TE 401 Teaching Social Studies to Diverse Learners

Class 4September 18, 2008

Knowing the Children We Teach

Agenda Reflections on last week

Hook: Building Classroom Community

Diversity

Culturally Relevant Teaching

For next time

Metacognitive moment: L – Q – P chart

Citizenship Surveys

CWR Activity

Reflections from last week:

Critical Web Reader

Global citizenship and/or US citizenship?

Multicultural Education Consensus Panel (Banks, 2005)

Our theme for the first part of the morning is situated in Principle 1 and Principle 8 from the Banks article.

Read aloud those Principles

Learning Communities - Chapter Two Brophy & Alleman

Theme for the morning is also situated in Ch.2 of Brophy and Alleman

What characteristics describe an effective learning community? What does one look like?

Four Steps for creating a learning community:1. Designating classroom goals that span cognitive, social,

emotional, moral development2. Creating a warm & inviting physical environment3. Establishing rules, norms, procedures4. Together, with the class, create a vision of what this will look

like in practice

The Hook: Building Classroom Community in TE401 by Understanding Diversity- Getting to Know Each Other

In order to talk about how to build community in our elementary classrooms, it is important for students in TE401 to feel as if they are part of a community

This activity is designed to initiate community building by having students share personal experiences (you can share as much or as little information as you feel comfortable)

Students count off by fives to create five groups

Building Classroom Community in TE401: Getting to Know Each Other

Draw a number from the cup and responds to the corresponding statement or question:

1. Describe an experience in which you felt like an outsider, a minority, or an outcast.

2. What has been the biggest obstacle in your life?3. Describe an experience in which you were directly insulted or

criticized but could not/had trouble defending yourself.4. What type of community do you come from in terms of race, class,

and/or religion?5. Which stereotypes have negatively affected you in life?6. Describe an event or experience that changed or challenged your

prior beliefs/assumptions.

After answering the question, put the slip of paper back in the cup and pass the cup to someone else in the group.

Building Classroom Community in TE401: Getting to Know Each Other

Sharing - look for similarities and differences in the responses

What did you learn from one another? Any questions for me?

Activity connects to the self-smart learner and the people-smart learner

Modeling for Classroom Students

Let’s “reframe” this activity – thinking like a teacher…

Would you use this activity with elementary students? Why or why not? How would you change it?

Diversity

The name of this course: teaching social studies to diverse learners – what does this mean?

Diversity is variability—differences—within populations, especially with reference to ethnicity, race, culture, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social class, cognitive skills, learning styles

Homogeneity does not mean diversity

Questions or concerns you have about diversity in the classroom

Diversity Related toSocial Studies

The disciplines in the social studies address issues of diversity. So diversity is taught through content and with purpose for example:

Geography—one of the five themes is “place”: the cultural characteristics of places around the world

Economics—understanding the economic relationships between developed and developing countries

History—investigating the impact of slavery, immigration, and the women’s rights movement

Civics—studying amendments to the Constitution that affect different groups of people.

Diversity and Culturally Relevant Teaching

Please take out Ladson-Billings article

Culturally relevant teaching is a method of teaching builds on and values the cultural experiences and knowledge of all participants regardless of whether they are from the dominant culture.

Culturally relevant teaching provides a way for students to maintain their cultural identity while succeeding academically.

Ladson-Billings article Discussion

Profiles of each teacher

1. How do the various teachers discussed incorporate culturally relevant teaching into their teaching?

2. In what ways does Alex, the student teacher, not embody culturally relevant teaching into his teaching?

3. How do you see yourself using culturally relevant teaching in your own practice?

Culturally relevant teachingLadson-Billings (1994)

What can Alex learn? (pp. 123-125)1. Student will be what you expect them to be.2. When students are using prior experiences to

connect to learning content.3. Students are in the classroom to learn.4. Build on information that students already

know and build on past experience, make it meaningful.

5. Get to know your students on a deeper level . . . build classroom community

For Next Time (Teaching History for Citizenship)

CWR Assignment – Please email to bykereri@msu.edu as a one whole document attachment. Due Saturday, September 20 by 5:00PM

Brophy and Alleman, Chapter 5 Levstik and Barton, Chapter 1(coursepack) Hakim (coursepack- optional) Looking ahead: draft of pre-planning for field-based

lesson – due October 9, instead of October 2, we will cover this more in class – once you get field placement

Break

How about this for a thought?

is the

Metacognitive Moment:L-Q-P chart

Learned Question Put into Practice

Citizenship Survey

CWR: What does a Persuasive Essay Entail?

1. Take a stand – be sure you clearly state your stance on the issue – use language like “I support…or I oppose…because…..

2. Core Democratic Value – be sure you understand the definition of the CDV and have applied it to your argument in a logical way – a list of definitions in the “additional readings” folder: http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17451_18670_27147---,00.html

3. Social Studies Knowledge – draw upon knowledge of history, geography, civics

4. Data from the websites**use APA citation style**Double space**Can be 250 – 350 words

CWR: Practice

Questions? Finish CWR if you have not already done so Go to Explorer or Mozilla Foxfire and type in

the URL address: http://cwrtool.educ.indiana.edu/cwrTool/

Sign in with your id (which is firstname.lastname – all lower case) and type the password “webreader”

Work on persuasive essay and reflection essay

Building Classroom Community in TE401: Getting to Know Each Other

Draw a number from the cup and responds to the corresponding statement or question:

1. Describe an experience in which you felt like an outsider, a minority, or an outcast.

2. What has been the biggest obstacle in your life?3. Describe an experience in which you were directly insulted or

criticized but could not/had trouble defending yourself.4. What type of community do you come from in terms of race, class,

and/or religion?5. Which stereotypes have negatively affected you in life?6. Describe an event or experience that changed or challenged your

prior beliefs/assumptions.

After answering the question, put the slip of paper back in the cup and pass the cup to someone else in the group.

Using “clickers”

Instructional tool used for a variety of purposes

Collects data/information/responses from students that can be quickly and easily analyzed and displayed

Everyone will be assigned a number

Let’s gather some data to determine in what ways TE 401 Section 10 is diverse

Gender Race/ethnicity Disciplinary major Assigned grade level Political orientation Seeking a teaching position inside/outside

Michigan Other ways? Interests?

Is TE 401 “diverse?”