- Meaningful: "Engaging, connects students with real-world situations."
- Integrative: "Draws on more than one discipline, subject or skill set."
- Value-Based: "Strengthens students' sense of democratic values and social responsibility."
- Challenging: "Incorporates different perspectives and draws on students' critical-thinking skills."
- Active: "Participatory, makes use of manipulative or physical environment."
All of these 5 elements are important to include within a lesson plan. I am going to go more into depth about these 5 elements and really interpret what they include throughout each lesson. The fist element is meaningful. As described above, meaningful element should connect students to real-world situations. According to A Vision of Powerful Teaching, "Key concepts and themes are developed in depth. The most effective social studies teachers do not diffuse their efforts by covering
too many topics superficially. .../Deep and thoughtful understanding is essential to prepare students for the issues of the 21 century citizenship" (p,1). This statement is basically saying that teachers should not teach too many topics. Teaching too many topics will not allow the students to convey a deeper understanding and thoughtful discussion. Instead the teacher should pick one topic to go into detail about. This will start off with a Direct Lesson and eventually make its way through until cooperative. Having the teacher distribute out a whole unit will allow the students more time to understand the material and grasp the concepts better. Which then leads into the integrative section.
Integrative as mentioned above draws on more than one discipline, subject or skill set. An example of this would be drawing ideas from: economics, geography, history, political science, and sociology. All of these subjects can correlate with one another. One way to make these connections is to look at the past and present and see if the students can make any connections between the different aspects. This will get them to relate certain aspects and will deepen their content knowledge. The one item that is important in this section would be the use of technology. Technology is becoming more prominent in the classroom and the students are relying more on technology. To intertwine technology and integrative teaching would be an excellent idea. One way that teachers can do this is by using Web 2.0 tools for the students to collaborate and work together to solve a problem. Having the students read and write will help them "add important dimensions to students' learning" (A Vision of Powerful Teaching, p.1).
The third important element that is mentioned is Value-based. As mentioned in Dr. Sminova's slide, Value-based instruction strengthens students' sense of democratic values and social responsibility. Through this section students are becoming aware of certain policies and help them think critically towards that specific subject. They do this by making decisions and making choices that are needed. According to A Vision of Powerful Teaching, "Students learn this value through discussions, debates, the use of authentic documents, simulations, research, and other occasions for critical thinking and decision making, students learn to apply value-based reasoning when addressing problems and issues." It is important to have this value-based instructions because it allows each student to speak his/her opinions on the given subject. Also it helps them realize that they need to be open-minded and use research to back up their answers. This form of debate helps students realize all of these important factors. Debating is not the only way to reach the value-based instructions. There are multiple ways to guide students through this specific section.
Second to last element is challenging your students. Challenging your students allows them to think more critically and reaches a higher point on the Bruner's scale of learning. This section can actually be seen through the inquiry process. During this inquiry process, students are being asked to research a specific topic or given an experiment to complete. Through this the teacher is challenging his/her students to come up with an answer to the problem. They are either doing this research or experiment by themselves or within a group. The teacher is just there for the students if they have any further questions, but the teacher is not allowed to help through this section. Students are discovering new facts and vocabulary and they are challenging themselves to think critically. This helps each student grow with their cognitive ability.
The last and final step is active. Active is the last step because this is where the students are putting the aspects that they learned together. Students are working individually and collaboratively during this point to implement what they learned from the previous sections. They do this by explanation and modeling for the whole class. All of these attributes can be seen through a cooperative lesson plan. In a cooperative lesson, the students gathering their ideas to eventually share with the classroom. This helps the students implement their findings and makes them state the important facts on what they learned. Having an active part through this section is also important because it develops students' social skills. All of these elements are important to include within your lessons because it helps students realize a deeper understanding of history. If these elements were included while I was in school I would've been more engaged in the different topics. As a teacher it is important to include these topics and reach all of your students needs. Until next time bloggers :)
Works Cited
too many topics superficially. .../Deep and thoughtful understanding is essential to prepare students for the issues of the 21 century citizenship" (p,1). This statement is basically saying that teachers should not teach too many topics. Teaching too many topics will not allow the students to convey a deeper understanding and thoughtful discussion. Instead the teacher should pick one topic to go into detail about. This will start off with a Direct Lesson and eventually make its way through until cooperative. Having the teacher distribute out a whole unit will allow the students more time to understand the material and grasp the concepts better. Which then leads into the integrative section.
Integrative as mentioned above draws on more than one discipline, subject or skill set. An example of this would be drawing ideas from: economics, geography, history, political science, and sociology. All of these subjects can correlate with one another. One way to make these connections is to look at the past and present and see if the students can make any connections between the different aspects. This will get them to relate certain aspects and will deepen their content knowledge. The one item that is important in this section would be the use of technology. Technology is becoming more prominent in the classroom and the students are relying more on technology. To intertwine technology and integrative teaching would be an excellent idea. One way that teachers can do this is by using Web 2.0 tools for the students to collaborate and work together to solve a problem. Having the students read and write will help them "add important dimensions to students' learning" (A Vision of Powerful Teaching, p.1).
The third important element that is mentioned is Value-based. As mentioned in Dr. Sminova's slide, Value-based instruction strengthens students' sense of democratic values and social responsibility. Through this section students are becoming aware of certain policies and help them think critically towards that specific subject. They do this by making decisions and making choices that are needed. According to A Vision of Powerful Teaching, "Students learn this value through discussions, debates, the use of authentic documents, simulations, research, and other occasions for critical thinking and decision making, students learn to apply value-based reasoning when addressing problems and issues." It is important to have this value-based instructions because it allows each student to speak his/her opinions on the given subject. Also it helps them realize that they need to be open-minded and use research to back up their answers. This form of debate helps students realize all of these important factors. Debating is not the only way to reach the value-based instructions. There are multiple ways to guide students through this specific section.
Second to last element is challenging your students. Challenging your students allows them to think more critically and reaches a higher point on the Bruner's scale of learning. This section can actually be seen through the inquiry process. During this inquiry process, students are being asked to research a specific topic or given an experiment to complete. Through this the teacher is challenging his/her students to come up with an answer to the problem. They are either doing this research or experiment by themselves or within a group. The teacher is just there for the students if they have any further questions, but the teacher is not allowed to help through this section. Students are discovering new facts and vocabulary and they are challenging themselves to think critically. This helps each student grow with their cognitive ability.
The last and final step is active. Active is the last step because this is where the students are putting the aspects that they learned together. Students are working individually and collaboratively during this point to implement what they learned from the previous sections. They do this by explanation and modeling for the whole class. All of these attributes can be seen through a cooperative lesson plan. In a cooperative lesson, the students gathering their ideas to eventually share with the classroom. This helps the students implement their findings and makes them state the important facts on what they learned. Having an active part through this section is also important because it develops students' social skills. All of these elements are important to include within your lessons because it helps students realize a deeper understanding of history. If these elements were included while I was in school I would've been more engaged in the different topics. As a teacher it is important to include these topics and reach all of your students needs. Until next time bloggers :)
Works Cited
A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2016, from http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful
Smirnova, L. (n.d.). Engaging Students in Examining History. Retrieved April 12, 2016, from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1icOih6KdQljpUoBdU6SsYZZ3cSEomY5bHy-vH9kOTvw/present?slide=id.gd824274ae_0_0
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