402: Session One

1. As a U.S. History teacher, most of my outside-school experience with my subject matter has come from books. However, I have also attained further knowledge from reading articles, watching movies, visiting monuments, and traveling.

For example, I recently visited the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. At the museum there is an exhibit called We The People that is an animated visual history wall that tells the history of the United States through specific themes, including diversity, intolerance, and rights.

2. I don't feel like my initial thoughts on the Ball article were changes, as much as they were expanded. I think everyone agrees that a teacher can becomes more effective as they gain a greater amount of content knowledge. One of the things that the article did not focus on was how we should go about accomplishing this goal. Much of the latter part of our in-class discussion focused on the question of how to achieve the goal.

In a perfect world where schools have more money than they need, I think it is something that can be financially incentivized. Taking actions to expand your content knowledge, whether that is reading a book, going to a conference, taking courses at a community college, etc., would be rewarded with a stipend on top of the teacher's salary. Of course, given the current funding situation, this is not likely. It could also just be something that is emphasized in departments. I could see a Social Studies Department some form of book club where the teachers read various book related to the different subjects and then get together to discuss the book and how knowledge gained from the book could be implemented into a curriculum.

3. My Inquiry Question is: Would creating a thematic curriculum that replaces the traditional US History textbook with alternative resources create increased student engagement and learning in the content?

There seems to be a good amount of information available that will help me further develop my ideas related creating a curriculum that throws out the textbook. The book Lies My Teacher Told Me is more specifically about the shortcomings of US History textbooks, but the book references a number of studies that discuss textbooks in general. Furthermore, I have found a number of studies that discuss the problems with textbooks through google searches and searches on the SMC library resources database.

My experiential learning resources will be focused on the themes that I am developing for the US History curriculum. For example, if one of my themes is Immigration and Migration in the United States, Angel Island would be a great experiential resource to support knowledge related to that pecific theme.

Comments
I posted a comment on the following blogs
 - Julia Wegher - masterbloggersmc.blogspot.com
 - Yadira Zapata - unahistoriadeunamaestra.blogspot.com
 - Mike Rose - Mikejas.blogspot.com

Capstone Project: Five Guiding Questions

Guiding Question Will developing a curriculum for United States History that does not use a traditional textbook and organizes an American history course into themes, as well as chronological sequence, enhance student engagement in the subject? (Pedagogical) The following are the questions that will guide the themes that I use to organize my curriculum.   - Expansion and World Power: How has the status of the United States as a world power evolved from the Revolutionary Era to the end of the Cold War? (Content)  - Rights and Discrimination: How have different groups of americans struggled to attain the equal rights alluded to in the Declaration of Independence? (Content)  - Immigration and Migration: How have immigration and migration impacted the history of the United States and contributed to the continual transformation of our national identity? (Content)  - Role of the Federal Government: How has the role of the federal government in American society changed throughout the country's history? (Content)  - Tension Within the United States: What have been the most significant issues to cause tension and conflict within the United States throughout our nation's history? (Content)