Subject Standards

National Council for the Social Studies Curriculum Standards (Themes)

Culture
Time, Continuity and Change
People, Places, and Environments
Individual Development and Identity
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Power, Authority, and Governance
Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Science, Technology, and Society
Global Connections
Civic Ideals and Practices

Sunshine State Standards for Social Studies

See the following web site for a listing of all Sunshine State Standards for Social Studies and Arts: www.firn.edu/doe/menu/sss.htm

California Social Studies Competencies

Historical Literacy
  Analyze:
  Cause and effect
  Time, continuity, and change
  Collective memory with cultural and political implications
  Philosophical and religious beliefs systems

Ethical Literacy
  Recognize:
  Sanctity of life and the dignity of all people
  How peoples’ lives are affected by their ideologies; policy, conflict, human interaction
  Ways in which different societies have tried to resolve ethical issues
  Ethical leaders in different societies

Cultural Literacy
  Recognize:
  Current and past cultural forms
  The relationship between beliefs and cultural patterns
  Complexity and continual changes of cultures
  Influence of diverse cultural norms in local to global society
  Develop:
  An ethnorelative perspective that respects the cultural differences of diverse people and practices

Geographic Literacy
  Recognize:
  Physical characteristics of places; land and water forms, climates, and resources
  Social characteristics of places; the locations of diverse cultural practices and religions
  Human and environment interaction
  Environmental change and migration

Economic Literacy
  Analyze:
  Resource allocation and trade
  Patterns of economic interdependence
  Different economic systems
  Causes of local to global economic problems
  Production, distribution, and consumption changes

Sociopolitical Literacy
  Analyze:
  Citizenship in different government patterns
  Comparative political systems

Learning Skills
  Participate in:
  Active listening
  Multiple modalities of information gathering and information dissemination
  Collaborative-group interaction
  Critical thinking; define, clarify, analyze, and draw conclusions
  Nonjudgemental and evaluative reporting
  Adapting activities for participation of those with exceptionalities

California Performing Arts Competencies

Artistic Perception
  Develop:
  Sensitivities to the aesthetic qualities of the world
  Appreciation of art work in a variety of settings

Creative Expression
  Develop:
  Performance art as an expression of historical and cultural knowledge
  Appreciation for process as well as product of artistic creation

Historical and Cultural Context
  Develop
  Awareness of how the arts reflect and influence cultures and reciprocal effects
  Awareness of how technology has influenced both the arts and history

Applications to Life
  Develop:
  Awareness of artistic expression as fuller participation in society
  Awareness of artistic expression as a means to fostering understanding of cultures
  Awareness of connections between the arts and other disciplines
  Mastery through planning and presenting an interdisciplinary social studies and arts program

National Standards for Arts Instruction

Communicate at a basic level in the four arts disciplines; dance, music, theatre and the visual arts. This includes knowdge and skills in the use of the basic vocabularies, materials, tools, techniques, and intellectual methods of each arts discipline.

Communicate proficiently in at least one art form including the ability to define and solve artistic problems with insight, reason, and technical proficiency.

Develop and present basic analyses of works of art from structural, historical, and cultural perspectives. This includes the ability to understand and evaluate work in the various arts disciplines.

Have an informed acquaintance with exemplary works of art from a variety of cultures and historical periods and a basic understanding of historial development in the arts disciplines, across the arts as a whole, and within cultures.

Relate various types of arts knowledge and skills within and across the arts disciplines. This includes mixing and matching competencies and understandings in art-making, history, and cultures, and analysis in any arts-related project.

Further information on National Standards for Arts:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/professional_resources/standards/natstandards/standards_print.html

Course Requirements

Content Review

      Write your own review with your class notes of the recommendations for social studies instruction and other suggestions that are contained in your assigned readings. The goal is for you to have an organized and useful record of the salient points in the readings and class presentations. You may write this in any style that is most useful to you. These notes will be due where indicated on the course schedule. Include in each Content Review the (a) current readings, since they are to be read by the day they are listed on the syllabus, and (b) notes from presentations of the former class meeting. It is best to label chapter notes and class notes, to ensure recognition of the thoroughness you evidence in each Content Review. The lack of any thoroughness will result in a lower credit, if any, for incomplete work.

Curriculum-Resource Evaluation and Recommendation

1. Describe the resource and the subject for which it might be purchased. Include the cost and
any of the resource’s features that would make it usable by students or teachers.

2. Describe your criteria that you are using to evaluate the curriculum resource. Name each set of
criteria and identify its foci. For example, on set will be Carter’s Matching Factors.

3. Start evaluating the curriculum and only mention problem areas. Point out how a teacher
might overcome those problems or how best the resource might be used given its limitation(s). For example, consider the usefulness of the curriculum resource for teaching students with special needs.

4. Make a global statement about criteria it does satisfy. In other words, you might state that all
of the criteria in Carter’s Matching Factors would be satisfied in a --- grade level class.

5. Make your recommendation. Be specific about for whom this resource should be ordered, if at
all, and include the grade level of students, teachers, and/or the school library in your
recommendation. Remember to consider the cost and instructional value of the curriculum.

Professional Organization Review

     Become familiar with a professional organization that can support you in accomplishing the goals of social studies education. This requirement can be accomplished through a review of materials that the organization members produce or disseminate or through participation by your attendance at the organization’s current conference. Follow the steps below and title your review with the name of the organization that you described. Print this for grading by the instructor.

1. Describe the organization’s programs, services, and conferences if they hold them. Identify the activities of the society’s members such as research, social activism, writing or sharing instructional literature, etc.

2. Write a list of the resources such as literature, videos, and other electronic media that you found from the organization which might be useful to you as a teacher.

3. Write the full contact information for the organization: physical and electronic addresses, phone, and web site if they have one.

Sites for some Professional Societies:

List of Social Studies Resources

     Compile a list of different resources which you could use for instruction in social studies lessons. There should be a variety of resource types for the different learning modalities students have. Use the key code below to classify the learning modalities that could be facilitated with the use of each resource. This will help you balance the use of different learning modes in your social studies lessons. If you find an electronic resource that is available only on a web site, such as a lesson plan or set of guidelines, describe it including its title, author, and contents. For resources that must be ordered or purchased, you are encouraged (but not required) to list the supplier and item number. Such information will prepare you for short-notice purchase opportunities which are likely to occur during your teaching career.

Modality Codes:

LING = LINGUISTIC

KIN=KINESTHETIC

NAT=NATURALISTIC/ENVIRONMENTAL

GRAPH VIS=GRAPHIC VISUAL

MUS= MUSICAL

THEA=THEATRICAL

INTRA=INTRAPERSONAL

INTER=INTERPERSONAL

CON=CONCRETE (HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE)

ABS=ABSTRACT (SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION

          The resource list should include at least two items in every category below:

• criteria: two sets for evaluating resources (List all criteria in each of two sets.)
• literature for children
• literature for instructors
• literature for students’ families
• music, both printed and recorded, for several types of uses
• plays of or about different cultures
• dances of several cultures
• games of several cultures
• videos for classroom use
• videos for teacher and family education
• electronic media for children
• electronic media for teachers and families
• assessment plans for a variety of learner types (plans for assessing diverse learners)
• home-school collaboration plans (materials to facilitate home instruction too)
• class-community collaboration plans (places or organizations in the area)

Following are websites with resources. Also look beyond this list for other resources.

Community History Project: Critical Task

        This assignment is required for successful completion of this course. Failure to complete this assignment with full points will result in a failure grade for the course. This assignment must be complete and accurate to receive credit for it. The tasks provide experiences which support social studies instruction through community based learning involving the following learning processes (a) cross-cultural communication, (b) historical data collection, analysis and reporting, and (c) curriculum development.

        Community Based Learning. Spend time with elderly (70+ years) natives of this area, or where you live, to learn about local history. Select two people who are of different cultural groups, ethnicities and families to be your informants. You may collect information from them through examination of documents as well as artifacts that they have to show you and true stories they tell you. Visit one or more local sites that they mention. Also prepare a reference page for your contacts and the resources that you used.

        Reporting. Post on Blackboard and print for submission in this class, at least four pages of typed notes, and a reference page for your contacts as well as any resources you used for your report. Although a formal essay is not needed for reporting your research, you will make a professional presentation of it in our class. For that purpose, prepare and rehearse an oral report with visuals of the highlights (to you or others) of the information that you collected about local history. Prepare a 5-minute presentation with a visual aid of your findings for our class.

        Curriculum Development. Make a draft version of a picture book for use with students about one of the historical aspects that you learned. Be sure the book addresses two or more social studies standards or competencies. Finally, write a lesson plan for teaching about local history that you learned. If it’s appropriate for your lesson’s goal, incorporate the book that you wrote in your lesson plan. In developing your lesson plan, follow the NCSS recommendations in developing social studies instruction that is meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. Also, incorporate the learning cycle in your lesson plan by including the exploratory introduction, lesson development, and expansion steps of acquiring knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

The Seminole People of Florida
http://www.seminoletribe.com/

Standards Reference Box

Florida Educator Accomplished Practices
www.firn.edu/doe/rules/6-a5.htm#6A-5.065

Florida Sunshine State Standards
www.firn.edu/doe/menu/sss.htm

Florida Performance Standards for Teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages
www.firn.edu/doe/bin00011/perstand.htm

Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html

NCSS Pedagogical Standards
www.socialstudies.org/standards/teachers/vol1/pedagogical.shtml

NCSS Curriculum Standards
www.socialstudies.org/standards/stitle.html

See the appendix of this syllabus that displays the evaluation rubric for this critical task.

Issue Knowledge and Activism Report

        Multiple Perspectives. Become well-informed of a current social issue. Gather knowledge of the issue from multiple perspectives through research, observation, and discussion. Develop your own broadly informed perspective of the issue and how its conflict should be proactively addressed or resolved. Proactive citizens work to nonviolently resolve conflicts for the well-being of all who are affected by those problems.

        Informed Action. Utilizing political, multicultural, economic, or environmental aspects of citizenship, take current action on the issue.

        Reflective Report. For writing your report, use the style of the American Psychological Association Manual 5th edition, which is recommended above in course materials. Write your present position on the issue in an essay that fully presents three or more perspectives of the problem and how it might be solved. Conclude your essay with a recommendation for action and a description of the action you took during this course to address the issue. In the References section of your paper, list in APA style the literature you read, people you may have surveyed or interviewed, and the experts with whom you consulted. Provide evidence of the current social action you took in the Appendix of this report.

        Components of the social-issue paper: (a) include an explanation of the issue and definitions of specialized terminology, if any are included, (b) three or more perspectives of the issue and corresponding ideas for problem solving, (c) your recommendation for addressing the issue, (d) a summary of the action that you took to address the issue, (e) a reference page, and (f) evidence of your action in an appendix. The length expectation for this paper is a total of six to ten pages including the cover page and at least one appendix. For posting this assignment in Blackboard, you may include just components (a) and (b) of the activism report.

Resources for social issues include:

Social Issues Plan

        After the deadline for submission of the Issue Knowledge and Activism Report, read the postings of your classmates on Blackboard about the social issues that they researched. In a Word document, make a list of 10 or more current social issues including some or all of the ones your classmates researched. This list will contain two or more descriptive sentences for each social issue you list. For each issue that you list, explain whether or not you feel you could teach elementary students about it, and why you feel that way. Near the end of the semester, the instructor will provide a Blackboard "quiz" for you to complete this assignment by copying in your work from a Word document. As the essay "quiz" in Blackboard needs manual scoring, do not be surprised to score 0 as soon you complete this assignment. Later, your responses will be scored for completion. Also print a copy of this assignment in the Word document for submission in class.

Performing Arts Integration

I. Performance Review
(Individual student assignment)

       Option A. Review a musical, dance, or dramatic performance that elementary students could watch either partially or entirely, depending on its age appropriateness. Describe the performance including its (a) highlights, (b) cultural context, (c) social history and issues it may address, as well as (d) the artistic techniques that are used in it.
       Option B. Develop a musical, dance, or dramatic performance that elementary students could learn to do for communication about a social issue or history that is underrepresented in elementary school curricula.
       For either option you choose, provide examples from the performance you viewed to answer the three parts of the following question in your description of the resource you found or developed. How does this performing art increase knowledge of the following?

1. History or social issues it includes
2. Its genre or style including its artistic techniques
3. Its cultural origins and expressions of culture

II. Demonstration and Explanation of a Performance Technique
(Individual student assignment, although you may obtain demonstration assistance from a peer or a professional performer)

       Select a genre of performance art and learn about its historical and cultural origins. Identify at least one of the techniques that the performers use and the purpose of its use. About what has the technique helped a performer communicate? Also identify any special equipment or performance arrangement needed for the technique. Beyond secondary resources of information, see if you can inquire about it from a performer of the technique.. Demonstrate the technique for our class and suggest how it may be taught to elementary school children. In other words, can training and materials be adapted for their instruction in the technique? Also, recommend any resources for learning or seeing the performance technique. Post on Blackboard the information you gather in this assignment and print a copy of the information for your portfolio. Also print for your portfolio the techniques your classmates report in Blackboard and demonstrate in class.

III. Performance Program
(Student group assignment)

       Plan an educational performing-arts program that elementary students of any one, or all, grade levels could perform in school. The show will focus on a concept and integrate multicultural social studies information with performing arts techniques. Make a model program for distribution to attendees at the planned show listing the performances it will include. The show will have one performance per people in your group (five or higher). Perform in our class one segment of the show that you plan with your classmates.

IV. Lesson Plan
(Student group assignment)

       This is a critical task for assessment development in lesson planning. Be sure your lesson plan assessments align with the goal for the lesson. See the rubric in Appendix B which identifies the criteria for assessment planning for ESOL as well as other students with diverse learning needs.

       Develop one complete lesson plan for each performance in the program that will advance student knowledge of the show’s focus concept and/or its social context; the subject of the performance and its culture(s). While each lesson related to the performance program will include social studies standards and competencies, it can also integrate instruction in other subject areas. Be sure to also include the standards for other subjects, as well as social studies, that are included any cross-curricular lesson. Your group may decide to assign one lesson per member or collaboratively write together the lessons corresponding to the performances. In either case, be sure to give the name of the lesson authors on each lesson plan. Also check for completeness each other’s lesson plans before they are submitted together as your group’s unit. For evaluation of your work by the instructor, collect together in on binder these lesson plans and the program you group developed for the integrated social studies and performing arts show you planned.

V. Documentation
(Individual student assignment)

       Include in your social studies portfolio the performance analysis or performance you developed, the program for an elementary show, and the lessons which your group developed that correspond to those performances.

Social Studies Section of Education Portfolio

     Include in a compact disk (CD) to be submitted no later than the due date the following after editing to make any needed corrections in scored assignments.