Elementary Education Commons^™

Rethinking The Social In Social Studies, Jeffrey Manuel

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article reviews new approaches in history, social sciences, and science studies that suggest a rethinking of the social. The article begins by situating the social within a long history of social thinking throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It then examines how these new critical approaches to the social offer useful insights into current intellectual problems in the social studies curriculum.

Review Of "Why School?: Reclaiming Education For All Of Us", Susan Breck

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City On The Mississippi", Rowena Mcclinton

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Teaching Students To Challenge The Status Quo: Recognizing Oppression In African Film, Roberta Di Carmine

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to share experiences and strategies about teaching race and oppression with African films and promote the use of non-Western films in the classroom. By referring to bell hooks' and Richard Dyer's works, the paper discusses how teachers have a responsibility to create a learning environment in which students learn to be open minded and to challenge the status quo.

African films offer an opportunity to achieve this goal. Films such as Black Girl demand students’ attention but also require in-depth discussions if we want to raise students’ awareness of films as political weapons …

Ten Illinois Oral History Projects Waiting To Be Assigned, Lindon Ratliff

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The article presents ten oral history projects which could be taught by a high school social studies teacher in Illinois. The author discusses the importance of oral histories as well as teaching strategies which can be used.

Review Of "The Making Of Americans: Democracy And Our Schools", Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This is a review of education advocate, E.D. Hirsch, Jr's latest book, The Making of Americans: Democracy and our Schools. It provides an analysis of his thesis and content (ie. sources) with a look at each individual chapter. In addition, I provide both praise and criticism for the work and suggest who might benefit from reading this book.

Review Of "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human", Jennifer Rehg

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Grooming Tomorrow’S Advocates: Preparing Elementary Social Studies Teachers Today, Rachel Finley-Bowman

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) upon teaching and learning social studies at the elementary level are already well known. In light of the discipline’s increasing marginalization in the schools, the methods used to prepare elementary educators for teaching social studies and developing professional advocacy must be reexamined. This article, with reference to relevant scholarship, discusses eight key strategies to promote more effective teacher preparation, including a pledge of advocacy, meaningful pedagogy, pre-service professional development, knowledge of curriculum standards, content expertise, curriculum integration, significant field experience before student teaching, and reevaluation of NCLB.

Power, Politics And Pedagogy: Teaching About Law As A Structure Of Inequality, Matthew Petrocelli, Erin Heil, Trish Oberweis

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this article is to explore ways to integrate into the classroom the Marxist perspective of law. The paper discusses ways to apply the tenets of Marxism to areas of contemporary social debate; namely, the economic, racial, and gender inequalities of the American legal system and the institution of university speech codes for the purpose of exploring these issues in the classroom, particularly with regard to legal apparatuses as tools of oppression.

Review Of "Education And The Cold War: The Battle For The American School", Mary Lopez

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Differing Voices: Stories Of The Holocaust From Various Perspectives A Lesson Plan And Personal Memorial, Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This lesson provides students with the opportunity to analyze varying perspectives of the Holocaust. The students will come to understand that the racism and discrimination of the Nazis extended past the Jewish population during the Holocaust. In fact, they will learn that it affected groups such as Polish Catholics, prisoners of war, and the handicapped as well. This will be done by the analysis of photographs, maps and graphs as well as the students' reading and discussion of Holocaust memoirs written by three separate individuals with different.

Review Of "The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberty And Commons For All", James Sabathne

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "The Long Pursuit: Abraham Lincoln's Thirty-Year Struggle With Stephen Douglas For The Heart And Soul Of America", Jon Parkin

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of "On Deep History And The Brain", James Sabathne

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

A Virtual Tour Of Shiloh, Lindon Ratliff

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

In this article the author discusses a virtual field trip lesson created to assist his high school history students. By using pictures, videos hosted via youtube, and actual battlefield artifacts, the teacher was allowed to better explore the history surrounding the Civil War battle.

Learning With Lincoln: A Teacher Institute Highlighting Abraham Lincoln, Amy Wilkinson

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is one of many educational consortiums that house a national grant program, The Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS), formerly Adventure of the American Mind. The SIUE TPS program began serving K-12 educators in 2002 by offering various professional development opportunities to promote the use of digital primary source collections found at the Library of Congress Web site. This article will offer information and resources about a professional development initiative which highlights President Abraham Lincoln using the digital collections found at the Library of Congress Web site.

The Enemy Within (The Ivory Tower): How Conservatives Came To Despise The Academy, Andrew Hartman

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article gives historical perspective to the recent phenomenon of conservative opposition to the academic liberal arts, demonstrating how anti-relativism shifted from an elitist position to a conservative-populist one.

The Transnational Turn And Trickle Down Disturbances, Tim Lacy

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This is an extended review/review essay of *America on the World Stage*. It begins by briefly analyzing the historiography and theoretical background of the "Transnational Turn." The piece then moves to the book, providing the nuts and bolts, positives, and negatives. I conclude with some larger philosophical issues and suggestions for improvement.

How Can We Teach “Western Civilization” If It Doesn’T Exist? Rethinking The European History Survey Model, Jennifer Miller

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Teaching "Western Civilization" survey courses presents a dilemma to teachers and scholars who find themselves teaching with models, categories, and narratives that they would not only not use in their research, but also actively counter with their research. This article proposes that bringing our research into the classroom means fundamentally rethinking how we teach survey courses, from their conceptualization to the sources used.

Stem Storytelling: Using Picture Books To Integrate Mathematics - "Dare To Tinker", Lindsey Herlehy, Karen Togliatti

Publications & Research

This series of activities invites students to engage in a design challenge that elicits mathematical and scientific thinking. In the first activity, the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires will be used as a catalyst to discuss the engineering design process as experienced by the protagonist, a little girl. Suggested questioning techniques and inferential reasoning strategies will focus on the trials and tribulations, frustrations, and successes achieved by the little girl. Additionally, discussion prompts are included to provide students an opportunity to reflect on the little girl as a mathematician and scientist as she takes action and …

Practitioner Research In Schools: Revealing The Efficacy Agency Cycle, Edward Resnick

Educational Studies Dissertations

Years of high stakes testing and managerial directives to improve student test scores created a trend of teachers’ declining sense of efficacy and agency. Researchers have yet to examine the perceptions of teachers following requirements to improve student engagement and school climate in an effort to improve academic performance following the authorization of local and national educational accountability reforms. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers perceive their efficacy and agency in response to the addition of nonacademic measures and the requirement of documented input from teachers and other stakeholders into educational policy planning procedures. Veteran K-12 …

Linguistic Interactions Of Spanish Speaking Mexican American Families, Adelfio J. Garcia

Dissertations

This study explored the bilingual linguistic interactions in Mexican families and their impact on children’s language and literacy development. This qualitative study gathered data using different methods, namely, interviews, direct observations, participant observation, and physical artifacts to examine parents’ perceptions of their own educational path in comparison to their children’s educational path in an American school system, together with their daily linguistic interactions in various social contexts, and the features, themes and roles of linguistic interactions participants. Study results assisted in gaining deeper understanding of daily conversations happening in different social contexts and their impact on the language and literacy …

Privileged Leadership: Teaching English Learners With Fixed Mindsets, Alexandra Lituchy

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

Research was conducted over a hundred hours at a nearby public school to observe the growth or fixed mindset language of English learners as compared to native English speakers in the second grade. Observations were also made of the English learner’s teacher’s mindset language. Existing research proves that any student with a fixed mindset have poorer academic performances. Yet, very little research has been done on if the same is true for English learners specifically. Based on the research conducted, English learners are more likely to use fixed mindset language than native English speakers. English learners also demonstrate a fixed …

Building A Better Risk Prevention Model, Steven Hornyak

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This presentation chronicles the work of Houston County Schools in developing a risk prevention model built on more than ten years of longitudinal student data. In its second year of implementation, Houston At-Risk Profiles (HARP), has proven effective in identifying those students most in need of support and linking them to interventions and supports that lead to improved outcomes and significantly reduces the risk of failure.

Bull's Eye - Hitting The Target For Every Student!, Dianne M. Connolly Mrs., Sara Hastings Mrs.

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Hitting the reading target for every student requires precision, skill and practice. Learn how a dedicated Professional Learning Community of teachers, support staff, administration, and specialist created a targeted Tiered Reading System for all students. Shared mission + shared responsibility = shared success. Pentucket Lake school was recognized by the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education for their extensive turnaround work and closing the achievement gap. Participants will leave this session with the tools, videos, and training to implement this targeted instruction.

Science In The Learning Gardens: A Study Of Motivation, Achievement, And Science Identity In Low-Income Middle Schools, Dilafruz Williams, Heather Anne Brule, Sybil Schantz Kelley, Ellen A. Skinner

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Science in the Learning Gardens (henceforth, SciLG) program was designed to address two well-documented, inter-related educational problems: under-representation in science of students from racial and ethnic minority groups and inadequacies of curriculum and pedagogy to address their cultural and motivational needs. Funded by the National Science Foundation, SciLG is a partnership between Portland Public Schools and Portland State University. The sixth- through eighth-grade SciLG curriculum aligns with Next Generation Science Standards and uses school gardens as the milieu for learning. This provides the context to investigate factors that support success of a diverse student population using the motivational …

Converting Agricultural Lesson Plans To Be Common Core Compliant For Grades 3-5, Hattie Kaymarie Jameson, Brittany Rose Withnell

Agricultural Education and Communication

There are few Common Core approved lesson plans for teachers to incorporate into traditional science programs in California. The Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom (AITC) program provides K-12 educators lesson plans with an agricultural focus. Only 13 out of 45 of the lesson plans that the California AITC website offers are Common Core approved (Learn About Ag, 2017).

Agricultural literacy is valuable to consumers, can lead to careers in agriculture, and can create a greater understanding of the world and of science for students. The agricultural lessons give students a real life relationship with what they are learning and …

Markers Of An “Inclusive” Reading Classroom: Peers Facilitating Inclusion At The Margins Of A Fourth Grade Reading Workshop, Mary R. Coakley-Fields

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

What are indicators, or markers, of ‘inclusive’ reading classrooms? As elementary school teachers across the United States are increasingly required to teach reading to diverse, heterogenous groups of students within the same classroom space, practitioners and researchers seek to identify what constitutes 'inclusion' in reading instruction. This study explores how two fourth grade friends – one labeled ‘struggling’ and one labeled ‘average’ by normative reading assessments – transgress classroom expectations around quiet, leveled reading behaviors while also facilitating each other’s inclusion in the classroom reading community. Combining ethnographic methods and D/discourse analysis, this study explores the dominant cultural Discourses that …

The Magnificent Cambry And The Not So Magnificent New School, Melanie Laughlin

Honors Projects

I have written and illustrated a children’s book and created a variety of lesson plans that can be used alongside my book. The book is titled The Magnificent Cambry And The Not So Magnificent New School. Children’s books are incredibly valuable in helping children develop and be an aid to their learning. The Magnificent Cambry And The Not So Magnificent New School centers on a young girl who deals with the struggles of having recently moved to a new place, is attending a new school, and is trying to adjust to these new changes in her life. This projects …

Cybersecurity In The Classroom: Bridging The Gap Between Computer Access And Online Safety, Andrew Malecki

Cyber Security Capstone Research Project Reports

According to ISACA, there will be a global shortage of 2 million cybersecurity professionals worldwide by 2019. Additionally, according to Experian Data Breach Resolution, as much as 80% of all network breaches can be traced to employee negligence. These problems will not solve themselves, and they likewise won’t improve without drastic action. An effort needs to be made to help direct interested and qualified individuals to the field of cybersecurity to move toward closing this gap. Moreover, steps need to be made to better inform the public of general safety measures while online, including the safeguarding of sensitive information.

A …