Below I have posted some examples of the presentations and activities that I use in my lectures, from my EDU 375 course. EDU 375 is a social studies pedagogical methods course. Unfortunately, in American schools, social studies is given short shrift, and most teachers have to devote most class time to Math, English/Language Arts, and Science. I have also noticed that many of my students lack content knowledge of social studies and history. In light of this, my lectures focus on pairing instruction in the core content areas of social studies (geography, history, civics/government) with practical lesson ideas that students can use in the field. I do these activities with my students in class, as a way to model how they can be used in schools.
Work at the Intersection of Service and Teaching
Social Justice Committee Workshop-The workshop described in this memo was really spearheaded and initiated by Chris Widdall and some of our administrative partners at local host schools. I and my colleagues on the Social Justice Committee participated by presenting our own thoughts and materials and by facilitating student discussions. The workshop in question was organized in response to some uncomfortable situations one of our internship students was subject to in one of our host schools. The motive was to help our students to understand constructive ways to react when either they or another student, teacher, or child is confronted with similar situations.
Thanksgiving Lesson
This lesson can be giving in-person or virtually, synchronously or asynchronously, and consists of several group activities that require research. The activity focuses on different aspects of the history of Thanksgiving, including first-person accounts of the first encounter between the English Pilgrims and the Native Americans (Wampanoag). The activities are paired with a PowerPoint lecture that includes a discussion of different Thanksgiving holidays that are celebrated around the world.
Thanksgiving Selection Group 3
Thanksgiving Selection Group 4
Thanksgiving Selection Group 5
One-Pager Activity
This lesson is based on an idea that I got from a colleague, Dr. Christine Uliassi. One-pagers are a type of graphic organizer that allow students to represent ideas in a variety of modalities. Students who have trouble with writing can express their ideas using images, students who are not artistically inclined can opt to write their ideas. The one-pagers can cover any kind of topic, but should also allow students to give information about different aspects of that topic. For example, if the student is explaining the life of a famous historical figure, different sections of the one pager will be devoted to key events in the person’s life, the person’s major achievements, something that the student gained from studying the historical figure, and so on.
Virtual Field Trips
Virtual Field Trips are another idea I learned from my colleague, Dr. Uliassi. This activity became very popular during the lockdown period when field trips were basically impossible. Virtual field trips work by using online resources to allow students to at least view, listen, and otherwise gather information about different locations. These days, even local historical societies can have rather detailed websites, with video and audio resources, so students can learn a lot about a variety of places.
Virtual Field Trip Student Example <<< Student sample
Local History
One unit of my EDU 375 class is devoted to using local history to teach social studies. I start by teaching about some surprising events in the history of Cortland, NY, then, I ask the students to a little research about the histories of their own hometowns. The reactions are usually positive when students discover some interesting facts about where they grew up, which mirrors the surprise that actual elementary school students would experience.
Local History-sample – Student activity included on the final slide of the presentation.
Economics
Economics is one of the constituent disciplines that makes up the Social Studies. For this activity, I gathered different resources that relate to different aspects of economics. Some resources give information about the most important industries in New York State, other resources discuss the history of money, while other deal with social issues like poverty. This lesson works best synchronously, whether in-person or virtual. The students form groups, and each group researches a separate topic. At the end of class, the groups present and explain their findings.
Examples of Student Work
Student Presentation-This is an example of a particularly good student group presentation of a chapter from the sociologist/historian James Loewen’s book, “Teaching what Really Happened”. The chapter discusses how teachers of history/social studies should explain the dominance of European people’s globally (why did Europeans “win”?). Loewen approaches the topic with subtlety and uses great examples that explain how the current dominance of European people’s is not foreordained and has not always been the case. The students who produced this presentation did a good job of analyzing Loewen’s arguments and explaining them to their classmates in an engaging way.
Student Presentation– Also from the Loewen book, this presentation covers the “$24 Myth”, the story that the Dutch bought the island of Manhattan from a group of Native Americans for just $24 worth of beads. Loewen analyzes this myth to show why it is implausible and also a distortion of what probably really happened. He also uses it as an example of how these kinds of myths become part of the popular national conscious, and serve to legitimize the taking of land from Native Americans by portraying them as backward and unintelligent (i.e., “We didn’t steal the land, we bought it fair and square, they Natives were just too dumb to ask for a better price”).
C3 framework-in class activity-The C3 Framework is the current nationally accepted standard for constructing inquiry-based lessons in Social Studies. The posted example is an in-class assignment I use to help students practice the principles of the framework.