Planning for a Democratic Classroom!

 Let's Take A Look At What The Textbook Says! 

Chapter 4 was all about lesson planning! Lesson planning is important because it ensures that each lesson will be meaningful, engage all learners, and give students an opportunity to share what they've learned from the lesson. Since the goal is to make meaningful lessons, each lesson should have an outcome and an objective. An outcome is what the student learned and an objective is how you measured that the student learned. There can be more than one objective per lesson. For example, you can have a performance objective, which measures the student's skills, and you can also have a affective objective, which involves how the student feels about learning and what's being learned. This is crucial because if a student isn't enjoying learning, they most likely won't be motivated to learn. As a teacher candidate, I want my future students to learn from and enjoy my lessons, so it's very important that I know how my students feel about my lessons so that I can find the optimal teaching method for my class. This is why I also differentiate my instruction for my students, so that each student's needs are being met, ensuring that all diverse learners are included and can succeed in my class. I want to set my students up for success, which is why I include modeling and guided practice in each of my lessons. When I model what I want my students to do, they're more likely to understand what's being expected of them. Guided practice is meant to make sure that each student knows what's expected of them and to provide extra support if students still need some clarification. This will guide students to the independent practice, where they demonstrate the skills that they've gained from the lesson on their own. 

Chapter 5 was all about assessing that students are learning. Each district has a curriculum that they follow, which is a plan for what students will know and be able to do. It includes outcome, assessment, and instruction. Assessments aren't meant to be scary, although some may hear that word and get nervous. Assessments are meant to see what students know and what they're struggling with so that I, as the teacher, can backtrack if needed, so that no student is left confused about a topic and can fully learn each topic. Assessment also helps me to identify what I should focus on next. While assessments can be scary, authentic assessments, which exhibit a student's skills in a way that they would in daily like, like a portfolio for example, tend to eliminate some testing anxiety that many students struggle with. No matter what kind of assessment is administered, all assessments should be reliable and valid so that assessments are an accurate reflection of the student's performance. Assessments also give students feedback on their learning. The results of these assessments do get reported to the student's family members so that their families are kept in the loop about their student's progress. A commonly used form of these reports are report cards, where families get a brief evaluation of how their student is doing in class each marking period. A teacher can also give guardians more information by giving a negotiated report, where the teacher describes how the student is doing in the 3 areas the guardian(s) are most concerned about. After assessments are evaluated and progress is shared, it's important to celebrate student accomplishments! Students work very hard to learn and it's important to recognize that and remind them that they're doing their best and their best is wonderful!

Chapter 6 was all about building democratic classrooms. This means creating a classroom where students trust is facilitated, students can express their individual differences (including different learning styles), and each student feels safe. Each of these components are important because if students don't feel secure, then they will be worried about that instead of about learning the information that's being discussed. The way that students interact with each other is important, which is why these democratic classrooms teach students how to be respectful and how to cooperate with others. This can be done through class meetings. In these meetings, students can check-in with the teacher about how things are going, review the work they've been doing lately, problem solving if an issue has risen with another student, celebrate great things the class has done, and plan what will happen next. Each of these things are meant to build a classroom where students feel comfortable speaking their ideas. This will encourage each student to express their opinions and feel comfortable asking questions when they don't understand something. This will also create a classroom environment where students can help each other succeed because they trust, listen to, and respect one another. 

That's All For Now!

I hope you enjoyed this look into what my textbook has to say about teaching social studies! I found this information very impactful and I can't wait to incorporate these ideas into my democratic classroom! Thank you for reading!