TEAC 451: Blog #7

I thought the reading for this week was really interesting. I particularly liked how Dr. Johnson primed us for it in class last week without really telling us that he was doing that. By asking us to create our own lists of the top ten most influential/important figures in American history, he made sure we all understood our own perspectives and biases before doing this reading.

Seeing as this article is over ten years old, I'd love to see how high schoolers' perspectives have changed or if they haven't changed at all. I also wish the researchers had asked adults in the middle range (post high school to 45 years old) the same question so we could compare the gap between the generations more.

As I read over the lists of the top 10 most frequent answers I was struck by the seeming diversity, and then upon further inspection, at the lack of true diversity. Sure, there's black Americans and women (although that's skewed due to Part B of the study, as they stated), but where are the Native Americans, the Latinos, the Asian Americans? Furthermore, where are the gay people, the Muslims, the Jewish people, and the people who cross multiple of these categories? I suppose that those groups have historically been less prominent in US history, but it also showcases the fact that those groups' histories and contributions aren't taught in formal settings. Or at least not taught as widely.


https://culturela.org/event/latino-american-heritage-month-celebrations/

TEAC 451: Blog Post #6

I thought the Journell article was very useful. When I took TEAC 259: Instructional Technology I spent a lot of time concerned that many of the things we talked about wouldn't work in my classroom. This was one of the first points that Journell made: Students studying social science education hardly get the instruction needed in how to apply technology in their classrooms in a meaningful way. I think this article and the things we talked about in class last week truly enhance the way I think about utilizing technology in my future classroom.

I like the idea that inquiry-based instruction can take place through webquests. I think the important thing to remember with activities like this is that they shouldn't just be another research paper or presentation. The student needs to care about the topic they're looking into and want to make a great final product because they enjoyed doing the work behind it. I think the idea that these webquests lead to discussions amongst the students and in the class is unique. Never in my educational background did we discuss what we learned from other students' presentations, and I think that empowers the students who then feel like they have taught their peers something new.

The other two areas where we can use technology effectively, I don't necessarily agree with. In my personal experience as a secondary student, asking students to look around a museum website or a newspaper article just turns into social hour. There is little motivation to actually do the thing assigned to them with much effort put in. I wish the article had said more about how to get students engaged in that type of inquiry.

TEAC 451: Blog #5

I didn't find this reading nearly as compelling as any of the other readings for this class. I think perhaps it's because the term "assessment" as a bit of a negative connotation in my mind. Assessment means boring, it means a summary or memorization, not anything useful. I realize, after reading the chapter, that assessment merely means that it's an assessment of knowledge and what the student understands, but it still retains that negative feel.

I liked the idea of the backward design model, where you decide what your students need to know and how you will know that they understand it and then work on how to teach it to them. I think using the ABCD method paired with Bloom's Taxonomy is the way to go for creating those learning targets/objectives. I can remember in one of my IB classes when my teacher was explaining the way IB tests work, she showed us the language they used: "give an example" "explain" and "analyze" and how each of those encompassed the lower expectations on the scale. For example, to analyze you would have to give an example, explain, and analyze. This reminds me of Bloom's Taxonomy, where to be able to do #4 you must be able to do #3, #2, and #1 as well.

One question I had was about the authentic and performance assessments. How well do those rank in terms of usability? It seems to me like they might be harder or take longer to grade than other methods of assessment. I think the key thing there is to use a variety of assessment methods in the classroom, not to stick with the same type for every unit. 

I never thought about the subjectiveness of grading before. I always just assumed that teachers used rubrics for students benefit only, not to remain objective while grading. Now that I think about it, though, it makes a lot of sense. If I don't feel great or a certain student made me mad that day, I would be more likely to give harsher grades, but utilizing a rubric would help stop that.

TEAC 451: Blog #4

I found the readings for this week difficult to interact with. They are mostly ideas about how to get students to interact in a historical mindset with the subject or topic area. While I like and find a lot of the suggestions useful, it was hard for me to form an opinion or raise any sort of questions with the text.

While I read I began to recall instances from my practicums and in my personal education experience where a teacher used these strategies. When Levstik and Barton wrote about imaginative entry into the historical mindset, I remembered in fourth grade history when we studied the Alamo and each student made a project of a person from the Alamo and then our parents were invited come and listen to our presentations. I don't recall much from the experience other than that we were all really excited to do it and that it was fun. While reading Schmidt's chapter, I flashed back to when we studied the Silk Road in 7th grade using roleplaying and in 11th grade when we did a mock 1919 Paris Peace Conference. For these experiences, I can remember more than the feeling of having fun; I remember putting what we learned into action and truly experiencing the history we discussed in class.

I had a real connection to Schmidt's idea of the Paper Trail activity where students review their last 24 hours and examine what sort of artifactual evidence they left behind and what a future historian would piece together about them from those sources. I think that this activity has great potential. I can remember learning the "book definition" for primary sources and looking at some in class, but never have I had an experience that truly allowed me to understand the significance of them in such a profound way. This would be a great activity to use at the beginning of the year to bring the concept of primary sources to the forefront and develop a deep understanding of them and then continue to use them throughout the year.


https://www.britannica.com/place/Alamo