Page 296 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

268 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
interviewing truck drivers about current road conditions at the gas station, and motivating their family to start a nonprofit that encourages community volunteerism.
With the help and guidance of Dr. Alleman and Powerful Social Studies, I have realized that there is a world of potential learning situations, resources, and community members that can be effectively integrated into social studies learning. Regrettably, when we ignore our students’ sincere need to find purpose in what we ask them to do, they will likely replace their natural curiosity with a mere desire to complete assignments in ways that result in better grades or other rewards. Homework and school in general become counterfeit experiences that are detrimental to both learning goals and appreciation of the purpose of school. Homework provides an opportunity for students to reinforce their role in the curriculum, while applying skills and knowledge in a real-world setting.
The focus of this chapter is on meaningful homework. Homework is intended to be aligned with in-school social studies units, in which students interact with family and com- munity members to enhance the importance of powerful ideas introduced and discussed in the classroom. We will provide a rationale, identify and use specific examples to illustrate several potential purposes and functions, and explain how powerful social studies teaching that emphasizes authentic home assignments can provide life applications, engender stu- dents’ sense of self-efficacy, and create natural opportunities to construct understandings beyond what can be realized in a regular classroom (given the diversity of students, the time constraints imposed for meeting standards, and the range of school subjects to be taught). Finally, we provide guidelines for framing meaningful homework opportunities and ensuring that data from these experiences are linked to the classroom and shared with classmates. We use the terms homework and out-of-school-learning interchangeably.
Given the age-grading system, the high student-to-teacher ratio, the ambiguity and risk involved in academic work (Doyle, 1983), and the other features built into mass education systems, students’ learning opportunities in classrooms necessarily are limited and somewhat artificial compared to what is possible under more natural and uncon- strained conditions. One way for teachers to compensate for these constraints is to use the community as a living laboratory for social studies learning, and in the process use the diversity of student backgrounds represented in the class as a resource for promoting social studies understandings.
We define meaningful homework as tasks that enrich the in-school curriculum by chal- lenging students to think deeply about important questions, apply their knowledge and skills toward solving genuine problems, and create authentic products that will be used in mean- ingful ways Alleman, Brophy, Knighton, Ley, Botwinski, & Middlestead, 2010). Homework can expand and enrich the curriculum by encouraging students to collect information about how social studies concepts learned in school apply to their family situations. Their findings can be used in subsequent class discussions. Well-designed homework can make social studies meaningful and personally relevant.
Currently homework is on most schools’ radar screens due to the heightened concerns about accountability. Teachers are increasingly being asked to align curricula to standards, and instruction is in a time crunch due to the number of hours spent on testing. Many teachers feel that the only way they can get through the material is to assign some of it as
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