Page 332 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

304 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
Your Turn: Putting the 12 Principles into Practice
Assuming that you are convinced that teaching is a scholarly activity, think about what you will do to insure that this is evident in your classroom. Design a plan—and use as a self-monitoring tool. Your plan might include a description of how you will make sure you practice the 12 principles in authentic ways, a list of who you will invite into your classroom to observe your teaching and take a look at one or
more of the principles in action, and so forth. Share your ideas with your field instructor or school principal.
Imagine that you have the opportunity to initiate a conversation with your classroom mentor or school principal regarding the importance of scholarly teach- ing, especially in this age of accountability. Create an outline of what you would include in that discussion.
TABLE-14-01
TABLE 14.1 THE 12 PRINCIPLES OF GOOD TEACHING
Principle/
Related What it Looks Like up Close: A
Chapter Explanation Snapshot Examples of Enactment
1. Supportive Classroom Climate Chapter 2
Students learn best within cohesive car- ing communities.
The class discusses what caring entails—how it looks and what actions and words are appropriate. Individuals and groups have responsibilities. Each student has a peer “buddy” (partner). Peer partners read and respond to each other’s work, collaborate on class projects, eat lunch together, play together at recess, read together, and so on. The teacher frequently changes pairings, and the pairings are some- times comprised of children of the same gender, race, and so forth, and other times mixed.
This week the class received a new student. The newcomer rides the city bus to the school from the shelter where he currently lives with his mother. When he arrives at his classroom he is immediately embraced by his peers. The “wel- coming committee” assumes responsibility for 10 minutes of singing and playing a game they use when new friends arrive. A peer partner assures the most recent member of the com- munity that he’d help him learn a lot about the classroom very quickly, eat lunch with him, and so on. After three days, the newcomer shook the teacher’s hand—a daily practice implemented to insure a connection with every child, every day. The newcomer beaming from ear to ear was heard saying, “I love this place.”
2. Opportunity to Learn Chapter 11 Chapter 13
Students learn more when most of the available time is allo- cated to curriculum- related activities and the classroom man- agement system em- phasizes maintaining students’ engagement in those activities.
The teacher conveys a sense of pur- posefulness of schooling and the importance of getting the most out of every minute. At the beginning of the year, the teacher provides direct instruction (supplemented with stu- dent input) for desired routines and reminds students when the routines are needed—or need to be revisited. The teacher insists on practicing rou- tines until they are internalized. To be successful, the teacher must be con- sistent and expect routines be followed regularly.
Within three minutes after the bell rings stu- dents have assembled. They have taken care of their outerwear, participated in lunch count, placed their nightly folders in the proper basket, and are engaging in their morning seatwork that consists of an open ended question (often with props) related to the day’s social studies or sci- ence lesson. Today’s question for the Land To Hand Lesson is “What are the processes this banana had to go through to get to Brian’s lunch box?” Almost no time is spent on transitions.
3. Curriculum Alignment Chapter 4 Chapter 12
All components of the curriculum are aligned to create a cohesive program for accomplishing in- structional purposes and goals.
Students appreciate the value of what they are learning by focusing on the big ideas and their applications. There is alignment among what is taught, what is assessed, and what has value and meaning in the world beyond school. Students are interested in applying the content to their lives.
This week the students are learning about clothing. In this lesson the students are figuring out what is entailed in making a cotton shirt. During the class discussion, the teacher says, “Of course you want to learn about this! It’s part of your life. Now, you know what it takes to make a shirt beginning with a cotton plant. Do you think you could describe to a friend what’s involved in making a pair of jeans?”
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.