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Free Inquiry #7 – Where to from here

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On November 24, 2019

In Uncategorised

I remain intrigued by the role of current events in the social studies curriculum.  As it stands now, I think I’d like to try the following:

  • Use the first week to get kids to find and pitch current events/themes that we could cover during the course:
    • I would give them the 7 curricular competencies and 8 content requirements and tell them they need to incorporate at least 1 of each in each current event/theme
    • I would tell them that as a class, we would have to cover all 7 curricular competencies and 8 content requirements
    • Ensure that they have identified key big questions (ones without one answer) as a part of their theme (or we could do this as a class too)
  • Then, map the themes in a way that made sense to me and start prepping information that could assist us for the first ones, with the idea that as we get further and further into the year, I would start to move from more structured inquiry of the topics to more free inquiry
  • Use these dimensions as a guide to drive essential questioning:
    • Who? What? Where? When? Why? Why does it matter? What could happen next? What can we do about it?
    • Social, Economic, Environmental, Cultural, Technological, Legal, Political, Ethical?
  • Set aside 10 minutes a day to community time/headlines discussion.
  • Keep timelines, wall maps, curricular competency buckets maps, concept maps, content themes; build these together on the walls of the classroom as we work through the topics

As I continue to develop my approach, here are some key resources I plan to keep track of:

https://www.cnn.com/cnn10

https://upfront.scholastic.com

Teaching with the News

Free Inquiry #6 – Current events in the classroom as social studies curriculum – relevant to students and manageable for teachers?

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On November 24, 2019

In Free Inquiry, Pedagogical Practices, Social Studies

Another key question I have had about the use of current events in the social studies curriculum is, is this a proxy for relevance for the students?  The answer I have come to is: sort of but to make it even more, allow student choice in topic.   We know from educational psychology that motivation for learning can be encouraged through several mechanisms including helping students make choices and set their own goals, interpersonal involvement, real life models, and tapping into prior knowledge.  Current events allow us to make connections to real life models and tap into prior knowledge (as students are likely to have heard about many of the current issues, more so than past issues).  Add in student choice on topic with process and content guiding by the teacher, and I think there is a high likelihood that motivation for learning will go up.

So, if we are going to respond to current events/issues/themes, and we are going to give students choice in which current events/issues/themes, then how can this be manageable for the teacher (i.e. how can they be prepared to assist the learning, bring resources and frameworks to explore the topics etc)?  In my conversations with other teachers on this topic, this is a major question that has come up.  There are a couple ways I think this could be done.  One, is to change the concept of current events from the idea that it is responding to daily headlines, and rather think of it as themes or recurring issues.  For example, in my last post, the current event allows a look into the theme of Canadian foreign policy.   I think this way has promise, as it allows a look at what is triggering an issue, but the underlying issue or theme is a universal one for humanity.  The benefit of this is that a teacher also, can look at some of the major issues going on (or about to go on, e.g. in the case of an election year) in the summer and do a little prepping of key issues/events going on that could be covered, or given as an option to cover (if you want to give student choice) during the school year.    Another way that content could be developed would be to let the students be responsible for a lot of the content building. In this case, the teacher would need to be preparing the structured process within which this content building could successfully occur.

Free Inquiry #5 – Current events in the classroom as social studies curriculum – is it possible?

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On November 24, 2019

In Uncategorised

One of my key questions has been whether current events could form the complete basis for the social studies curriculum.  To answer that, I have tried to take a few different current events and use them to meet the BC learning standards.  In short, I have determined that current events can be used as the basis for social studies curriculum.  Let’s take the Grade 10 Social Studies curriculum (1914-present). It has 7 curricular competencies and 8 content requirements.  Let’s say we want to look at these content areas and curricular competencies through the themes raised in this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/minority-report-issue2-ministers-foreign-policy-freeland-champagne-1.5370658.  The theme here being, i.e. Canada foreign policy.  Here is some summary ideas for how it would be possible:

8 content requirements:
  1. government, First Peoples governance, political institutions, and ideologies: topics to explore include, how have different governments over time conceived of the role of the ministers/ministries of foreign affairs in Canada, what can we learn from how that role has been divided or resourced among federal ministries?
  2. environmental, political, and economic policies: topics to explore include, what are some of our key headline-getting foreign policies, how have those changed over time
  3. Canadian autonomy: topics to explore include, how autonomous are we in relation to our foreign policy 
  4. Canadian identities: topics to explore our concept of our selves as defined in how we relate to other nations (e.g. history of peace keeping, what is our role on the international stage, and how has the changed over time?)
  5. discriminatory policies and injustices in Canada and the world, including residential schools, the head tax, the Komagata Maru incident, and internments: topics to explore include, how has Canada’s foreign policy contributed over the last 100 years to discriminatory policies and injustices
  6. advocacy for human rights, including findings and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: topics to explore include, what UN human rights agreements has Canada been a part of? 
  7. domestic conflicts and co-operation: topics to explore include, how do regional differences impact Canada’s take on foreign policy, e.g. dairy industry and negotiation of trade rights and obligations
  8. international conflicts and co-operation: topics to explore include, who are Canada’s allies, now and how have they changed over time (NATO, Paris Agreement)?  

Through the exploration of the content, build the curricular competencies:

  1. use inquiry: Let the students ask the questions
  2. assess significance: Ask why does this matter?
  3. assess evidence: Look at different sources to examine the different facts, opinions etc
  4. compare and contrast continuity and change: look at the issue now and how it has changed over time
  5. assess cause and consequences:  Look at what has happened now, and over time, and see what were the beginnings of this issue? what will be the consequences of it in the future?
  6. explain and infer perspectives: who are the actors? what are different ways of knowing?
  7. make reasoned ethical judgements and assess appropriate ways to remember and respond:  has Canadian foreign policy been successful over the last 100 years? where to from here?

 

Free inquiry blog #4 – Current Events in the Social Studies classroom – keeping it mapped

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On November 24, 2019

In Free Inquiry, Pedagogical Practices, Social Studies

One thing I recall from my undergrad in History, is that no matter what classes I would take, no matter how seemingly unrelated, they all would relate somehow to each other.

Matt Doran explores the idea of  making current events a central driving force in social studies in his blog – https://www.21socialstudies.com/blog/teaching-history-through-current-events-every-day-can-be-a-current-events-day.  One issue he identifies as a challenge is study of our history becomes non-linear and quite disjointed chronologically.   But I like his idea for dealing with that which is to start the year with a broad chronological overview in the first part of the year, and also use a regularly-updated wall map and time line to help keep track of connections.

I like the idea of a chronological (timeline) and geographical (wall map) reinforcers to show linkages and relationships.   I also think that because the curricular competencies and content requirements of the social studies are so concentrated into a few areas, it would be possible to structure cluster of current event into these types of buckets, e.g. current events that demonstrate differences in perspective/worldview. These could also be demonstrated in a visual manner in the classroom.

Ed tech blog #8 – Universal Design for Learning

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On November 24, 2019

In EdTech, Learning Design, Uncategorised

It was great to get this link to the guidelines for Universal Design for Learning http://udlguidelines.cast.org.  We have been hearing a lot about it, but it is nice to have a framework to understand it and start to attached meaning/potential actions too.   As I think about my practice going forward, it seems like UDL holds the key to ensuring all learners have the potential to be the best they can be.   This framework gives detail, which I appreciate, but I also think just keeping in mind the very basics of the structure, i.e. enabling multiple means of the what, why and how of learning, will be helpful in all planning going forward.  In some ways, this is yet another way of saying a lot of the same things we have been learning about over the term across all our classes (importance of voice and choice, importance of multimodal).  Nevertheless, it provides a good summary which I know I will use.

Ed tech blog #7 – EdCamp in Inquiry

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On November 5, 2019

In Learning Design, Pedagogical Practices, Uncategorised

I appreciated being exposed to the EdCamp/unconference concept.  In Diving into Inquiry (https://www.trevormackenzie.com/dive-into-inquiry), Trevor Mackenzie talks about the first few days of his class being devoted to developing the curriculum for the year.  I wonder if doing this through the structure of an EdCamp would work.  I would be interested in seeing how it would be possible to borrow some of the key components ( https://www.edutopia.org/blog/edcamp-is-future-of-pd-mary-beth-hertz) and things that people have found work well in in EdCamps (https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-04-10-5-tips-for-planning-a-kidcamp-the-student-driven-edcamp) in order to try it out.

QGIS – training in the learning commons

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On October 28, 2019

In Uncategorised

I attended the QGIS training in the UVic Digital Scholarship Commons (DSC).  Like all the trainings I have been exposed to from the DSC, it was well organized and worthwhile. The facilitator had a prepared task for us to run through and then was there to help problem-solve when we ran into trouble.  I’ll admit I did not get too far in terms of building my map.  However, beyond the learnings about QGIS, I like the teaching model of explore and problem-solve with a guide on the side.  I think this might be challenging in a class of 25, but I still think it might be worth a try. Or maybe the Digital Scholarship Commons might be open to a partnership with a high school?

Ed tech blog #6 – PowerPoint as a graphics tool

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On October 24, 2019

In Image Editing, Tech Tools

I appreciated the insights provided into using PowerPoint as a graphic tool, as I had never considered it PowerPoint for this purpose.  I’ve seen a lot of PowerPoints being used in the classroom so getting more facility with using (including for graphics) it seems like it would be worthwhile. I also appreciated learning more about the range and types of graphics programs, and enjoyed checking out photo editing tools like https://pixlr.com.  All good tools for the toolbox.

Ed tech blog #5 – PSII visit and Inquiry in the classroom

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On October 24, 2019

In Free Inquiry, Pedagogical Practices, Personal Learning Networks, Uncategorised, Understanding Learning

I found the visit to Pacific School for Innovation and Inquiry very inspiring and eye-opening.  I am most curious about how to use an inquiry approach in the everyday public school classroom.  For some insights into this, the founder of the school suggested checking out the work of Trevor MacKenzie who has been using inquiry in his classroom for years (https://www.trevormackenzie.com).  From there, I listened to some of his podcasts and read his first book on the topic – Dive into Inquiry (https://www.trevormackenzie.com/dive-into-inquiry).   There are so many useful ideas in the book.  And while we have been asked to do a lot of inquiry as our assignments so far, the book provides some very good insights into how exactly you would apply this method as a teacher in a public school classroom.  In addition, the PSII website also provides some very good resources to draw from. I was especially interested in the Learning Verbs Depth Chart http://learningstorm.org/learning-verbs/.  With these resources, I’d like to start mapping out a series of activities/lessons to put this into action.

Ed Tech blog #4 – Byproduct of technology

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On October 18, 2019

In Privacy & Safety, Uncategorised

One thing I took from Jesse Miller’s presentation was the idea that technology always has a ‘byproduct’.  The example he gave with the captchas really caught me off guard. I had never considered that captchas were being used for any other purpose than ensuring that I wasn’t a robot.  That Google could be covertly using this information for another purpose, i.e. to improve self-driving cars, seems brilliant but wrong.   To me, consent is essential in all spheres and technology is no different.   If our brains are being used for some purpose,  I think that at the very least we should be demanding that our ‘agree’ is received prior to engaging.   From now on, I will be a lot more wary about what I am giving away to technology and seek with each interaction to discover the hidden by-product.  And as a teacher, I will be even more wary, especially when I ask my students to interact with it.

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