I have been thinking this week about the question: How do I plan powerful & purposeful social studies? and: How do I teach powerful and purposeful social studies? To answer that question, I searched of the best illustration on what Social Studies is. "The study of social studies is much more than memorizing historical facts; geographical statistics; or government, civic, and economic terminology. It is really about problem solving, decision making, reflective inquiry, and critical thinking." (Teaching and Reading in Social Studies; 2003) This was a great description I felt. To teach powerful Social Studies or any subject for that manner, the teacher needs to learn how to go beyond the typical "memorization of content" so students may pass a test. For the knowledge to stick and be meaningful, we must be able to differentiate the lesson, and make it interesting. How do we do this?
As we have been learning, Concept Based learning helps students understand the "so what?" or "why" of a lesson. It is important to get students to ask questions and to evaluate many options and ideas about a topic. One approach I have read about is QFT or Question Formulation Technique. This involves getting students to think about a question that promotes a deeper understanding of the lesson. Here is an info graphic from teachthought.com :
This is a great illustration of what QFT is and how it is used in the classroom. The Teacher prompts the students with a question (concept), students learn how to create big idea questions that will help them develop better understanding of something. They learn how to create open ended and closed ended questions. This really helps them to develop ideas and theories about different subjects. In Social Studies this would be very useful because there are so many concepts and topics that they will need to understand and be able to develop ideals about.
This approach demonstrates pretty well the NC Teacher standards: 1: Teachers demonstrate leadership in the classroom. Teachers need to be able to facilitate learning for their students (Standard 4) as well. Leading students to develop their ideas about social studies concepts such as human and civil rights to government, QFT would be a great start and a great tool to help. "Teachers encourage students to ask questions, think creatively, develop and test innovative ideas, synthesize knowledge and draw conclusions. They help students exercise and communicate sound reasoning; understand connections; make complex choices; and frame, analyze, and solve problems." (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-model/ncees/standards/prof-teach-standards.pdf)
I can see using this in my classroom within a small group or group project situation. I think it would be great for getting students working together and forming opinions. It would be a great assessment tool as well because while the students are creating their questions, the teacher can get an idea of how much the students are comprehending. The teacher can then redirect students who need to sharpen their ideas.
QFT and Infographic:
--http://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/inquiry/using-the-qft-to-drive-inquiry-in-project-based-learning/
--Teaching Reading in Social Studies A Supplement to Teaching Reading in the Content Areas Teacher’s Manual (2nd Edition)
--http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/books/doty2003_sample_chapters.pdf
Ben,
ReplyDeleteI would like to start off by saying, I too think that this is a great idea to get students to think on a deeper level. I think by having the students to formulate a question will help the teacher distinguish which students are familiar with the concept and who truly understands the concept. The QFT technique utilizes the action verbs from the higher level of the Bloom's Taxonomy, which is very important when assessing for complete understanding. However, since I think this technique uses higher level skills, do you think this technique would work for the primary grades as well?
Those are great points. It is a more advanced technique to use, but it really depends on how the students learn. It may not work for every age group or every time, but it can be a useful tool to get the students asking questions.
Deletehttp://rightquestion.org/blog/integrating-qft-blooms-taxonomy-increase-reading-comprehension-fourth-grade-male-readers/
I know we are limited on time, but here is an interesting look at QFT in action. The teacher mentioned that it carried over to Social Studies as well from her use in Reading lessons. I liked the Question Bank idea as well. I feel the more we can get students to ask questions, they will learn, hopefully, to take those skills and use it in other classes and grades to help them fully grasp the content.
Ben,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I appreciate your approach to this class. I have already seen how much you invest into your work and this will pay off in the future. Thank you for wanting to learn as much as you can this semester.
Great connections in this blog! Questioning students is one of the most overlooked instructional strategies in the classroom. Teachers' questions matter. Students' answers matter. Teachers need to build their questioning techniques in order for richer classroom conversations. Yes -this is closely related to NCTCS Standard one.
Keep up the great work, Ben!
JP
I really love this idea to get students to think deeper. I like how it allows for the learners to express their thinking without having to primarily depend on teacher questioning to provoke their natural curiosity about content. Its a great way for the students to feel empowered in the classroom and make them excited to learn. The only part that I would see difficult in starting QFT in the classroom is the students being so unfamiliar with the process that they would have trouble generating questions that are purposeful and find it hard not to ask the teacher to become involved. This would also make a great assessment tool to see what they would need to understand better.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great concept and I really believe that it allows students to better grasp what they are trying to learn. Simply standing in front of the class and lecturing is only teaching our students to memorize facts and dates that we tell them. However, if we are able to make our students form their own questions to research and discuss, then we are allowing them to think on their own and be curious about what they are learning. I do believe that simply telling a person something is not teaching but, opening a door for someone to become curious and formulate their own questions and opinions is only going to result in positive gains for both the teacher and the student.
ReplyDelete