Anna LöfstrandSpring 2015

UW STEP – Social Studies MethodsProf. Walter Parker, Lisa Sibbett

Assignment 3 – Authentic Intellectual Work

Authentic Intellectual Work

Civics: Constitutional IssuesEconomics: You and the Economy

Geography/History: Cultural Interactions

Part A: CBA Task EvaluationsCBA #1: Civics Evaluation – Constitutional Issues

Aspect/Standard Score JustificationKnowledge

Construction1-3

3 If this isn’t a 3, then I’m not sure what a 3 should look like. The product of the CBA is an interpretation, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of a principle of the Constitution and its practical application. They are not simply reporting on an issue.

Elaborated Written Communication

1-4

4 The students are asked specifically to generalize and draw a conclusion about an ideal of the Constitution and then provide an example or illustration of this ideal in practice in the courts or in a government policy. Additionally, students are asked to think about their own position on the issue, and then contrast it with a different position, what you could argue is tow differing hypothesis or interpretations of the same issue.

Connection to Students’ Lives

1-3

2 This assignment provides students an opportunity to think through, analyze and dissect an issue that is up for public debate. While they may not be very concerned with this topic explicitly in their own lives, they are encouraged to have an opinion on the topic and to develop skills for looking at any topic in the future. I give this CBA a 2 then because of the caveat that students might think about this issue in their own lives, but there is no guarantee.

Total Score 9 This is a very well constructed CBA. My only suggestion would be for students to chose a topic they are personally interested in as a way of thinking through their own ideas and ideals in a pedagogical and reflective way. I can see the flaw in this as some students might genuinely not have strong feelings about topics in general, might be shy or reluctant to share their feelings, or simply might resist the idea of having a strong opinion and willfully obfuscate. I’ve been thinking about ways to include student interest and non-interest into the choice of topics. I’ve detailed it bellow in Part B.

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CBA #2: Economics - You and the EconomyAspect/Standard Score Justification

Knowledge Construction

1-3

2 While there is opportunity to analysis and interpret information, mostly this paper or presentation will be a reproduction and re-presentation of research about particular careers and their effect on the economy. There is room to evaluate, but that isn’t the main task of the CBA.

Elaborated Written Communication

1-4

4 Specifically, the students have to draw a conclusion about “which career choice would be best for you” and then provide examples, details and reasons for this conclusion, based on extensive research. There are generalizations as well, about the role of the job in the greater economy on a local, national, and even global scale.

Connection to Students’ Lives

1-3

3 Within this CBA students are expected to reflect on and then create an entire essay based on their own personal choice of career. While they may not have encountered this problem yet in their lives, they certainly will encounter it at some point, probably soon, especially when it is a discussion of a job they want to do and what is realistically available. This is no quick assessment of what it would be like to be a famous footballer!

Total Score 9 This activity provides for a lot of self-reflection, but it lacks an opportunity to evaluate information in a highly critical way. Students will find and then present a lot of facts, with little synthesizing glue to hold them together. I think if students were asked to look at the careers of their parents or some other influential adult in their life, maybe in interview form, they would be able to see links not just to their own careers and lives, but to those of adults around them, who are living lives in careers. This would help them to think about how various factors affect the decisions that go into deciding on a career and how complicated that process can be. I think that would provide an opportunity for students to synthesize information about careers by way of comparison. Thinking about careers in abstract is valuable, but talking about it in concrete terms adds even more value to the assignment.

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CBA #3: Geography/History – Cultural InteractionsAspect/Standard Score Justification

Knowledge Construction

1-3

2 With the expectation for students to compare similarities and differences between cultures, this assignment barely makes it out of the 1 range. Students are responsible for reporting a lot of information, but they must also synthesize and interpret it by comparing. It is a weak 2, but a 2 nonetheless.

Elaborated Written Communication

1-4

3.5 As students are asked to state a position and then back it up with fact, the rubric is covering both the argument and the example criteria of a 4. But because it is a weak 4, I’ve given it a 3.5. They are asked to make an argument, and make a claim about which culture fared better, and then asked to elaborate and substantiate that claim with SEP evidence, Social Economic and Political.

Connection to Students’ Lives

1-3

1 Students may be exposed to issues around culture and cultural differences, especially as they watch the news about world conflicts like ISIS, Boko Haram, and Kurdistan as well as historical examples like colonial India and the USSR, but there is no guarantee that they will be connected to any feelings or experiences in their lives.

Total Score 6.5 What stands out most, as a criticism of this CBA, is the lack of relevance to students’ lives. While some might find it interesting, few are likely to take what they learn to heart and remember it for a long time. By pushing them to think about maybe their own immigration story or an area of the world they are interested in, interested in visiting, or have visited, they would be able to engage more. Perhaps a lottery system where students would pick from a group of cultures and then having to pick their top four with minimal or no doubling up would motivate them more.Fundamentally, though, my biggest problem with this CBA is that it asks the question who “fared better.” That is a very loaded question and is very relative. I think that it is very important to frame what “fared better” means carefully and with a lot of respect. Talking about faring better in terms of the Kurds in Turkey or in Iraq, for example, is different than talking about, say, the Scots in Nova Scotia or North Carolina. This framing raising problematic and troubling questions, and that has to be treated with care.

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Part B: Revision/Creation of a High Scoring TaskAwesome Almanac Activity

Aspect/Standard Score JustificationKnowledge

Construction1-3

1 Students are only asked to reproduce information and not analyze or synthetize or anything else.

Elaborated Written Communication

1-4

2 Students write short answers, but nothing more.

Connection to Students’ Lives

1-3

1 There is not application to students’ lives, that I can see.

Total Score 4 All together, this task is far more oriented to a product that is beautiful than a product that made them think.

Bearing this justification in mind, I want to extend the concept that something has to be either beautiful and creative or involve critical thinking. Here is my new plan:

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A Sixth Grade Social Studies Task

Awesome Almanac Activity

This almanac will ask you to take on the role of an American president as well as ask you to be creative and think critically. Your twofold task: 1) Take On The Role Of An American President and 2) Create A Mobile About Your Life.

You will take on the role of an American president, current or historical, in a “Night of the Notables.” You will have three hour-long class periods to complete the mobile, as well as any homework and homework club time you need. Our “Night of the Notables” will take place during our block period day.

First, we will have a lottery to choose our presidents, so come prepared with your top four choices. This is your entrance slip for the day.

Once presidents are assigned, you will begin work on your mobile.

Your mobile will consist of three index cards. Each will have a written and a drawing component.

Card #1 – Biographical information about your president. Include pertinent information such as birth date and place, political party, education, date of death, name of vice president, etc.

Card #2 – Answer one of the following questions on your mobile, but prepare all answers for your “Night of the Notables”

1. Were you more of a federalist or more of a states rights oriented president? Give me at least three reasons and examples.

2. Did you help strengthen the union or weaken it?3. What is your legacy, and what did you do to achieve it?4. If there was one thing you could have done differently, what would it have been? (Think

about this in terms of presidents surrounded by scandal – Clinton, Nixon, Jackson, etc.)

Card #3 – Time Traveling President. Please answer, in paragraph form, how your president would have dealt with one of these current event topics. Be prepared to discuss at least three of them for “Night of the Notables,” but only one on the index card.

1. The Black Lives Matter movement2. The NSA surveillance scandal3. Intervention in Syria4. Intervention in ISIS held territory5. LGBTQ rights6. Nuclear proliferation in Iran7. Topic of your choice – pending teacher approval

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Note 1: Completion of each card is the ticket to move on to the next card. For the “Time Traveling President” card, there will be stations set up around the room for students to do research on the topic collaboratively. Information packets as well as research computers will be provided. Rough drafting is encouraged. Students will have to visit at least three stations to prepare information for the three current events, and then stay longer at one station where they create their index card. This will allow for group work and some good movement around the room.

Note 2: For a 7th grade World History class, substitute world leader for American president, and change the questions for Cards #2 and #3 for broader issues

Aspect/Standard Score JustificationKnowledge

Construction1-3

3 While one of the cards is biographical, students must choose the pertinent biographical information. For example Lincoln’s and Clinton’s birth places are more important to their presidency than say, Nixon’s or Hayes’s, arguably. Cards #2 and #3 ask students to really think about their president and his legacy, as well as ask students to extend that knowledge into the future. Ideally, within the unit, there would have been some scaffolding for this, like asking what Woodrow Wilson would have done about including Taiwan in the UN, and that kind of think. “Time Traveling President” won’t be a new concept.

Elaborated Written Communication

1-4

4 While students won’t be writing an essay, short answers written and prepared statements or arguments fall under the Persuasion and Analysis category of this rubric. By asking to put facts together about the president they are providing examples and illustrations to argue points. And by the “Time Traveling President” task, they are generalizing and thinking about their president outside of his time period or context.

Connection to Students’ Lives

1-3

2.5 While students may never be asked such direct foreign and domestic policy questions, taking on a role and performing are both things students will be asked to do, both in their academic careers and potentially in their vocation and beyond. They will also be asked to think critically about current events, and that is included in this task, just with a different lens. Additionally, creativity and artistic expression, in both visual and performance arts is always important. Both the Night of the Notables and the Mobile do this. Finally, the critical thinking aspect of trying to figure out how Abraham Lincoln would have dealt with the health care debate, for example, is impressive, to parents and other adults. The students’ social capital as they talk to their peers and adults about their school work.

Total Score 9.5 Both the Night of the Notables and the Mobile are examples of a beautiful and beatified creative expression. But the questions on the cards as well as the analysis and synthesis, and thinking on their feet at the “Night of the Notables” force students to own both the knowledge and the claims they make.

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