Motivating, Engaging, and Empowering Middle School Students through Social Action Teaching

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Motivating, Engaging, and Empowering Middle
School Students through Social Action Teaching

• Spring 2009
• A Critical and Creative Thinking Synthesis
• Alyssa J. Hinkell

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Where did this Synthesis begin?

• How do we (teachers, parents,
• administrators, and community members)
• empower students to become more
• motivated, passionate about, and engaged in their
  education and
• what are the benefits of making such a change?
• - September 8, 2008 (692 Governing Question)

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What might this Synthesis look like?

• crucial time for change in our methods of
  teaching
• we educators are missing something
• educational standards that are not focused on
  higher order thinking skills
• need authentic learning
• students need to be focused on the hows? and
  the whys? not just the whats?
• students need to be immersed in, engaged in, and
  passionate about their learning
• I dont yet know what this looks like
• - September 8, 2008 (692 Paragraph Overview)

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What are my objectives and responsibilities?

• a way to pop the bubble which many of my
  students exist in
• making real-life connections
• developing empathy and higher order thinking
• what does it mean to be a citizen of the world?
• do not want to do a simple set of lesson plans
• September 15, 2008 (Free-write)
• to shape students as they become productive,
  informed citizens
• to develop students who are agents of change
  within the spheres that they inhabit
• - October 27, 2008 (Revised Paragraph Overview)

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Helping my Students to Visualize
Earth
United States
State
Town/City
Neighborhood
School
Classroom
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Helping Me to Visualize
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Proposing an Idea

• I want to review the Massachusetts History and
  Social Science framework to identify entry points
  or places where this method could be responsibly
  incorporated into the curriculum.
• I plan to present my suggestions to the DOEs
  Social Science framework reviewing body in order
  to, at the very least, encourage and foster a
  spirit of change.
• - January 2009 (Synthesis Proposal)

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Utilizing the Strategic Spirit

• This spirit is alive in the truly versatile
  thinker who is able to construct, invent, and or
  modify a thinking strategy to meet the unique
  demands of the situation at hand
• - Tishman, Perkins, and Jay, The Thinking
  Classroom,
• page 102-103
• My intention with this work is not to convert
  the disbeliever into a fanatic who will then walk
  around wearing a sandwich board that displays the
  many successes of Social Action Teaching.
  Rather, the wider purpose of this work is to
  provide a fresh lens with which we can each view
  our teaching, identify problem areas, implement a
  new creative method, and critically reflect on
  its impact on our students.
• - Synthesis, page 4

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Back to the Social Action Survey

1. Take a moment to look back at your survey.
2. Please try to group the statements, creating
   different categories in which to organize them.
3. When done, feel free to look up and make eye
   contact with someone else who has also
   finished.4. Chat about your newly created
   categories.

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(Re)visualizing the Branches
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Making Sense of the Categories

• Social Action Teaching is a Two-Step Process
• Knowing Students must be able to accomplish the
  initial goals of Blooms Taxonomy (Knowledge and
  Comprehension)
• Recall data or information and understand the
  meaning
• Doing Students must be able to accomplish the
  goals on the higher end of Blooms Taxonomy
  (Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and
  Evaluation)
• Use a concept in a new situation, separate
  concepts into different parts to understand their
  organization, build a structure or pattern from
  diverse elements, make judgments about the value
  of ideas

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Examples for Understanding
Knowing (State Frameworks) Doing (Teacher Creativity!)
3.14 Give examples of tax-supported facilities and services provided by the local government, such as public schools, parks, recreational facilities, police and fire departments, and libraries Local Compare and contrast two different schools National Analyze National Park System
7.5 Describe how the invention of agriculture related to settlement, population growth, and the emergence of civilization Local Research and visit a local community garden Global Connect with a Peace Corps volunteer
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Social Action in Action

• Spectacular Things Happen Lessons from an Urban
  Classroom
• Brian Schultz and his 5th grade students
• Project Citizen

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Using a Metaphor to Understand Social Action
Teaching