Service Learning Lesson Plan

I chose a history service learning lesson plan that is an alternate assignment to the final exam. After looking over the lesson plan it seems like a great way to get students involved in their community. The student's goal for the lesson plan is to gain experience working in a community with whom you have had limited contact. To identify preconceived ideas about the community with whom you will be working. And also to compare your preconceived notions with your direct experiences gained during this project. This project forces students to use critical thinking to recognize and respond to present-day parallel historical factors that contributed to the Holocaust (racism, stereotypes, peer pressure). The students must be committed to their volunteer services by seriously and conscientiously fulfilling your agreement with this organization.
The teacher has included a list of organizations as well as a website with additional options. At this organization the students must complete 10 hours of volunteer work and keep a journal logging about one page per hour of work. This will help the students to reflect on their experience. The students then have to write a 4 page essay that they will turn in with their journal.
For the essay the students much describe the organization, its mission and core values. This includes its history, what services it provides, how it is funded, and how the organization plays a role in the larger community. They then have to describe their activities and role as a volunteer and what their activities include. They also must tell what contact they had with the community that the agency serves. The students must also discuss what they learned about the community from their experience and if the experience helped them to connect classroom learning to the larger community. They also much tie in what present-day parallel historical factors that contributed to the Holocaust that they encountered. The students must also include what preconceived notions they had about the community and if the experience affected them. Then to tie it all together they must reflect on what they learned about the community and compare it to what they are learning in the class.
This service learning lesson plan reflects a great deal of the ideas on the social studies concept map. This project puts the responsibility totally on the student, which motivates them to learn on their own. Through this assignment they are able to connect what they have learned into their daily life because they are out there interacting with people in order to learn more about them. Because the students are looking to how racism and other prejudices are prominent in the community they are dealing with very controversial issues. They also have to use critical thinking in evaluating their volunteering and writing their essay. The best method for this lesson plan is to assign students individual tasks to observe, record and communicate so they can better understand the historical context of the lesson at hand. There are two practices that work with this lesson that are on our concept map. Students get to work hands on at their own place to create meaning to the project. It is also an essay, which will require critical thinking. There could be problems with this because it is so student dependent and therefore it may be difficult to get everyone to participate. It is a good thing that this is an alternative assignment so hopefully the students that choose to do this will be excited and willing to work on the project. But as a teacher I think that they should be readily available for any questions on the project because this can be difficult to get the students to stay on task. Maybe have them turn in the journal after each time to make sure they are getting what they should out of the experience.
http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php?ep_action=view&ep_id=461

Using technology in a social studies classroom

From the articles I read it seems like the idea of having students participate in WebQuests is very effective. This is also something that can easily be applied to a social studies classroom. I especially enjoyed Zahra’s article, Web-based inquiry learning: facilitating thoughtful literacy with WebQuests by Ikpeze and Boyd , because it gave me ideas of how useful this tool can be in the classroom. These WebQuests are great in getting the students to be engaged in what is being taught as well as using technology to find more information. The students are able to take on roles and scenarios of the people that are being discussed in class and therefore become more aware of the time period and conflicts at hand. In a social studies classroom there are many different WebQuests that students can participate in. I thought it might be fun and engaging for students to look at specific cultures, look up more information about the locations and ways people live within these cultures, and come up with their own conclusions. After they complete the WebQuest it is important for them to apply it to their lives by comparing and contrasting it to the world they live in. This technology-based lesson is a great way to get the students to think outside the box and become apart of inquiry learning. Students need to learn how to use the Internet, as it is a great source of knowledge. As the article states the Internet can be quite overwhelming and students might have difficulty distinguishing between what sites are reliable. This is a great way to teach students how to use the web and be able to determine which sites to trust and pull information from. This activity is an effective way to promote critical thinking while learning useful tools. The students are able to work together and share ideas which from research seems to be a great motivator for students.
Boyd, F.& Ikpeze, C. (2007). Web-based inquiry learning: facilitating thoughtful literacy with WebQuests. The Reading Teacher, 60 (7), 644-654.

What ideas for a WebQuests do you have to implement into a social studies classroom?

Technology supporting meaningful learning

Technology is a great tool to ensure meaningful learning in the classroom! Meaningful learning is active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative.
I was able to find a blog on wordpress that was made for an 8th grade social studies classroom. Each day the teacher posts a synopsis of what was covered in class, as well as required materials for the class at the beginning of the year. This blog caught my attention because the teacher is using examples of characters from the matrix to engage the students in a discussion about Aristotle and Plato. This technique makes the students more likely to want to learn and it is something that they can relate to more easily. After looking around the blog page I also found that the students are also connected to one another and their teacher through twitter. His idea of creating this blog and teaching the class the way he is is definitely an example of meaningful learning because the students are contributing and are able to be connected to the classroom and discussions on the internet. This site encompasses meaningful learning because the students and the teacher are working together as well as students are actively trying to learn and are using this website in order to find more information. This also shows that his class is building on prior knowledge to understand more about the past. http://ljhs.wordpress.com/author/ljhs/
I was able to find a great podcast that touched my heart. Mrs. Miceli's 6th grade social studies classroom was asked to help collect crayons and coloring books for orphans in Peru. This class took this opportunity to also look deeper and learn about Peru and the people that they were helping. Their podcast shows the students reflecting on how they felt after being able to help these poor children in Peru and learning a great deal about the people and the place. http://mabryonline.org/podcasts/archives/student_podcasts/social_studies/index.html This website also provides many other podcasts that connects students and teachers to what they are learning in a more personal way. The students are respobsible to go on and listen and learn from these podcasts. One podcast is from a teacher that is traveling to Japan and is making podcast while traveling for his students to learn from. This makes the learning authentic because it is meaningful and helpful for his students to get a closer look at what they are studying.
Most of the wikispaces I found were created by teachers for their classrooms. This promotes meaningful learning because students are encouraged to look at the site for information. They have to actively be looking to learn when entering these sites. I found Ms. Brown's wiki that is there to also help keep her students connected to what they are learning and to stay organized. I feel that this is an example of cooperative learning. The page also provides fun facts for what happened on that day in history. The site provides links to other sources and powerpoints which promotes intentional learning by the students. Due to everything offered on this page it is authentic in that it is helpful in getting knowledge to the students. This wiki is also constructive because of the extra resources provided it is building on the prior knowledge the students have gained in class and allowing them to have acess to further learn about the topics.
I had no idea how many teachers take advantage of these tools on the internet. It seems like it is helpful to them to keep things organized in one place, and it is a great way for students to stay caught up. Having the materials online through blogs, podcasts, or wikispaces is a great way to promote meaningful learning.

When entering the technology class on Thursday I was very overwhelmed by technology and am excited that this course will better prepare me for my classroom. I have not had the opportunity in my own classrooms to become acquainted with everything that there is to be offered by the new technology and therefore am confused and frustrated with everything that there is out there. I know that I need to become more aware of all the tools available in order to be an effective teacher.
After reading the book and the article I realize how much information there is and how important it is to be connected to it for the benefit of my students. The article and the book states that students today are very involved in the technological advancements that have taken place over the past few years. They are constantly texting and engaging in social networks to communicate with their friends.
It is also important to inform my students how to differentiate between useful sites as well as sites that are very misleading in their purpose to educate. This was also shown to us through examples of the Martin Luther King Jr. page that had been put up by a white supremacy group, and the site about the fictional tree octopus. These sites seem to be accurate, and it is important to know how to double check your sources for factual information.
Blogging is another way that people share their ideas with others. It was interesting to read that students become more interested in learning and doing there work when there is a chance that other people will see it.
The RSS is another useful tool that will be important as a teacher to get immediate updates with the world and with students blogs.
I will have to work at becoming more comfortable with technology, but I can already tell that this class and the materials provided will help me with this process. We are lucky to have so many sources of information at our fingertips in the social studies world such as the National Archives. These materials will help students to get a better grasp of the information which will hopefully also encourage them to engage in topics.