HIST502/SOSC401 Syllabus
Montclair State University
Department of History
SOSC 401/HIST 502 Social Studies Teaching Methods
Monday 5:30 to 8:00
University Hall 1010
Contact Information
Professor Jeff Strickland
Email: stricklandj@mail.montclair.edu
Office: 425 Dickson Hall
Office Hours: Monday 4 to 5 PM, Tuesday 2 to 5 PM, & by appointment
Professor Fred Cotterell
Email: cotterellf@mail.montclair.edu
Office: 281 Dickson Hall
Office Hours: Monday 2 to 3 PM, Thursday 5:30 to 6:30 PM, & by appointment
Course Description
This course familiarizes prospective social studies teachers, grades K-12, with pedagogical approaches and innovative teaching techniques needed to convey to a diverse population current state and professional standards-based curriculum in the social studies. Innovative uses of technology, development of instructional units, individualizing for students with special needs, and strategies for managing problem behavior will be emphasized throughout the course.
Course Objectives
· You will examine and reflect on the relationships between curriculum, instruction, and assessment in Social Studies classrooms with a particular view to multicultural context, content, and process.
· You will examine and analyze curricular and pedagogical practices for educational significance, integration of history, geography, political science, and economics, sociology, and psychology, respect for students’ cultures, and contribution to equity and social justice.
· You will design a thematic unit.
· You will acquire practical presentation experience.
· You will enhance your knowledge of social studies content
.
Blackboard Web Site
You are responsible for obtaining course updates and submitting assignments via the Blackboard website http://montclair.blackboard.com/. In addition, you will submit all assignments to Blackboard dropbox. Blackboard confirms when files have been uploaded and sent. Please do not send emails to us requesting confirmation.
Email Accounts
You should activate their university email accounts no later than the first week of class. Failure to do so will result in the inability to log into Blackboard, receive course documents, updates and other messages from us.
Required Readings
James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me
Articles available on Blackboard.
Reading Assignments
You are expected to follow the course outline contained at the end of this syllabus.
Attendance
You are expected attend each class meetings since it is necessary preparation for the final planning unit and each class meeting entails some form of assessment (or preparation for it). It is important that you begin thinking of yourself as a professional, since you will begin teaching soon. If you miss more than one class, you will deduct 15% for each absence thereafter from your final grade average. If you miss more than three classes you will need to retake the methods course (a D is the best grade you could earn).
General Rules
If you arrive after 5:30 PM, you will be marked absent.
If you leave class for longer than it takes to use the restroom, you will be marked absent.
If you attempt to use your cell phone during class, you will be asked to leave the room and marked absent.
If you plagiarize, you will fail the course and we will refer you to the Dean of Students for adjudication.
If you plagiarize, you will be removed from the social studies program.
Reading Quizzes (15%)
You will write a short essay response to a question about the assigned readings during the first five minutes of each class. You cannot make up a quiz without a documented excuse for missing the class.
Primary Documents Lesson Plan (7.5 %)
You will design a lesson based on historical documents located on the Internet and present your findings to the class. Detailed primary documents assignment guidelines will be given in advance of its due date. In preparing your lesson plan, you should provide clear expectations and explicit instructions for your students. You will submit a brief lesson plan on the due date. You are expected to implement the jigsaw method. You should include no less than four documents (one document per group member). In the spirit of the Jigsaw method, each group member will have a specific responsibility in preparing this assignment (presenter is not a specific responsibility).
Historical Geography Lesson Plan (7.5 %)
You will design a history/geography lesson that focuses on historical maps. You should consider the topic, method, and means of evaluation.
Mock Trial Lesson Plan (5 %)
You and your group members will construct a mock trial transcript. You will present the mock trial to the class. Choose a famous trial from Douglass Linder’s “Famous Trials” website at the University of Missouri-Kansas City or some other website. Use the primary sources to develop a trial transcript. You should have at least four main characters and each character should speak at least three times. These are minimums and you can develop a much more elaborate trial if you prefer. Refer to the mock trial guide in the course documents section of Blackboard or the American Bar Association website listed above. Each group will present their mock trial to the class. We will hold three mock trials during class.
Précis on Lies My Teacher Told Me (5 %)
On the week when the class meets to discuss the Loewen, each student will turn in a two-page précis. This can be done in prose, outline system, or with headers. The two-page précis is designed to help you read the book critically for argument, historiographical issues, and provide a "road map" for our discussion. You should address briefly:
(1) The Author's background and other works (search the web, web databases such as "American History and Life," "Historical Abstracts", "World Cat," and the MSU Catalog)
(2) The Historical problem(s) the Author tackles. Pose these problems in the form of a question.
(3) Author's thesis (or theses)
(4) Sources
(5) Genre of History (Social, Cultural, Institutional, Diplomatic, Economic, Intellectual, Political, etc)
(6) Significant findings
(7) Historiographical contribution(s)
(8) Author's Ideological/Methodological Orientation (i.e. Marxist, structuralist, post-structuralist, foucaultian, etc).
(9) The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Book.
Professional Resources (7.5%)
You will complete three two-page summary/reflections of professional publications/resources for the teaching of Social Studies. They will provide you with an understanding of the ideas, rationale, approaches, and strategies in Social Studies curriculum and teaching. You will complete two review/reactions from professional publications and one from the Social Studies in Action PBS series. Reflections and reactions will include the relevancy of the ideas/strategies. You will read/view, summarize and reflect on two full-length articles from two different professional journals of the following three: The Social Studies, Social Education (National Council for Social Studies publication), and History Teacher. The third summary/reflection resource is an online video series from the Annenberg/WGBH series Social Studies in Action at http://www.learner.org/resources/series166.html?pop=yes&vodid=724819&pid=1788#
Instruction Material Analysis (5%)
You will examine and analyze instructional materials created for Social Studies educators. A list of materials, location, and specifics guidelines for this assignment will appear on Blackboard.
Film Lesson (5%)
The public often hears stories about students watching “movies” in their Social Studies/History class. Too often the perspective is that nothing meaningful is happening and that the entire situation is just “filler,” and Social Studies teachers have it easy. Your task is to develop guiding questions that you could use with an associated media clip. Assignment guidelines will appear on Blackboard.
Jigsaw Lesson (7.5%)
You will design a lesson plan based upon the jigsaw method www.jigsaw.org. Detailed assignment guidelines will be distributed in advance.
Final Teaching Unit (20 %)
This assessment represents one of the primary goals of the course. You can include revised work from previous assignments. Detailed unit guidelines will be given in advance of the scheduled due date. In short, you will submit a week-long unit as your final project. You must type your unit with no larger than size 12 font and with one-inch margins all around. In addition, you should provide a title page and bibliography/reference page. The unit must be submitted on the date noted, assignments turned in after then will be considered tardy and penalized a grade and subsequently an additional grade each day late thereafter, e.g. an A to a B, etc. etc.
Unit Plan Proposal
You will submit a two-page Unit Plan Proposal due Feb. 21 at 10PM. If you fail to submit the proposal on this date, you will deduct 10% from your final teaching unit.
Unit Plan Rough Draft
You will submit a rough draft of your unit plan on April 4 at 10PM. If you fail to submit a rough draft, you will deduct 10% from your final teaching unit.
In Class Participation and Discussion (10 %)
You are expected to participate thoughtfully in the discussions. You will earn as much as four 4 points per class. In addition you are expected to attend office hours four times per semester (once per month).
Binder (5%)
Your binder will consist of teaching strategies, handouts, print material, and other resources that you can use in your teaching. You should include materials from your field experience. Assignment guidelines will appear on Blackboard.
Revisions
You may revise any assignment except the final unit. Revisions must be submitted within one week of receipt of the initial grade. You will receive the grade earned on the revised assignment. It is important that you seek advisement on each assignment, rather than submit substandard work. In a case where a student repeatedly submits substandard work, they will receive an average of the grades earned on the initial assignment and the revised assignment. In short, the revision policy is a privilege not a right.
Students with Disabilities
The Services for Students with Disabilities office is located in the Academic Success Center in Morehead Hall (Suite 305). You can make an appointment by calling 973-655-5431. You can visit their website at http://www.montclair.edu/wellness/.
Tolerance to Create a Climate for Civility and
Academic Honesty—Plagiarism—Cheating (Section 9, MSU Code of Conduct)
Plagiarism is defined as using another person's words as if they were your own, and the unacknowledged incorporation of those words in one's own work for academic credit. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, submitting as one's own a project, paper, report, test, program, design, or speech copied from, partially copied, or partially paraphrased work of another (whether the source is printed, under copyright in manuscript form or electronic media) without proper citation. Source citations must be given for works quoted or paraphrased. The above rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral. The following guidelines for written work will assist students in avoiding plagiarism:
(a) General indebtedness for background information and data must be acknowledged by inclusion of a bibliography of all works consulted;
(b) Specific indebtedness for a particular idea, or for a quotation of four or more consecutive words from another text, must be acknowledged by footnote or endnote reference to the actual source. Quotations of four words or more from a text must also be indicated by the use of quotation marks;
(c) A project work shall be considered plagiarism if it duplicates in whole or in part, without citation, the work of another person to an extent than is greater that is commonly accepted. The degree to which imitation without citation is permissible varies from discipline to discipline. Students must consult their instructors before copying another person's work.
Minimum sanction: Probation; Maximum sanction: Expulsion
Grading System
| 95-100 | A |
| 90-94 | A- |
| 87-89 | B+ |
| 84-86 | B |
| 80-83 | B- |
| 77-79 | C+ |
| 74-76 | C |
| 70-73 | C- |
| 67-69 | D+ |
| 64-66 | D |
| 60-63 | D- |
| 1-59 | F |
Course Outline
| Date | Week | Topic | Assignment | Readings | Professor |
| Jan. 26 | 1 | Introduction Lesson Planning Social Studies Standards | Select a topic for a primary documents lesson and submit it to the digital dropbox by January 31 at 10PM. Professional Resource Reflection #1 due Jan. 31 Précis on Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me due Feb. 14 at 10PM | Folder 1 for Feb.2 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me for Feb. 23 | Strickland Cotterell |
| Feb. 2 | 2 | Unit Planning Historical Thinking | Reading Quiz 1: first five minutes of class. You will respond to a general/thematic question about the readings in Folder 1. Professional Resource Reflection #2 due to the digital dropbox by February 7 at 10PM Two-page Unit Plan Proposal due Feb. 28 at 10PM | Folder 2 for Feb. 9 | Cotterell |
| Feb. 9 | 3 | Teaching with Technology | Reading Quiz 2: first five minutes of class Begin working on primary documents/PowerPoint lesson in computer lab | Folder 3 for Feb. 16 | Strickland |
| Feb. 16 | 4 | Teaching with Primary Documents | Reading Quiz 3: first five minutes of class Primary Documents Lesson Plan due Feb. 21 at 10PM Meeting in computer lab | Folder 4 for Feb. 23 | Strickland |
| Feb. 23 | 5 | Beyond the Textbook Loewen Discussion | Reading Quiz 4: on Loewen Discuss Loewen | Folder 5 for Feb. 16 | Strickland |
| Mar. 2 | 6 | Teaching with films & photographs | Reading Quiz 5: first five minutes of class Develop film/photography lesson plan due Mar. 7 at 10PM | Folder 6 for Mar. 9 | Cotterell |
| Mar. 9 | 7 | Collaborative Learning | Design Jigsaw Lesson due March 21 at 10 PM | Folder 7 for Mar. 23 | Cotterell |
| Mar. 16 | | Spring Break | | | |
| Mar. 23 | 8 | Teaching Geography | Reading Quiz 6: first five minutes of class Historical Geography/World History Lesson due March 28 at 10PM | Folder 8 for Mar. 30 | Strickland |
| Mar. 30 | 9 | Teaching World History | Teaching Unit Rough Draft due April 4 at 10PM | Folder 9 for Apr. 6 | Strickland |
| Apr. 6 | 10 | Writing and Assessment | Reading Quiz 7: first five minutes of class Professional Resource Reflection #3 due April 11 at 10PM | Folder 10 for Apr. 13 | Cotterell |
| Apr. 13 | 11 | Teaching Economics Analyzing Textbooks | Instructional Materials Analysis due April 18 at 10 PM | Folder 11 for Apr. 20 | Cotterell |
| Apr. 20 | 12 | Teaching Politics & Govt. | Reading Quiz 8: first five minutes of class Mock Trial Lesson Plan due May 3 at 10PM | Folder 12 for Apr. 27 | Strickland |
| Apr. 27 | 13 | Oral History & other projects | Reading Quiz 9: first five minutes of class | Folder 13 for May 4 | Strickland |
| May 4 | 14 | Discussion & Debates | Reading Quiz 10: first five minutes of class Teaching Unit due May 9 at 10PM. | Folder 14 for May 11 | Cotterell |
| May 11 | 15 | Student Teaching | Professional Notebook due May 11 in class | | Strickland Cotterell |
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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15 comments:
I’m very interested in doing a unit on movements of resistance. (I’m hoping this topic is a possibility but since I’m so new at lesson plans and I’m not quite sure this would be allowed, I’ll have to see if it is all right). It would be within a World History course. I find that not only am I most fascinated by history when studying these moments but students in a variety of classrooms I have observed also become captivated and highly engaged in these types of lessons. I think Loewen is entirely correct when he notes that students become interested when history is depicted in real, controversial, and problematic ways. The reality is that history is messy (as Loewen argued) and complex forces have shaped and continue to shape history (such as concepts and issues of power, progress, and domination).
This is the basis for which this lesson arose. I find the anti-apartheid movement, sit-ins within the Civil Rights Movement, the Newark riots, slave insurrections within the United States to all be critical moments within history. Significant issues such as tolerance, justice, equality, law, power, and progress become essential factors and points within such lessons. I enjoy the idea of putting together lessons that depict the historical moment and allow students to engage in a critical study to understand larger issues and forces that exist within the moment. I find that studying these individuals, groups, and events involve not only an in-depth study and analysis but also involve our emotions throughout the process. I think this is where students (and teachers) thrive. Topics do not appear irrelevant or mundane within these settings if done properly.
I also believe this topic allows for a variety of different methods to teach. Students can study primary and secondary documents and can understand and engage in oral history to name just a few. Group work would be essential within many lessons. A unit on movements of resistance would incorporate a majority of the strands put forth by the National Council for Social Studies. These include: Time, Continuity, and Change; Individual Development and Identity; Individuals, Groups, and Institutions; Power, Authority, and Governance; Global Connections; and Civic Ideals and Practices (accessed from http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/strands/).
My proposal is a two-week unit entitled “How Ordinary People Come to Commit Extraordinary Evil.” Using a well-known model developed by James Waller, the unit will bridge events from WW II into the McCarthyism of the Cold War, and then beyond to racial discrimination during the Civil Rights era and the modern genocides in Eastern Europe, Central America, and Africa. Students will gain experience analyzing both a variety of primary sources and the discrepancies between ideals and reality in American life; they will experience “evil” from inside the minds of the perpetrators – including Main Street Americans – and thus gain insight into why and how society reverts to evil as a social strategy. The unit squarely addresses two of the Big Questions raised in the NJCCCS’s:
• Are individuals as important as underlying structures in explaining change?
• How have social institutions and groups failed to function in a positive way when people have behaved in cruel or inhumane ways?
I think it will work for two related reasons. First, evil is both interesting to adolescents and relevant, particularly since I plan to teach in urban environments, where more students might feel personally related to a group that has been the victim of evil. Second, there is a rich variety of really cool primary sources, including documents, oral histories, audio clips of speeches, and films. These lend themselves to a variety of activities such as debates, mock Senate hearings, and a number of group-reading strategies. Assessments thus allow for multiple intelligences and learning styles and provide additional peer-led learning opportunities, creating additional incentives to students to engage.
I am thinking to incorporate a unit plan that deals specifically with African Americans in the Civil War and Reconstruction. I feel that there is quite an absence of racial issues mentioned when speaking of states’ rights, succession, emancipation, etc. More importantly, I feel that students should see how African Americans, both ordinary citizens and soldiers, participated in the war effort despite being severely discriminated against by mainstream white society. African Americans envisioned the Civil War as a means of achieving their own personal freedom and equated the Civil War effort with their own particular intentions in mind. In my unit plan, I want students to acknowledge that certain factors contributed to an individual’s perspective and motivations for serving in the war. For example, the geographical location and economic status of an African American man influences his perspective on the war. Also, I feel that a number of primary documents can be utilized such as Corporal Gooding’s letter to President Lincoln urging for equal pay and suitable equipment for black soldiers in the war. His words urge readers to see the significance of African Americans as effective soldiers, not as laborers as they have been viewed by mainstream society for quite some time.
In addition, students can explore the changing economy of the United States and how technology contributed to the mass production of cotton and dominated international relations with other countries. My unit plan will also have a lesson that depicts labor competition in the north when the slaves were supposedly free, focusing on the New York Riot of 1863. Additionally, I want students to see how transportation affected the transition of supplies to both major armies. On a large scale, I want students to be thinking of minorities in society during the Civil War and the present day. Were minorities accepted in mainstream society in the Civil War? Immediately after? And are minorities fully accepted today? In my unit, I also plan to organize a lesson that focuses on the successes and failures of Reconstruction and how these failures affect America in the present.
I believe that this unit can effectively be incorporated into a class because of its highly controversial yet truthful perspective on American history. Students will see that African Americans did receive less pay and inadequate supplies, yet they composed some of the most effective regiments serving in the war. They will also see how the Emancipation Proclamation did not actually support the view of “freedom at last.” And yes, students will see how Blacks fought alongside Confederate soldiers. I think this unit will be interesting to students who sometimes find the Civil War as an absolutely bore because I plan to incorporate a number of different sources for students to explore in groups that represent a number of race and class conflicts of the period.
I would really like my unit plan to be on World War II. The war is one of my favorite topics in history and I think my intrest will help me in planning the lesson. I really want to focus on several key points of the war in the unit including lessons on, Women in WWII, Internment camps (Japanese and German), Children in WWII, Pearl Harbor, The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, and Life for a soldier to name a few. It would be within a US History class but would of course bring some World History into it as well.
I think that this lesson will work because I think many people see World War II as a defining moment in our history and are interested to learn about it. Students may have heard stories from their grandparents growing up about their lives during the war and could be interested in learning more. Also there are so many great sources out there to use in a variety of different ways. You can create an oral history project by interviewing a person who lived through the war, or use primary documents and maps from Normandy to show the strategic plans of both sides. The students can even create their own maps with strategies for a battle.
I think being able to bring to life the stories of the people that were actually there will help engage the students and get them excited to learn the material. I recently read a book called "Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends" by two of the soldiers in "Band of Brothers". It is their story of the war in their own words, and when you read it your in awe of the amazing things they went through. I would love to be able to either have my students read this book, or just to take some of the amazing quotes they have for the students to analyze. I think bringing the war to students in a new way that is not just the same old boring reading from a book will really work and get them into learning about the history.
My unit plan will focus on the cold war, and it will have an emphasis on how the strained relations between the west and the soviet nations affected societies across the world. In my current theory it will work because I will be able to teach specifically about different parts of the world and compare life in the USSR and East Germany to that in the west. Imagery will be one of the major lesson styles I will implement to show the evolution of the Cold War over time and how the paranoia affected every aspect of society, including popular culture pieces such as the famous Johnson "daisy girl ad" of the 1960s and Alan Moore’s Watchmen of the 1980s.
Overall, I hope to make the students understand how life was lived during the Cold War, and how the changes of decades and time had an affect on life. Living in West Germany was certainly different from living in East Germany, as was living in the USSR or the USA. However, we as humans have shared fears and hopes that rarely change due to location or time, and that is the overarching theme of the unit.
I wanted to focus my unit plan on the Vietnam War. I was interested in this area of history because of the hostility this war created at home and abroad. Unlike World War Two which was an almost unanimously backed war, the Vietnam War was an area of disagreement from the start. The effects of World War Two, the domino theory, containment, Cold War, riots, protests, etc. are all wrapped around this controversial war.
It will work because of the way I will teach the unit. I want to focus it into four different areas (with two-three lesson plans for each lesson). The first area is the effects of World War Two on the world, most notably the spread of Communism. The next area is the attitudes of the war in the United States. How did we react? What were some of the ways we reacted or the groups that were created?
The third area is the actual war itself in Vietnam. Why did we lose the war? What were the major battles? In this section , I will focus one lesson on photographs from Vietnam to show the violent nature of the war.
Lastly, the fourth area will be the effects of the war, which can still be seen today. By using each lesson and a stepping stone to the next and making meaningful comparisons along with interactive lesson plans, this lesson will work in the classroom.
I think that i will make my unit plan on the age of Augustus in Rome. I believe that he is one of the most influencial characters in world history. I think that the unit would only be a week long. It would encompass an idea that i believe you brought up about doing mini units to make up a whole unit. The age of augustus is one of the most exciting times in Roman history, and i think that getting into the meat of the fall of the republic and the rise of the empire will get the students really interested. Also the unit will get the studetns interested in learning about possibly one of the greatest naval battles ever in the battle of actium. I want the students to learn how important Augustus was to Rome and by looking at all the facts they will be able to decide for themselves if Augustus saved Rome by creating an empire or if he utterly destroyed the world power.
~mike savacool
I would like to do my unit on the Civil Rights period - focusing mainly on the struggle for the rights of African Americans. The focus would be on whether the Civil Rights Movement was a success or a failure. Students would judge whether this is the case through studying different aspects and people important during the movement. They would look at Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and their methods. They would study different groups such as SNCC, SCLC, etc. They will look at different people involved, African American men, women, and white men and women.
I think this topic will work because race relations is still a pertinent topic in today's society. Students will be able to see what has actually changed from the 50s and 60s and what has not. They will be able to understand the history of race relations relative to that period. I would like to teach in an urban area and this would be something that the students could identify with and would also spark discussion about race relations today.
I figured for the first time out in trying this, I should stick to a topic that I've studied a lot over the years, so I stuck with the Civil War.
As I'm writing this unit plan, I tried to keep in mind the characteristics about learning about wars in high school that I didn't like. I felt that teachers would often focus too much on the outcomes of individual battles without tying those results into any kind of overarching theme. This prompted a lot of "so what?" questioning in my mind, which lead to many marginal doodles.
I will attempt to remedy this in my unit by presenting the Civil War as an ideological struggle over the meaning of freedom in the United States. Important battles and broad military strategies will be covered as they were integral to this national dialogue as it were, but I will always emphasize through the activities and lectures I present that the military angle is subordinate to the ideological issue in question. I will make it clear to the students that the contradiction of a nation founded with freedom as an ideal while retaining slavery in its social practices was constant from the time of the nation's founding up until the outset of the Civil War.
I will also make it clear that the ideological issues were not resolved by the Civil War, and though the Union army won militarily, this victory was far from complete because it did not resolve the ideological questions. This will hopefully build a bridge into later units about Jim Crow, segregation, racism in both the North and South following the Civil War, and ultimately into a unit about the Civil rights movements of the 1960s and the political realignment of 1964, which continues to shape our politics to this day.
one of the most fascinating topics for me to discuss is the cold war. In a unit. i would start from with settlement agreed by the allies at yalta for the soviet union to assume control of eastern europe after the war. U.S. policy of containment. Who were the participants of the cold war and what sides were taken. Reasons for the cold war and Europe in 1945. The Korean War and Hungarian uprising. The cold war comes home with the Red Scare and nuclear proliferation. The Cold War and New Jersey. Cuba-Castro and the missile crisis. Spies in the skies, sputnik-to U-2. Nikita Kruschev and John F. Kennedy. Vietnam, Mihn and Diem. Iran and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
The cold war was a result of world war 2 and two super powers claiming their ideology was the best way for reconstructing Europe. With the growing fear of nuclear war, both sides grew and built their base in order to fight a war in developing countries. America coming off of the success of WW 2, they were regarded with respect through out the world, however the cold war forced America to present greater influence throughout the world. Not only in the developed world, but they would play greater influence in the developing and third-world countries. Adopting policies that transform their appearance in the world theater that were positive and negative, affecting our modern day appearance.
The cold war was a messy and confusing time. It forced america to support dictators. Was this worth winning the cold war? or was it counterproductive to the ultimate message we send to the world as supporters of democracy?
I believe it would work because the world is not getting any easier, times are changing and the world is getting more complicated and we need to make decisions as leaders or as citizens who choose leaders in elections. people must weigh the options of politicians agendas and determine which course best supports the American Agenda
I decided to do my unit on a sub-unit of World War II. It took me awhile to figure out how to connect my previous assignments to one cohesive unit, but I finally settled on focusing on what I'm calling Different Perspectives. My hope is that I will be able to create a unit that accurately portrays the conflict without relying solely on a textbook or traditional sources.
I would like to focus on the war as seen through the eyes of women, minorities, refugees, soldiers, and other groups whose voices are not often heard. My hope is that students will not only be able to link the work/contributions of the individual to the whole, but themselves to larger groups and historical events.
I know this seems fairly idealistic, but I'm hoping that if I can make the lessons as interactive as possible then the sub-unit will have the effect I'd like. I think by using "ordinary" people as the focus it will be easier for the students to grasp some of the more intangible aspects of World War II.
For my unit I chose one of the more defining times of our history and that is the American Revolution. The groundwork of the United States of America was laid during this period and it is certainly important to know how this country was built and the steps taken to get there. The unit will be based on the standards but the theme for me will be emotion, hardships and eternal struggles faced by the founding fathers and patriots who gave their life to give this country its freedoms that are cherished to this day.
I really have no reason why I think this unit would work other than the obvious reason of its significance to American history. As a prospective teacher, my inexperience weighs heavily and until I go out and prove that my lessons and units do actually work, everything else means nothing. Right now I can only hope things will work out guided by what I have learned throughout the years and strive to try my best in the meantime.
I chose Byzantine art and architecture for my unit within the larger unit of the Byzantine Empire. I think that it is an important time period in world history because of the increase in art, literature and architecture that had lasting effects. Of course, I cannot cover all of the cultural explosion during the time period within one unit, so I had to chose one that I liked and found good information on.
I think it will work because I have tried to use interesting content to to attract the students. I have also made a motivating, different assessment. I have also tried to keep the students involved by making the discussions strongly dependent on their participation and study.
Since I am not yet completely clear on how long these unit plans are suppose to be (because there was a class discussion of separate events or topics inside one large unit), I chose the general time period of postwar American, from approximately 1945 to 1970. I realize I may have to narrow the timeline on my unit, and if this is the case, I would focus more on the latter part of this time period, with special focus on the New Left of the 1960s and the political tension brought on because of the Vietnam War. I think students will find it a fascinating time to study because at that time, the United States went through an age of containment, an age of affluence, and then entered its longest war.
This unit will work for several reasons. First, it will work because there are many interesting primary and secondary documents from this time period that can be of great interest to history students. Students can read a memoir about fighting in Vietnam, see real news footage of protestors clashing with policemen, and read government documents from the time period –all these things can make the unit “come alive.” Second, the unit will work because this is a time period that will not feel completely foreign to today’s high school students. Technology and culture from this time period may not have been identical to what it is now, but students will have a better understanding and relating to how people lived in this time period than many others (for example colonial times). Students will already have some understanding of the way the media, consumerism and popular culture may have had an effect on the people of the postwar years. Lastly, this unit will work because in many ways, it is especially relevant when looking at current political and social events. As I previously stated in my unit online, after learning more about the Vietnam War, students will begin to look at the current war in Iraq from a different perspective. After learning about the 1960 Kennedy v Nixon presidential race, students could compare its dynamics and themes to that of the current Obama v McCain election.
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