Page 294 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 13
Rob Ley, Experienced Teacher
I was passionate and idealistic when I started teaching. I devoured Powerful Social Studies as an undergraduate and attributed a lot of my success teaching social stud- ies as an intern to the ideas in the book. Powerful Social Studies had a permanent spot on the corner of my desk as I went into my first year of teaching with a fresh and unsullied perspective believing that my students’ experience in school should be challenging, active, and relevant to their lives. Even though I was just beginning my journey in understanding how to make that vision a reality, I set high expectations for myself to achieve it. I began working with a population of at-risk students, and my stance on connecting school to real life was soon challenged in many ways.
Looking back, I realize now that I allowed those teaching challenges to prevent me from implementing the lessons I learned from Powerful Social Studies, specifically the expan- sion of the curriculum to learning opportu- nities outside of school. I was trying to make sure that I “covered” the required material by using homework as a reinforcement of prescribed learning materials like fill-in-the- blank timelines. My students dedicated most of their effort to remembering and listing isolated pieces of information rather than thinking critically about how the information
HOW CAN THE CURRICULUM BE EXPANDED AND MADE MORE POWERFUL THROUGH HOMEWORK?
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© Keith Knighton
TEACHER VOICE