Experience with S.S. Methods

What I gained from the Social Studies Methods course are the five important components of teaching Social Studies, which are meaningful, value-based, integrative, challenging, and active. I learned how to teach a differentiated instruction with the use of indirect inquiry and cooperative lesson plans. The inquiry method is a method that can be implemented within classrooms to promote students learning through the use of exploration. The cooperative strategy encourages students to learn through an activity that promotes socialization and collaboration skills. Both strategies foster students critical thinking and problem solving skills because they are active participants of activities.

Some successes I have gained from this course are how much I have gained from the fieldwork experience,  as well as how to implement particular activities, such as the artifact bag and scavenger hunt, within my future classroom. Some challenges that I was faced with during this course are that it was all based on technology. I am not the most technology-savvy person of all; therefore, this course was rather complicated for me. But, with experience and practice, I got the hand of using Eclass, WebQuest, Wiki, as well as other computer software programs. This course has truly enriched my abilities to manipulate technology, and I will definitely use these methods in my future career as a teacher. 

I am would to create a Social Studies classroom that promotes students' learning by promoting inquiry, social, collaboration, cooperation skills. As well, I want to comprise a classroom that makes students excited to come and learn, as well as leave the classroom each day with new information. I want my students to see learning as exciting, not as a drag; therefore, my lessons will be differentiated. 

Time to Incorporate!

Although I was not available due to inclement weather, from what my fellow peer teachers have told me, the students did meet their objectives for this lesson. The students displayed adequate understanding of the new business terms they learned, which included logo, slogan, capital, stock, and incorporate. For example, the students were able to name many different famous company logos and slogans. The students’ strengths consisted of understanding the new vocabulary terms, as well as designing their company names, logos, and slogans. The challenges that occurred for the students were the specific terms of capital, stock, and shares. These are difficult words to understand; therefore, thorough explanation of the terms was necessary for the students to understand their meanings effectively. With the use of visual representations, such as the pie chart, the students were able to understand the concept of the difference between stocks and shares. For example, the teacher referred to the stock pie chart as a pizza pie; the entire pizza is made up of ten slices resembles stock, while the pieces of the pizza resemble the shares. Students were able to contribute their individual ideas and develop their understanding of logos and slogans independently. Dependently, the students were able understand the concepts of stocks, capital, and incorporate. The challenges that occurred were the groups agreeing on the company name, logo, and slogans. Many disputes occurred and the students’ conflicts were required to be resolved with the assistance of the teachers.  

Exploring Movie Companies

The learners did meet the objectives for this lesson, which included implementing the already known terms to the activity, answering the questions in the movie folder correctly, and follow the inquiry steps accordingly. The strengths that the students displayed were the ability to follow the inquiry process and peruse the information to find the correct answer to the questions. For instance, the students were able to form a question, create a hypothesis, gather data, as well as form a conclusion of whether or not the movie was a success. The challenge that occurred was the question “How much profit did the movie make?” because the answer was not readily available to them within the information. They had to find the amount of revenue the movie made and the expenses  it cost; then, they had to plug the numbers into the profit equation. The students were able to follow the steps of the inquiry process, contribute their ideas for the inquiry and movie folder questions, as well as find the correct answers within the movie folder independently. Dependently, the students were able to discover the steps of the inquiry process and answer the equation pertaining to how much profit the movie made. The challenge that occurred is that although each student was assigned a specific role, which included task manager, task reader, recorder, manager, time manager, ethics manager, and speaker, a few students were off task during this activity. The students believed since they were assigned a specific job that they did not have to help contribute to the activity by adding input for what the inquiry questions should be and what the correct answers for the movie questions were.

Business Terms

Today, the student’s learned necessary business economic terms, which included business, entrepreneur, revenue, expense, profit, profit equation, and entrepreneurial cycle. The learners did meet the objectives, which included: (1) Given the Given a matching worksheet with seven vocabulary words (business, revenue, expense, profit, profit equation, entrepreneur, and entrepreneurial cycle), the student will match the correct vocabulary term with the correct definition, and (2) Given a profit equation worksheet with three word problems, the student will answer at least two questions correctly. When asked to provide company names, the students displayed their high levels of prior knowledge about already existing companies. For example, a student provided the company name Wii and XBox. The students displayed strength in understanding and comprehending the terms by answering all the matching vocabulary review correctly. Also, the students displayed strengths in their ability to provide the appropriate definition. For example, when the student teacher asked the students to define “business” the student said, “a business is a company that sells items” so the teacher had to clarify that a company can sell services, such as photography, in exchange for money. Although students displayed strength in providing the definition for the economic terms, answering the scenario questions posed a challenge for the students.  For example, when provided with the statement “Wendy was given money for making yard sale posters for her neighbors, she now has revenue” as well as asked to decide whether or not it is an example of revenue, many students said it was not when it, in fact, is an example of revenue.