Learning Opportunity for Social Studies Teachers

We have an exciting learning opportunity for all PK-12 teachers of Social Studies this summer. Dr. Kathy Swan, national leader of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards will be in our district on July 10th and 11th to lead and facilitate an Inquiry Design Model Institute.  We will be collaborating with Heartland AEA and we have the opportunity to secure seats for Southeast Polk teachers prior to registration for this institute being opened up. Please contact me if you would like to know more about this institute.  If you are interested in participating, please contact your building principal for a link to a participation form.  A more formal registration process will be sent to interested participants in the next few weeks.  More information on this model may be found at the link below:

Inquiry Design Model

A Discussion Model for Promoting Respectful Civic Discourse

Below is a summary of a protocol for promoting respectful civic discourse as well as some resources for articles on current events that would be appropriate for discussion (I have added another favorite of mine that was not included in the article that might be more appropriate for secondary learners).  This particular protocol capitalizes on the Inquiry Design Model as it begins with an essential question such as "Should all children be vaccinated?"  This protocol comes from an article which is cited and linked at the end of this blog post.

As the authors note, many students are exposed to polarizing news reports and social media posts.  They may not always see or hear these reports in the context of civil discourse.  This makes respectful civic discourse an even more important skill, and classrooms are the ideal place to discuss sensitie issues with (to quote the College, Career, and Civic Life standards) “honesty, mutual respect, cooperation, and attentiveness to multiple perspectives.”  The proposed protocol below takes about 20-30 minutes and will support students in meeting content standards as well as speaking and listening standards.

• Students sit in groups of four.
• The class is given an article to read, followed by a discussion question – for example, Should motorized bikes be allowed on the sidewalk?
• Students silently write their opinion in the top left-hand quadrant of a template.
• Students find out each group-mate’s opinion and, without getting into agreements and disagreements, write them in the other three quadrants.
• Students then write in the center of the template how knowing their group-mates’ opinions affected their own thinking.

“The most important outcome of this civil and constructive exchange of perspectives,” say the authors, “is for students to recognize and articulate how their understanding develops through a conversation.” They suggest doing a fishbowl demonstration of the process before having the whole class begin working in groups, and posting the key steps (read, annotate, write, share, record, discuss, and thank) for general reference. They also suggest teaching sentence stems to clarify responses, for example:

• Could you please clarify the part about…?
• I don’t understand what you meant by…
• To be sure I understand, what you are saying is…
• I’m confused by… Could you please explain that?
• I hear you saying that…

The authors suggest that the teacher observe one group each cycle, focusing on whether students remain on task, use textual evidence to support their viewpoints, actively listen, ask clarifying questions, identify new information that emerges during the discussion, and thank classmates at the end.

          Below are several online news outlets that can provide articles on current topics appropriate for class discussions:

• DOGO News https://www.dogonews.com – Daily news articles indexed by grade level.
• Teaching Kids News https://teachingkidsnews.com – Toronto-based educators offer a variety of global current events for grades 3-8.
• Smithsonian Tween Tribune https://www.tweentribune.com – Daily AP news articles in English and Spanish indexed by grade level, with adjustable readability levels.
• Kelly Gallagher Article of the Week http://www.kellygallagher.org/article-of-the-week

 

“Reflective Discussion Circles: A Method for Promoting Civic Engagement” by Mary McGriff and Shalise Clemons in Social Studies for the Young Learner, March/April 2019 (Vol. 31, #4, p. 3-8), https://bit.ly/2IQ21Of; the authors can be reached at mmcgriff@njcu.edu and shalise.clemons@teccsjc.org.