I have the best job ever!

I have the best job.  I like to say it, could even shout it!  I believe this statement is true. This statement takes on a different meaning when it is stated to you and about you by a fellow teacher.  Then the fellow teachers pairs it with “You are not teaching a tested area.”

I was a little taken back. Does this mean I am seen as a second class citizen, my subject area is meaningless, my teaching skill are worthless.  To get the actually meaning of what is being said in these statements I needed to read between the lines.

My fellow teacher’s comment, “You have the best job, you are not teaching a tested area” meant “You don’t have to worry about tests, you can teach what you want, how you want, when you want it.  Also you have fun all the time in your class, the kids even say it.”  

I just smiled at my fellow teacher, nodded, bit my tongue and walked away.  I needed to think about what was being said to me.

My first thought was...I have told my fellow social studies that we are now a tested area and we need to deal with that fact.  Yes it is true, sorry to bust the big Social Studies teaching bubble.  With the Common Core State Standards, Social Studies is tested.  Take a look at the practice tests and released items from Smarter Balanced and PARCC.  Dig through the non fiction reading, the performance events, what do you see….social studies readings, social studies type questions, social studies thinking.  I am a tested area.

My second thought was…..why am I only thinking about a test, I have started teaching the way I do long before I heard the words Common Core or C3 Framework.   I changed when my outlook on why I became a teacher changed. I do not teach a subject or standards, I teach students.

I remember sitting in my high school Social Studies class taking memorization tests on the presidents of the United States (in order first and last name), all the countries in Europe and Africa with the capital cities and all the battles in the Civil War (who won and the major players).  After taking the test, all the information I memorized, was gone.  When I went to college and majored in History/Political Science, all the information I was forced to memorize, was unneeded.  There were textbooks, notes and libraries filled with the information, I did not need to memorize it.  Those memorization tests are only good for people who will be on Jeopardy, not for life.

I want my students to learn, I don’t want to fill their minds with knowledge that has no meaning to them.  My teaching evolved from teaching knowledge to teaching literacy.  Yes, I am a social studies teacher not a literacy teacher. I have no background in literacy….or do I?  Look at how we gain our knowledge in history or social studies, by reading.  It might not be reading a book but looking at map, a painting, a photographic, listing to music, or watching a speech.  All this is content literacy.  This what my students need to know to learn.  

Within my lesson plans, I have included reading and writing on a daily basis.  The other day a student told me, “We write more in here than we do in ELA.  But writing Social Studies is fun.” That statement really made me smiles.  In my class the students close read articles, use graphic organizers to show their thinking, write reading responses that clearly state their opinions on the articles, discuss with classmates and create questions from the readings.  Speech writing and debates take place throughout the week, and sometimes the debates just happen, not planned.  

The students know the learning target, they know every activity or lesson in class refers right back to the target.  The learning target is a social studies learning target, it is not a reading or writing target. For instance today’s learning target:  Describe the impact the type of economic system has on the people in the region.  The activity was to take notes during a YouTube video, close read two articles, combine notes from all three into a graphic organizer.  Then the students have three writing prompts they can choose from to prove the have hit the target.  As they are writing, yes they can use the readings and the notes they took.  It is more of a focus on application not recall.  

I no longer concern myself with getting through the curriculum.  I have found that is okay.  If my students can read, understand, make new connections and question they will be able to discover the missed content on their own.  Also my content curriculum follows the literacy.  If I can get my students to read an article from National Geographic, comprehend it, apply to something they already know, then be able to express their own views of the article.  I have succeeded, because my content was within the article.  

My goal is for the students to able to pick up any non-fiction reading or primary document, read it, and learn, to be lifelong learners.   Not to be able to ramble off a bunch of facts that have no connection or no meaning to what is happening in their lives, Jeopardy Knowledge. I don’t want my students to be little machines that sprout out knowledge like a fountain for the sake of a test and then forget about.  

My techniques are not perfection, I have never used the same lesson plans from year to year.  It is always changing, always evolving.  I hope I never become the teacher that uses the same lesson plans.  I teach according to my students and their needs.  

I am new to the world of blogging.  I am going to figure out how to share to my handout on this blog. 
 My ideas are anything but original.  The lesson plan for the Economic System target….those  strategies come from  www.edunators.com and www.teachingthecore.com.  Great blogs to follow, and follow them on twitter @edunators and @davestuartjr.