Page 215 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

Summary
Social constructivist models of teaching emphasize development of key ideas through sustained dis- course in which teachers ask open-ended questions and students actively collaborate in constructing understandings by sharing and responding to ideas. Although it is impossible (and not even always desir- able) to design and teach every social studies lesson in this way, we suggest you make time and space for this kind of teaching to promote critical thinking skills in your students.
To discuss a topic profitably, students need a com- mon knowledge base from which to work. Elemen- tary students (and especially primary students) often have only limited prior knowledge about topics addressed in the curriculum. Consequently, they often will need modeling or explanation from you or input from some other source to provide grounding
for subsequent discussion. We suggest your explana- tions should feature narrative (storytelling) rather than formal lecturing. Once the needed knowledge base is established, you should shift from an explainer to a discussion leader mode, asking sequences of ques- tions designed to stimulate students to think about the meanings and applications of big ideas (and if appro- priate, confront their misconceptions). The resulting discourse should feature sustained examination of a few key ideas, substantive coherence and continuity, sufficient wait time following questions, and other indicators of thoughtfulness. As much as possible, the teacher-student and student-student discourse in your classroom should feature the thoughtful exchange of ideas associated with the term discussion rather than the quizzing to elicit right answers associ- ated with the term recitation.
CHAPTER 8 How Can I Use Discourse Powerfully? 187
analogy; and some of the procedural skills are inviting contributions from others; acknowledging the statements of others; and summarizing points of agreement or disagreement. You could modify these skills for assessment of discussion in your elemen- tary classroom and create a matrix that lists these skills and students’ names, and then make a check for each skill a student demonstrates in a given discussion. We do not rec- ommend that all discussions are assessed like this, but assessing a handful of discussions per year like this may offer you a picture of students’ growth over time, as well as which skills students continue to struggle with. Please see Chapter 9 for more ways to assess discussion.
Reflective Questions
1. Imagine an observer were in your classroom to determine how your students develop social studies understandings. Describe what will be occurring. What does the discourse look and sound like?
2. Reflect on your last social studies unit. Describe how the phenomenon of conceptual change unfolded.
3. Reflect on a recent or current social studies unit. What does it take to seriously build a content base with your students? Make sure you con- sider your students with special needs.
4. How can the narrative format serve students from diverse backgrounds?
5. What aspects of your social studies curriculum are amenable to representation within narrative structures?
6. How do you prepare your students for discus- sion? What kinds of “ground rules” will you establish? How will you encourage shy students to participate? How will you avoid letting more vocal students dominate?
7. Think about an upcoming lesson built around discussion. What elements will you consider and why? If you were to assess it, what would you do?
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.