TE 401 Teaching Social
Studies to Diverse Learners
Class 4
September 18, 2008
Knowing the Children We Teach
Agenda

Reflections on last week

Hook: Building Classroom Community

Diversity

Culturally Relevant Teaching

For next time

Metacognitive moment: L – Q – P chart

Citizenship Surveys

CWR Activity
Reflections from last week:

Critical Web Reader

Global citizenship and/or US citizenship?
Multicultural Education
Consensus Panel (Banks, 2005)

Our theme for the first part of the morning is
situated in Principle 1 and Principle 8 from
the Banks article.

Read aloud those Principles
Learning Communities
Chapter Two Brophy & Alleman

Theme for the morning is also situated in Ch.2 of Brophy and
Alleman

What characteristics describe an effective learning
community? What does one look like?

Four Steps for creating a learning community:
1.
Designating classroom goals that span cognitive, social,
emotional, moral development
2.
Creating a warm & inviting physical environment
3.
Establishing rules, norms, procedures
4.
Together, with the class, create a vision of what this will look
like in practice
The Hook: Building Classroom Community
in TE401 by Understanding DiversityGetting to Know Each Other



In order to talk about how to build community in
our elementary classrooms, it is important for
students in TE401 to feel as if they are part of a
community
This activity is designed to initiate community
building by having students share personal
experiences (you can share as much or as little
information as you feel comfortable)
Students count off by fives to create five groups
Building Classroom Community in
TE401: Getting to Know Each Other

Draw a number from the cup and responds to the corresponding statement or
question:
1.
Describe an experience in which you felt like an outsider, a
minority, or an outcast.
What has been the biggest obstacle in your life?
Describe an experience in which you were directly insulted or
criticized but could not/had trouble defending yourself.
What type of community do you come from in terms of race, class,
and/or religion?
Which stereotypes have negatively affected you in life?
Describe an event or experience that changed or challenged your
prior beliefs/assumptions.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

After answering the question, put the slip of paper back in the cup and pass the cup
to someone else in the group.
Building Classroom Community in
TE401: Getting to Know Each Other

Sharing - look for similarities and differences
in the responses

What did you learn from one another? Any
questions for me?

Activity connects to the self-smart learner and
the people-smart learner
Modeling for Classroom
Students


Let’s “reframe” this activity – thinking like a
teacher…
Would you use this activity with elementary
students? Why or why not? How would you
change it?
Diversity

The name of this course: teaching social studies to
diverse learners – what does this mean?

Diversity is variability—differences—within
populations, especially with reference to ethnicity,
race, culture, language, religion, gender, sexual
orientation, social class, cognitive skills, learning
styles

Homogeneity does not mean diversity
Questions or concerns you have
about diversity in the classroom
Diversity Related to
Social Studies

The disciplines in the social studies address
issues of diversity. So diversity is taught through
content and with purpose for example:




Geography—one of the five themes is “place”: the
cultural characteristics of places around the world
Economics—understanding the economic
relationships between developed and developing
countries
History—investigating the impact of slavery,
immigration, and the women’s rights movement
Civics—studying amendments to the Constitution that
affect different groups of people.
Diversity and
Culturally Relevant Teaching

Please take out Ladson-Billings article

Culturally relevant teaching is a method of
teaching builds on and values the cultural
experiences and knowledge of all participants
regardless of whether they are from the dominant
culture.

Culturally relevant teaching provides a way for
students to maintain their cultural identity while
succeeding academically.
Ladson-Billings article

Discussion

Profiles of each teacher
1.
How do the various teachers discussed
incorporate culturally relevant teaching into their
teaching?
In what ways does Alex, the student teacher, not
embody culturally relevant teaching into his
teaching?
How do you see yourself using culturally relevant
teaching in your own practice?
2.
3.
Culturally relevant teaching
Ladson-Billings (1994)
What can Alex learn? (pp. 123-125)
1. Student will be what you expect them to be.
2. When students are using prior experiences to
connect to learning content.
3. Students are in the classroom to learn.
4. Build on information that students already
know and build on past experience, make it
meaningful.
5. Get to know your students on a deeper level . .
. build classroom community
For Next Time (Teaching History
for Citizenship)

CWR Assignment – Please email to
[email protected] as a one whole document
attachment.





Due Saturday, September 20 by 5:00PM
Brophy and Alleman, Chapter 5
Levstik and Barton, Chapter 1(coursepack)
Hakim (coursepack- optional)
Looking ahead: draft of pre-planning for field-based
lesson – due October 9, instead of October 2, we
will cover this more in class – once you get field
placement
Break
How about this for a thought?
is the
Metacognitive Moment:
L-Q-P chart
Learned
Question
Put into Practice
Citizenship Survey
CWR: What does a Persuasive
Essay Entail?
Take a stand – be sure you clearly state your stance on
the issue – use language like “I support…or I
oppose…because…..
2. Core Democratic Value – be sure you understand the
definition of the CDV and have applied it to your argument
in a logical way – a list of definitions in the “additional
readings” folder: http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7160-17451_18670_27147---,00.html
3. Social Studies Knowledge – draw upon knowledge of
history, geography, civics
4. Data from the websites
**use APA citation style
**Double space
**Can be 250 – 350 words
1.
CWR: Practice





Questions?
Finish CWR if you have not already done so
Go to Explorer or Mozilla Foxfire and type in
the URL address:
http://cwrtool.educ.indiana.edu/cwrTool/
Sign in with your id (which is
firstname.lastname – all lower case) and type
the password “webreader”
Work on persuasive essay and reflection
essay
Building Classroom Community in
TE401: Getting to Know Each Other

Draw a number from the cup and responds to the corresponding statement or
question:
1.
Describe an experience in which you felt like an outsider, a
minority, or an outcast.
What has been the biggest obstacle in your life?
Describe an experience in which you were directly insulted or
criticized but could not/had trouble defending yourself.
What type of community do you come from in terms of race, class,
and/or religion?
Which stereotypes have negatively affected you in life?
Describe an event or experience that changed or challenged your
prior beliefs/assumptions.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

After answering the question, put the slip of paper back in the cup and pass the cup
to someone else in the group.
Using “clickers”

Instructional tool used for a variety of purposes

Collects data/information/responses from
students that can be quickly and easily analyzed
and displayed

Everyone will be assigned a number
Let’s gather some data to determine in
what ways TE 401 Section 10 is diverse







Gender
Race/ethnicity
Disciplinary major
Assigned grade level
Political orientation
Seeking a teaching position inside/outside
Michigan
Other ways? Interests?
Is TE 401 “diverse?”