1.11.16

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically...Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education." -Martin Luther King Jr.

This quote is from a great article that I found entitled "A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civil Efficacy" (that's a mouthful, I know!).  I was going to save the article and use it next week in honor of MLK day, but it was too good not to share with you now.

If, according to a great American leader, the purpose of education is to train students to think intensively and critically which leads to intelligence and character, why do we then take social studies and put it on the back burner?  Social studies is the core to developing an "enduring understanding of civics, economics, geography, and history, and assures the readiness of students to assume [the responsibilities of citizenship]."  

It is time for the pot on the back burner (social studies) to boil over.  We have left it back there unattended for too long now and the result is a generation who is apathetic to the rich history of our world and how to function in their own society.  

In order to rewrite history (see what I did there), we first and foremost must know the content (NCTCS #3).  For some of us this may mean reviewing or taking more courses so that we can be prepared to not only supply our students with accurate information but also be ready to correctly answer their questions.  Once we are up to date on the content, we are ready to teach "Powerful and Authentic Social Studies."  

The article states the qualities of "Powerful and Authentic Social Studies" in five bullet points: Meaningful, Integrative, Value-Based, Challenging, and Active. The three qualities that I liked most were meaningful, integrative, and active. 

-->Meaningful social studies is described as something that "builds curriculum networks of knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes that are structured around enduring understandings, essential questions, important ideas, and goals."  I connected this to the idea of concept based instruction that we started discussing this week.  By using a concept to guide instruction, rather than a topic and facts, we are able to supply our students with bigger ideas that they can then use to form beliefs and attitudes toward a topic. 

-->Integrative social studies focuses on "the core disciplines, it includes materials drawn from the arts, sciences, and humanities, from current events, from local examples and from students' own lives."  I related this directly to standard 3.c of the NCTCS.  By realizing and believing in this aspect/quality of social studies, we are becoming teachers who "understand how the content we teach relates to other disciplines in order to deepen understanding and connect learning for students." 

-->Active learning in the social studies classroom (and any classroom for that matter) is "not just hands-on, it is minds-on."  This really grabbed my attention and immediately made me think of standard 4 of the NCTCS- "Teachers facilitate learning for their students."  If we create lessons that require students to stop, process, and think about what they are learning then we are most definitely "engaging our students in higher level thinking." 

What a "Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning" in regards to social studies.  I don't know about you, but I am most certainly ready for the social studies pot to boil over.  I'm excited to begin our concept-based unit in which we will be able to incorporate all of these new ideas into our lessons.  I can't wait to see how the five qualities found in this article are going to take shape in my social studies instruction.  These qualities will definitely be a guide for the lesson planning of my future classroom.  I don't know about you but, I want to be a teacher known for Powerful and Authentic teaching and learning in every subject that I teach.

http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful