Teaching history in the public school system can present educators with a unique set of challenges that are not found in any other subjects or disciplines. Furthermore, the distinction between U.S. and World History course structure need to be identified in order to effectively incorporate textbooks, unit tests, state standards, and student prior knowledge into the class. U.S. and World History classes differ in many aspects; and the teacher needs to know how to separate the two distinct course structures. As a U.S. History teacher, various forms of accurate student assessment can be incorporated into my classroom which will provide information needed to adjust my teaching styles. I believe U.S History classes provide a more diverse selection of assessment tools because the material is narrower in scope compared to a World History class. I believe I can shy away from the large unit tests in my U.S. History assessments and take a more non-traditional approach such as incorporating group discussions, projects, and student presentations. I feel that U.S. History provides many more opportunities for active instruction as a means of assessment instead of unit tests. On the other hand, one of the many challenges facing World History teachers is the development of classroom assessments that are on the right scale. This is because the structure of World History units typically include topics on several regions; covering a timeframe of many centuries. In contrast to U.S. History assessments, I believe a good way to overcome this obstacle is to use end of unit projects. According to our class reading Managing the Laments of World History Teachers, having students figure out the story and make global connections is key to any successful ... ... middle of paper ... ...that U.S History provides many more opportunities to immerse my students in the personalities and spirits of the men and women of U.S. history. For example, a final project that requires students to dig deeper into a particular case can stimulate students. Also, it can enable me to assess how my students apply the case to larger patterns studied in a specific unit. I have observed this type of assessment in my field experience where the students assumed the role of a representative of a nation applying to the United Nations for assistance. Then the students researched the historical context and current conditions in the country that led to a specific economic, political or social issue. In doing this, students were able to show how they could connect what they have learned across a semester or year of World History to the current conditions in one specific country.
...s of the Americas, what was their life like, and how did it change when Columbus arrived ,’ wrote a student of mine in 1991. ‘However, back then everything was presented as if it were the full picture,’ she continued, ‘so I never thought to doubt that it was.’” Most students after high school, fail to analyze controversial issues in our society. What citizens know about our past is what they have learned in high school history courses.
High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the author's expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without "having developed the ability to think coherently about social life"(Lies p.4). Loewen blames this on the way that today's texts are written. This paper will compare one text, The American Pageant, to Lies.
...History and World History, a professor only has a small portion of one class session to teach, for example, the Cold War. The devotion to a topic in such a large scale could become even more desperate because now teachers have to teach a whole new world of vocabulary along with the historical vocabulary that is necessary for students to succeed in future history classes.
A key part in the history of America’s schools involves clashes over culture and religion, as well as racial and ethnic conflicts. The struggle for power between different aspects in our educational history has shaped the way we learn today.
The overall, topic for this week’s reading is Social Studies Textbooks and what is there point of view. In Loewen’s book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, the author makes the point that books show one-sided viewpoint of historical figures, fail to show conflict happening today, and fail to present multiple sides of an issue. The second article by David Tyack, Monuments Between Covers, talks about the idea to show that our past was full of right moments and if anything that was immoral was a small part and no big deal. Tyack points out the constant influence from political groups with different agendas fighting to influence and control what textbooks tell our countries’ children. In the last reading History Lesson by Dana Lindaman talks about the view point of American History throughout the world’s public schools’ textbooks. Overall, each of the countries diminished the role their nation played in terrible events and criticized other nations for their actions.
The assessment I have created is for my eighth grade history class. My edTPA class contains 21 students. At this point in the school year I was teaching the students about the Constitutional Convention. More specifically, for this assessment, we were learning about the major debates that took place during the Constitutional Convention. Those debates being; whether to adopt the Constitution or stay with the Articles of Confederation, whether representation should be equal for states or based on population, and whether slaves should or shouldn’t count towards a state’s representation. The main learning objective for this assessment was that SWBAT analyze different viewpoints of the Constitutional Convention through a three paragraph essay following
Newman, John. UNITED STATES HISTORYPreparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. Second Edition. New York: AMSCO SCHOOL PUBLICATIONS, INC, 2010. eBook. .
After taking the Personal Assessment Literacy Survey, I learned a lot about myself and what I do know about assessments, and what I don’t. This survey allowed me to reflect on the process that I take to plan, develop, and administer tests in my class and what I need to do with the results. When I went through the criteria of all of the topics in the survey, I honestly did not know what the survey was talking about or what it meant. This was really concerning to me because I like to think that I do a pretty good job when it comes to instruction of my class and how I assess their knowledge of the material. I learned from this survey that there are a lot of things I do well during assessments and that there is still a lot that I need to learn to be an effective classroom leader.
As the first chapter in this long analytical book, chapter one serves as the foundation for the rest of the novel, with a basic premise that “history textbooks make fool out of the students.” It shows how portrayal of historical figures and events in the best light for the reputation of United States leads to biased and distorted historical education.
In the world of education, assessments play an integral role in student learning. To get the most out of assessments, they must be aligned with the standards, accurately measure what students know, as well as promote student learning (McTighe and O’Connor, 2005). In order to do this, it is important to include students in the assessment planning process. This should begin at the beginning of a unit with the pre-assessment and should be carried throughout the formative and summative assessments. Dr. Anne Davies believes that “when students are involved in the assessment process, they are more engaged and motivated, and they learn more” (Davies, 2007, p. 31). In my interdisciplinary unit, I attempt to include students in every stage of the assessments
History is very important for everyone, and everyone should learn about history. Learning History can help to learn about people situation and life from the past. It also helps to know about many events and even some fact from the past. When people want to learn history, they should search about any subject or event from the past and tries to learn the both side of the subject. They also need to try to find what is hidden from that subject, so they can learn more about it. They also need to find out who wrote the subject that they learn about, for not all the historian show the bad side of the event, and they just show the good side. When people know they both side the can have a good judgment about the event. For example, before taking the
The understandings I have gained from this course have completely revamped my way of teaching. I have been using the unit plan and curriculum map I created in this course for the past two years, and my students enjoy it more and more each year. Learning the importance of using big ideas and essential questions in the classroom have made me a better educator and has assisted my students in learning content and skills that they can transfer to all academic areas and into their everyday lives. I now use big idea and essential questions in every ...
One of the most essential educational tools is the classroom assessment. When used properly, assessments can help educators better understand what their students are learning. Classroom assessments help educators identify students strengths and weakness, monitor student learning and progress as well as plan and conduct instruction. Many question rather to use the more formal standardized testing or authentic learning strategies including the Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory.
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a
In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...