Graciela Gil Ventura

Audience​: Teachers
Location:​ Lincoln Elementary
Type of Activity:​ Interview/Implementation

The Good
When interviewing both first grade teacher both agreed that social studies must be taught.
The good thing is that they agreed that ELA and social studies can be intertwined. One teacher
stated that its embedded in their Wonder’s program like learning about maps. The topics that will
be taught later on in the first grade classroom is about social change civil right movement in their
Language Arts class.
“United states started as immigrants there's no reason we should not be welcoming
immigrants.” stated one of the teachers, highlighting the importance of students to know about
social studies.

The Bad
Social studies is rarely taught in a day. The two first grade teachers stated that in
Language Arts curriculum they read about the community and will get to history later on. The
teachers stated that they do not have the accessibility to create their own lesson plan to teach
since the principle gives explicit instructions on what should be taught in the grade level. The
principle provides the teaches to what has to be carried out for the lesson plan. That is a bad
since it limits the teachers involvement to access the resource.
The first grade teacher mentioned that it is only in Thanksgiving when the students talk
about immigration. Based on what both teachers stated for them immingration is complicated
and affect the teacher's instructions. The teacher worries if the articles would be appropriate for
the grade level. They would love to teach about but would have to walk carefully because of the
situation some kids are in. The school site has high numbers of newcomers and if this lesson was
taught in their class would be more inclusive and make them relate to something in school.

The Unexpected
The teachers at this school site have instructional minutes they have to abide by which
makes it difficult for them to incorporate the lesson plan in class. The teachers had a different
point of view regarding on how the information should be accessed via books or online. They
each picked different ones.
 The instructional time does not allow students to read and learn about social studies. One
of the teachers is already planning with her co workers to ask admin if the students can read the
social studies textbook if they complete their work.

What’s Next?
Based on what we learned, we would have to be careful to ensure that the articles are
aligned with the grade level reading and make it suitable for teachers to use. Even though the
teachers should use the resource in their classroom it is restricted due to the instruction given by
the principle. I would change my idea to target not only teachers but also administration to be on
board with the implementation of social studies. There were teachers who are eager but cant
since there are restrictions with the instructional minutes.