Lies My Teacher Told Me- Ch 13

This chapter talks about why history is taught through tertiary sources. Is using textbooks for teaching the best thing for a class? Having read this, my opinion has changed slightly but not dramatically. I think that textbooks can be effective tools, especially for beginning teachers. In my novice classroom, I was asked to teach a whole unit on Ancient Egypt. Although this was an interesting topic for me to teach, I knew little about this topic. I had to use the textbook to help plan the timeline for my unit. I tried implementing more facts and methods of teaching not found from the textbook but it was always my fall back option in case I needed help. This is why the textbook is effective. It helps teachers who do not know much about a particular topic teach it in a more effective way. As you become more experienced, you should break dependency on the text book gradually.

Big question: How can we keep students motivated as first year teachers who are more dependent on textbooks?

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Link: http://www.iq.poquoson.org/socialstudies.htm

Cantu Ch. 13

The use of primary sources in a social studies classroom can be a very important and effective tool. There are many different places to find primary sources, however, I find that the LOC is on of the best places to find primary sources that are related to US History. Looking through Cantu Ch. 13, I have found at least one item that I would really like to incorporate into my classroom.

When using the LOC, students have the opportunity to find rich resources throughout US History that can be interesting and are easy to incorporate into a lesson. One of the ways I would use a primary source would be to have students do a group project about an event in US or World History. They can find resources from LOC or other websites to help them create a good presentation as a group. When working on their project, something that I found in this chapter that I would love to incorporate is the primary source analysis tool. This tool will help them break down a source and help them understand it. I think practicing this skill will help them learn to analyze documents effectively.

Big question: In what ways does the skill of analyzing primary sources prepare students for real life tasks when they have a career?

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Link: http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Lies My Teacher Told Me- Ch 12

This long chapter talks about the textbooks created by the publishing companies. Lowen thinks that these companies are doing things wrong and creating books that are not adequate for the learning of students. He wants more resources in textbooks. I must say that I am not liking is later chapters as much. I do not think that blaming textbook companies would solve all of the problems. They can be useful in some situations. Although I do think that they should not be heavily used in a classroom, there are benefits to them. In my novice teaching class, my instructor created his curriculum around the textbook. This does not mean that he takes the worksheets from it and that is all he does to teach. He simply uses it as a guide on what to focus his class on. In my world history class, the last chapter was Mesopotamia then it went to Ancient Egypt. That is how we structured the class timeline. We use it more as a timeline, not a major teaching tool. That is how I would use a textbook in my classroom. I think that some teachers do not use them properly and try to do minimal work in the classroom. This is where textbooks hurt the learning of students. I believe that there can be changes made to textbooks that can help students and teachers. Involving more primary documents in a textbook can be useful. Looking through my novice textbook, I do not see many primary document sources to help me teach. I have to find these in different ways. There should be more teaching resources in the textbooks to help.

I seems to me that textbooks are heavily linked with standardized testing that lots of people have issues with.

Question: What other ways can using a textbook in the classroom be effective?

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Link: http://dynamicbooks.com

Cantu- Ch. 12

This chapter is looks at the uses of social studies subjects that include sociology, anthropology, and psychology. These three subjects are known as the behavioral sciences. I have not had very much practice in any of these topics. Like many other high schools, my high school did not require any of these topics as part of the required classes that had to be taken. Most of these topics were simply rolled into larger social studies classes. They did not have a required separate class. Although I think that there is a problem with this, I also see why it is this way. There is limited training for teachers for any of these topics. The biggest subject of these 3 is psychology and that is usually taught as a extra curricular class at the high school level. I think that looking at the way individuals and societies behave is a very fascinating topic and I would like to figure out good ways to integrate it into my classroom teachings.

One of the best ways to integrate these topics is around major events that have happened during the course of world history. My first example is WWII. You can look at how Hitler created such a great sense of nationalism throughout Germany and was able to get away with tyrannic events such as the Holocaust. Although there had always been a sense of Resentment for Jews and other groups throughout time, he was able to do some awful things under the noses of the german people and other nations. You can look throughout a psychological lens at what made Hitler have these beliefs. You can look through a sociological lens at Germany as a whole and how their society was functioning at the time. You can look at changes that occurred comparing and contrasting before and during Hitlers reign. Examples similar to these are ways that I would try to integrate these behavioral sciences into my curriculum.

Question: Why is there not a bigger emphasis on these sciences? Psychology can be very useful for almost all careers where you have to deal with other people.

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Link:http://www.socialpsychology.org

Cantu Ch 11

I have always found geography very to be a very interesting topic. I love learning about different countries as well as different characteristics of these areas. It has always been a sub-topic of social studies that I feel I have excelled more in given the appropriate resources to learn. If I had the opportunity, I would probably prefer a position as a teacher in geography instead of any other social studies topic. Having said that, there are plenty of ways to teach geography through different class subjects.

If I had a normal social studies class with a primary focus on history, I think throwing geography elements into lessons is very important. It can be a good starting point to units. For my unit Ancient Egypt, I had to make sure that students were knowledgeable of where Egypt is present day as well as key features of this area such as the Nile River and location on the Mediterranean Sea. Talking about other areas of the world should always start with a basic geography lesson to establish a base knowledge for students to grow on.

Question: Should geography take priority as a subject over other social studies topics such as history and government?

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Weblink: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm

Lies My Teacher Told Me Ch 11

This chapter focuses a lot on the ending of textbooks used in the classroom. Having barely read textbooks from a high school class, let alone get to the end of one, I was not sure what to think of what he wrote. He wrote that textbooks end with optimism and saying that there is progress. While I do believe that there is progress in some aspects in history, there is not progress in all aspects. I like the idea where you can lead a discussion about what you think will take place in the future after the end of a textbook. Will things revert back to old ways? Will there be progress? I think if I ever was in this situation, I would take this approach. I do not like using textbooks in the classroom though so this will probably not happen often.

One last thought is that it is important that when discussing this with students, make sure they know how to make a difference after they decide what they think could happen to our future. Show how important civic involvement is to help this country.

Question: Why do schools focus on textbooks so often if they are proven false, in some occasions, and ineffective.

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Weblink: http://www.procon.org

Cantu Ch. 10

Economics was something that I never experienced in school. Whether this was college or high school, I never decided to take the class. I believe it is important to learn about our economy because of events that are happening now-a-days. Econ was always an elective in high school that I never decided to take.

In my classroom, I would like to involve economics by teaching about current events involving the economy as well as look at events that effected the economy in the past. You can relate this also to products that were important for trade throughout world and US history. You can link the economy to the slave trade as well as the creation of cash crops such as growing tobacco here in the US.

Question: Why is the economy not focused on more in secondary education?

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Weblink:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111494514