Social studies lesson plans that help students to reveal untold stories.
One of the biggest challenges for me at the starting point of MAT program was anti-racist pedagogy. As a newcomer to the United States, I did not know the history of racism and why it is important to know about it for every teacher. It is important to know about the racism for everyone in the world, but every teacher builds the crucial bridge to knowledge and the history of racism is one of the building blocks. Through learning of history of racism, young students learn its impacts and discover how many stories are untold.
I feel that social studies lessons are the ones that help students to reveal untold stories. In the program I have learned that social studies include four subjects – history, economics, geography, and civics. These subjects are crucial by their own, but it was a surprise to me that usually many teachers stick to the history only. There might me a ton of reasons, but I think one the most important is absence of a curriculum. So, our final assignment for social studies was perfect. I was able to think about and then create a curriculum map and two lesson plans. It gave the opportunity to learn about curriculum as a whole and about creating and placing lessons in it and why specifically they should be there.
“It is important to know about the racism for everyone in the world, but every teacher builds the crucial bridge to knowledge and the history of racism is one of the building blocks.”
It was a very hard assignment for me. I have chosen the economics because it plays huge role in everyday life of every student, and it is important to give them the opportunity to talk about market economy and its consequences on society. The United States is the best example of a capitalist society, so my students should learn about impact of market economy and various financial institutions on their lives, their neighborhood, their city, and their country.
I also appreciate that on the requirements of this assignment was to include not only social studies common core standard but also the social justice standard and the art integration standard as well
All of them together helped me to think about my lesson plans from different perspectives, especially in moments of asking questions for thinking during the lesson. The students will be able to think about injustices that occur in the society based on money and talk about them with their classmates. I think such dialogues can help them to learn about their classmates more and think
I must mention that the whole idea of art integration (Cornett, 2014) in my lesson plans fascinates and inspires me as I see how it differentiates them in a better way and allows my students to be creative. I love dancing a lot and enjoy painting and listening to music. I am confident that art helps us to find a balance and it also can help my students with their social emotional learning as well.
I think that social studies should bring my students joy of learning new knowledge as well as discovering of hidden or untold stories. And the truth about racism is usually untold or told partially. I want to give my students to learn it and be able to make their own judgements based on true stories, artifacts, and primary documents.
Cornett, C. (2014) Creating Meaning through Literature and the Arts, Wittenberg University
Comments