As the New Year approaches it seems appropriate to reflect, especially when I am in the midst of reading and preparing to co-moderate a Twitter Chat on Dr. Mary Howard's book Good to Great Teaching with my recently connected literacy friends Jennifer Hayhurst and Dr. Mary Howard.
John Dewey said, "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on that experience." Reflection and learning have been such a tremendous part of my process over the past year and now seems like a perfect time to put out into the world my reflections in learning and teaching social studies this year in 5th grade.
As a literacy coach who previously taught reading and special education I have never viewed myself as an expert in any content, I teach skills and strategies through the content. Content is the vehicle through which I learn and teach. The skills and strategies are what transfer over time to enable me to learn and teach new content. Over the summer I received a scholarship to attend The Institute in American History and Content Literacy. This was a hybrid institute from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. This experience has forever changed my view on learning and teaching social studies. The one thing that changed for me as a learner was the relevance. As we learned about the people and their lives it became relevant to me. The story of the lives of people who lived at that time clicked with me. The human struggle at different times — it is all the same and that is where the relevance connected for me. This experience made social studies content relevant to me, and then I forged relationships with the leaders and my peers while I had opportunities to reflect immediately in talking and writing after my own experience with the content.
In September I returned to school and I was given the privilege to spend time teaching social studies to two 5th grade classes. Sharing with my colleagues the instructional practices that I learned at the institute was so much more powerful because of the relevance, relationships and reflection that I gained from working with the teachers and students in the two 5th grade classrooms. Reflecting now, I can share some of the work of these amazing, inspiring students who allowed me to learn along side them while we studied the making of our government. I was stunned when one student told me, " Mrs. Brennan, you are my favorite social studies teacher ever!" Really I thought...how could that be? This is so not my expertise, my expertise is in literacy and learning, but not content! As I reflect now, I have come to realize that it is because of literacy that students were learning about the content, I simply demonstrated the literacy skills needed to inquire, collaborate, think and write- these amazing children did all the work. I am reminded of a quote from another book I am currently studying for a collegial circle, Social Studies that Sticks. Laurel Schmidt states very clearly, "Teaching hasn't happened until students learn." In the spirit of relevance, relationships and reflection I can truly say that I am in awe everyday when students learn and I am able to learn beside them. It is because the content is made relevant to their lives, because the students flourish in the relationships with peers and teachers and because they are given time to reflect on their own learning process through talking and writing.
John Dewey said, "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on that experience." Reflection and learning have been such a tremendous part of my process over the past year and now seems like a perfect time to put out into the world my reflections in learning and teaching social studies this year in 5th grade.
As a literacy coach who previously taught reading and special education I have never viewed myself as an expert in any content, I teach skills and strategies through the content. Content is the vehicle through which I learn and teach. The skills and strategies are what transfer over time to enable me to learn and teach new content. Over the summer I received a scholarship to attend The Institute in American History and Content Literacy. This was a hybrid institute from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. This experience has forever changed my view on learning and teaching social studies. The one thing that changed for me as a learner was the relevance. As we learned about the people and their lives it became relevant to me. The story of the lives of people who lived at that time clicked with me. The human struggle at different times — it is all the same and that is where the relevance connected for me. This experience made social studies content relevant to me, and then I forged relationships with the leaders and my peers while I had opportunities to reflect immediately in talking and writing after my own experience with the content.
In September I returned to school and I was given the privilege to spend time teaching social studies to two 5th grade classes. Sharing with my colleagues the instructional practices that I learned at the institute was so much more powerful because of the relevance, relationships and reflection that I gained from working with the teachers and students in the two 5th grade classrooms. Reflecting now, I can share some of the work of these amazing, inspiring students who allowed me to learn along side them while we studied the making of our government. I was stunned when one student told me, " Mrs. Brennan, you are my favorite social studies teacher ever!" Really I thought...how could that be? This is so not my expertise, my expertise is in literacy and learning, but not content! As I reflect now, I have come to realize that it is because of literacy that students were learning about the content, I simply demonstrated the literacy skills needed to inquire, collaborate, think and write- these amazing children did all the work. I am reminded of a quote from another book I am currently studying for a collegial circle, Social Studies that Sticks. Laurel Schmidt states very clearly, "Teaching hasn't happened until students learn." In the spirit of relevance, relationships and reflection I can truly say that I am in awe everyday when students learn and I am able to learn beside them. It is because the content is made relevant to their lives, because the students flourish in the relationships with peers and teachers and because they are given time to reflect on their own learning process through talking and writing.