Course Number: History 420 Course Title: Teaching the Social Sciences Credit Hours: 3 hours undergraduate/4 hours

graduate Department: History Catalog Description: This course focuses on acquiring and practicing the skills for teaching the social sciences at the secondary level within the context of history. Authorized Instructor(s): Prof. Julie L. Peters Office: 926 UH Office Hours: 11-1 Tues., Wed. by appointment, Thurs. 11-3 Contact Information: jlpeters@uic.edu/312-413-9163 Scott Fenwick, Graduate Assistant Office: 928 UH Office Hours: by appointment Contact information: rsfenwick2@gmail.com/ 773-318-1112 Prerequisites: 9 hours of credit in social studies at the college level; approval of instructor Required Textbooks, materials, and readings: There is no assigned textbook for this class. However, a collection of readings is required and may be purchased at the UIC bookstore. In addition, you will need to join the class wiki page at: http://history420uic.wikispaces.com Methods of Instruction: Lecture, discussion, student presentations, group activities, guest speakers, computer lab presentations. Course background/purpose: The aim of this course is to prepare you to become a social studies teacher. We will examine the specific areas included in social studies: political science, economics, geography, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Although history is certainly the main topic we associate with social studies, we will leave history behind for this class and take a closer look at all the other subject areas you may be asked to teach. One major focus of the course will be Citizenship Education. We will also focus a great deal of time on the art of creating lesson plans, activities, and assessments. We will spend time learning about scaffolding lesson plans using elements of Universal Design and strategies for English Language Learners. You should leave this class with a lot of ideas as well as some tools you can use as a teacher - both those youve created and those your colleagues have shared with you. We will also focus on using technology in the classroom. As part of this course, you will create a wikispace and engage in other online activities. Course objectives/Learning Goals: Students will be able to 1. Design lesson plans with: clear, measurable objectives engaging activities that address each objective, provide variety, reach students with diverse learning needs and styles, and promote higher-order thinking 2. Create assessments that address each objective and authentically assess whether the objectives have been reached. 3. Create curriculum materials that incorporate essential questions and address learning goals. 4. Demonstrate increased knowledge of core concepts included in teaching geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, and economics. Illinois State Standards Addressed: 1. Illinois Professional Teaching Standards a-i 2. Illinois Social and Emotional Learning Standards Alignment with the Council on Teacher Education Conceptual Framework: The Council on Teacher Education, which includes all educator preparation programs in the university, has created a Conceptual Framework describing the ideals of teacher development it espouses. The framework focuses on the preparation of teachers (1) who are committed to the education of all children (2) who are knowledgeable; and (3) who are effective practitioners. The aim of this course is to provide students with a forum to discuss their views about the purpose of teaching social studies, an opportunity to develop curriculum materials, and an overview of the content of the various disciplines in the social studies.

History 420 SyllabusPeters Spring 2013

Office of Disability Statement: UIC strives to ensure the accessibility of programs, classes, and services to students with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations can be arranged for students with various types of disabilities, such as documented learning disabilities, vision or hearing impairments, and emotional or physical disabilities. If you need accommodations for this class, be sure to register with the Office of Disability Services, 1190 SSB, 413-2183, and let your instructor know your needs. Course Schedule: History 420 Course Calendar (tentative dates) Date Jan. 17 Topic(s) Syllabus and Course Schedule Discussion of expectations, etc. Stakeholders and Citizenship Education: What are we doing and why are we doing it? Who are the stakeholders in the process? What is our intent? Who are your students and what do they want? Citizenship Building Illinois Professional Teaching Standards Readings Assignments Due

Jan. 24

Watch and be prepared to discuss: Drop Out Nation and The Interrupters, both available on the wiki Read The Case for Working With Your Hands (wiki) Review Illinois Professional Teaching Standards

Purchase your reading packet

Jan. 31

How do we do it? Goals and objectives, units, enduring understandings, essential questions, elements of lesson plans. How clear objectives keep learning fair for all students.

Reading packet as assigned. Review power point slides on Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings/ Objectives and be prepared to discuss. Reading packet as assigned. Power point slides on how do we do it part 1. Reading packet as assigned. Power point slides how do we do it, part 2. Readings about using groups. Assignment #1: Returned Assignment #1: Objectives

Feb. 7

How will they learn? Creating engaging learning activities for individual, partner, and group learning.

Feb.14

How will they learn, continued

History 420 SyllabusPeters Spring 2013

Feb. 21

Including All Learners using Universal Design for Learning

Reading Packet: UDL article and slides. Be prepared to discuss, debate, agree, disagree. Readings as assigned.

Revised Assignment #1 due

Feb. 28

Differentiating lesson plans and using technology. Teaching English Language Learners. Using Reading Strategies Assessment: using formative and summative assessments. Making assessments authentic. Using data-based assessments.

Assignment #2 due

March 7

Reading Packet as assigned. Review slides on assessment for discussion. Reading Packet materials: Teaching Geography

Assignment #2 returned

March 14

Teaching Geography

Assignment #3 due Be prepared to discuss readings Student presentations on teaching geography resources Assignment #3 returned Be prepared to discuss readings Student presentations on teaching political science resources

March 21

Teaching Political Science: Citizenship

Assigned Reading Packet: Teaching Political Science

March 28 April 4

SPRING BREAK! Teaching Economics Assigned Reading Packet materials: teaching economics Assignment #4 due Be prepared to discuss readings Student presentations on teaching economics Assignment #4 returned Be prepared to discuss readings Student presentations on teaching sociology and anthropology Be prepared to discuss readings Student presentations on teaching psychology resources

April 11

Teaching Sociology and Anthropology

Assigned packet

April 18

Teaching Psychology

Assigned packet

April 25

Odds and ends

Student wiki page presentations

History 420 SyllabusPeters Spring 2013

May 2

In class peer editing of annotated lesson plans

2 copies of a rough draft for final project due in class. Details forthcoming in rubric. Final: hard copy of annotated lesson plan due by 5 p.m. on Thurs., May 9

May 9

Final Project Due

Course expectations and grading: I expect you to come to class ready to discuss the readings, to share your lesson plans, and to constructively assess your colleagues work. Please read the syllabus closely so that you are familiar with my policy regarding attendance, late work, and grading. Do not hesitate to ask me questions or to speak with me about this class or about your teaching of history program. Participation and Attendance Attendance is required. As a professional courtesy, please try to let me know ahead of time if you will be absent for any reason. If you miss more than 2 classes you will be unable to earn an A in this course. Participation will be assessed on such factors as your ability to discuss the readings, your willingness to take part in group activities, and your willingness to actively listen to your colleagues. I do not give specific points for participation, but this is subjectively factored into your grade. Please make every effort to be on time. Because it is important to me that you master the skills of writing good lesson plans, I will give each of you the opportunity to resubmit work for partial additional credit if you make arrangements with me. This policy will only apply to the first four assignments, not the curriculum unit. When you turn in your revised work, please include the original graded work along with the revision. You will also be required to present a 10-15 minute lesson plan idea (with resources) on an assigned social studies topic. Depending on the size of the class, you may be asked to present twice. This will give you a chance to practice teaching in front of your peers, and it will give you a chance to research the vast array of resources available to you. You will be graded on the presentation based on how prepared you are. Assignments are due at the start of class. Work turned in after it is due will be considered late. Late work may be deducted 10% of the points earned PER DAY and may not be accepted after the next class date. If you send a copy of your assignment via email it will be subject to a 5 point printing penalty (unless you were sick or had another similar reason for missing class). If you are going to be absent, please email me your assignment (see comment above about printing) or send it with someone from class. All work must be typed, proofed for spelling errors, and free of grammatical/mechanical errors. Please see UIC policy regarding plagiarism. Grading UIC does not allow me to give + or grades. Therefore, although the scale below is quite generous for determining letter grades, I will balance this with high expectations for each assignment: A=100-90% B=89-80% C=79-70% D=69-60% F=59% and below Points Assignment #1: Objectives Assignment #2 Activities Assignment #3 Assessments Assignment #4: Lesson Plan Annotated Lesson Plan draft Annotated Lesson Plan Final Project Presentation (s)
History 420 SyllabusPeters Spring 2013 4

50 50 50 100 20 130 50

Wiki Page Total Points Possible:

50 500

Summary of Assignments: Rubrics to follow Assignment #1: Using your chosen area of social studies, you will create enduring understandings, essential questions, and objectives for a particular lesson you will begin to develop. Assignment #2: Using the same subject matter, you will create learning activities to address the essential questions, teach the enduring understandings and teach the objectives you created in Assignment #1. Assignment #3: Continuing with the same subject matter, you will create assessments to answer the following questions: have your students learned the objectives? Are they are working toward learning the enduring understandings? Can they begin to answer the essential questions you created in Assignment #1? Assignment #4: Putting it all together. You will combine and fine tune everything you created in Assignments #1-3 and create a one-day lesson plan. Final Project: Annotated Lesson Plan. Focusing on a different area of social studies, you will create a one day lesson plan which will be annotated to show where you taught objectives, how you assessed learning, how you differentiated the lesson to include diverse learning needs and styles, etc. A rough draft of the lesson will be due on May 2 for peer editing In class presentation: For each area of social studies, you will be asked to research and share teaching resources, web pages, etc. with your peers Wikispace: You will create and present your own Wikispace.

History 420 SyllabusPeters Spring 2013