Planning for Social Studies Instruction

Planning The teacher is the decision maker and it is her job to decide on what units to include during the year or what tomorrow’s lesson plan will be. Thought-out planning is better than decision made on the spot. If you don’t know what you are doing next, teaching becomes frustrating. Lack of planning can waste time and create class management problems.

Busy Teacher Sometimes teachers resist planning, especially writing out their plans, because they are so busy with immediate responsibilities. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Getting Started: Locating Resources Sunshine State Standards and Grade Level Expectations Adopted textbook, teacher’s guide, ancillary materials Technology resources Ideas from other teachers, media specialist Parent resources Community resources Information on the background of diverse students School calendar (essential holidays)

Once you have your resources assembled, you are better able to see your options.

Goals, Long-Range Planning, and Standards/Instructional Objectives First, read carefully the standards or curriculum framework of your state and local school district. Look at the framework’s goals, which are the broad statements of desired outcomes. Promoting good citizenship is generally listed first. We should focus on moving students toward effective citizenship participation.

Remember the 4 Basic Goals: To acquire knowledge from the social sciences, history, and humanities. To develop skills to think and process information. To develop appropriate democratic values and attitudes. To have opportunities for citizenship/social participation.

Long Range Planning: Rough out an outline of the entire curriculum Look for integration connections/ideas Teacher’s personal beliefs Long range planning is critical because there is usually far more content than time to teach it.

The Textbook: Skim the text, looking at broad titles. Decide which ones you will use. Decide which units will receive major emphasis or minor emphasis. Examine the teacher’s guide. Look for activities for you and your students. Find other activities to supplement the text. Decide whether you will use the tests supplied by the publisher for evaluation.

Promote Student Learning Following constructionist ideas, you will want to find out what your students’ prior knowledge. The purpose of planning is not to just focus on the teacher but to promote student learning.

Content Standards and Instructional Objectives Whereas a goal is a broad statement of purpose, content standard or instructional objective is a specific accomplishment that you want your students to achieve in a specific period. What are your standards or objectives? What learning experiences will be used to achieve the desired objectives? What evaluation procedures will be used to determine whether the objectives have been achieved?

Alignment: Objectives, instruction, and evaluation should all be connected or coordinated with each other. This is called curriculum alignment. Poor alignment can occur when the objective doesn’t match the instruction. For example, when the objective is improved thinking skills but the learning activities do not involve the students in thinking.

Traditional vs. Standards-Based Objective: Formulate objectives Design instructional activities; what resources will I need? Plan and give an assessment; often summative Check to see if objectives have been reached. If necessary, reteach, modify next lesson or unit Give grades to students Select standard that students need to know Design an assessment that allows each student to demonstrate what he/she knows or can do Design appropriate learning activities with resources needed for all students to achieve the standard Give assessment; use rubric Use data to drive instruction Traditional Practice Standards-Based Practice

Backward Design: Look at the desired results first Look at assessment evidence (how will students demonstrate what they have learned or can do?) Select learning activities (what opportunities will the students have to learn?)

Do Students Need to Know the Standard? Especially in schools defined as “failing,” principals and other trainers have asked that teachers post the standard that they are teaching and that students, when asked know the standard. In a few cases, students actually write the number of the standard on their assignments. Why is this being done? Do you think this is a good idea?

Elements of a Unit: Title and Description Rationale/Overview for the unit; significance of topic; tie to standards Estimated time Goals and Objectives Lessons Introductory and initiating activities (Series of sequence lesson plans with enough detail on procedures so that the teaching strategies and activities are clear. Worksheets and similar handouts should be included.) Concluding activities to encourage students to apply what they have learned List of resources Assessment, including pre-assessment

Planning for the Inclusive Classroom: Consider various learning styles and abilities Plan your lesson for the whole class Adapt your lesson plan to specific learners by pairing, allowing alternatives, giving more time, rewriting questions, using graphic organizers, reducing complexity, and so on. For the gifted, make lessons more challenging. Consider ELL accommodations

Motivate, Excite, and Intrigue: What can you do to capture students’ attention? Students’ interest and involvement may be triggered by an artifact, a learning game, or a planned classroom activity. Beginnings are extremely important! What magic trick do you have up your sleeve?

Finally: End each lesson with a sense of accomplishment. Will you depend on the bell to close each lesson or leave them dangling in mid- thought? A better way is to draw attention to the end of the lesson, to help students organize their learning, and to reinforce what they have learned. Have students summarize the lesson for the class, or do so yourself!