Summary

I think I've made it clear how much I've enjoyed Linquist's book in particular. I felt Fried was a nice read, but there was just so much to walk away and USE in Lindquist's book! In reading Lindquist, I really felt that someone was handing me a bag of tricks that I could easily put into place tomorrow. One idea followed another, and everyone of them were gems.

Most importantly, through this course I am impressed by how nicely Social Studies works as the core subject of an integrated curriculum. Certainly, my first thought would have been to center everything around language arts. After reading about this and talking about this, I love the idea of social studies being the hub of the wheel for several reasons.

First, language arts gets enough attention, don't you think? There is no need to fear that it will ever fall by the wayside in a classroom, or suffer from lack of attention. However, unless Social Studies is consciously worked into a curriculum on a steady basis, it often is pushed aside to make room for more math and language arts.

Also, I like that a social studies core need not be all reading and writing- the subject matter is so incredibly rich with topics of justice, humanity, geography, civics- the list is boundless and infinitely interesting! It is so easy to incorporate other topics into this- math, science, language arts, expressive arts- there is no need to leave anyone out. Students can sketch, map, graph, journal, and research any topic that arises. On the other hand, if the core is language arts, how many truly interesting books will incorporate math and science. I would fear that wonderful literature would fall by the wayside in an attempt to find books that have a window for other subjects.

While my struggle with this blog in the last two weeks might make a person think otherwise, I really have enjoyed the technical aspect of this class. The blogging and Internet connection with students and parents will be priceless going forward, so long as I can manage the cyber challenges!

I figured it out!!!! Just in the nick of time, too.

Here's what I would have posted this past weekend, if I'd been functioning:

Well don’t I feel inadequate! This book is so incredibly chock full of ideas, it makes my head spin. I love all of the graphic organizers, flipbooks, story ladders and wheels. I can use every one of them! Terry is a whiz at working in multiple levels to her lessons. In particular, I loved that she opened her lesson on the Revolutionary War by reading “Sarah Bishop” to help create an emotional investment in the people of the time. With their interest peaked from the literature, movies, etc, they THEN delve into the text book. Most interesting, is that they use the other sources of information that were already explored (and were certainly more interesting to read) as a basis for comparison to what they are reading in the text. It gives the students another purpose for reading- to see how similar or different the textbook’s accounting of historical events can be. This is explored more deeply in chapter six, as Lindquist talks about more ways for students to look at situations from multiple perspectives. This is such a huge developmental leap for kids, that I’m sure the lessons are fascinating to witness for whom this idea of other perspectives come easily or not so easily. The Poems for Two Voices was just so beautiful! I could even see it being used as a mediation tool for kids who are having a disagreement- it’s like a poetic Venn Diagram!! The use of letters is something I’ve seen before, but never from a varying perspective within the same unit of study- so much deeper that way! And THANK YOU to Lindquist’s friend Marte for adapting the “how to spend a million dollars” lesson. I had to help 4th graders with a similar lesson this past year and also saw it as nothing but avarice- though it certainly grabbed their attention. As usual, the adapted lesson that allows for much deeper investigation and understanding of the concept of a million also requires a million times more time! Perhaps a pared down version could be created for times’ sake if needed. Anyway, this is all so inspiring, I find myself more drawn to the older elementary kids now, so that I could try some of these lessons.

Hi all. Sorry to have missed the boat this weekend on blogging, but here goes nothing!

I read the "Passionate Teacher" chapters first and found them interesting, but wasn't terribly moved by it all. For me, it has the "no kidding" quality so far. Teaching, I think, is a calling- something that requires passion to enjoy and to be effective, but I don't think I needed a book to tell me that. I'm curious to see what the coming chapters might have to offer.

On the other hand, I am loving Lindquist's book! In particular, I love the quote that she and her friend set out to find ways to "challenge the able kids and ways to enable the challenged kids"! What a great way to express what we do each day!! This book took the theoretical and put into action for me in a tangible way-- there were so many examples of how she executed what she was imagining, project lists and lesson examples. The paragraph giving science topics with related civic issues was priceless! I love the way she took a broad topic, then narrowed it down organizing themes within the topic. It was the "how-to" that I need, as a new teacher.

The second chapter was equally interesting and direct, but there were fewer "aha" moments for me, as much of how she begins her year I have seen duplicated in other classrooms. Her concept of "turning down the heat" was something that I can relate to from parenting- we set the tone as parents just as we do as teachers! If there are issues or tempers, it is up to us to diffuse and create a new direction- the kids sure can't do that on their own!

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