Social Studies Collaborative Inquiry Unit

      It is finally finished, the collaborative inquiry unit! From the start of the social studies class to now and completing this, it is crazy for how far I have come along with my group. I did not think that it was going to be completed, however it did and I have to say that I does look really awesome. It was a lot of work I must admit but it is definitely worth it in the end now that I see the completed final. Some aha moments that I had, well honestly it is more like one big aha moment was when me and my group members had posted and looked over our lesson plans that we created. It was amazing to see how well all of our lesson plans had fit together! They made the lesson unit flow so well and they were all made individually without help from our group members. It was a great moment to see it, I could not believe how well it went together it is like we all had one brain working on them. Preparing this unit for a classroom use has more than prepare me for an actual classroom unit plan. This activity has helped me with my understanding of planning a inquiry lesson and unit, and how it can look like in the classroom. This unit is very good because it is based upon one overall question throughout the whole unit. I feel more confident in planning a unit plan for social studies, history and geography. Right now I am feeling very confident in what our group has accomplished and have no further questions at the moment. Feel free and take a look at the Inquiry Unit at this link!

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ihjb5lJnjbXv6oiltASka8o-XK3paREYgcSvCAvANnw/edit

      Also take a look at the Collaborative Inquiry Units that the class put together which includes different units, lessons and assessments!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xr9rKA22qIX_AEUtedsJgBAYSTBLO0mlLiSe-RJTQWk/edit#slide=id.g7bd7d338c_120

Book Discussion Reflection on Chapters 21 and 22

      The book talk discussion that took place in class on Monday had consisted of two chapters in the social studies text. The chapters that were covered were chapters 21 and 22, which had consisted of learning how to write a unit plan and learning about assessment tools and strategies. The chapter had provided a great visual example of what a unit plan may look like. The unit plan that is displayed in the textbook should be kept in mind when referencing to it is only an example and is one of the many ways that a unit plan can be written. However while looking through this chapter, and connecting it with concepts and principles that we have been discussing in class I only seen inquiry learning in it maybe once. I though that with the connections while creating our blended learning inquiry culminating unit that textbook would have a great resource about how to write or tips that would be useful in a inquiry culminating unit.

Photo Credit
http://www.parmarglobalimpex.com/image/image_gallery?img_id=682584&t=1364424225967

       The tips and steps that the textbook provided for writing a unit plan and assessment tools to be used are very informative for when I would like to write a unit plan, just makes me wonder why the text does not provide more insight on tips to writing an inquiry unit? Why does it not include this type of learning since it has been something we are focusing on so much in class? There should be some sort of connection between inquiry unit planning in the text to connect with the content that is happening in class. These chapters are very informative on what needs to be included in the lessons, the steps to creating an effective valuable unit. The textbook is very resourceful for the steps to creating and implementing unit plans and effective assessments. However the text should be including more aspects that are being put into place in the classroom to create more connections by what is being learned in class and what we are getting from the textbook. Feel free to have a look at the book club document at this link, great explanations and resourceful information about the chapters. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dOKuTNhEQBE-a81KCdGdrwW4rdtyl7YpfZn3pti6xFs/edit?pli=1#slide=id.g7a23c1926_016

Social Justice for Women in International Sporting Events

      The big idea for our Group Inquiry Project is “what are the implications of Canada’s involvement in International sporting events? “. A social justice theme that is easily connected to this big idea is the social justice of women in international sporting events. A tool that I would use within this inquiry is to have students use Padlet at this link http://bit.ly/1DTE4ZR. That is during this inquiry or this particular part I want students to think critically and into depth of why this topic is a part of social justice. What happened? What were some of the restraints for women in these events? I want the students to critically think in depth of this social justice theme, and even question what happened.

         Social justice is very important to integrate into History, Geography, and Social Studies because these are interesting topics that are actually happening or were happening in the world. This is where students can go and research themselves the information that they may or may not know and spark an interest of choice. Social Justice Knowledge is really important for students and each grade to know because through each grade one part of a social justice theme will always be different and constructed for the appropriateness of the age and grade. It is important for students to understand the topics of Social Justice because students need to know that everything that we have today is because of long journeys to get here. For example this link gives insight on when and how women progressively started to play in the Olympics http://bit.ly/1xWZsIN. Students can look at many resources to research how and when things occurred to understand how it all came together.

     For this Inquiry Project theme social justice for women’s rights in international sporting events fits in very nicely because this can be used as a lesson in itself. Social Justice in this area is a particular long battle for women to be playing and ranked the same as men, which has come a long way. Students may not understand it however, so they can take the initiative in the lesson and do their own inquiry work and question what happened, why was it like that, what made it change? There are many sites and resources that students can use to research women’s role in sporting events, at what points were they allowed to only play, when they could play. This topic is a great research and presentation topic to display information they found, their insights, what they thought was interesting. This link is to a column that discusses if sports are sexist, what sports are and are not and what are the views on women and sports today http://bbc.in/1ICpzzZ. 

Example Parent Letter for Social Studies Unit

    Here is an example of a parent letter that I wrote about the Social Studies Unit that is being planned. Take a look!




     Dear Parent/Guardian,

     I would like to introduce myself, my name is Ms Robinson and I am excited to be your child’s 6^th grade Social Studies teacher. I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with your child.

      I have high expectations for my students and in our classroom we will behave in a way that is appropriate to young social studies scholars to achieve and master the content and skills needed to complete the 6^th grade social studies curriculum.

     Let me start by explaining a portion of the Social Studies unit students will be working on this term. The curriculum expectations we will be focusing on in this unit is Strand B “People and Environments: Canada’s interactions with The Global community”.

     The Big Idea and Big Question for the unit this term is “What are the implications of Canada’s involvement in international sporting events?” Throughout this unit students will be involved in a Blended Learning environment throughout the unit. If you have any questions about how your child will be learning in a blended learning environment, what is different about it and its positive implications visit this site and it will help explain the difference between technology integration and blended learning http://bit.ly/1upOPgZ.

      This will be an integrated unit and will incorporate Science and Physical Education throughout. The culminating activity the students will be doing at the end of this unit is they will be developing a short news story answering the Big Question. Feel free to follow me on my twitter at http://bit.ly/1cWNPv9  and my Blog at http://bit.ly/15E4wLZ  to keep updated with what is happening in your child’s classroom. I really hope you take a look at them to keep updated with all the awesome things we will be doing this term!

      If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call or send a note or drop in. You can reach me at the school phone number. I am always happy to talk to the families of my students. You are the most important people in my students’ lives! Let’s work together to make sure your child gets everything he or she needs to be successful this year!

Sincerely,

                

       Ms. Robinson     

Social Studies Parent Letter

    Here is an example of a parent letter that I wrote about the Social Studies Unit that is being planned. Take a look!




     Dear Parent/Guardian,

     I would like to introduce myself, my name is Ms Robinson and I am excited to be your child’s 6^th grade Social Studies teacher. I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with your child.

      I have high expectations for my students and in our classroom we will behave in a way that is appropriate to young social studies scholars to achieve and master the content and skills needed to complete the 6^th grade social studies curriculum.

     Let me start by explaining a portion of the Social Studies unit students will be working on this term. The curriculum expectations we will be focusing on in this unit is Strand B “People and Environments: Canada’s interactions with The Global community”.

     The Big Idea and Big Question for the unit this term is “What are the implications of Canada’s involvement in international sporting events?” Throughout this unit students will be involved in a Blended Learning environment throughout the unit. If you have any questions about how your child will be learning in a blended learning environment, what is different about it and its positive implications visit this site and it will help explain the difference between technology integration and blended learning http://bit.ly/1upOPgZ.

      This will be an integrated unit and will incorporate Science and Physical Education throughout. The culminating activity the students will be doing at the end of this unit is they will be developing a short news story answering the Big Question. Feel free to follow me on my twitter at http://bit.ly/1cWNPv9  and my Blog at http://bit.ly/15E4wLZ  to keep updated with what is happening in your child’s classroom. I really hope you take a look at them to keep updated with all the awesome things we will be doing this term!

      If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call or send a note or drop in. You can reach me at the school phone number. I am always happy to talk to the families of my students. You are the most important people in my students’ lives! Let’s work together to make sure your child gets everything he or she needs to be successful this year!

Sincerely,

                

       Ms. Robinson                                         

Cross Curricular Integration.

Teachers can ensure enough time to teach social studies, geography and history by interdisciplinary integration. The revised social studies, history and geography curriculum allows room for subject integration within mathematics and language which is the major focus in the schools daily schedule. Ensuring time for these subjects integrating them with these subjects may help educators create and engage students with higher order questions and deeper thinking with curriculum integration. Educators can help with integration of social studies with other subjects through the use of inquiry based learning to help create deeper level thinking and ensuring there is enough time to integrate social studies, geography and history in the schools daily schedule. Educators can work with other subject teachers in creating inquiry based lessons, or to help integrate social studies, history or geography into the educator’s rotary schedule with the students. 

        Technology can be used to help create integrated lessons with the social studies curriculum, through the use of blended learning within the classroom. Integrating multiple subjects in lessons can be easily done with blended learning and the use of technology makes it a lot easier for the educator to integrate and for the students to learn. There are innovative ways to ensure that world studies can be included in all subjects, there are many opportunities and options for creativity for the educator to integrate world studies. The curriculum allows for educators to integrate social studies, history, and geography through more use of inquiry based learning if educators work together to integrate all the subjects rather than teach the subjects independently and keep them segregated. Including world studies in all subjects helps keep students informed in real world situations and be able to apply world studies and situations in all subjects helps keep students interested in how all subjects can be applied in real world situations and creates actuality. 

        The new social studies document provides opportunities for the educators to give students opportunities to critically think, and create deeper thoughtful questions. Providing students with inquiry based learning opportunities allows students to develop their own learning along with cross curricular integration happening at the same time. This link to edugains website provides an overview of the curriculum document, the review process and planning for cross curricular integration. There are videos, power-points and PDFs discussing concepts of disciplinary thinking and whats new in the curriculum documents. Just visit this link http://bit.ly/1xxcsUR

 Hustvedt, R. (2014). A tipping point for social studies? [Online Image].

       Retrieved January 16, 2014 from

       http://www.magnetsinamerica.org/category/theme-integration/

Welcome to my blog! My name is Ashley Robinson, and in this blog I will be talking about History, Geography, and Social Studies. I will be posting links and resources, hope you enjoy it!