SoSt 200 Introduction to Social Studies

Term: Fall, 2006

Instructor: Tony Filipovitch, 106d Morris Hall, 507-389-5035 (office), 507-388-2264 (home)

Office Hours: My office hours are posted here. I am available in my office at those times (or other times by appointment). I also check my e-mail daily (usually several times during the day), and have an answering machine on both my home and office phone. There is no reason to flounder around, unsure of what “he wants” or confused about what you are doing; and even if everything is going fine with the coursework, there is more to learning than completing the assignments. I encourage you to visit me, in person or at a distance by phone or e-mail, many times during the course.

Course Calendar

Date	Topic	Readings/Assignments	Integrating Concepts
1/16	Becoming a Social Studies Teacher: a. Thinking like a social studies teacher	BOT Standards; NCSS; “How to Build a Student for the 21^st Century,” Time, 12/18/06, 50-56	Final Lesson Plan: Creating Multiple Perspectives Learning Activity
1/23	b. Writing a Lesson Plan	NCSS Standards, pp. 21-30 & 111-141
1/30	c. Social Studies Profession (Social Studies Panel) & Portfolios	Create your portfolio
2/6	d. Getting Ideas
2/13	First Plan: I. Culture or II. Time, Continuity & Change	NCSS pp. 111-117	Asking good questions
2/20	Post-mortem
2/27	Second Plan: III. People, Places, & Environment or IV. Individual Development & Identity	NCSS pp. 118-126	Inquiry & discovery
3/6	Teaching & Post-mortem
3/20	Third Plan: V. Individuals, Groups, and Institutions or VI. Power, Authority, & Governance or	NCSS pp. 127-131	Critical Thinking on the Web; Critical Thinking in the Curriculum;
3/27	Teaching & Post-mortem	;
3/29	Fourth Plan: VII. Production, Distribution, & Consumption or VIII. Science, Technology, & Society or	NCSS pp. 132-138;	Paradigms, perspectives & frames of reference
4/3	Teaching & Post-mortem	NCSS pp. 136-138; Daniel
4/10	Fifth Plan: IX. Global Connections or X. Civic Ideals & Practices	NCSS pp. 139-141; Body Ritual among the Nacirema; Yergin, “Globalization”; Robert Hanvey, “An Attainable Global Perspective” (e-Reserve)
4/17	Teaching & Post-mortem
4/24	Sixth Plan: Native American Standards	MN BOT Performance Expectations
5/1	Teaching & Post-mortem
5/9	Final Exam Period—Multiple Perspectives Plan & Course evaluation due

Instructional Management System & Communication Protocols:

· The course will use D2L as the instructional management system. Grade rosters and other course management issues will be handled through that site.

· The software for this course will be PC-based Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, or compatibles. I prefer to receive e-mail and course submissions to my e-mail address (not to D2L), and I can only open Microsoft Word or text files (if you are using, say, WordPerfect, make sure to send any files to me in .txt or .rtf format).

· I will communicate with you using your official MSU e-mail address; if this is not your preferred e-mail provider, make sure you have set your MSU e-mail account to forward to your preferred address (instructions are available from the help desk at help@mnsu.edu or 507-389-6654).

· I generally will reply to e-mails within 48 hours (give me an additional 24 hours over the weekends), unless I have notified the class through D2L that I expect to be away from my computer (e.g., when I am attending a national conference). If you do not hear from me within that time, please resend your question or comment as it may have been lost.

Text:

· National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). 1994. Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Silver Spring, MD: NCSS.

· Yergin & Hanvey articles on e-reserve at MSU’s library & “Body Ritual” article available online.

Note: You will use the NCSS book again in SoSt 450.

Course Overview:

The purpose of this course is to initiate formal preparation for teaching secondary social studies.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will

Begin to develop a professional portfolio using the Web
Examine critical integrating concepts of the social studies and demonstrate understanding through student-managed discussion.
Analyze the role of perspective, paradigms, and frames of reference in understanding social phenomena.
Study models of critical and creative thinking, inquiry and discovery within the context of a secondary social studies classroom.
Develop and deliver standards-based teaching strategies.

Students will address the following Minnesota Board of Teaching and National Council for the Social Studies Teacher Education Standards by applying their understanding of:

Culture & Cultural Diversity: How human beings create, learn, and adapt culture
Time, Continuity & Change: Historical roots based on what things were like in the past and how things change and develop over time.
People, Places & Environments: The world within and beyond personal locations.
Individual Development & Identity: Personal identity as shaped by an individual’s culture, by groups, and by institutional influences.
Individuals, Groups & Institutions: How institutions are formed, what controls and influences them, how institutions control and influence individuals and culture, and how institutions can be maintained or changed.
Power, Authority and Governance: The historical development of structures of power, authority and governance and their evolving functions in contemporary United States society and other parts of the world.
Production, Distribution, and Consumption: How people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Science, Technology and Society: The relationship among science, technology, and society
Global Connections: The relationship ob global connections among world societies to global interdependence.
Civic Ideals and Practice: That civic ideals and practices of citizenship are critical to full participation in society and are the central purpose of the social studies.
Native American History and Culture

Requirements:

Class Meetings:

The first four classes will be lecture/discussion. After that, classes will be grouped in pairs; the first half would be devoted to discussion of two of the NCSS strands and a set of integrating concepts that apply across the Social Studies. The following week will be devoted to presenting and analyzing selected lesson plans.

Website/Portfolio:

You will need to establish an online professional portfolio. You will continue to develop your portfolio throughout your studies here at MSU, and most likely will continue it once you are in your profession. Although we recommend MnSCU’s e-Folio site, you may use any other website that is comfortable for you.

Standards Based Lessons

Beginning with the 5^th week of class, you will create five lesson plans that meet one or two performance expectations associated with 5 of the 10 thematic strands of the NCSS social studies curriculum standards; you will create another lesson plan that addresses one of the Minnesota Board of Teaching Performance Expectations related to Native Americans. These lesson plans should include all of the elements of a lesson plan (Standards, Results, Evaluation, Curriculum, Instruction, Discussion Questions). All of these lesson plans may be done individually or in teams of two.

Multiple Perspectives Learning Activity

As the final project in the class, you will design a 1-3 day learning activity that will lead secondary students to examine perspectives, paradigms, or frames of reference, using techniques of inquiry/discovery/active learning. The lesson plan should include all of the elements of a lesson plan (Standards, Results, Evaluation, Curriculum, Instruction, Discussion Questions), and each student will create their own lesson (in other words, this is not a group project).

Course Expectations:

Grading:

There are 100 points for the course, divided as follows:

1) Web site/Portfolio 20

2) Standards Based Lessons (6 @ 10) 60

3) Multiple Perspectives Learning Activity 20

The final grade may be based on a curve, but students can expect at least an A if they achieve 90, a B with 80, etc.

Other Matters:

All assignments are due on the assigned date. There will be no makeups except for very unusual circumstances (a medical excuse will require a doctor’s slip). No extensions or makeups are allowed without prior permission.

Written reports are expected to be free of grammatical, spelling, and content errors. It should be submitted in typewritten, standard formats (APA, MLA, URSI Style Sheets). You must familiarize yourself with the University’s Academic Honesty Policy. I encourage you to draw on the ideas of others—but you must also identify when you do so (you gain “brownie points” for citing the work of others!). Plagiarism is a serious breach of academic behavior and will result in an F for the course.

I will help you in whatever manner humanly possible. However, once the semester is over, there is not a great deal I can do. If there is something that you don’t understand, are having problems with, or need help on, please get in touch with me as early as possible.

Every attempt will be made to accommodate qualified students with disabilities. If you area student with a documented disability, please contact me as early in the semester as possible to discuss the necessary accommodations, and/or contact the Disability Services Office at 507-389-2825 (V) or 1-800-627-3529 (MRS/TTY).

Bibliography

There are a number of interesting and useful journals and websites that might help you dig deeper into the issues raised in this course. Among them are:

The Social Studies [D16.3.S65]

Social Education [H62.A1S6]

Theory and Research in Social Education [H1.T47]

Journal of Economic Education [H62.5.U5.J6]

Journal of Geography [G1.J87]

The History Teacher [D1.H8177]

Teaching Sociology [HM1.T43]

Minnesota Academic Standards in History and Social Studies

Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Social Studies Development Center

MarcoPolo Network

Nationals Standards for History