Alex Beer

C&T335
The requirements for high school graduation in the State of
Kansas include four credits in English language arts, three units of
science, three units of math, and three units of history and
government. For these three units, students must take world history,
U.S. history, and U.S. government while also learning key concepts of
geography and economics. The diversity of content for this department
is in stark contrast to the other three subjects where the students
learning tends to be closely related and dependent on the mastery of
material learned beforehand. Unfortunately, the unique aspects such
as diversity of content within the social studies curriculum can
sometimes give students the impression that social studies are less
important than the other subject material. This is reinforced by the
education system through standardized testing which does not include
as an option for Dynamic Learning Maps test for students with
intellectual disabilities. One of the main reasons for high stakes
testings importance in the accountability movement is that these tests
allow American students knowledge to be compared with students
across the globe. The presence of these accommodations allows for
there to be exceptions in the calculation of these students scores with
international students and so the lack of alternate assessments
indicates a certain level of apathy as far as students social studies test
scores. After spending a semester working with a modern world history
class and observing an AP US History class, I have to say that my

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assumptions about apathy towards Social Studies Test Scores are not
limited to the students. I havent seen much concern or discussion
about the state assessments from either administrators or social
studies teachers which was really surprising to me since I expected at
least some attention from the content teachers. While part of the
reason could be that this isnt relevant at the moment since its only
the fall semester, my own experiences as a student included
preparation such as benchmark tests during the fall. Looking ahead Im
wondering if the test will be a more important aspect during my spring
experience in a title one school since funding is a greater issue or if
there is just simply not the same intensity towards testing that is
present in Texas. However, this systematic indifference ignores the
unique purpose of a social studies curriculum, which is to provide the
context that allows us to understand society around us. I still feel that
this is the most important part of my Job as a Social Studies teacher. I
have tried to use my time in the classroom and the activities I planned
to include skills necessary in the modern world and by discussing
important issues that we face today. For example, I was required last
week to show a video discussing the dangers of Drug Use. Since these
videos are usually filled with hyperbole and clichs I felt it was
important to have a discussion about some of the real dangers of drug
addiction. I started off by asking them their honest feelings about the
videos, which they were hesitant to initially say. So I confessed to them

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that I personally found this video and ones that I had to watch when I
was a student to be corny to the extent that it takes away from the
message. They opened up after this admitting similar feelings and so I
told them that sometimes information that is technically correct can
sometimes be used in a misleading way, using the statement from the
video that smoking one cigarette is equivalent to being addicted to
crack cocaine. During this I was being very mindful of my word choice
so there would not be the impression I was condoning drug use by
developing brains, emphasizing that while marijuana is not as
dangerous as Meth, there are still dangers associated with it because
people can become addicted to it by making it a routine habit
associated with other activities. Overall I think this made them
consider the videos more seriously since they realized that there was
truth behind the corniness, and our discussion shifted to a discussion
of the problems of institutional racism and the Black Lives Matter
movements necessity in society. This tangent was completely student
led and so I let it progress until it reached a point where further
discussion could not occur without students from both sides potentially
feeling unsafe. Overall though this experience really reinforced what I
think a student centered social studies curriculum has the power to be.
By learning about the geography, history and political systems,
students can develop the tools necessary to understand events and

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social relationships that occur throughout our increasingly
interconnected modern world.
One of the most important skills necessary to fully participate in
the modern world is the ability to understand the meaning and context
of information that is presented to them. This is incredibly relevant in
our increasingly interconnected world where one can use the internet
to access an infinite amount of information. A way that I witnessed in
my literacy class to show how to recognize valid sources is through an
activity that has students search for information on MLK that goes to a
website that had really negative information and opinions on him.
Then we used a website to show the identity of the sites publisher as
Stormfront, the Neo-Nazi Website. This technology is a double edged
sword because while it allows for students to instantly access a variety
of information from many perspectives, a lot of it tends to have no
basis in reality. As a result, it becomes even more important to teach
students how to self-evaluate the accuracy of what they are reading. A
major difference I noticed between teachers now and back during my
student days is that my teachers demonized Wikipedia saying
everything is made up on it which I feel is at the very least a slight
exaggeration. However, my teacher at least emphasized that
Wikipedia can be an excellent starting off point as a secondary source
for not only a general understanding of the topic but also as a way of
seeing ways to branch it off through the embedded links on the page.

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This matches my appreciation for Wikipedia and I intend to use her
approach of explaining this but telling them to use the sources at the
bottom for a more concrete understanding.
A large part of this is being able to fundamentally understand the
argument in order to see what is true and what is false. While these
skills are increasingly important in social studies, rhetoric or the study
of arguments is most frequently taught in Language Arts classes and
often limited to a basic introduction to the use of ethos, pathos and
logos in their own writing. Something that I found out a couple of
weeks ago during my student teaching experience is that 10th grade
English which is when I learned about ethos pathos logos is not part of
the Free State Curriculum. So because of this I used a lesson on
Elizabethan England and Shakespeare to teach them about this
important concept. I used Antonys funeral speech in Julius Caesar as a
way for them to identify how different types of appeals can look. Even
though this is an important place to start, it is just as important that
students learn to recognize when a writer has presented a well thought
out logical argument as opposed to just incite peoples emotions to
supporting their point of view.
One way that I would teach the students how to understand valid
arguments is through a lesson where the students would be exploring a
variety of news sources in order to understand the biases within them.
The sources would include publications that are widely trusted like BBC

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and untrustworthy ones like Buzzfeed.i We would explore the ways
each source presents the different points in their arguments and
whether they are based on evidence or just rhetorical strategies
designed to inspire emotional responses from their consumers. Then I
would request that students bring in either an article or video from
their favorite news source so that the class can evaluate whether its a
source with a lot of bias or not. Looking back on this idea, I don't think
this would be a good one-time activity and especially not on its
examination of validity of sources. Instead I think a more effective way
of utilizing modern news would be to have the discussions on valid
arguments and sources I mentioned above at the beginning of the year
and requiring students to bring in a valid article weekly as a current
events assignment. This is something that I feel is going to be
especially important in the title one schools which I hope to work in
because I feel like these students especially are going to have a
greater amount of disconnection from not only global events but also
from an appreciation for social studies as a whole. One thing that I am
still considering about this is whether or not to allow events related to
pop culture since I feel that I need to have the curriculum be as
student centered as possible and by scaffolding student interest in the
content by slowly developing their appreciation I can bring out their
intrinsic motivation to learn.

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While this exercise is highly effective in ensuring understanding
the content within a source, an important aspect in historical
scholarship is understanding the differences in primary and secondary
sources. Each of these serve a different purpose in historical
scholarship and it is important that students fully understand each
ones use. This is already an important part of the modern social
studies curriculum but unfortunately students often times dont
completely understand the application of each one especially when the
lines are blurred. Going back to this idea of expanding on sources and
their use, I would have to say that this is not something that is
necessary. In my time at Free State, nearly all of the daily activities
that I have both witnessed and planned include a heavy emphasis on
utilizing and analyzing sources. So while this may not be the case at
every school I think that this is entirely too redundant and there are
other skills that I think should be emphasized more. So what I would do
is present a source that is both primary and secondary such as an old
textbook, so that students can see that a primary source is used to
determine the contemporary perspective of a historical event while a
secondary source is useful for establishing the overall historical
narrative. By providing this example of how a source can be both I
think that this will ensure that the students have a clear definition of
the purpose for each type of source.

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While understanding arguments is essential for these students to
understand events and issues as American citizens, they should also
be able to form these exact arguments so they are able to participate
in the democratic process as much as they desire. The best way to
achieve this in my opinion is for collaboration with English teachers so
that the students have similar activities across subjects that ensure
they are able to write. This can be a problem for many social studies
teachers which I observed during a department meeting at Highland
Park High School in Topeka. During this meeting, the teachers blamed
the English department for the students inadequate DBQ scores and it
seemed to show that theres a rivalry amongst many social studies and
English teachers which is unfortunate since there is such a strong
overlap between the two subjects that the students would benefit from
collaborations. . After having experiences in other school environments
and discussing what I saw in Topeka with the supervising teachers I
think this was something that was either intended primarily in jest or
something unique to the culture of that school. For my lesson on
rhetorical appeals, my supervising teacher introduced me to one of the
best teachers in the English department and I asked her if this is
something they were doing in her 10th grade class since I didn't want
to risk stepping on her toes. She responded incredibly positively saying
that she thinks this is important for students to learn and so it would
not redundant with anything in her curriculum. Her positive experience

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leads me to believe that not only is interdisciplinary learning possible,
but its also effective to ensure interest from a wider variety of
students. Such collaborations would not only benefit the physical
ability of the students to write papers but also provide the context for
the course material in English classes.
Another fundamental aspect of social studies that students can
apply within their own lives is an appreciation of the relationship
between cause and effect. This relationship is considered so
fundamental to learning social studies that the first Kansas Standard of
choices have consequencesii is a paraphrase of Cause and Effect.
This indicates the importance of cause and effect in all of the individual
disciplines that fall under the social studies curriculum. This
importance derives from the fact that social studies fundamentally
requires close examination of the past in order to understand the
present and to shape the future.
I think that a great lesson in cause and effect would be to
analyze how environmental changes can result in the movement of
people and societies. For this lesson in a geography class, I would have
students pick either a natural disaster or an environmental emergency
and analyze how it affected the population in the area. One example
that students could choose is Hurricane Katrina and the population
displacement that it had on New Orleans. This would be an effective
lesson since not only do students learn cause and effect, but it brings

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together physical and human geography and shows students the
dangerous possibilities of climate change from global warming.
Showing the importance of cause and effect in global warming is
an excellent way to give students perspective to the relationship
between people and environment on both a global and local level.
However other important relationships that need to be addressed
include the relationship between the individual and the overall society.
While society is a complex idea that encompasses both individuals,
groups and culture; the most institutional structure in a society tends
to be the varying levels of government. This is because government at
all levels is is alternately viewed as a source of legitimacy and
stability for government and as a source of resistance against
arbitrary, oppressive, and overweening government,iii so because of
this symbiotic relationship the study of the government is important
exactly because it outlines the specific rights and responsibilities on
the part of both individuals and the government.
Rights and responsibilities are considered so fundamental to
social studies that the KSDE has included the teaching of this concept
as standard number two for social studies curriculum. This ensures that
the study of this relationship will occur at every grade level, with
consideration for the depth of study related to the cognitive abilities of
the students. While one would assume that the inclusion of this
standard at each level would outline at least basic concepts of each

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function of government. Since Social Studies is the official area of
curriculum where students learn about their society and government I
think that it is equally important to teach contemporary issues as it is
the state mandated content. Since I am fortunate to be teaching my
unit during the election, I am going to be teaching the enlightenment
philosophers who influenced our political systems through the lens of
the 2016 election. This includes a game on the separation of powers I
learned about in my literacy class to teach Montesquieu and a
character portrait on Thomas Hobbes ideal leader in order to examine
some of the more authoritarian tendencies and fears exhibited by
Donald Trump and his supporters. Something I am going to try my
hardest to be mindful of is maintaining objectivity in my instruction,
because even though the majority of my students political views
match my own, I want to make sure that the classroom remains
inclusive of all students beliefs so as to foster a safe space for the
honest discussion of political differences. However, studying social
studies is inherently a political activity both due to concepts in the
curriculum along with the inherent function of social studies
transforming students into citizens means that certain areas are
emphasized while others tend to fall to the wayside.
One of the least covered concepts in most social studies
classrooms is the judicial system, which is incredibly unfortunate
because the sad fact is that this is going to be the form of government

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that most students will have the deepest interactions with. In Kansas
specifically, the KDSE suggested units for Secondary government
briefly touch upon the Judiciary when covering the Constitution, the
federal structure along with how courts were used as a vehicle to
implement human and civil rights.iv While the supreme court is very
relevant and important in these topics, the truth is that only about 3
percent or 1 million cases are dealt with at the federal level, with only
about 80 coming before the supreme courtv. I think that the focus on
the Supreme Court and its cases is symptomatic of the traditional
focus on Great People and Events approach of teaching history. So
while court rulings are still incredibly important in understanding the
changes and continuities within our society, limiting the content like
this can result in a less inclusive and relevant curriculum especially for
older topics since marginalized groups such as women and minorities
were banned from participating in these institutions. So for most
students, this process is really only relevant to their relationship with
society at the most macro level related to their rights.
As I stated earlier, social studies purpose is to teach students
how to interact with the society around them, and since the legal
system is the source of the majority of their interactions, teaching
students how the courts work is one of the most important lessons in
my classroom. If god forbid they ever find themselves in a positon
where society can take away their rights then I will consider it a failure

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of my duty as an educator if they dont understand the proceedings in
front of them. While this is important for all students to learn about
their rights and responsibilities within the Criminal Justice System I
think it is especially important for me to teach this during my spring
PDS placement. This is because the student population at Schlagle
High School has a much higher minority and low SES population, of
which both groups have a higher probability of experiencing
incarceration in their lifetime.. In order to ensure this, I have designed
a two-week long unit that outlines what happens in a criminal trial. This
would be achieved in the form of a roleplay in which I assign students a
role in a trial that will take place over the course of a week. On the first
day of the unit, I will provide students of an initial description that we
are going to be roleplaying a trial and pass out an application form for
the role of lawyer in which students will be expected to provide a twopage description of the different activities a lawyer must do during the
trial process. This assignment will be due on Wednesday and students
must meet with me individually in order for me to assess their
understanding of the responsibilities of the role. An activity I witnessed
in the AP Classroom was a mock congress with students taking on
roles of different figures related to removing Andrew Jackson from the
20 dollar bill. In order to determine which students would serve as
chairperson, my teacher passed out required the interested students
to submit a paragraph describing their understanding of parliamentary

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procedure and listing experience they had with these types of formats.
So what I would probably change is I would shorten the application
from a two-page paper to just a half or full page. In addition, I would
have either the debate coach or even a practicing trial attorney to
come in and explain the different procedures prior to the selection of
these roles, especially if I am going to be working with economically
disadvantaged populations who might not have the cultural capital
experiences to have prior understanding.
During these first 4 classes I will be introducing students to the
specific vocabulary and outline how each step of a trial works, included
in this lecture are examples in the form of books and court cases along
with media examples such as scenes from twelve angry men. On
Thursday I am going to announce which 4 students will serve as the
attorneys with each attorney having to deliver either an opening
argument or closing argument for assessment. Finally, the lecture on
this day will be specifically on Voir Dire in preparation for the start of
the roleplay the next day.
The first part of a roleplay is a Voir dire which will be led by the
Attorneys who are selecting 12 jurors from their classmates. The
remaining students will be randomly assigned a role as either a witness
for the state or the defendant. It will be at this time that students are
informed of the nature of the case, where I am accused of moving a
test up without providing a study guide which is a jailable offense in

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the court of the class period. I am placing myself in the position of
defendant because the defendant is the role with the least
responsibilities and I want full participation from each student. After
experiencing the role-play in APUSH in addition to a variety of Socratic
seminars, I still feel that it is essential for me to temporarily remove
myself from the role of teacher so as to ensure the greatest possible
understanding and enjoyment by the students. I think it would take the
most drastic of circumstances for me to intervene, although after
hearing some of the potential that students have I must say it's a lot
more difficult than I initially anticipated. In addition, I tried to make it
as local of an issue as possible so that way students are the most
invested in the issue. Overall after the students are introduced to the
issue, Im requiring the students playing attorneys to submit an outline
of their arguments first thing Monday morning, while the student
witnesses are required to study their folder that contains information
about their role. They must use this information to write at least a
paragraph answer for each question on a deposition worksheet for
Monday morning. I might need to have the voir dire on Thursday
instead of Friday so as to have an opportunity to lock in the student
knowledge before they are at greater risk of losing it during the
weekend.
For the next week of the roleplay, I am going to hold students
accountable for embracing the roleplay by reorganizing my classroom

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into a court room and having the students participate as their party
would. On Monday is opening arguments with each attorney having to
provide at least a 5-minute argument for their side. After the
prosecution presents their case by calling their witnesses with each
attorney asking at least 5 questions on direct or cross. At the end of
the class, the student jurors must submit at least a page and a half of
notes that they took on the days proceedings along with an official
transcript provided by the student assigned the role of stenographer.
At the beginning of the year It is important to have instruction on how
to take effective notes by showing a variety of methods since different
learning styles are stimulated differently. Based on what I have seen,
most students do not know how to take effective notes and this can
cause problems for them both in the public school system and later on
during their higher educational experiences.
The next day I am reversing the proceedings with the Defense
presenting their argument with similar rules on questions and notes.
After this is closing arguments which has similar parameters as the
opening argument except presented by the other attorney on that side
of the case. The next day I am going to have the judge explain the
rules of sentencing before the jury deliberates on the matter and
announces a verdict. The next day is the final day of the roleplay with
the judge beginning class with an announcement of the sentence that
he had to submit to me by the time class starts. Finally, the rest of the

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class period is going to be sent debriefing the lesson. Something that
might be problematic is that I am doing several days of role-play
without debriefing. In addition, I did not realize so many schools used
block scheduling which might make this take either less time or it
could be problematic since I wont be seeing the students everyday.
During this lesson, each student has a specific document they must
submit to me related to their role and while this will serve as the main
assessment, all students are going to be required to write a two-page
description of the of the roleplay due Monday morning. Overall this
units success will be dependent on student investment in the activity,
and I think it will be successful because of how student centered and
relevant it is to their own world.
These types of relevant activity based learning is going to be the
key to encouraging student motivation in the curriculum. A love for
social studies that is seen in each student in this class seems to me to
be the exception as opposed to the rule amongst my peers. During my
time in public school classes mostly consisted of lecturing and so I
completely understood why so many of my classmates found this
boring. However, the activities and emphasis on the development of
skills in my social studies definition I think will allow students to see
that history, geography and political systems are incredibly important
in being able to participate in both individual relationships, and the

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overall relationship with society in this incredibly interconnected
modern world.

i http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/about-the-study-2/
ii http://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/CSAS/Content%20Area%20(F-L)/History,
%20Government,%20and%20Social%20Studies/2013%20Kansas%20History
%20Government%20Social%20Studies%20Standards.pdf
iii http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7214.pdf pg 2
iv KSDE standards pg 4-8
v http://litigation.findlaw.com/legal-system/federal-vs-state-courts-keydifferences.html