Book Club Meeting

Friday was our final book club meeting and we really focused in on what was the "big idea" that Janet Allen was trying to tell us. But before we got to that question, Sara led us in a few questions.

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3.       What do you think about page 92 best practices

a.       We really liked this chart because it really put together everything we learned this year in all of our teaching classes into one concise format.  What was highlighted was the use of student questions to inform the curriculum.  But our concern is will we have enough time to utilize this,especially with testing coming in the social studies.

b.      This bullet point "do" and "don't" list really broke down that student centered activities are the best way to teach.  

4.       Would you use these strategies or just opt back to textbook work?

a. We did not really see these strategies as stand alone ways to teach students,especially in social studies because of them are "next level" activities or ones that have already a basis of understanding within the classroom. But we would use these ones suggested in a balance because they seem to make the classroom more interesting for even the teacher. 

The big idea for the book is very much based from a quote on page 74 that states that social studies is about exploration not memorization, which is something we have focused a lot on within our Method's class. The focus is that Social Studies is a laboratory that should allow students to manipulate and combine sources, documents, books, art and music to create an opinion regarding an event or person.