Establishing the Colonies (Chapters 1-3 What is Social Studies?)

What is Social Studies? Why do we teach it? And what will this class bring?

I talked about what Social Studies meant to me in my first blog. In this blog, I will get more technical as I explore the first three chapters of our class textbook, Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School: Communities, Connections, and Citizenship, by Lawrence Lyman, Scott Waters, Harvey C. Foyle, and Allyson L. Lyman. In the first chapter, the authors explore what the definition of Social Studies actually is. According to New York State Education Department, the purpose of social studies education is for students to "confront questions about the wonder and excitement of humankind in the world." To me, that is a great description of what social studies should be about. If the students are not introduced to any topic within the boarded term of social studies with excitement and wonder, they will struggle to obtain the information. To further this definition, the National Council of Social Studies defines social studies as the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Again, I completely agree with this definition. Without a basic knowledge of history, politics, human nature, and geographical concepts that all play an integral role in our current situation, how would anyone be able to make a genuine contribution to society? To me, it is just as important to teach social studies as it is to teach reading and math. Beyond the facts that you learn in social studies, you learn how to analyze, synthesize information, and really hone in on developing their skills in comprehension. One of the lessons we will be teaching in our methods class is an inquiry lesson. Research has found that students retain more information when they have to research and discover the information themselves than if they are taught the information and had to memorize the facts by rote (Lyman et al., N.D.). I believe that it takes a certain balance of teaching in class and self-discovery. Yes, it is good for the students to learn on their own, but if they are left to learn everything by themselves, then what is the need for a teacher. A teacher's job is to teach their students, so to ensure the students are getting the best education possible a teacher should use evidence-based practices within the class to teach a basis of information. Then for homework, allow the students to explore and research more information about the topics they have already learned a foundation of knowledge on in class.

Entering chapter two, the book began talking about the history of the school system itself. Early on, children had to attend a Dame School which was taught by a woman who had barely more education than the children themselves. These schools were expensive and only child who came from families with money could afford it. Later on a man named Horace Mann wanted all children to have the opportunity to an education no matter what walk of life their family comes from. This type of school would be called a Common School and started in Massachusetts. This notion eventually spread to help education reform other parts of the country. Henry Bernard furthered this notion of education for all with the idea that teachers should receive training to ensure that the education the students received was the best quality. As people's perspectives changed throughout the year, there has been several different changes in education policy. Court cases like Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education ended the notion of "separate but equal" and made it possible for people of color to access the same education as their white neighbors. Later on legislation started to focus on how the US was falling behind other countries in math and english. Reagan's commissioned report "A Nation at Risk" created in 1983 stress the need achievement in both math and english. Similarly, George W. Bush put No Child Left Behind into motion in 2001 to help close the gap between the students of America and children around the world. However, NCLB has turned out to be a flawed system that our textbook said caused more ways for schools to fail (Lyman et al., N.D.).

Chapter three dives into the world of Common Core. 44 of the 50 United States have adopted the Common Core. These standards have brought much controversy over the years, however, if used in the right way, I do not see a problem with them. Common Core standards are very important topics for students to learn, but when they start to dictate all of instruction in order to teach to the test, the students miss out. Over the course of study of education, I have used the Common Core standards time and time again. I feel like the opportunity to diversify the educational experience of students is there, you just have to find the right standards to fit with what you are teaching. Our book has an interesting example of using the book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief to teach latitude and longitude. This book is not your traditional classic novel, but it can be used to cover the common core standards of english and with some creativity, can be used to teach latitude and longitude by using the coordinates of locations in the book. While you cannot be completely original with the content you teach, the Common Core gives a certain level of accountability to teacher which I think can be beneficial for a student when the teacher creates lessons that meet the standards with an engaging take on them. Like with the example of the Percy Jackson book, in social studies it is important to meet both math and english standards with in your social studies curriculum so that students can generalize their skills. I hope to create lesson that can help do just this for our fieldwork experience.