Agenda
- Discuss Social Studies observation
- Integrated Teaching & Cross Curricular Connections
- Unit Plan Cross Curricular Connections
Ted Harrison.com
Ted Harrison was born in England in 1926. He moved to Canada and took a teaching position in the Yukon after responding to an ad stating “come teach in the land of the moose. Weaklings need not apply.”
Harrison retired to Victoria where he continues to paint lively, colourful scenes of his new surroundings.
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14 comments:
My social studies observation proved disappointing. Instead of using maps or collaborative work to excite the students, the teacher used worksheets. Although the teacher may have avoided group work for reasons unknown to me, I thought that she could have been more creative in her methods of teaching. As the provided worksheets involved cutting out and pasting pictures of Canada's imports and exports under predetermined headings, the students could complete the activity, and obtain a mark for completion, with little to no thought or demonstration of learning. If an activity does not require the students to ‘further’ or apply their new knowledge, why perform the activity?
Great grade 7 lesson! Although she used some textbook pages, the textbook itself was not guiding her lesson. The class took turns reading as she pointed out techniques for reading a textbook. Next, the teacher had the grade 6/7 split extremely involved in a game based on landmarks. Students wrote clues about a landmark they had visited in their lives then other students tried to guess it. A great way to present numerous landmarks while assessing your students prior knowledge on the topic. Students had fun and curriculum objectives were met.
My observation was a little disappointing, however the teacher went to great lengths to assure me this was not a typical grade 7 geography lesson. I'm not sure I get the point of previewing a test question by question, getting the students to copy down the exact answers the teacher wanted including the specific examples they were to give.!!
Denise
The Geography lesson I observed consisted of the students practicing using an atlas and filling in a worksheet as they went along. This lesson taught the students a simple skill of independently reading and following instructions. It was actually surprising that a lot of the Grade 7 students had difficulty. Many students weren't even reading the instructions and were just looking for random answers (the easy way out!) I thought the lesson itself was rather simple, but it was good practice for the class. It taught some of the students the importance of simply reading instructions, and also how to navigate an atlas and understand its many uses as a resource in Geography.
The social studies lesson that I observed was not the most exciting lesson. The teacher had limited resources, so he had the students working in groups to summarize pages of the text selected from the Natural Resources Unit. They then shared their summaries with the rest of the class. Although not the most stimulating exercise, the class was guided by the teacher rather than being solely directed by the teacher, so the lesson was somewhat student centred. The teacher had the students reading both the page that they had to summarize and their summaries to the entire class so that he could compare the two. Then the students had a chance to go up to the board to write down their summaries, which they all enjoyed doing. So their was some variation in the lesson, it was just not the most stimulating activity in which to participate or to observe.
Sheena
My observation for social science was good but had some week points. The students were to answer some questions about the effects of Europeans coming into North America and the affects of the Native Americans. They were then supposed to write notes, and then write a story entitled "Both sides of the story" I thought that this class could have been more hands on instead of just taking notes. Like act it out, or work in groups and go through the information. I personally just hate copying notes from a board.
Cara McLeod
The grade 7 geography lesson I observed was good but brief. The teacher had the students guiding the lesson and only wrote down on the board the concepts that the students were verbalizing. The students were engaged in the lesson, because the teacher found a way to make the lesson relate to their lives. The method of assessment, a drawing, did not measure what the students were just taught.
The social studies class that I observed focused on latitude and longitude. Many of the students were confused by the concept of parallels and meridians and were having a hard time conceptualizing these ideas. At the end of the lesson I thought to myself that the concepts would have been much clearer had the teacher used a 3-D globe in her lesson. I was happy to see that for her next class (she taught the same lesson to several classes), she had a student go to another teacher's classroom and borrow a globe. It was apparent that students in the second class grasped the concepts more quickly, and felt more comfortable answering the assigned questions.
My social studies observation proved to be interesting! Had I received this lesson and task in grade 7 or 8 I would have been thrilled. The students were left to work independently, through some guided inquiry to create a city (gr.8) or a landform (gr.7) on a large piece of bristol board. They may use any materials they wish, the only restrictions were those given by the teacher, such as things they had to include (population size, schools, etc.) She tested their knowledge about the subject and understanding by asking the students questions about their reasoning and asking where they might find something similar to their model in real life. At the end, it will be accompanied by a written explanation. Cross curricular sections might include art, as well as math (completing their model to scale) although these were not included in her lesson planning.
Melissa Davis
I observed a Grade 8 History Lesson on the British and French settlers that came to Canada and their relations with the First Nations peoples. The lesson consisted of a discussion that briefly reviewed of concepts discussed in the previous class, which took aprox. 10-15mins. After this, questions were posted up on the overhead projector and students used the Grade 7 textbook to answer the questions.
I was thouroughly unimpressed by this lesson. However, after speaking with the teacher I was informed of the benefits of activating schema and developing a solid basis of knowledge, which will be continued through the unit and utilized through drama presentations and creative writing assignments, which incurs cross-curricular connections.
Vanessa Sijm
The grade 5 social studies lesson i observed had the students reading charts of provincial election results from 2003 and 1999. Highly topical. The students rose to the challenge and became well versed in decoding the information. This is functional literacy in action. I know adults who couldn't make heads or tails of this.
My social studies/Geography observation was great! I was so impressed by the classroom environment and the teachers teaching style. Students appeared interested and were cooperative, engaged, attentive, and eager to both answer questions and learn. What a great experience.
Lena
The social studies lesson that I observed was not the most exciting lesson. There was quite a lot of time spent in classroom management regarding the time taken by the students to settle in the class from when the bell rings and that was not bad. There wasn’t any engaging activity. May be my observation is based on limited vision.
My social studies observation was OK. It was acutalluy a review lesson so new material was not being taught just the teacher prompting ideas and concepts. The students were participating quite well and obviouosly remembered what they had previously learned. They actually normally work in centers but for our observation the teacher taught a review lesson. The students were asked to go up to the board to draw out each type of settlement etc so it was interactive somewhat. I think in the centers were they have instruction sheets etc. the activities are probably more intereactive and keep the students engaged since they are applying what they are learning. Overall, pretty good!!
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