Interesting Quote There are no real educational innovations in NCLB, simply more tests and increased pressure to privatize

education. (p. 20 5) Big Idea Educational standards provide the framework for teaching instruction and the expectations of knowledge and skills that students should have as a product of that instruction. However, while standards are WHAT is taught and WHAT is learned, teachers should employ best practice teaching methods for HOW instruction occurs. Make a Connection Social studies teaching and learning should be value based. (p.65) Students should be given opportunities to assign meaning, develop opinions, and draw conclusions regarding the topics and content being discussed rather than having that value assigned and dictated to them. In multicultural classrooms, this is not only a must for developing critical thinkers and problem solvers, but it helps all students to feel valued included in a classroom. Although discussing topics of the day are sometimes neglected to avoid controversy and heated debates, those lessons can be engaging when preformed in a classroom where students are encouraged to find personal real life connection with the content. I've seen this in a fourth grade classroom where students opinions and views were drastically changed from their initial views as they read and discussed the article Malala the Brave in a Scholastic magazine. This brings me back to the big idea I selected. As a teacher, I need to focus on HOW I teach WHAT needs to be taught.