Social Studies and History Teachers

[mommawamp]

Hello Teachers\I am a Masters student working on an action research project. Could you take a minute to answer a couple of questions about what you have seen in your classroom.
Do you feel that your students are prepared when they come into your class? or
Do you feel like you are having to teach things students should have already learned just to get to the standards you should be teaching?
If you feel this way, do you have any ideas as to why this may be the case?
Do you find that your students want to know how the lessons you teach are relevant to them and their lives?
Thank you.

[HistoryTeacher03]

I find that students do only what they have to in order to get the right letter at the right spot on the report card. With that said, I have 11th graders that come to class without paper or pencil because parents expect the school to pay for it. Students only ask a topic's relevance if they are upset and need to make their failure or shortcoming seen insignificant by making the learning process look like a silly game.

[Huyckmar]

Hello,

I have taught 5 years of 7th and 8th grade social studies.

To answer your question...I really wish I had an easy answer. The only honest answer is, we live in a reality where every year our students come to us with an ever-ranging level of knowledge, skills, motivation level, etc. I have found that most of my students do not come prepared, and they know much less than they really should.
Again, there are a million reasons for this. Some of the main reasons will come from home. Many of my students are "At-Risk" students and school as we know it is a very small priority for many of these students. Also, I would also say that the continuity from year to year for many of these students in the elementary level is not very good. The curriculum is not always followed, and many times within school districts the curriculum is not even very well written.
With that being said, as teachers we cannot change what our students come to us with. We have to recognize it and try to change it. I try my best to find the overall weaknesses of my students such as preparedness, and motivation. I try to award points for being prepared, and make as many lessons as possible as interesting as I can. I haven't mastered this one yet.

Students do want to know why we are learning it sometimes because they want to make a mockery out of it. Sometimes their question of “why do we have to learn this” is justified. I think it is difficult for a 13-year-old to understand why we are learning about the whiskey rebellion. I try every time to explain why we are learning it by setting goals for each unit, along with big focus questions that I can refer to as much as possible.

I hope this helps. Thank you.

Marcus Huyck

[cflynn]

social studies and history teachers,

Clubhistorian.com is a great for student, teacher and schoolwide projects. Check it out.

Chris Flynn