As stated in my first blog post I have never blogged before. As I began writing this entry two hours ago I was beginning to like blogging but two hours have past and I am beginning to dislike blogger. I wrote my response to the question what are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson when all of a sudden the blogger page went blank on me and lost an hour’s worth of my work. Next, I took a deep breath and tried to remember the 5 paragraphs I just typed. I was sure to save my entry every couple of minutes but what do you know, an hour later when I went to submit my work the screen jumped back to the first entry page and again I lost all of my work. I checked in draft and nothing is there. So with that said, my patience is running low and at 11:30pm I am becoming very frustrated; therefore, I am writing this entry as a word document and then I will copy and paste my answers.

Well I had a great story that I had typed up earlier that related to the question what are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson but for some reason I am really not as eager to elaborate as I sit here and know my alarm clock will be going off in seven hours for me to get up and begin a full day’s work followed by class; therefore, I will just simply answer the question.

What are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson? First, a teacher must decide what to teach. Upon writing a meaningful lesson plan a teacher must decide what she would like the students to learn and/or be able to do after the lesson has been taught. It is equally important for a teacher to know exactly why he/she is teaching this lesson. Although I may think it is important for my students to learn about 9/11 if it is not in the NCSCOS unfortunately I must pick another lesson teach. As a teacher I must make sure the lesson corresponds to the state academic standards. So before writing a lesson I must decide what content I will teach.

In order to make a lesson meaningful to students it is important to explain why this lesson is relevant to them. How can this lesson benefit them? How can they apply it? How will this impact their lives? What will they be able to do after this lesson that they couldn’t do before this lesson? As with anything in life people want to know the why behind what they are doing. Why do I go to work? To have money so I can eat and survive. Why do I go to school? To get my degree so I can become a teacher. Why do I sleep 7-8 hours a night? So my body can function properly every day. You get the point. There is a why behind everything we do and as a teacher it is important and makes a lesson meaningful to students if we tell them the why behind the lesson.

Traditionally teachers, especially inexperienced teachers such as myself, open up a social studies book, read the planned lesson and instruct the students on what to do according to the lesson plan in the teacher’s book. This is what we call a teacher-centered classroom. To be honest this is very boring for students and meaningless. Usually they are instructed to read a passage, answer questions, and occasionally are tested on the materials. In order to have a meaningful lesson it is important to engage the students. Students learn best when they are involved in experiences where they actually manipulate something or are exploring something. There are many ways to engage students in a lesson in order to make it meaningful to them. First, students should be involved in hands-on learning. This is fascinating to them and they are able to learn with the methods of natural exploration. Another way to engage the students is by taking them on field trips. Field trips are a firsthand source of information. Plus, what student doesn’t like getting out of the classroom every once in a while? Other ways to engage the students are to invite classroom visitors. Classroom visitors can bring a specialized skill or knowledge to your students. Other ways to engage students are through projects, group work, thematic units and lots more creative ways.

Lastly, in order to ensure the lesson is meaningful to students, teachers must check students’ understanding of the lesson taught. Traditionally teachers do this by giving tests or quizzes. There are many other meaningful ways teachers can do this such as projects, journal entries, drawings, dramas, questioning games, etc. It is very important to check and make students understand the lesson taught. If not, a teacher must re-teach the skill/concept in a different way. She must do a self-evaluation and figure out why the lesson wasn’t successful the first time and decide how to make it better the next time. If the lesson was a success the first time, a teacher can move on to the next lesson. One important point I would like to make is this, just because the lesson is over doesn’t mean students shouldn’t be reminded of the lesson. I believe that constant reviewing is important in teaching. If a student really learned something and didn’t memorize the information, he/she will still remember it in the future.

There are a few very important attributes to a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson. (I feel these attributes are actually important to almost any lesson such as math, reading, science, etc). First, the teacher must select the content carefully and meet the required standards. Next, she must explain to the students why this lesson is important. When teaching the lesson she must engage students. Lastly, she must check students’ understanding of the lesson being taught.

Okay here is goes attempt number three to submit this entry. Keep your fingers crossed it works….