How Service Learning encourages Inquiry Learning in Social Studies

The service learning lesson plan that I chose to learn about and critique involves history and theater, two things that interest me. This lesson plan is designed for an 8th grade history class, and is described as follows:

One of the needs of the History/Social Science is for students to make meaningful connections

between the past and the present. In addition, the subject springboards into developing a greater understanding of community and service-learning. This project developed as a result of a Cal Serve Workshop held in August 2002, designed in collaboration with Roger Huitric to be used as a service-learning project in itself, or as the initial step in completing the project “Heroes” by Roger Huitric. This project addresses History/Social Science Content Standards of Growth and Conflict regarding individuals who made a positive impact in American history. This project provided a service to the community by broadening students’ appreciation of the contributions adults of various ethnicities have made to society, and created a link between members of our

communities.

This project is based on an ongoing study that has students evaluating heroes from the time of

the Spanish conquistadors through President Wilson’s administration. Students discuss

characteristics of heroes, identify culturally diverse heroes influential to the history of America,

and give justification for their choices. Then, students completed a visual display of their chosen

heroes to include a photograph of the hero and a brief biography describing the heroic qualities.

The students presented the display to the school library, and a duplicate presented to the local

Community Center.

The goals of this lesson include raising community awareness of ethnically diverse heroes,

increasing student research and evaluation skills, and promoting a closer bond between all

groups in our community.

Some of the benefits of inquiry learning in social studies include: connect social studies lessons to daily life, student generated, sharpen critical thinking skills, stimulate student motivation and curiosity, promotes ownership and responsibility, and team spirit. This service learning plan is a great way to tap into the benefits of inquiry learning in social studies; by putting on plays, the students really connect to the social studies lesson. In this instance (historical heroes), the students really learn all about, and how to relate to, their hero. This lesson promotes critical thinking skills because the students have to understand more than just biographical information about their historical hero; they have to understand how their person fits into the greater historical scheme and affected history.

By putting on theatrical performances for the community, the students really gain a sense of ownership in their lesson. Not only do they know that they are putting joy into peoples' lives, but they obviously will be motivated to do the best they can do since they know people will be watching them! The fact that this service learning lesson will take a long time also promotes ownership because the students know that they are participating in something very important. Team spirit will be promoted because all the students have to work together to put on a great play about historical heroes.

Some challenges associated with social learning in history classes include: can be too student dependent, can be difficult to get full student participation, puts students in uncomfortable state of disequilibrium, and harder to find materials. I think for this service learning lesson it is crucial that the students know that although they are in charge of their individual heroes, the teacher is still the "stage manager" and will help them out when they need it. The teacher (me) will give explicit directions and guidelines for the students to follow (I will not tell my students how to act out their hero, but I will set specific guidelines). I am hoping that all students will be willing to participate since it will benefit the community as a whole. Although some students are shy and might not be willing to act out their hero on stage, they will be expected to write a script about their hero that one of their classmates can read for them (as well as their own hero). This lesson plan does not seem that materials will be hard to find;with the community involved, stage accessories should be easy to come by.

Students will spend time learning about their character through books and notes before the process of writing scripts even begins. Background knowledge is crucial for an accurate play. Students will brainstorm what they want to include in their play, because obviously they cannot put everything about the hero's live into this performance (this will sharpen critical thinking skills as well). As a class, we will discuss everyone's hero and why he or she chose them; this will be beneficial in making sure that everyone benefits from each other's research.

Most students enjoy history when it is relatable; people are relatable aspects of history. I will encourage my students to choose a hero that they either can identify with, or want to understand more about. History is also about creating effective citizens, and I think that this service learning lesson plan is a perfect way to do so and promote inquiry learning!

my service learning lesson plan:http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php?ep_action=view&ep_id=114

Utilizing Technology to promote Inquiry Learning the in the Classroom

Inquiry learning is crucial in a history classroom because, as a subject, history is all about questioning the past and proving theories. By definition, inquiry learning is when students ask and answer questions that interest them; history research papers should be just that. History is not the sheer memorization and regurgitation of facts, names, and dates; rather it is students seeking out specific information in order to answer a broader question. One of the most important ways for history teachers to assess their students is to assign research papers. Research papers, where students use historical research to formulate a thesis, are excellent mediums for inquiry learning.

Angie's article, Where Do You Want to Go Today? Inquiry Based Learning and Technology Integration by Hester Owens and W. J. Teale, explains how technology is perfect for inquiry based learning. Internet databases, much like the ones that we used to find our articles, are great resources to promote inquiry learning. Technology allows the students to be able to find the answers to the historical questions that matter to them, thus greatly enhancing history classrooms.

If I was teaching a lesson on causes that lead to the American Revolution, I would have my students write a research paper where they had to both come up with a question concerning the causes, and answer their own question (provide a thesis). The students could use both my lesson and reputable websites to focus in on a narrow aspect (it would take a whole book to cover all the causes!) of pre -Revolution America, choose their thesis, and then use databases of scholarly articles to answer their own question. Technology provides a seemingly endless wealth of knowledge for students to canvass. This research forces the students to take ownership of their learning, because it is not simply the teacher imposing their knowledge on the students.

Obviously I would provide my students with a lesson on how to properly use the internet, because it can be a scary place! Finding false information would not be helpful in inquiry learning (while the inquiry part would still be there, learning needs to occur also)! I might ask my students to write me a paper on Martin Luther King, Jr and see if any of them use MartinLutherKing.org in their research--this would provide an excellent example of what NOT to do!

It would be a great idea for the students to post their finished research projects, complete with a full bibliography, on their class blog so that their classmates could read them. Hopefully, this would stimulate everyone to be interested in their peers' topics and then they could research the various theses on their own. In traditional classrooms, only the teacher gets to read the students' papers and this is a huge disservice to the class. One student might have thought of a question that another student would never have come up with on their own, but then subsequently researches. Inquiry learning focuses on the students' interests, and technology is a great way to satisfy their intellectual curiosities!

Can you think of another way to use technology to support inquiry learning in a history classroom? What about in a sixth grade classroom (my lesson was designed for high schoolers)?

Read the full article here: http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml;hwwilsonid=N1NTHXJSUYTZVQA3DIKSFGGADUNGIIV0

Edit: Hester, J, Owens, R, and Teale, W. (2002). Where Do You Want to Go Today? Inquiry- Based Learning and Technology Integration. Reading Teacher, 55(7), 616-625.

Technology as Applied to Meaningful Learning

Meaningful learning is obviously an essential part of education, consisting of the elements: Active, Constructive, Intentional, Authentic, and Cooperative. Constructive means that learning builds on prior knowledge, Intentional means that the student is actively seeking new knowledge, Active means the student is interacting and actually "doing the learning." Authentic means that the knowledge is genuine and helpful to the students, and Cooperative means students and teachers work together to achieve the end result. Meaningful learning has always been an important part of teachers' jobs, and now teachers can enforce it even more so using technology.

It was difficult for me to find student-created examples of social studies wikis, podcast, and blogs, but there was an abundance of teacher-created ones. Clearly, a lot of teachers are taking advantage of the great technological world out there! Technology is the future, and what better way to ensure that tomorrow's citizens utilize it than to use it in classrooms?? The blog I found was Ms. McCay's Social Studies Blog (http://mccleskeyms.typepad.com/mccoy/). She provided lots of interesting links that pertain to the class. This engages the Active aspect of meaningful learning. Similarly, the students' homework is posted on the blog, so they have to look at it in order to succeed in the classroom. This authenticates the blog for the students as well. The students know that when they view their social studies teacher's blog, they are there to gain information for the class (Intentional Learning). Ms. McCay (the teacher) and the students who view her blog work together to create a great atmosphere for learning social studies. Parents can also view the blog, helping the parent/teacher connection. This blog was an excellent place for the teacher to post social studies resources for her class. Rather than printing out a bunch of maps and primary source documents, Ms. McCay can put them directly on her blog. Students are more likely to log onto a computer and go to a blog than read out of a boring textbook.

The wiki I chose was an Eighth Grade US History wiki (http://woodward8.wikispaces.com/). I really, really liked this wiki. The graphics were amazing, which is good for catching students' eyes and making them interested. Something that really stood out to me was the flashing images of all the US presidents. This wiki was really helpful for the students because it had links to chapter vocabulary words and important dates. Students are much more likely to use this wiki than their textbook, and hopefully, students will be more interested in doing their homework. This wiki is Cooperative because it is a collaborative effort from the teachers and the students. It is Active because the students have to seek out what they want to learn by clicking on the links, thus also making it Intentional. If students feel that they have a part in creating something for their class, they are going to take ownership of it and hopefully put more effort into it. I really wish that my class had a wiki when I was in school because it seems like a really good idea. This wiki was Constructive in that you would have to have knowledge of the subject (US history) to be able to use the wiki.

Mr. Carmichael's Social Studies podcast (http://rustycar.podomatic.com/) had lots of great images concerning American history and government. This seemed to be the most technologically advanced of the three sites that I have found, so I think students would really enjoy it. I think podcasts are a really good idea because if a student does not understand something, they can look on the podcast and not feel embarrassed about it. Podcasts utilize all of the meaningful learning aspects.

Meaningful learning is much more important than rote memorization of facts. Education in the past dealt more with memorization, and not full understanding. Memorization does not equal learning; blogs, wikis and podcasts all help to contribute to meaningful learning.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rallrich/learn/mean.html

(Our readings helped me realize the origins of this URL....I know the tilde means that this is a personal page, and must be investigated further! However, the information matched up with http://prezi.com/s_e-eckiot4p/).