Putting it All Together: Effective Lesson Planning (for December 2 Class)

Choose a social science/history topic suitable for a high school lecture or discussion and prepare a “rough draft” lesson plan for that lecture.  Make sure your plan indicates the general purpose of the class session and some ideas for keeping students’ minds engaged.  Include also any ideas you might have for visual aids, an introductory “hook,” or any of the other elements TSSFFAP says are important to effective teaching.  

If you are doing your junior field experience this semester, it would be best to have a lesson plan you have actually used in class.

Please send me the lesson plan as an e-mail attachment before class (marmorsa@northern.edu).  After class, please return to this post and comment on the class session itself.  What new ideas for effective teaching did you get from today's class?

Leading Good Discussions (Please do by November 18)

Please read TSSFFAP Chapter 8 (How to Get from Chicago to New York without Going through San Francisco: Leading Good Discussions) and do the on-line quiz.

Attend any discussion at NSU and analyze it in terms of the TSSFFAP “good discussion” suggestions. To what extent did the discussion reflect the TSSFFAP “Keys to a Good Discusssion” standards? What kind of things did the teacher do to make sure that students paid attention, enjoyed the discussion, and learned something from it? What did you think went particularly well? What would you have done differently?

Keys to and Effective Lecture (please do before class on Tuesday, October 28)

Please read TSSFFAP Chapter 7 (Herodotus Had it Right: From Lecturer to Story Teller) and do online quiz.

Attend any lecture at NSU and analyze it in terms of the TSSFFAP “good lecture” suggestions. To what extent did the lecture reflect the TSSFFAP “Keys to a Good Lecture” standards? What kind of things did the teacher do to make sure that students paid attention, enjoyed the lecture, and learned something from it? What did you think went particularly well? What would you have done differently? Post your comments here.  

Games and activities (to be done *before and after* the October 7 class)

Before class:

Please read TSSFFAP Chapter 5 (Gluing Students to Their Seats and Other Fun Social Science Games and Activities) and do the on-line quiz. Also, look through the games on the “Gluing Students to Their Seats” blog:

http://socialstudiesgames.blogspot.com/

Prepare a learning game on any social studies topic of your choice.  Play the game with the class on Tuesday, September 7.

After class:

Return to this post and comment on the games.  Of all the games presented, which did you enjoy most?  Which do you think would be the most useful in terms of helping students master social studies content?  How did your own game go?  What (if anything) would you do differently the next time you use that game?
 

As if by magic (to be done before the October 7 class)

One of the most important keys to good teaching is the ability to create a classroom environment conducive to learning. Consider the learning-environment factors discussed in the Chapter IV of TSSFFAP (Schtick and Tricks: The Easy Road to Teaching Stardom).

Which of these positive-environment-building factors mentioned in TSSFFAP do you think you are/will be particularly good at? Which do you think will be more of a struggle for you?

What about the "schtick and tricks" angle?  Can you think of examples of schtick and tricks that you've seen work well in a high school or college classroom and that you might use in your own teaching?  Do you see any dangers to the schtick and tricks approach?

Planning and organizing (to be done during and after class Tuesday, September 30)

Few things are more important to classroom success than good planning, and a well-thought-out overall sense of where you are going with your class helps a lot--especially if students also have a good sense of what they are supposed to be doing in your class.

State standards and Special Professional Association (SPA) standards should be exceptionally useful, but, often, they're not nearly as helpful as they might be. 

Please take a close look at the South Dakota State Social Studies Standards and the National Council of Social Studies Teachers standards in any *one* (1) social studies area of your choice.  You should find the standards at the links here:

http://doe.sd.gov/contentstandards/documents/SocialStudies_9-12.pdf

http://www.socialstudies.org/standards

After class today, please read TSSFFAP Chapter 3 (Once Around the Race Course: Developing Effective Social Sciences Curriculum) and do the on-line quiz. Then please come back to this post and comment. 

Do the state and SPA standards tie in well with the TSSFFAP suggestions on curriculum planning?  If so, how?  If not, why not?  Do you think familiarity with the state and SPA standards will help you become a more effective teacher?  Do you think that they explain well to parents, school board members, etc. what students should be getting in their social studies classes?  Would you want to be evaluated in terms of how well your students do in matching up to these particular standards?
 

Are you smarter than a 9th grader? (To be done in class, Tuesday, September 30)

As schools across the nation adopt the Common Core standards, standardized tests are changing rapidly too. Most states are using either the PARC tests or (as here in South Dakota) the Smarter Balanced tests.  The Common Core curriculum calls for readings in social studies and history as part of the English/Language Arts (ELA) test. 

Please take the sample test at this link:

https://login4.cloud1.tds.airast.org/student/V42/Pages/LoginShell.aspx?c=SBAC_PT

If the link doesn't take you directly to the sample test, start at the SBAC portal and navigate to the high school ELA test.  After finishing the test (or as much as we have time for), add your comments here.

How does this test compare to the standardized tests you took in high school (for most of you the STEP test)?  Do you see any particular strengths or weaknesses to the test?