Questioning the Schedule: Reading about Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom

Taking in the view from Songzanlin Monastery

When you talk to elementary school teachers these days about what they are teaching and how their days with students unfold you may be surprised by the impact of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on every aspect of the average classroom experience.  High standards and accountability make sense in theory and may sound reasonable in federal offices, where there are no teachers, and no children. There the ideas are translated into priorities for the all-important funding of public education. Ironically, their impact on this most recent generation of students comes right at the time when the importance of global awareness as an essential element of education should be increasingly obvious.

Watching the folk dance in Zhongdian.

If you were asked to choose a discipline that would serve as the bridge that connects all aspects of elementary education, something tells me it would not be test taking. For me, in this rapidly shrinking world, it would be Social Studies. I see learning about People as the territory in which reading, math, science and art all come together. And yet, in schools across Washington State, teachers are left with as little as three forty-five minute periods a week to teach art, social studies and science.  This is a choice most schools have made in the hopes of improving test scores and demonstrating increased student learning. Whether preparing for tests is learning has thus far not been demonstrated.

In the present educational environment exemplary teaching can be found in classrooms where the teachers are willing to go against the grain of current trends and school culture.  Richard Allington summarizes the habits of these teachers in his article The Six Ts of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction (2002).  For students to become proficient readers they must spend time reading at a comfortable or “easy” level.  That is different for each student.  The scripted one-size-fits-all model that continues to gain momentum is the exact opposite of what kids need. 

Classrooms should be filled with books at appropriate levels and kids should spend time reading throughout the day.  With a little bit of extra effort a teacher can put together book boxes that change every six weeks or so around the theme of an integrated study (Social Studies!).  The class can all be reading books about the same topic, not the same book. The World Affairs Council Global Classroom is one place teachers can turn to find relevant resources and information, including book lists, organized around topics that support a vibrant social studies curriculum for elementary classrooms.

A study of the Tibetan Plateau, the roof of the world, is a place where social studies and science come together.  Through the use of maps and geography skills young students can begin to think about the significance of a place that holds the most ice of any place besides the Polar Regions.  The fact that this ice is the source of the major rivers of Asia, which provide drinking water for over two billion people makes for very interesting reading, at any level.

I would use a book like A Drop Around the World by Barbara McKinney (1998) along with two beautiful books by Thomas Locker, Mountain Dance (2002) and Water Dance (2002) to stimulate class discussions about water.  Once the group has spent some time looking at the maps and identifying the major rivers I would begin to ask questions about the people who live in this unique environment.  I would share Tibetan Tales from the Top of the World by Naomi Rose (2009) to begin a discussion of Tibetan culture.  Another book that I would be sure to include in my classroom study would be The Chiru of High Tibet by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (2010) that tells the true story of these endangered animals and the people who are trying to protect them.

Effective teachers understand that the best way to improve reading skills is to read more.  Given that the current classroom schedule provides time for reading, it is more a practical than a radical solution to spend some of that time reading about essential topics that are being squeezed out of the curriculum.

The use of picture books to learn about Tibet supports each student’s need to practice reading to become better readers.  It also addresses the need for our students to become global citizens of the 21^st century through learning more about the world and its people throughout the school day, everyday.  Not in just 45 minutes a week. 

The Arctic: A Focus For Thematic Based Learning

Student easel painting above map of the Arctic

In many school districts throughout the country children of younger and younger ages are being asked to sit quietly at desks and begin the incredibly complex task of learning to read. Frustrated adults in positions of power make these demands in an effort to improve test scores, but the child is the one who must perform, and the approach seems to be bringing the scores in the wrong direction. Many early childhood advocates would argue that developmental readiness is key to success in reading, and that this development cannot be rushed.  At the same time, throughout the country there are scores of well-trained early childhood teachers who understand the importance of readiness.  Their classrooms are havens for young learners whose cognitive abilities are growing by leaps and bounds as they learn to work cooperatively, as part of a group, to listen to one another, to organize, sort and classify, to recognize and create their own patterns, to understand the meaning of numbers, and yes, in their own time, give meaning to the lines and squiggles that represent letters and sounds and join them together to form words.  Reading is not a separate discipline, and at its best is taught as part of an integrated program.   Most importantly these students are receiving the nurturing everyone needs to grow and thrive and learn, without the anxiety and stress of the adult world.

The creation of the "Northern Lights" was a
class project at the Valley School. 

Recently Dr. Richard H. Solomon, the president of the United States Institute for Peace, spoke in Seattle, hosted by the World Affairs Council.  Dr. Solomon outlined the major challenges for the United States in the coming decades.  He has defined just two of the issues as unmanageable.   One is nuclear arms proliferation and the other is climate change.  Despite this news, I remain somewhat optimistic because the changes in the Arctic are being watched and studied by scientists worldwide.   A single country cannot solve these problems alone; creativity, cooperation, and collaboration are required. Governments and businesses are preparing to use new shipping routes and establishing claims to the oil and mineral wealth soon to be accessible, while environmentalists call for protection of this fragile ecosystem.  These issues are in the news, and it is important for teachers to understand their complexities, and to encourage students to look beyond the sound bites. In order to more fully examine the issues in middle school and high school classrooms and for elementary teachers to understand and clarify the comments made by young students, you will need to see the course of events from several different points of view as you undertake a study of the Arctic in your classrooms.

While building model snow houses there

were many design components for students 

to consider such as how wide and how tall

to make it and the best way to build a roof. 

I recently had the privilege to visit Lindsay Eicher’s kindergarten at The Valley School in Seattle. Lindsay’s classroom is currently transformed into an arctic environment complete with northern lights, an icehouse, and “dress-up” clothes necessary for survival in the colder climate, where the students experience the arctic through a thematic approach to learning.  In Lindsay’s class academics are introduced through thoughtful games, group reading and discussions, art activities, and science and math projects.  Students work in journals which are sketchbooks, a major tool of not just artists, but also naturalists, geographers, and engineers as a way to process their thinking on a daily basis.  Lindsay’s class study of the Arctic began with her own love of polar bears and expanded to the whole Arctic.  Lindsay talked about her students’ enthusiasm as they learn about the anatomy of the polar bear, and experiment with the insulating properties of blubber, actually feeling the difference by submerging their own hands in a bucket of ice water, with and without a glove filled with vegetable shortening.  Working together, they also construct models of snow houses.   

When asked about her approach to complex issues around global warming, Lindsay didn’t hesitate:  “I want them to know about the environment and to care about it without politicizing it.”  The action of a concerned adult can be to inspire a love and respect for the world and all living things.  As these young people grow up they will have these resources to draw on.   And for now they are gaining a strong foundation in geography, science, language arts, and mathematics as they learn in this child-centered, supportive community.

The "snow house" in the Valley School kindergarten classroom.

Please share a thematic approach that you use. I would love to hear from you. 

Global Classroom: The Arctic: Who Owns it and How Long Will it be There?

Join the World Affairs Council and Northwest Educators on February 16th at the Pacific Science Center. 

In September 2010 an international summit was held in Moscow to address increased interest in the region and, according to BBC, to “try to prevent the Arctic becoming the next battleground over mineral wealth.” The potential conflict is due to the fact that the world’s largest undiscovered oil and gas reserves lie north of the Arctic Circle. Climate change is melting the polar ice cap and causing a “cold rush” for Arctic resources. The Northwest and Northeast passages are opening to shipping, cutting thousands of miles off the traditional routes through the Panama and Suez canals. The practicality of this new route was illustrated by the shipping of natural gas from Russia to China via the Northeast Passage in the summer of 2010—“the largest vessel ever to navigate the once-impossible route.”

Effective governance of the Arctic is becoming increasingly critical to global peace and environmental stewardship. However, international relations in the region are complicated. There are eight Arctic nations engaging in traditional bi- and multi-lateral negotiations; the Arctic Council, which was established to foster cooperation in the region among those nations; six Aboriginal groups that sit on the Council; and a host of non-Arctic nations with interest in the region. In addition to discussing the traditional negotiations taking place today between and among Arctic nations, we will also discuss the exciting developments in the greater role indigenous people will play in determining the future of the Arctic. The World Affairs Council, Pacific Science Center, and the Canadian Studies Department invite you to join us as we tackle this question: The Arctic: Who Owns it and How Long Will it be There? We are proud to welcome Nadine Fabbi, Associate Director, Canadian Studies Program (UW Jackson School of International Studies) who will first introduce us to this complex topic.

Next, we will be joined by Zeta Strickland, education manager from Pacific Science Center, who has recently returned from a two-month trip through the Arctic. Zeta will share her Arctic experiences with us and show us how Science On a Sphere can be used to bring to life these complicated environmental changes happening in the Arctic and beyond. Science On a Sphere is a room-sized, global display system that uses computers and video projectors to display planetary data onto a six foot diameter sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe. Researchers at NOAA developed Science On a Sphere as an educational tool to illustrate climate change, ocean temperatures, and other environmental and topographical information. Finally, we will share lesson plan ideas and articles from our 40-page resource packet published in conjunction with this program. The program also includes a light buffet and three free clock hours. Join us for a private gathering around the Sphere after hours at Pacific Science Center!

Sponsor:
Pacific Science Center

Co-Presenter:
Canadian Studies Department, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Linking the Classroom to the World through Film

We all know students who struggle in academic classes. Their reputations can precede them, and as they pass through the grades teachers already know their names. They are the ones who are kept inside during recess to finish up some work.  Their shoulders stoop a little more as they long to feel the fresh air, to let out a whoop, and to allow their bodies to wake up through spontaneous and unplanned movements. They are so ready to bounce from monkey bars to slide, back up the ladder and down the pole on the playground, where they know themselves. They are gifted and talented students - just not in the ways our system of education currently values young learners.  They are the square pegs being forced through round holes. 

Our country is nominally based on the personal freedoms and liberties of the individual, but too often our educational system lacks the flexibility to nurture these very same individuals.  By providing a rich curriculum and multifaceted approaches to learning our schools can successfully support and educate a wide range of learners.  As educators, our challenge is to find the right way to reach each student. Once motivated, a child is more open to taking difficult risks.  When his community views a child as successful, he will feel supported, and ready to take on the harder work in areas that do not come so easily.

For some students, physical coordination is the place they excel. For others, it may be in the arts.  If you are lucky enough to work in a school that offers art as a core subject to all students, the art teacher can be a great resource, offering a different and illuminating perspective. A student who struggles in reading or math may be a problem solver in the art studio - confident, cooperative, a leader and an inspiration to other students.  For the classroom teacher the challenge is to find a way to allow those talents to surface, or even to shine in the classroom, and to help the student use those skills to unlock the curriculum they find difficult.  A well-planned, integrated curriculum that takes into account various learning styles and multiple intelligences can do just that.

Elementary teachers across the country are learning to organize curriculum and inspire students through integrated social studies and science-based curriculum.  State standards and district lessons are woven into the fabric of the day, but do not overwhelm the student-driven work in these learning communities. There tends to be a common thread seen throughout these classrooms; a high level of student engagement, a guiding principal of mutual respect, project based learning, choice, creativity, and collaboration.

A well chosen film paints a picture of a another part of
the world and video keeps pace with the rapid 21st C.
changes in China. 

The technology available in classrooms today makes it easier to bring the world into the classroom.  The ability to view a short film clip is just a click away.  For students struggling with fluency in their reading, or second language learners working on comprehension, an activity based on something other than written language can provide the necessary bridge to a feeling of competence and inclusion. A well-chosen film used as an introduction to a new place or culture engages the entire group of students, and motivates the creation of projects that make follow-up activities rewarding for all. Learning about another culture’s point of view through further reading, writing, analysis of graphs, or map making is more meaningful when students can see that all of their classmates are involved.

Sometimes we can find ourselves struggling to find the right words to describe a place we can’t visit on a field trip.  With the fast pace of development in China in the 21^st century the illustrations in books can quickly become dated making them unattractive to students.  Film can be the answer to those problems.  Penny Rode wrote in her introduction to Using Art and Film to Teach Japan (Education About Asia, Volume 9, Number 1, Spring 2004) “As educators, one of our primary goals is to address the perception of Asia as strangely exotic and unfathomable, to take students beyond their comfortable Eurocentrism, and spark an interest and curiosity in the unfamiliar that will continue throughout their lives.  Combining art with film effectively advances these efforts”.  The combining of art and film also effectively addresses the diversity of student needs.

Do you have a favorite film you use in your classroom?  What strategies do you use to engage all the students in your class?


Don't forget to access the World Affairs Council Global Classroom Resource Packet.

Wednesday Afternoon at the Movies With Tese Neighbor

Wednesday Afternoon at the Movies

With Tese Neighbor

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Journey all across China without the stress of packing, buying a transpacific ticket, or jetlag. You won’t have to worry about figuring out the subway system or standing in long lines to see the terra cotta soldiers. This afternoon we will explore China without leaving our seats. For most American students (and teachers) the geography, culture, economics, politics, religions and philosophies of China seem more than an ocean away. Documentaries and films about China can make this complex country—with its long history and mind-boggling present—more accessible to students.

Film can be an extremely useful source for exploring many issues facing China today:

the complex issue of globalization, environmental concerns, migrant labor, urban demolition/urban construction, China’s changing rural landscape, political and economic reform, the generation gap, human rights, etc.  Together we will grapple with these changes through up-to-date documentaries as well as enjoy many of the visual beauties of Chinese land and culture through Chinese-made feature films.

We will not only share clips from a wide variety of documentaries and films, but also lesson plans/discussion ideas that correspond with these films. Educators will receive a Global Classroom resource packet that includes an annotated list of documentaries and films for classroom use with guiding questions and lesson plans. Our goal is to assist educators at all levels—from K-12—in finding documentaries/films for learning and teaching about China.

So what is the best thing to do on a dark January afternoon at 4:30? Come and sit back in your chairs while enjoying a close up look at life in China today. Please join the World Affairs Council’s Global Classroom program and the Confucius Institute of the State of Washington as we bring China to you and into your classrooms.  This is the second WAC Global Classroom workshop sponsored by the Confucius Institute during the 2010-11 school year.

To find out more about the program and to register on-line visit the World Affairs Council.

Please join me at the following Global Classroom workshops:

Wednesday Afternoon at the Movies: Exploring China through Documentaries and Film Jan 12, 2010

The Arctic: Who Owns it and How Long Will it be There? Feb 16

Exploring Media Stereotypes and Bias Through News Coverage of the Middle East March 23

21st Century Primary Education

There are as many different reasons to bring the study of different cultures into an elementary classroom as there are different cultures to learn about.  Whatever your reason might be the response from young children is usually honest and open curiosity.  If the country you are sharing with your students is one that you are curious about your students will pick up on your interest. 

 

As a teacher I have tried to take full advantage of the summer months to read professional journals and current research about teaching and especially to travel.  While on trips I collect games, cards and common household items that I can bring back to my classroom along with photographs, recipes, and spices. Then during my travels I keep the students in mind and make sure to visit places that will be of interest to them.

Youngster helps to wash the rental bicycles, Dali

Traveling with my own children when they were young was a perfect way to see a new culture through the eyes of a child.  I also invite friends and friends of friends, along with parents and family members of current students into my classroom to share first hand experiences of places we are learning about.  The Peace Corp has a great program to bring recent returning volunteers into classrooms.  High school students who have traveled through the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, Amigos, Global Visionaries or Bridges to Understanding are all happy to come to a classroom as a volunteer to share their first hand experiences. 

Great Bend in the Yangtze River 

We are fortunate in the Seattle area to have so many programs bringing international travel experiences to students.  The World Affairs Council has also compiled a great list of travel opportunities for teachers.  With a bit of planning you could be packing your bags next summer for the trip of a lifetime.  Sharing your own first hand experiences with your students adds a wonderful dimension to a study of another culture.  It is the moment when a student looks from me to the globe as his finger traces the path of the Yangtze River and asks, “you’ve been there?” and I nod, “yes” that I see the world truly open for him.  The message is, “I went there and so can you!”  And now, that student is ready to learn as much as he can, so when his turn comes he will be prepared.  For now, we open our hearts to learn about other ways of living and thinking, full of curiosity and understanding and without prejudice or fear.

Better City-Better Lives, Shanghai

21^st Century China is in the news every day, and I want the students I teach to have a clear understanding of this complex culture that has made significant contributions to humankind since ancient times.  With a growing middle class society in China, American children today perhaps have even more in common than ever with their Chinese counterparts.  Technology makes it possible to communicate and share in greater depth with students and classrooms around the globe. 

This past summer while traveling in Shanghai with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia I spoke to the parent of a kindergarten student at the Children’s Palace.  We were talking about schools.  The parent said in China the push is get the schools to operate more like American schools with an emphasis on creative problem solving.  I said, in the US we are told we must teach the children to work harder, as Chinese students do. We smiled; both of these comments are true.  We can learn a lot from each other.  

Dance class at the Children's Palace, Shanghai

An Open Question

“Knowledge about religions is not only characteristic of an educated person, but it is also absolutely necessary for understanding and living in a world of diversity.”

National Council for the Social Studies, Position Paper on Religion, 1998

Child Peeking Under Prayer Wheel, Ganden Sumtseling Monastery

One of the things I enjoy most about teaching young children is our daily morning meeting.  This is the moment in the day when we greet each other by name, share eye contact and a smile, and check in to see how life is going.  I try to practice and model active listening and encourage children to share what is on their minds, helping them to articulate complex ideas.  I always write a morning greeting and a note to get people’s minds going.  I know that many of my students begin their day with a television on, which often includes the morning’s headlines.  It is important for me to take a minute to look at the newspaper as a way to anticipate what might come up during our morning check-in.  I might include a photo with its caption as part of the morning note if I want to encourage conversation about a particular topic.

Blue Mosque, Istanbul

In this way, together, as a community of learners, we may generate larger social studies units, based on the interests of the group and the world in which we live.  What emerges from a genuine conversation is not necessarily what the teacher might have planned. For me, the best way to feel comfortable with difficult topics that may come up in my classroom is to remain responsive, and remember that I’m not supposed to have all the answers. Creating a positive classroom culture that encourages asking questions requires modeling for students the value in sitting with a question for some time. Always rewarding the quickest answer, or stopping the inquiry as soon as someone provides the answer I anticipated sends the message that questions are “in the way,” and must be resolved as soon as possible.  Instead, I hope to create the space needed to honor the person asking the question, and allow for a more considered response to difficult questions.  This often involves recommending resources for students to gather more information to answer the question for themselves. 

Zhiyunsi Tibetan Lamasery

Religion has been one of those difficult topics for me, and maybe for you.  Acknowledging what an important and significant topic it is has provided a starting place in my classroom, followed by gathering information about what the group knows by asking a few open ended questions:  How many different religions do we know of as a group?  Why do you think there are so many different religions?  Are there similarities?  What is religion?  As students begin to talk about what they know, more questions come up.   I write these down on a chart labeled “questions,” right next to the chart labeled “what we think we know.”

In the Distance, Basilica de Santo Domingo, Oaxaca, Mexico

How far you go with the topic is an individual decision.  You may not spend a month or two developing an integrated study of world religions the first year, but I do hope the door to inquiry will be left open, offering acknowledgement to students of every faith.  Students who are accepted and validated, also feel safe to grow and learn, becoming the true global citizens we know they can be. 

Take action within your school community. Make sure your principal supports your discussions in the classroom. Create a welcoming classroom that invites families to share their culture, providing an interpreter when appropriate, and add the topic of religion to a staff meeting agenda as a discussion item. To prepare for the conversation, encourage each participant to read Teaching About Religion a guide from the First Amendment Center and also Studies about Religions in the Social Studies Curriculum, A position statement of the National Council of the Social Studies. 

How do you approach challenging topics in your classroom?

 

Chongsheng Temple, Three Pagodas, Dali

Remember you can access Global Classroom Resource Packets at the World Affairs Council.