This semester I have not had much time to create posts! With eight graduate courses, field placements, and interviewing candidates for jobs at camp this summer, I have not had much time to really reflect on all the information that I jam into my head. In all honesty, that is my one regret this semester; many times I finish an assignment or reading and have to move on to the next one without reflection or expansion. The best teacher is a reflective teacher, and that is why I have decided to break this cycle and begin to reflect upon the lessons and activities that I have been doing.
One passion I have rediscovered this semester is history and social studies; currently I am enrolled in a teaching social studies course for elementary education, and I have been increasingly aware of how social studies is often overlooked, especially in special education. Many special educators do not consider this a pertinent subject for students with disabilities, and I cannot help but wonder how many historians, politicians, archaeologists, sociologists, and anthropologists have undiscovered passion or untapped potential because social studies is rarely considered an integral part of a student's academic experience.
Throughout this course I have been reading about the methods used in secondary social studies, which focuses mostly on reading comprehension, and I cannot help but wonder if there may be better interventions for these students. What if there was a way to scaffold note-taking, so students with disabilities begin with fill-in-the-blank notes, then gradually gain more and more proficiency until they simply are filling in an outline. This would require much more work on part of the teacher, but that effort would be worth it when that student benefits and excels in note-taking and studying for history class. While reading comprehension is imperative, there are many other skills that historians need, such as examining artifacts, interpreting primary or secondary documents, and recognizing cause and effect relationships. There is a stubborn part of me that refuses to believe that reading comprehension is the only intervention worth suggesting for students with disabilities in secondary education, yet there are few other suggestions found in the research.
In general I have increasingly noticed how the social studies, when implemented, focus on a patriarchal, political historical narrative. Before this semester I have never considered how women are affected by this framework that excludes many of the great cultural movers and shakers, as well as many important women in the tale of history. In essence, women grow up learning about how important men have become with few role models that are not musically talented or extraordinarily beautiful. From my limited experience, this seems to create a self-fulfilling prophecy; women do not see successful women besides musicians, actors, models, and they begin to think that beauty is the road to success. But let me stop before I digress.
For my teaching technology course I taught a lesson that was created for eleventh graders to my college level peers on the Emancipation Proclamation. The lack of already present background knowledge astounded me. I simply asked what they already knew about the Civil War and I received blank stares from even the history majors in the room. Shocked, I decided to back up and ask them fill-in-the-blank questions such as: We talked about how the president of the North was... and they would answer Abraham Lincoln. After doing that for the critical background knowledge, the students started becoming more comfortable so I moved on to the portion of the lesson where the students compared the Constitution to the Emancipation Proclamation; specifically, the students looked at how the documents treated slaves in order to find the similarities and differences. They answered the questions: Was the Emancipation Proclamation Constitutional? Then the students evaluated whether the Emancipation Proclamation pulled through for the newly Freedmen, and what had to happen for those who were former slaves to gain their promised freedoms.
After this lesson one of my friends asked what I had learned. I must have given him a quizzical look, because then he asked, "What did the students learn? You both should have learned something, that's the point of teaching." He was right; as a teacher, I should be learning with my students. Not only should I be challenging them, but they should be challenging me. Which caused me to realize that I have not been a reflective teacher this semester. Thankfully, this epiphany only strengthened my resolve to become more reflective and more innovative with my lessons.
One passion I have rediscovered this semester is history and social studies; currently I am enrolled in a teaching social studies course for elementary education, and I have been increasingly aware of how social studies is often overlooked, especially in special education. Many special educators do not consider this a pertinent subject for students with disabilities, and I cannot help but wonder how many historians, politicians, archaeologists, sociologists, and anthropologists have undiscovered passion or untapped potential because social studies is rarely considered an integral part of a student's academic experience.
Throughout this course I have been reading about the methods used in secondary social studies, which focuses mostly on reading comprehension, and I cannot help but wonder if there may be better interventions for these students. What if there was a way to scaffold note-taking, so students with disabilities begin with fill-in-the-blank notes, then gradually gain more and more proficiency until they simply are filling in an outline. This would require much more work on part of the teacher, but that effort would be worth it when that student benefits and excels in note-taking and studying for history class. While reading comprehension is imperative, there are many other skills that historians need, such as examining artifacts, interpreting primary or secondary documents, and recognizing cause and effect relationships. There is a stubborn part of me that refuses to believe that reading comprehension is the only intervention worth suggesting for students with disabilities in secondary education, yet there are few other suggestions found in the research.
In general I have increasingly noticed how the social studies, when implemented, focus on a patriarchal, political historical narrative. Before this semester I have never considered how women are affected by this framework that excludes many of the great cultural movers and shakers, as well as many important women in the tale of history. In essence, women grow up learning about how important men have become with few role models that are not musically talented or extraordinarily beautiful. From my limited experience, this seems to create a self-fulfilling prophecy; women do not see successful women besides musicians, actors, models, and they begin to think that beauty is the road to success. But let me stop before I digress.
For my teaching technology course I taught a lesson that was created for eleventh graders to my college level peers on the Emancipation Proclamation. The lack of already present background knowledge astounded me. I simply asked what they already knew about the Civil War and I received blank stares from even the history majors in the room. Shocked, I decided to back up and ask them fill-in-the-blank questions such as: We talked about how the president of the North was... and they would answer Abraham Lincoln. After doing that for the critical background knowledge, the students started becoming more comfortable so I moved on to the portion of the lesson where the students compared the Constitution to the Emancipation Proclamation; specifically, the students looked at how the documents treated slaves in order to find the similarities and differences. They answered the questions: Was the Emancipation Proclamation Constitutional? Then the students evaluated whether the Emancipation Proclamation pulled through for the newly Freedmen, and what had to happen for those who were former slaves to gain their promised freedoms.
After this lesson one of my friends asked what I had learned. I must have given him a quizzical look, because then he asked, "What did the students learn? You both should have learned something, that's the point of teaching." He was right; as a teacher, I should be learning with my students. Not only should I be challenging them, but they should be challenging me. Which caused me to realize that I have not been a reflective teacher this semester. Thankfully, this epiphany only strengthened my resolve to become more reflective and more innovative with my lessons.
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