Putting it All Together: Effective Lesson Planning

December 3—PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:  EFFECTIVE LESSON PLANNING

Choose a social science/history topic suitable for a high school lecture, and prepare a “rough draft” lesson plan for that lecture.  Make sure your plan indicates the general purpose of your lecture, the logical structure of your lecture, and some ideas for keeping students’ minds engaged.  Include also any ideas you might have for visual aids, an introductory “hook,” or any of the other elements TSSFFAP says are important to a good lecture.  

If you like, you can send me a modified version of a lesson plan you have done for another education class or a lesson plan you've actually used during your junior field experience. 

Please send me the lesson plan as an e-mail attachment (marmorsa@northern.edu).  Due date for this assignment: Tuesday, December 10. 

   

New Trends in Education

Note that one of your potential final exam questions asks you to comment on "new trends" in education. TSSFFAP is over 15 years old now, and some of its "new" trends aren't new anymore--and a lot of recent trends aren't even mentioned. In particular, there's nothing in TSSFFAP about the Common Core.

After reading the TSSFFAP "Madness to their Methods" chapter, take a look at Diane Ravitch's blog and read through some of her posts on the Common Core. You might also find amusing the "Students Last" Ravitch mentions on her blog.

What connection do you see between the Common Core and some of the trends TSSFFAP talks about?  Does it seem to you that the Common Core is a truly new trend, or does it simply take farther earlier trends like those mentioned in TSSFFAP?

Days to Remember: Constitution Day/History Day

Glance through the material on the Constitution Day and National History Day sites (www.constitutionday.com, www.nationalhistoryday.org) and think about how events like Constitution Day and National History Day might enrich the curriculum and stimulate increased student interest in history and government. What kind of activities would you be most likely to use for a Constitution Day celebration?  What would be the advantages/disadvantages of having your students prepare History Day projects?

 

Are you smarter than a Harvard senior?

As our social science for teachers major is being phased out, it looks like we won't need an assessment exam in the social sciences.  Still, I'd like to get a sense of where your students stand in disciplines other than history.

In 2008, More than 14,000 college students took a "Civil Literacy" test sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. According to ISI, students didn't do so well. The average college freshman got about 50% of the questions right. Seniors did only a bit better, averaging 54% on the quiz. Harvard seniors were the nation's best, averaging 69% on the survey. Can you do better? Take the quiz at the link below and find out! Did you do better than the average freshman? Better than the average senior? Better than the average Harvard student? Better than Harry the talking hand? (Harry got 58/60 right, as did Professor Jon Schaff). What do you think of the quiz? Is this stuff students should really know, or does it seem like trivial pursuit?  You can post your score here along with your comments on the exam or you can e-mail me you score separately.

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

Horrible Histories (extra credit)

I just discovered "Horrible Histories," a show that ran on British television from 2009-2013.  The series is based on a series of books directed at (it seems) middle school age kids.  Looks like the show developed out of the kind of things we did in the theater games section of the class.  Anyway, I'm interested in your reactions.  What do you think of "Horrible Histories"?  Would you use it in the classroom?  Here are some segments and complete shows:

English Kings and Queens Song
George I doesn't understand English 
Season One, Episode One

Leading good discussions

Please read TSSFFAP Chapter 8 (How to Get from Chicago to New York without Going through San Francisco: Leading Good Discussions) and do the on-line quiz.

Attend any discussion at NSU and analyze it in terms of the TSSFFAP “good discussion” suggestions. To what extent did the discussion reflect the TSSFFAP “Keys to a Good Discusssion” standards? What kind of things did the teacher do to make sure that students paid attention, enjoyed the discussion, and learned something from it? What did you think went particularly well? What would you have done differently?

Effective Lectures

Please read TSSFFAP Chapter 7 (Herodotus Had it Right: From Lecturer to Story Teller) and do online quiz.

Attend any lecture at NSU and analyze it in terms of the TSSFFAP “good lecture” suggestions. To what extent did the lecture reflect the TSSFFAP “Keys to a Good Lecture” standards? What kind of things did the teacher do to make sure that students paid attention, enjoyed the lecture, and learned something from it? What did you think went particularly well? What would you have done differently? Post your comments here.