knowledge?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What kinds of content would you teach and why? How does your rationale promote a vision of the “good society” and the role students

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">12. INDIVIDUAL LESSON PLAN

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Using the lesson plan template found in Instructional Strateiges for Middle and Secondary Students (Larson & Kepier), write and format a lesson plan as part of a five-day instructional unit. Connect the content of your lesson to relevant standards from the Michigan State Standards and identify those standards by their name in your lesson plan.