What I Have Learned

     This course was one that I enjoyed very much.  I teach fifth grade language arts and social studies, so many of the ideas we learned and discussed in class were things I can do in my classroom. I knew about many of the subjects we touched on in class, but I didn't have the motivation to make an effort to implement or try out the activities.  Listening to my classmates talk about how things worked in their classrooms and reading the "success stories" in the Daniels and Bizar chapters made me sit up and take notice a bit more.
      As I use my summer free time to think about my plans for next year, I know that I will finally make myself try out some of the activities we read about.  Of course, there were things mentioned that I am already doing in my classroom, and I was so happy to read that, yes, believe it or not, I was teaching the right way for the most part.  I do read alouds and have students participate in the reading by reflecting on what is read and predicting what will happen next.  Literature Circles have been used in my classroom as well - I love children's novels - and I have student-led conferences with parents using portfolios we create. I need to do more with alternative forms of assessment in the classroom and give my students more "choice" as well.  I also need to integrate in deeper ways.  Many of my read-aloud novels were on social studies topics, but I can do so much more with integration after this class.  I want to integrate curriculum in deeper, more meaningful ways next year.  And, though I can't say I'm thrilled with integrated units right now, I might even bribe a colleague or two to help me develop a unit (much simpler lesson plans, though!!) that we can use that integrates our curriculum.  I think my students would enjoy this.
     I enjoyed the Daniels and Bizar book but I loved the Schell and Fisher text.  I guess I'm biased towards social studies and hate the way it gets pushed aside for tested subjects, so I felt like this text gave me some much needed ideas for creating interesting lessons that could be used to cover more than one topic. I also thought the Integrated Units book was helpful even if some of the units were not written for my grade level.  I think I can modify a few of the units so they will work in my classroom.
     Once again, a large part of what I learned in the class came from my peers.  The textbooks were good, the lessons were well-planned and delivered, but hearing from someone who is doing the same job, in a similar environment, with a population similar to my own makes a comment or suggestion very powerful.  I have borrowed ideas form my classmates in the past and I plan to use even more of thier ideas next year.
     I also feel like the class has prepared me for starting the school year with a new curriculum.  I have had NO training in CCSS or the Essentials that NC plans to use next year.  Because I was "forced" to work with these documents, I have become familiar with them and I am comfortable with the new curriculum and confident that I can use it to create learning experiences for my students.  I can't imagine how lost some teachers in my county are going to be when they see the CCSS for the first time next year as they sit down to write the first week of lesson plans.  While I did not enjoy having to dive in and work with these standards (soooo exciting) I do appreciate being given the incentive to study and learn them so I can be a better teacher from the start of the school year.

Assessment

     Assessment seems like such an ugly word to me lately.  Every where you turn, someone in education is talking about new forms of assessment that must be done and how we will use our latest assessment results, and so on.  I'm tired of hearing about it.  I often feel like I assess more than I teach.  My students don't take standardized assessments very seriously anymore because they see them so much.  Something has to change.  I can't make a change in state or county policy so I know Benchmarks and EOGs are here to stay, but I can make a difference in my classroom.
      A few years ago, I had my students create portfolios where they kept work samples and also had quarterly goal sheets.  They participated in two student-led conferences with their parents that year using the portfolios.  The experience was very rewarding but a lot of work. I'd like to find the time and energy to do this portfolio assessment again because I think it was worth the effort.  I also need to create more authentic assessments.  I admit that I sometimes rely on those ready-made multiple choice tests because I know I have to have a weekly grade and those tests are quick to give and quick to correct.  I feel ashamed admitting that, but I don't always have the time to create awesome assessments for assignments my students complete.  Not that I'm all bad.  I do have several rubrics that I use for projects and I've used checklists as I monitored literature circles.
     The unit my group is creating has some neat assessment ideas in it.   We have students writing letters and we are using rubrics to grade the letters.  Performance on the culminating activity will also be judged based on a rubric since students must first create a product and then share their opinions with a government representative by letter.  We have flip video creations that will show if students understood content they read, and airplanes will be flying in the classroom as we observe students measuring and making adjustments based on the results. The best news is - there isn't a ready made multiple choice test anywhere in the unit!   :)

"Me" Portfolios - Ch. 10 Daniels and Bizar

     During my weekly reading assignment, CH. 10 in Teaching the Best Practice Way (Daniels & Bizar, 2005) caught my attention and gave me the most to think about.  During summer break, I tend to think ahead to what will happen next year.  One of the first tasks that must be completed each year is to turn my classroom into a community.  My students enter CMS from different feeder schools and we spend the first few weeks completing activities that help them learn more about each other.  It is necessary that we build this foundation in order for the many cooperative activities I like to do throughout the year to work. The "Me" Portfolios would be a fun, new way to start building this sense of community.  I've used the same old activities for too many years  now, and reading about a new way to accomplish my beginning of the year goal was exciting.  I like the way the activity incorporated writing as well, so I can assess writing skills as I learn about my students.  Getting to know more about my students personal lives will be interesting for me and for the students' classmates.  I also think it is neat that I get to share my own portfolio with students so they can learn about me from the start as well.  Students love to ask questions about my personal life, and this is a way to share things that I want them to know and allow them to feel as if they know me as well as I know them.  I'll be "real" to them.

Great ideas from Melber and Hunter

     Unit III  in Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies (Melber & Hunter, 2010) had some really neat ideas this week!  I'm ready to try out some of the ideas I read about when school starts next year.  Strategy 12 that discusses Native American Resource Exploration would go along with the lessons I teach about Native Americans in the Fall. I need to spend some time this summer thinking of the resources I want my students to use for this activity.  I really loved the Connecting with Literature, Strategy 13, idea.  I think it is fun to teach  myths and my students typically enjoy reading them, so the creation myth analysis seems like something that I could easily fit into my classroom plans. I also liked Strategy 15 which encourages students to look at both sides of an issue.  I have my students write point of view essays and I think starting the writing off by teaching the way it shows in "Do a Debate" (p. 104) would make the writing more powerful.

Integrating Art into a Social Studies Lesson on the Civil War (Task Three)

Works Referenced:

Jacob Lawrence, Forward
www.ncartmuseum.org/artnc

Jacob Lawrence:  Exploring Stories (Lesson Plan)
http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/art/index.html

     One of my favorite social studies units is on the Civil War.  I've put a lot of time, effort, and money into collecting materials and creating lessons that will guide my students through this time period.  During my recent exploration of the North Carolina Museum of Art's website I discovered a work of art I'd like to include in my unit.  A lesson plan was already created created for this work, but I need to make a few changes in order for it to meet my needs.
     The work of art I chose was " Forward" by Jacob Lawrence.  This piece shows Harriet Tubman guiding escaping slaves as they make their way north to freedom.  I believe Lawrence's painting would add value to the section of my unit on the Underground Railroad and also give me the opportunity to review descriptive words and have students write letters from different perspectives.
     Throughout the unit, I read the novel Elijah of Buxton aloud to the class.  We discuss how the novel ties in with our current learning and make connections on a daily basis.  When I reach the section of the unit that deals with the Underground Railroad the class reads books such as Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, Follow the Drinking Gourd, and Henry's Freedom Box, and biographies on Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.  I plan the read aloud so that we reach a point in Elijah of Buxton where the main character discovers the escaped slaves hiding in the woods at about this point in the social studies unit.  This is where I would introduce Lawrence's painting.
     I'd first take a moment to review what we have learned about the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman.  I'd ask my students to describe how they would feel if they were escaping slaves or Harriet Tubman leading the slaves to freedom.  I'd than hand out a black and white outline of "Forward" and explain that the picture represents the story of Harriet Tubman. I'd allow my students to color the outlines as they pleased.  Once all the outlines are filled in with color, I'd ask students to share the pictures with their classmates and explain why they chose the colors they used.  I'd then share Lawrence's painting and guide the class as we discussed his choice of color.  We would compare the students' use of color to Lawrence's and discuss how his choice impacted our reaction to his piece of art.  This will also allow me a chance to review the literary term mood and we can discuss how authors and painters can communicate mood. (One paints with words, the other paints with a paintbrush).
     I'd like to integrate lessons on mood, use of color, and grammar by using a writing activity involving descriptive words.  I'd ask students to call out adjectives and adverbs that pop in their minds as they view Lawrence's "Forward".  These words are placed on a class bubble map.  The students will then complete a fill-in-the-blank, Mad-Libs type activity where they fill in a story worksheet about the painting's topic with adjectives and adverbs that will help create the proper mood the artist is trying to share.  Students will share their stories with their classmates, and a discussion will be held comparing how an artist uses a brush and paint and how a writer uses descriptive words to emphasize actions or character traits to create mood in a work.  Students' ideas are recorded on a Venn diagram so they can see how writers and authors are alike and different.
     To complete the lesson, students will be asked to paint a picture in the same style as Lawrence.  The topic of their painting will be a scene from Elijah of Buxton where the escaping slaves are welcomed to the town of Buxton.  The students will write a letter home from the viewpoint of one of the former slaves, explaining what happened and how they felt during the events.  The paintings and letters will be displayed together so students can compare the moods of both pieces.

Learning History Through Field Trips (Task Two)

     One of the most important things I can do for my students is provide them with experiences that makes understanding the world around them easier.  I am concerned because the prior knowledge students bring into my classroom seems to get smaller year after year. I'm not sure why children aren't being provided with opportunities to experience the world around them (there are probably many reasons), but I know I have to make an effort to fill in some of these gaps if I am to make my students learning experiences as rich and meaningful as I want them to be.  Field trips allow me to do this.  Unfortunately, budgets make many field trips difficult or downright impossible.  Virtual field trips are an alternative, but you simply can't beat the feeling of being in the same place or touching and feeling what has been talked about in the classroom. That's why I try to find creative ways to finance field trips for my classes.  Most of the trips are local, but amazingly, many students aren't familiar with the historical and scientific treasures they can find in their own back yards.  Strategy eight, "Connecting with Cultural Institutions", caught my attention since I agree with the authors that "field trips are a time honored and valuable part of the social studies curriculum..." (Melber & Hunter, 2010, p. 55).
     I think a field trip to the museum to view the airplane created by James Henry Gatling would add richness to the unit my group plans to teach.  I believe my students will be in awe to see with their own eyes the topic of our unit.  The fact that this historical treasure is located in a town with which all of them are very familiar should be amazing to my students and hopefully gets them interested in discovering what else the town has to share that they had never heard before.  I must make sure I spend plenty of time prior to the trip preparing my students for what they are going to see.  They must know about the inventor as well as the airplane.  I will also create a data sheet with open-ended questions to guide students as they tour the museum with the airplane.  The students will be asked to draw and label a diagram of the airplane as they view it in the museum. The questions on the data sheet will guide the students as they think about the topic of the unit but also allow room for them to focus on other areas that may capture their interest.  The data sheets will be used to help guide a discussion once the class returns to school after the trip. During the discussion, students will discuss how the actual experience of viewing the airplane we read about and discussed in the classroom differed from the visual image they had created in their heads.

Ch. 4 Teaching Social Studies for Understanding (Task One)

     I enjoyed reading this chapter in our textbook today.  Since I teach Language Arts and Social Studies, I felt as if the material was relevant.  It was also nice to see that some of the things I've been doing in my classroom throughout the year are practices that others believe are necessary for good learning to take place. I am such a "history nerd," and I get a lot of joy out of teaching social studies.  Since I love to read as well, combining my two passions isn't difficult.  I find that I combine the two subjects often, however I am learning through my reading for this class that I can do a better job with a bit more thought and planning on my part next year.
     I feel as if my classroom library is set up in a way that would make the textbook author smile.  I have baskets of novels, picture books, magazines, and laminated articles from a variety of time periods and on a variety of social studies topics.  (My library is obscenely large - I can't put it all out at once!) I put the baskets out as I talk about each theme and I'm always pleasently surprised at how quickly the books are scooped up by my students. I like to begin lessons with questions that capture my students' interests or with interesting or gross facts that make them want to know more. My read-alouds frequently tie in with our social studies topic and I try to model making connections (and encourage my students to make connections as well) as I read. It was so nice to read that I was doing things right as I teach social studies.
     It was no surprise to learn that my planning needs some work.  The whole idea of "Big Ideas" intimidates me.  What if I don't pick the right big ideas for my class? I think I'd feel more confident if I could work on choosing the big ideas for next year as a team instead of on my own. It is hard to find teachers interested in putting time into social studies instruction  though, because it isn't tested.  Planning with the end in mind is also important.  I teach what is in the NC SCOS, but I make sure I cover the topics I enjoy the most more thoroughly.  Topics I don't enjoy as much are covered briefly with fewer activities to stimulate interest in my students.  This isn't fair to my students and I need to make more of an effort to plan my year ahead of time with my units spread out in a fair manner.
     Two new ideas I would like to incorporate into next year's instruction are simulations and Book Bags.  One of my students' favorite series in my classroom library year after year is called "You Choose Books".  During the reading, students must choose a role or scenario that takes the story in a certain direction.  It is difficult to keep these books on my shelves.  This leads me to believe the students would enjoy the simulation idea where they would take on a role and make decisions that real people had to make long age. I also think I 'd like to spend some time making Book Bags that students could take home and work on along with their families.  Parents often ask how they can help and creating these bags would be a way to send material home that could generate interest in a topic and provide extra practice on needed skills.

End-of-the-Year Reflections

     Every year, at his point in the school calendar, I find myself in a very peculiar mood.  Yes, I'm excited that the summer break is right around the corner, and yes, I am sorry to see some of the children I've spent weeks working with and watching grow move on to other teachers.  But I find myself in some sort of limbo between the excitement and sadness of the end-of-year festivities. There are no new units planned for which I need to gather materials, the walls are bare since everything had to come down for the EOG tests, and the many programs and parties planned for this time each year keep me from following a regular school schedule most days.  Instead of focusing on the present time, I frequently find myself reflecting on the past or looking forward to the next school year.  As a beginning teacher, I felt guilty about this because I assumed this must mean I was already writing off the children I taught this school year.  I can see now, however, that this "season" in each school year has some value.  Looking back at what worked and what did not work (especially when I still have students who can agree that yes, this activity was great and no, that project was horrible) allows me to plan ahead for the following year.  If I know a lesson needs work, I have time to do something about it in the summer - even if doing something is just thinking about what needs to be changed. I also like looking ahead to next year's possibilities.  How will I set up my classroom?  Which books will I use as read-alouds?  How will I set up the parent newsletter?  Getting these answers settled in my mind before I go on summer vacation makes my break much more peaceful and relaxed.  I don't feel as if I have something that must be done hanging over my head when I'm supposed to be resting and relaxing. So this year, instead of stressing because I feel like I'm in not focused on the current students in my class as much as I should be these last few days, I plan to embrace my reflective mood.