TE 401 Teaching Social Studies to Diverse Learners

1. TE 401 Teaching Social Studies to Diverse Learners Class 4 September 18, 2008 Knowing the Children We Teach

2. 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

3. Reflections from last week: • Critical Web Reader • Global citizenship and/or US citizenship?

4. 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

5. 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: • Designating classroom goals that span cognitive, social, emotional, moral development • Creating a warm & inviting physical environment • Establishing rules, norms, procedures • Together, with the class, create a vision of what this will look like in practice

6. 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

7. Building Classroom Community in TE401: Getting to Know Each Other • Draw a number from the cup and responds to the corresponding statement or question: • Describe an experience in which you felt like an outsider, a minority, or an outcast. • What has been the biggest obstacle in your life? • Describe an experience in which you were directly insulted or criticized but could not/had trouble defending yourself. • What type of community do you come from in terms of race, class, and/or religion? • Which stereotypes have negatively affected you in life? • 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.

8. 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

9. 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?

10. 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

11. Questions or concerns you have about diversity in the classroom

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Ladson-Billings article • Discussion • Profiles of each teacher • How do the various teachers discussed incorporate culturally relevant teaching into their teaching? • In what ways does Alex, the student teacher, not embody culturally relevant teaching into his teaching? • How do you see yourself using culturally relevant teaching in your own practice?

15. Culturally relevant teachingLadson-Billings (1994) What can Alex learn? (pp. 123-125) • Student will be what you expect them to be. • When students are using prior experiences to connect to learning content. • Students are in the classroom to learn. • Build on information that students already know and build on past experience, make it meaningful. • Get to know your students on a deeper level . . . build classroom community

16. 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

17. Break

18. How about this for a thought? Community is the DIVERSITY

19. Metacognitive Moment:L-Q-P chart

20. Citizenship Survey

21. CWR: What does a Persuasive Essay Entail? • Take a stand – be sure you clearly state your stance on the issue – use language like “I support…or I oppose…because….. • 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 • Social Studies Knowledge – draw upon knowledge of history, geography, civics • Data from the websites **use APA citation style **Double space **Can be 250 – 350 words

22. 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

23. Building Classroom Community in TE401: Getting to Know Each Other • Draw a number from the cup and responds to the corresponding statement or question: • Describe an experience in which you felt like an outsider, a minority, or an outcast. • What has been the biggest obstacle in your life? • Describe an experience in which you were directly insulted or criticized but could not/had trouble defending yourself. • What type of community do you come from in terms of race, class, and/or religion? • Which stereotypes have negatively affected you in life? • 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.

24. 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

25. 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?

26. Is TE 401 “diverse?”