Sheldon, 1

Laura Sheldon

ECI 307: Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum

May 1, 2018

Professor Rachael Debnam O’Dea

ECI 307 Final Project:

Unit on Reconstruction & The End of the 19th Century

Context:
This lesson is for 24 honors eighth graders in social studies, who are learning North
Carolina history within the larger scope of US history. They are high achieving students, mostly
from medium to high socioeconomic levels who have had access to travel. However, there are a
few high achieving students from low socioeconomic levels, who have a more apparent grit than
their peers. The school and this class are primarily students who identify as white, but a few who
identify as Black, Indian, Hispanic, and Asian. These students appear to have integrated easily
with their white peers, but the school has had a history of students making inappropriate
comments, most of which has been influenced by the students’ parents. Because of this history,
and the location of the school within the suburban south, it is important that this class and others
focus on inclusivity, respect, and understanding of different experiences. The class mostly has
access to different technological resources, though some of the lower-income students do not
have access to the internet in their homes, nor have the ability to easily access this without a trip
to the public library- an obvious inconvenience to their parents and guardians. Thus, a lot of our
technological resources are used exclusively in class, without having these students
disadvantaged by the privilege of their peers. One last thing that is important to note is that while
most of these students use Standard American English, some of them have nuances in their
speech and writing in accordance with African American English or other accents and linguistic
traits that their parents and peers have. This furthers the discrimination and comments that some
students have perpetuated against each other. By knowing this, I can incorporate both tolerance,
understanding, and respect in all of my students to start helping them shift their mindset, or at
least make them more aware.
With this unit especially, with its tension with the Civil War, slavery, discrimination, and
the intimidation and suppression of former slaves; it is important to recognize the problems that
this school has experienced with respecting Black students and other minorities. This must be
intentional, so that students can safely explore their understanding (such as, “why was it really so
bad?” or “Why would white people do that?”) while respecting each other and their peers
feelings. This unit, while being informative on what happened in our country and state’s history-
while also avoiding the tendency towards white guilt- can be informative in helping all students
understand the realities of our current cultural climate. By incorporating a lot of writing in this
 Sheldon, 2

unit, I can allow students to explore their understanding of the unit, while operating within a
system that helps strengthen their written communication skills.

Rationale:
This unit is incredibly important for a variety of ways. First, it is important in social
studies instruction that we provide a broad, comprehensive view of history to students, avoiding
mainstream tendencies to glamorize, demonize, or white-wash parts of the past. This unit will
include material on the growth and development of the South, such as the rise of industry leaders
such as R.J. Reynolds, the Duke family, and the Tompkins family (i.e. Tompkins Hall at NC
State). This material is accompanied with learning about the experiences of freed slaves and
their renewed subjugation with sharecropping. Further, this unit details the rise and fall of the
Republican party in North Carolina, as well as the rise and force of the Ku Klux Klan. From a
variety of material such as this, I hope students can

Objectives:
NC Essential Standards
8.H.2 Understand the ways in which conflict, compromise and negotiation have shaped
North Carolina and the United States.
8.H.2.1 Explain the impact of economic, political, social, and military conflicts
(e.g. war, slavery, states’ rights and citizenship and immigration policies) on the
development of North Carolina and the United States.
8.H.2.3 Summarize the role of debate, compromise, and negotiation during
significant periods in the history of North Carolina and the United States.
8.H.3 Understand the factors that contribute to change and continuity in North Carolina
and the United States.
8.H.3.2 Explain how changes brought about by technology and other innovations
affected individuals and groups in North Carolina and the United States (e.g.
advancements in transportation, communication networks and business practices).
8.H.3.3 Explain how individuals and groups have influenced economic, political
and social change in North Carolina and the United States.
8.C&G.1 Analyze how democratic ideals shaped government in North Carolina and the
United States.
8.C&G.1.4 Analyze access to democratic rights and freedoms among various
groups in North Carolina and the United States (e.g. enslaved people, women,
wage earners, landless farmers, American Indians, African Americans and other
ethnic groups).
 Sheldon, 3

Common Core ELA Writing Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic
and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2.B Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen
facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and
well-structured event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and

publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as
well as to interact and collaborate with others.

NCTE 21st Century Literacy Standards

Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts

 Sheldon, 4

Lesson One:

Title: Model US: Getting the Gang Back Together

Topic: The Reintegration of the South

Unit: Reconstruction and the End of the 19th Century

Time: 1 - 90 minute class period

Objectives: 8.H.2 Understand the ways in which conflict, compromise and negotiation
have shaped North Carolina and the United States.
8.H.2.1 Explain the impact of economic, political, social, and military
conflicts (e.g. war, slavery, states’ rights and citizenship and
immigration policies) on the development of North Carolina and the
United States.
8.H.2.3 Summarize the role of debate, compromise, and negotiation
during significant periods in the history of North Carolina and the
United States.

EQ: 1. How does the Union bring the southern states back into the United States?
2. What policy positions did different state and national leaders have?
3. How does this affect NC?

Before Class: The previous class period, students were split into several groups and given
an assigned reading.
1. Abraham Lincoln
Section: Reconstruction in 1864 and the Wade-Davis Bill
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincoln-in-depth/
abraham-lincoln-and-reconstruction/
3. 10% Plan
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/lincolns-10-percent
-plan/
4. Wade-Davis Bill
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=37&page=
transcript
5. Andrew Johnson
http://www.ushistory.org/us/35a.asp
These groups will have been assigned ahead of time, and so students just
need to come in having done their reading and prepared to talk about it in
class.

Bell Ringer Have class powerpoint for the day pulled up on the board. The Bell Ringer is
on the second slide. Students will fill out the bell ringer sheet that they have
 Sheldon, 5

each week, putting the sheet back into their notebooks when they are done.
This bell ringer sheet asks students to explain what the cartoon means, what
information you would need to know to understand this bell ringer, whether
students agree or disagree with the message, and one connection that they can
make to the cartoon.

Class 1. As the bell ringer is being completed, teacher will dim the lights and
Procedures turn on soft music to accompany this time. When students are
finished, they are to return the bell ringer activity to their notebooks,
and fill out their planners with the homework assignment. (5 min)
2. When students are ready to move on, they will be instructed to pull
out an electronic device. Here, they will go to the class website, where
they will complete three quick-writes, each one building on the last.
For each quick write, they will have 5 minutes. During this time,
students are to write continuously about what they read about in their
article. For example, a student who wrote about the 10% Plan needs
to be able to tell me what they learned, who major players are, and
what their thoughts on it are. Students are welcome to ask deeper
questions about the material, or even say that they don’t remember
some of the information. The following are prompts for students
before each quick write, but they may feel free to write other things
about their writing if they want. After each quick write is done, have
them move to a different paragraph to write the next one, submitting
all three as one document. (5 min)
a. First: What was the main idea of your reading? (5 min)
b. Second: What are some of the smaller details you learned? (5
min)
c. Third: What do you want to know more about? (5 min)
3. Teacher will give directions for students to, after hearing directions
(5 min):
a. Pick up a copy of each of the articles from table in back of
room.
b. Pick up a copy of the Model US worksheet.
c. Arrange themselves and the classroom into their reading
groups (as assigned yesterday).
d. Pull up a copy of the submitted work from their
writing-to-learn activity (see number 2)
4. Now, students will have 20 minutes to work with their group in hopes
of convincing each other that their plan is best, and should be voted to
be the main framework of Reconstruction for the United States. They
 Sheldon, 6

also will need to focus on how this plan affects North Carolina
specifically. They are encouraged to have visual aids, and use
appropriate presentation skills (such as we have discussed earlier in
the year. Further, students are encouraged to look for the answers to
some questions that they may have discovered doing their writing to
learn activity. (20 minutes.)
5. Students from each of the four groups will present the bill/person that
their group was assigned, referring to places within the reading that
they found most helpful, and instructing their classmates on why they
should pick this strategy.
a. Group One (7-8 minutes)
b. Group Two (7-8 minutes)
c. Group Three (7-8 minutes)
d. Group Four (7-8 minutes)
(35 minutes including transitions)
6. Exit Ticket: Students will write which philosophy/bill they think
would be the best option (other than their own) and provide 4-5 pieces
of supporting evidence. This piece of paper is one that they need to
turn in at the end of the class period. (5 min)

Homework/ Following this lesson, students will need to go through the articles and add
Followup any supplemental information to their worksheets, in a different color than
the notes that they took in class. This information includes anything else that
may be useful for them to know. If they are really stuck, I would like for
them to try and analyze what the information means, and critically evaluate
what would happen if we had followed the different groups’ ideas. At the
bottom of the page, I want them to then write 4-5 sentences on why debates
and different ideas are important, and relate that to this activity.

Purpose The purpose of the quick write is to act as a writing-to-learn activity. Thus, I
am looking for students to engage with the material, and sharpen their own
understanding of what they know going into the debate. By doing the writing
to learn here, students can demonstrate the knowledge that they have already
gained, figure out where they need a “refresher,” and figure out where they
may want answers to bigger questions that will help them construct a better
debate. In full, this writing to learn exercise will be good for these honors
students to push them beyond basic memorization and to higher levels of
understanding and comprehension.

Materials: Bell Ringers:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15fTvs5X9TKy81V_wjZKt7s8JYVjC
RO6Y79LS75hHXBw/edit?usp=sharing
Copies of all of thearticles for all of the students
❖ http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincoln-in-depth/
 Sheldon, 7

abraham-lincoln-and-reconstruction/
❖ https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/lincolns-10-percent
-plan/
❖ https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=37&page=
transcript
❖ http://www.ushistory.org/us/35a.asp

Jigsaw Worksheet for the debate:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10MNZ6JrhfQpsGInKkZQZFTBF64An
Jy4NLYqyWDzKaZ0/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation: I will evaluate student’s understanding as they present in their creative

debates. At this point, they will have had the opportunity to do the readings,
learn more about what they don’t know while using the writing-to-learn
method. By using the writing to learn method, the group work, and the
jigsaw worksheet, I can see growth and improvement over the course of the
class period, and highlight specific knowledge that may need reinforcement
for students.

Inclusion of The inclusion of writing within this lesson plan helps demonstrate what
Writing: students know, while also giving them a vehicle to ask questions and evaluate
their own knowledge. Here, writing is a tool both for assessment but also
growth, and by implementing it in this way, we can ensure that students have
a full grasp of the material as well as material for their own studying
purposes.
 Sheldon, 8

Lesson Two:

Title: All the Roadblocks to Equality

Topic: The Experience of Freed Slaves, Sharecropping, Jim Crow, and the Rise of
the KKK

Unit: Reconstruction and the End of the 19th Century

Time: 1 - 90 minute class period

Objectives: 8.C&G.1 Analyze how democratic ideals shaped government in North

Carolina and the United States.
8.C&G.1.4 Analyze access to democratic rights and freedoms among
various groups in North Carolina and the United States (e.g. enslaved
people, women, wage earners, landless farmers, American Indians,
African Americans and other ethnic groups).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to
examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the
selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2.B Develop the topic with relevant,
w​ell-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other
information and examples.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.3 Write narratives to develop real or
imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant
descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts

EQ: 1. What were the experiences of former slaves at the end of the Civil War?
2. Which groups of people might former slaves have interacted with after the
Civil War? What would those interactions look like?
3. How would expect African Americans to view their situation after the
Civil War?

Before Class: The class period (or maybe two) before, our class would have had a fairly
traditional powerpoint presentation on the experiences of former slaves. This
would have included the shift from slave to free, the idea of forty acres and a
mule and how that development was overturned, the beginning of
sharecropping, the movement of carpetbaggers, the Black Codes and
Freedmen's Bureau Bill, the Civil Rights Act, 13th and 14th Amendment, and
the KKK. While these lessons may not have been the most engaging, students
will have the opportunity during this lesson to apply that knowledge in a
creative way, emphasizing their interests in a way that encapsulates the
surprisingly complex situation that African Americans navigated at the end of
 Sheldon, 9

the Civil War.

Bell Ringer Have class powerpoint for the day pulled up on the board. The Bell Ringer is
on the second slide. Students will fill out the bell ringer sheet that they have
each week, putting the sheet back into their notebooks when they are done.
This bell ringer sheet asks students to explain what the cartoon means, what
information you would need to know to understand this bell ringer, whether
students agree or disagree with the message, and one connection that they can
make to the cartoon.

Class 1. Students will come into class, complete the bell ringer activity that is on
Procedures the board as they arrive, and will complete the sheet that their bell ringer goes
on. After completing the exercise on their bell ringer sheet, they will record
their homework in their planners. (5 min)
2. The teacher will explain that today, we will use the information that we
learned yesterday (or over the past two days) and creatively synthesize it and
create a product that reflects how complicated post-Civil War race
relationships were. They will explain the directions using the following
prompt: (5 min)

Hello class! Today, you are the experts. In the last 24 hours, I have hired you
on as my reporters, running the first African-American geared newspaper
(Called The Freedom Gazette) exclusively for the newly freed populace in the
south. I, as the editor, will approve your reporting on different events, topics,
and interests to cover. One special thing about our newspaper is that it is
unreadable by white people of any kind, so (while being VERY careful not to
be offensive or unnecessarily rude) you are able to be frank. (If you think it
may be too inappropriate to write, you are probably right). Your assignment
is due in two days, but students need a completed draft by the next class
period, so be sure to stay on top of things. Very limited interaction is
allowed, but feel free to speak to me if you need help brainstorming.
3. Teacher will lead class in a discussion about the expectations of the class,
making a “word wall” on the board of different topics that students can cover,
different things that students think are important, and different sections that
are involved in a newspaper (10 min).
4. Finally, students will be released and start brainstorming what topics they
want. They will have 6-7 minutes to decide on a topic and have it posted on
the monitor. (see Newspaper Sign-ups below) (7 minutes). For aspects like
advertisements, classifieds, cartoons, and weather that are not quite as writing
based, students should also write a page or two explaining their choices for
the project, as well as relating their choice to why it would belong in a
 Sheldon, 10

newspaper for this period. This one to two pages is due last, but students
should be aware of the aspects of this paper for the peer editing stage.
5. Students will have open time in which to work on their articles/newspaper
tasks. I will play soft but upbeat music in the background, and allow them to
use class laptops and technology to create their pieces. They are to work
quietly, and will be reminded not to talk to their neighbors. The teacher will
make regular rounds to check up on students, see their progress, and answer
any questions. (45 minutes)
6. Though their work won’t be done or due yet, I will expect that students
post what they have so far on the newspaper website, formatting it as they
choose to add pictures and detail. (10 min)
7. The last few minutes of class (7 min) will be an opportunity for students to
brag about the work that they have done so far. They will be allowed up to 30
seconds to brag on themselves, highlighting a favorite line, idea, or creation
from their assignment.
8. I will congratulate students on their hard work, remind them to keep
working on their projects for the next day if they want, and wish them a great
rest of their day (1 min.)

Homework/ Students should continue to work on what they have started in class. For
Followup students who I know don’t have access to technology at home, I will print off
their work so far and have them take the assignment home. I will also remind
them about my “Homework Club” before and after school each day where
they could work on the laptops still.
They will have all of the next class period to work on group and peer editing,
as well as work on developing their project further. After the writing is
complete, students will learn to integrate visual elements and fully publish
visual to create a professional looking final project.

Purpose The purpose of this specific lesson is to help students demonstrate creativity
and knowledge of the experience of African Americans and free Blacks after
the end of the Civil War. By being able to publish their work, students can
feel proud of their accomplishments, sharing it with their family and having
the satisfaction of its publishing. I hope to continue this by sharing the
website with student’s parents, so that they can congratulate their children on
their good work.

Materials: Bell Ringers:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15fTvs5X9TKy81V_wjZKt7s8JYVjC
RO6Y79LS75hHXBw/edit?usp=sharing
Newspaper Sign-Ups
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IWZsveyotNXnIXssQjLaPQc9GeLF0
DHY-nn6RsG8oMI/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation: I would evaluate this as a formative assessment, though probably with a

higher weight such as a quiz or project since the assignment has a broader
 Sheldon, 11

scope. Students would be evaluated not only on their final project, but also
based on the growth and development of ideas throughout the assignment.
 Sheldon, 12

Lesson Three:

Title: Changes in Latitude (aka Politics), Changes in Attitude

Topic: The New North Carolina Constitution, A Period of Poor NC Leadership, and
the North Carolina Political Party Evolution

Unit: Reconstruction and the End of the 19th Century

Time: 1 - 90 minute class period

Objectives: 8.C&G.1 Analyze how democratic ideals shaped government in North

Carolina and the United States.
8.H.2.3 Summarize the role of debate, compromise, and negotiation during
significant periods in the history of North Carolina and the United States.
8.H.3 Understand the factors that contribute to change and continuity in
North Carolina and the United States.
8.H.3.3 Explain how individuals and groups have influenced
economic, political and social change in North Carolina and the
United States.

EQ: 1. How did the change in political leadership affect the state leadership of
North Carolina?
2. How does the ability to vote affect politics?

Before Class: This lesson can follow the project being completed in class from Lesson
Two. Thus, students will have their newspaper turned in. This will be a good
transition because Reconstruction will largely be over and we can transition
to the politics. Before this class, there is no homework for students to
complete. Instead, I will encourage them to review their notes.

Bell Ringer Have class powerpoint for the day pulled up on the board. The Bell Ringer is
on the second slide. Students will fill out the bell ringer sheet that they have
each week, putting the sheet back into their notebooks when they are done.
This bell ringer sheet asks students to explain what the cartoon means, what
information you would need to know to understand this bell ringer, whether
students agree or disagree with the message, and one connection that they can
make to the cartoon.

Class 1. As soon as the bell rings, students should start on the bell ringer activity
Procedures that will be on the screen for them to see. They will record the answers to the
different questions on their bell ringer activity sheet. After completing this,
students should return their bell ringer sheet to their notebooks (5 min).
 Sheldon, 13

2. Now, the teacher will go over the instructions for today. Students will start
with reading an article about changes to the North Carolina Constitution. This
will take the form, after reading, of a group discussion. Students will be
divided into groups and summarize the constitutional changes and write them
in their own words. (8 minutes to “popcorn read” and 12 minutes to get into
groups and group summarize- 20 min total)
3. From here, students will engage in some narrative RAMPS assignments
about how changes would affect the lives of ordinary citizens in North
Carolina. (5 min to explain and assign, 10 min to do a quick write - 15 min
total)
4. Editing process- Will occur three different times, exclusively positive
reinforcement. Students will leave their names off of their papers, instead
including only their students ID number. (4 minutes)
a. First Round: Teacher will collect all of the printed papers, shuffle, and
redistributing them. Students will make positive comments overall
style and tone. (7 minutes)
b. Second Round: Teacher will recollect papers, reshuffling them and
redistributing again. This time, students will make positive comments
overall about the strength of conveying the explicit purpose.
Comment on strongest instances that convey the purpose. (7 min)
c. Third Round: Teacher will recollect, reshuffle, and redistribute a third
time. This time, students will make positive comments on the
effectiveness at addressing the expressed audience. (7 min)
5. Now, students will get their papers back. They will read over comments,
process what they mean, and rewrite completely. If asked, students will
rewrite completely because then they can feel free to add, subtract, or
rearrange their writing. (15 min)
6. Lead an open discussion on what they learned, both about social studies
and writing before closing class (15 min)

Materials: Bell Ringers:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15fTvs5X9TKy81V_wjZKt7s8JYVjC
RO6Y79LS75hHXBw/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.ncpedia.org/government/nc-constitution-history
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MucE6OPPb6-p970YEJk0L6vw0TLhr
nE-DFvxCRREUwE/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation: Evaluate students on expressed information in the RAMPS assignment, their

ability to grow from comments, and the growth that they demonstrated over
time.
 Sheldon, 14

Lesson Four:

Title: Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Topic: The Technological and Social Revolution

Unit: Reconstruction and the End of the 19th Century

Time: 1 - 90 minute class period

Objectives: 8.H.3.2 Explain how changes brought about by technology and other
innovations affected individuals and groups in North Carolina and the United
States (e.g. advancements in transportation, communication networks and
business practices).
8.H.3.3 Explain how individuals and groups have influenced economic,
political and social change in North Carolina and the United States.

EQ: 1. How did NC transform from a mainly agriculture based society to a

technological/industrialized society?
2. How can we see the remains of this first industrialization in our state
today?

Before Class: Before class today, students will need to read the following articles:
https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/industrialization-north

Bell Ringer Have class powerpoint for the day pulled up on the board. The Bell Ringer is
on the second slide. Students will fill out the bell ringer sheet that they have
each week, putting the sheet back into their notebooks when they are done.
This bell ringer sheet asks students to explain what the cartoon means, what
information you would need to know to understand this bell ringer, whether
students agree or disagree with the message, and one connection that they can
make to the cartoon.

Class 1. As soon as the bell rings, students should start on the bell ringer activity
Procedures that will be on the screen for them to see. They will record the answers to the
different questions on their bell ringer activity sheet. After completing this,
students should return their bell ringer sheet to their notebooks (5 min).
2. Students will pull out a piece of paper, and pick a major industry of the
state at this point (tobacco, furniture, textiles, and railroads). Students will
then complete a writing to learn assignment with their preferred industry. For
the first five minutes, they should write about what they know about the
industry itself - when did it start, why in NC, who are big names, etc. For the
second five minutes students should get more detailed, maybe listing things
that they would like to know more about, particular interests, or how these
 Sheldon, 15

industries impacted communities. Finally, with the third five minute chunk,
students should explore something that they mentioned previously in greater
detail or just add additional information that they hadn’t mentioned yet. (15
min)
3. Now, students will use the results of this writing to learn project to create a
project on a family/person within that industry who made an impact. This
should cover both the person, and the industry as a whole. This will be a one
day project, and so students are expected to be on the ball. They will work in
partners, researching, writing, and then presenting their findings in a fun way.
a. Researching and writing (30 minutes)
b. Presenting Findings (30 minutes)
4. To wrap up class, the teacher will remind students to complete a reading
for the next class period. Also, students will have a few minutes to ask any
questions on ideas that we have learned since this unit started, clarifying any
points. If students don’t have questions, they are welcome to get started on
the readings.

Materials: Bell Ringers:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15fTvs5X9TKy81V_wjZKt7s8JYVjC
RO6Y79LS75hHXBw/edit?usp=sharing

Inclusion of Students will write in a narrative form to relate how it would be for them as a
Writing: child of one of the original inventors and industry leaders in the state of
North Carolina
 Sheldon, 16

Reflection:
This final has been incredibly challenging for me, but a wonderful tool for learning more
about how I want to teach and use writing in my classroom. First, the most difficult part of this
so far is the fact that I decided to do Social studies instead of English Language Arts. This was
primarily motivated by the fact that I will be certified and licensed in both Language Arts and
Social Studies. I am incredibly glad that I did this though, because it forced me to re-evaluate the
way I view social studies education from one where students generally experience explicit
instruction by way of powerpoint, to really get creative.
I really liked having a lot of extra time to do each of the lessons. Giving myself a full 90
minutes was great when I had a specific idea, but it made it difficult to find how to fill all of the
time. I really appreciated that it gave me the opportunity to have more hands-on time in class
with the writing. While originally I hadn’t planned for it, this opportunity allowed me to
incorporate a lot more editing into my lessons, a skill which needs to be taught and reinforced,
thus we must devote time to it. While sometimes I wondered if this was the most efficient use of
my time (since my own social studies rarely seemed to be able to get through all of the material
even as we went through decades a day) I liked that this helped solidify my views on social
studies being less essentialism and more progressivism- a transition I had made with English
Language Arts and not Social Studies.
One way in which I felt I learned a lot over the course of this class and this final
assignment is the importance of nurturing student’s abilities to write. This is not merely
something I should leave to their Language Arts teacher, especially because there are some
nuances where English Language Arts and Social Studies don’t align. I also realized over the
course of this that the traditional “write some in class, take it home, and come back tomorrow
finished” isn’t a method of writing I would use in Language Arts, so why would I do that with a
larger group in Social Studies. Writing takes time, revision, editing, and work. We cannot expect
students to excel if we take the collaboration and community out of writing.
Finally, I really appreciated the idea and practice of writing to learn. This is something I
hope to incorporate regularly, both as a way of helping students begin metacognitively
processing information, but also as a way to measure their knowledge beyond a multiple choice
quiz. By writing to learn, students can learn where the gaps in their knowledge are, a good way
to formatively assess without it counting against them. Instead, students learn to take initiative to
get their questions answered.