Going global with ePals

Taking the notion of user-generated content seriously, ePals does a wonderful job of connecting teachers and students in an online global community that has something for just about everyone. One of the things I thought about doing with my fourth and final lesson plan on North Korea had to do with somehow connecting with a school in that country to find out what their educational system was like. A teacher from the U.K. had posted a similar request, although considering how isolated and closed-off North Korea is, that's probably a long shot.

Still, it's a noble idea, something that ePals specializes in. Although ePals doesn't just traffic in ideas. It puts them into motion. There's a very strong interactive quality to ePals that's attractive for teachers. One of the real interesting activities I noticed was in one of the forums. Called "Ask Elia," it gave students a chance to send questions to a global explorer who was in the process of climbing Mount Everest. What an amazing opportunity to be able to talk with someone who is attempting such a monumental task - one that students might even dream of doing themselves one day.

The Learning Centers area is also packed with activities for students connecting with others around the world. Along with interactive games, there's a section called "Global Citizens" that gets students thinking about how they can actually become global citizens, which is something that is often talked about but also an idea that's hard to act on. Also, the area that deals with current events offers a wealth of articles on topics ranging from the Boston Marathon bombing to cyber bullying and gun violence in schools. Many of the subjects relate to what children see on the news, what they are going through in their daily lives or what they are talking about to their friends. I can see this area being of great value to social studies teachers, much like the Smithsonian section.

A social studies teacher could set up a virtual tour of the Smithsonian through ePals and have students research a number of topics, including the music of the Bahamas. There's a link to an area on the Natural World, which gets students to start thinking like scientists. This would offer classes a wide, almost never-ending range of cross-curricular opportunities for those educators who can think creatively in planning imaginative lessons for their students. Those teachers who use ePals would benefit greatly from it.

Final lesson plan

The following is my fourth and final lesson plan for TCH 632. It is designed for sixth grade, but could be used for any upper elementary or junior social studies class, I believe. The students will be making a Glogster showing what they've learned about North Korea. Of course, the country has been in the news a lot lately, making nuclear threats toward the U.S. and South Korea. But not much is known about the nation, which has a totalitarian government based on a cult of personality unique to North Korea.

Here is my lesson, with my Jing screen capture describing how to make a Glogster.

http://screencast.com/t/hiIkTsOwemL

Lesson Plan for TCH 632

Marian University

Name   Peter Lindblad                                                                                        Date taught:  May 15, 2013

Lesson Title: Understanding North Korea                                                                         Course Title/Grade level(s) Social Studies, 6th grade

School      Marian University                                                          

Type of Lesson:      __X_ introduction                  _ continues development       ___ completes instruction

Big Idea or Essential Question   Why are we in conflict with North Korea?
Learning Target /Objective(s)    Define and distinguish between key vocabulary words related to North Korea. Give examples of similar standoffs between the U.S. and other nations’ leaders. Understand the history of North Korea and its relations with the U.S. and its ally, South Korea. Locate on maps the cities of North Korea. Analyze primary source documents related to North Korea.
Standard(s)     B.8.4 Explain how and why events may be interpreted differently depending on the perspectives of participants, witnesses, reporters, and historians B.8.10 Analyze examples of conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies, or nations
Academic Language/Vocabulary for this lesson (define) Demilitarized zone, annex, sovereignty, armistice, cease-fire, Juche, Communism, Songun, nuclear-weapons state, socialist republic, totalitarianism, cult of personality, isolation.
Lesson Rationale     Tensions between North Korea and the United States have been on the rise lately. Little is known about North Korea, however. It remains a mystery to most people in the U.S. By demystifying it, students can gain a greater understanding of the issues that have caused such friction between the U.S. and North Korea and why they are coming to a head now.
Student prior knowledge and prior thinking (include student misconceptions about what will be taught): - Students should be aware of the current events regarding North Korea, its leader Kim Jong-un, and the U.S. - There is a misconception that North Korea is a Communist state, but the government operates under a different ideology and is considered a Socialist Republic. Students will understand the differences.
Instructional Materials, Resources, and Technology
Plan Access to Glogster site Internet Computer lab Technology links (see descriptions at end of lesson plan): http://punk79.edu.glogster.com/north-korea-cult-of-personality-9911 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/northkorea/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/opinion/lee-north-korea-refugee http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15256929 http://www.mapsofworld.com/north-korea/culture/ http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/North-Korea.html#b	Rationale Glogster offers students the chance to organize their information in an easy-to-digest format. Using the Internet, students can find the information they need for their studies of North Korea. This glogster link shows an example of a finished piece. These links help students gain an understanding of North Korea and its politics.
Classroom Management Considerations Students will pair up after the video. Each pair will be assigned a topic related to North Korea that they will research, using Internet sources, so a computer lab will be needed. Access to Glogster will be needed, as each pairing will work together to complete a Glogster on their particular topic. The pairings will then be broken up, with each student pairing with a different student and presenting their Glogster to their new partner. Students will be asked to assess the work of their fellow students in an exit ticket.
Learning Tasks • aligned with learning targets, state standards,  big idea and/or essential question • aligned with  students’ learning needs of  individuals and  whole class • aligned with the academic language demands of this lesson.
Plan 1.  A 12-minute video will be shown from the CNN web site on Hyeonseo Lee, who fled North Korea. Students will start class by writing their reactions to the video in their journals. 2.  Breaking into pairs. Each will choose an aspect of North Korean life to research using web resources and then create a Glogster on their respective topics.   3.  Students will then be paired with a different student from the class. Each one will present the Glogster they worked on to their classmate. Each student will fill out an exit ticket in which they assess their new partner’s Glogster and their own work in a one-paragraph write-up.	Rationale 1.   Students will understand how difficult life is in North Korea.    2. Students will research a particular topic related to North Korea and create a Glogster featuring the information. 3.  Students will be able to assess the work of their fellow students.
Questions to elicit higher thinking in students during the lesson and provide opportunities for students to engage in dialogue about their learning:   - What were some of the causes of the recent conflict between North Korea and the U.S.? - Compare and contrast this nuclear showdown with others the U.S. has faced in the past. Are they different? Are they similar in some ways? - Describe the difficulties North Koreans face in their everyday lives.
Assessments • assessing prior knowledge and readiness for lesson • assessing learning during lesson and at end of lesson including student self-assessment of learning as associated with the learning target. • planning the next steps of learning based on the data or information gained through the lesson’s assessments.
Plan Students will have a checklist of items related to their particular topic about North Korea that they will have to address in their Glogster. Exit ticket allows students to assess the work of their classmates. Teacher will observe and listen to students’ explanations of their different Glogsters.	Rationale Creating a Glogster will help them focus on important information and images they need to address their topics - Exit ticket will allow students to self-assess their work and that of their colleagues. - Listening and observing students at work will give the teacher an idea of how well students are collaborating.
Accommodations / Differentiation to support student learning
Plan The mix of students in each pairing would be heterogeneous, with students of varying learning levels put together. Sight-impaired students will be assigned to tasks involving audio for their Glogster. Make sure each student has access to Glogster and the Internet.	Rationale This mix of students allows them to work with those on a different learning level from their own, perhaps giving them the chance to benefit from each other’s strengths while working on their own weaknesses.

Question everything

Chapter 13 of John Lee's "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods" deals with assessment, and one of the informal techniques that's closest to my heart has to do with questioning. Lee talks about how questions should be framed in such a way as to lead to meaningful responses and how they ought to be open-ended and inviting.

Of course, this got me thinking about my time as a journalist. That's what reporters do. They ask questions. And they don't even have to be deep thoughtful questions. No, the questions a reporter asks are designed to do one thing above all else, and that is, they are supposed to get the subject talking. It's important to get the interview subject to drop their defenses and open up about themselves, their work or their lives. It's not exactly the Socratic Method, but it's important to get students used to provide thoughtful, reflective answers on various subjects addressed in class. Even the shy ones must be prodded, very carefully, to voice their opinions or provide a cogent response.

One time, a few years ago, I was invited to be interviewed on a radio station in the Twin Cities. Michael Jackson had just died, and the station wanted an "expert" to talk about how his death would affect prices for Michael Jackson memorabilia. It was a half-hour show, and I was pretty nervous. See, it's comfortable for me to be the interviewer, but up until that time, I had rarely ever been interviewed myself. The fact that I was not really much of an expert on Michael Jackson memorabilia made it all the more nerve-wracking, but I was representing my magazine, so I needed to be on. Somehow, I got through it, although it was a bit rough. It helped that only days beforehand I had interviewed an actual memorabilia expert about this exact topic.

The morale of this story, if there is one, is that as adults, we're often called on to do things that we aren't comfortable doing. Using questioning in the classroom can at least prepare students for these types of situations they will probably face later on in life. So, as educators, we're not just assessing. We're preparing students for life after school. Assessing a child's learning serves a couple of purposes: one, it helps teachers figure out where their students are at as far as their educational development; and two, assessment just might help them when confronting difficult situations in the working world.

Getting to know you

Last Wednesday, our little class of future teachers was scheduled to meet with some local young minority adults for a night of fun and a getting-to-know-you session. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was forced to miss the event, and I hated to miss out on the opportunity to interact with students I've never met.

Although I was unable to be present that night, I did have occasion last fall to observe a racially mixed third grade classroom in the Madison area. Interestingly enough, 85 percent of the student population of that particular school receives free and reduced lunches, which is a really high number. My initial knee-jerk reaction, sadly enough, was to gird my loins and expect the worst. It's hard to avoid jumping to the conclusion that poorer students will be more unruly than their more affluent counterparts. Of course, in reality, that's not always the case.

And it wasn't in this one either. I truly enjoyed my time working with those kids, and in almost every instance, they were really well-behaved and a delight to be around. Not all of the children were highly engaged in the lessons being taught, but let's face it, that's the norm in any classroom.

One of the lessons taught by Dr. Aida Michlowski during her presentation on multiculturism had to do with putting ourselves in other people's shoes and trying as hard as we can to understand what they're going through. Just in talking to students about their lives you begin to see a little bit what challenges each of them face, but you also learn their strengths and their interests, and you find out what talents they have. Things like color and religious background begin to matter less and less. All kids need opportunities to enhance their skills while working on those areas that give them difficulty. And they need to be challenged to break out of their comfort zones and apply what they've learned in new and foreign situations.

Still, as teachers, we need to be cognizant of whatever challenges they face outside of school and work to block them out. Or better yet, perhaps even turn them to their advantage in some way.

Reading time

Fitting reading activities into daily classroom activities presents problems for teachers. On the one hand, they know reading is important, but then again, educators have to wonder about whether class time should be spent doing something else. After all, students can read whatever material that's pertinent to a particular lesson at home, perhaps in preparation for the following day's class, and there's only so much time in a school day.

However, as John Lee, author of "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods," writes, "Teachers should value all forms of reading in class." Why? I suspect it's because in-class reading activities can improve the reading skills of all students. For example, when students read to each other, and listen to how their fellow classmate is reading, it can improve fluency. Perhaps that's more of a concern for those teaching reading, but in the end, the more opportunities students have to read, it's likely they'll become better readers. And that goes for understanding as well as fluency.

But, time is limited, and we, as teachers, have to make the best use of whatever precious minutes are available for reading. How do we do that? Lee has some suggestions. One, he opines that setting aside 10 to 15 minutes for reading is ideal. You can't read "War and Peace" in that amount of time, but you can provide students with small chunks of written material to peruse within that short period.

According to Lee, teachers need to keep these pedagogical factors in mind when assigning readings, whether in class or out: determine how students would benefit from reading certain written materials when learning about a particular subject; consider conditions such as time, students' reading abilities and length of the source; and how the reading should be adapted and contextualized.

Going further, as potential teachers of social studies, we ought to think about the literacy-related skills the National Council for Social Studies has determined are essential for studying related subject matter. Of course, reading, studying, and thinking are three of them, but we ought to be concerned also with having students develop reference and information search skills, tech savvy and the ability to organize and use information.

There is a great social studies activity outlined on pg. 260-261 from National Geographic's Underground Railroad Experience at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad that offers a rich variety of opportunities for students to work on their social studies literacy skills. I'm sure you all read it, but it follows an imagined runaway slave through different states. Students use various resources to determine the risk the slave faces while on the run. Map skills, visualizing and creative writing are some of the skills that such an activity fosters. And these are the kinds of things we need to keep in mind when developing social studies literacy lessons in our own classrooms.

Assessing without really trying

There are those rare teachers who seem to handle their classroom instruction effortlessly, moving from topic to topic with the ease of a ballroom dancer. And when something unexpected arises, it doesn't throw them. They roll with the changes, without losing sight of the objectives of their lessons. Then, there are the rest, the ones who have to work at classroom management and get flummoxed when things go wrong. They can still rally to create educational opportunities that successfully meet learning targets, but it's a struggle. I'm guessing I'll be in that category, the one where nothing comes easy.

Of course, experience can help, but occasionally, the really talented teachers are just naturals. Learning how to conduct informal assessment techniques, though, can help those of us who are somewhat more clumsy or inexperienced in front of a class at least carry out assessments without kids becoming aware that they are being evaluated. Well, "evaluated" is not the right word, actually. Evaluations usually involve tests, according to John Lee, author of the textbook "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods." Although both assessments and evaluations involve gathering information about student learning, assessment can be used as an aid to instruction, because it is conducted at the start of, during and after instruction, whereas evaluation only occurs at the end. Lee offers three informal assessment techniques that should be easy for all of potential teachers to employ.

Questioning is one means of informal assessment that provides teachers with a means of gaining an immediate understanding of where students are at in the educational process. Queries should be open-ended and non-confrontational. They should open doors, not slam them shut on students. We want to encourage their curiosity, and in the end, we want them to give good answers. So we wait .. we wait for them and help guide them to come up with a well-formulated answers, and we need to call on both the enthusiastic and the shy. That way, we get everyone involved, helping elevate all students in the class and not just reinforce the knowledge of a few elite students.

A second way to assess students without them being aware it's being done is to poll them. When a teacher needs to check for understanding regarding certain subject matter in a way that is less intrusive, a quick way of doing it is to find out how many students agree with points being made or certain concepts being taught. Lastly, there is the seat check technique. By circulating about the room and checking on students' work at their seats, teachers can get a good idea where they're at with regard to the rest of the class. Coming up with criteria that can be used to determine how well they are carrying out their assignments is a key component of this technique. Teachers who do this can correct and redirect students who are off track. All of these three techniques appear easy to implement without being obvious about it. 

Group think

There are three little words that educators should remember when designing lessons based on interactive instruction: "dynamic," "active" and "meaningful." According to advice from John Lee, author of "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods," programs that attempt to engage students using interactive instruction should be all of those things and more.

Keeping students actively involved is not as easy as it sounds, but making sure they are engaged with other students is one way. Collaboration, on the other hand, leads to meaningful learning, if it promotes the idea of students working together on something that they can relate to in their daily lives. To make a lesson dynamic, however, requires a skilled hand. Teachers must design lessons with flexibility in mind, organizing materials in such a way as to build energy and create intellectually vigorous activities with shifting concerns.

For the novice teacher, these are treacherous waters. There are a world of considerations to ponder while designing such lessons, not the least of which is how do we group our students. Many of us have already written lesson plans that make a point of including group work in classroom activities. It stands to reason, however, that few of us have put much thought into exactly how we group our students. Do we split them up into groups of four? What exactly will they be doing in their groups? How should they divide the work? Will they present their findings to the class? Should each group be homogeneous or heterogeneous? Perhaps partnering up students in pairs would be a better idea?

All of this comes down to knowing our students, their abilities and what they know already about the subject they'll be studying. Just as it's important for educators to be flexible when it comes to creating dynamic interactive instruction, we should be just as malleable, and perhaps even experimental, when it comes to splitting students up into groups. As Chapter 9 of Lee's book reveals, there are many considerations to address before implementing interactive instruction approaches. Just the act of being willing to try different means of grouping students, I believe, will create the kind of dynamic learning environment teachers want. Shaking things up on occasion can keep students from getting complacent. The idea I find very interesting is that of jigsaw grouping, where teachers have each group complete one activity and then change the composition of each group before moving on to the next task. What better way to keep students on their toes than to change the game on occasion.