Mysyk

Joseph Mysyk
EDTL 2760
Nancy Patterson
10/30/16

BP 8: What Social Studies content does one need to know to achieve the
citizenship purpose?

Are teachers teaching students the material for the betterment of the students, or are they
teaching just to meet certain deadlines?
Are teachers teaching to their students?
Are teachers asking their students the right questions?

I choose these questions due to what I have been seeing in my field experience in the past three
weeks. From what I have seen, the students at Perrysburg Jr High School are very eager to learn.
Almost every student in the class walks in with the intent of learning. But my concern is, are they
learning for themselves or are they just listening to what the teacher tells them and believing
every word that they say. I strongly believe that students should be able to challenge what the
teacher is saying and be able to give their own opinion. In the article Bringing Learning Alive in
says, If they cannot argue different sides of the question, or if the evidence presented leans too
heavily to one side, there is little point in posing the question (Bower, (2010). If a student cant
argue their point, then they will never learn all that they can. But for this to happen, the teacher
must change the way that they run their class room.
Are educators teaching students the material for the betterment of the students, or are they
teaching just to meet certain deadlines?
Just like how students have deadlines to turn in assignments, teachers have deadlines for when
they need to teach their students. This makes perfect sense because by having deadlines the
teachers can teach more information. This can mean teaching at a much faster pace and giving
less depth to the students on a topic so they can move on to the next topic. But what is more
important for the students, covering more content on a broad level with less depth, or having
shorter range of content with more depth? I believe that it is the second choice. This is because
students should be able to make their own connections and have their own ideas of how and why
things in history happened. In the Article Five Standards of Authentic Instruction, it articulates,
For students, knowledge is deep when they make clear distinctions, develop arguments, solve
problems, construct explanations, and otherwise work with relatively complex understandings
(Newmann, 1993). So for students to be able to think at this level, teachers need to slow down on
what they are teaching and focus more on the details of what they are teaching. Also they need to
ask more general questions that will allow the students to think of their own response. For then,
they are not just repeating word for word what the teacher tells them. I have been observing Mr.
Kruger for six weeks now and I feel that he does a mixture of both sticking to his deadlines and
allowing the students to learn for themselves. At the beginning of every unit he has the students
take a test to see what they already know. He will then look at the results and from there he
figures out which topics he can expand on and which ones that he can skip. This is an extremely
efficient way to stick to a deadline but still being able to go into more details on topics. He will
also do things including beginning class by asking a question such as How and why was the
United States created?, and then, ask the students for their thoughts on this topic. This is quite

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efficient because instead of telling them the answer, he lets them tell him the answer. Allowing
students to think of their own ideas.
Are teachers teaching to their students?
Often the work students do does not allow them to use their minds well (Newman, 1993).
Having ADHD, I can relate to this quote because for me, sitting in a classroom and listening to a
teacher lecture is often difficult. No matter how hard I tried I was never able to pay attention
during these lectures and often missed a lot of the material that we were learning. Even for
people who dont have ADHD, sitting through lectures can be difficult or boring. While listening
to someone talk for 45 minutes at a time, you mind can often wonder. So yes, the teacher may be
teaching, but they may not be teaching to all of the students. Mr. Krueger does an excellent job at
engaging the entire class while teaching. Something that he excels at doing is relating the
material that he is teaching to more modern events that the students can relate to. For example,
when teaching his students about the 13 colonies and the cartoon Join or Die he asked his
class, If I throw a cut up snake into the room it wont be able to do any damage, but if I throw a
live snake into the room what will happen?. This allows the students to have an example to
remember it by and it simplifies what they are learning. Another thing that he does is he will
make students stand up and act out situations with him. By him doing this he is able to draw the
attention of people whose minds may have been wondering and make a fun example of what
they are learning. This is an effective way to make people pay attention. While observing a
student who has ADHD, I noticed that the person was not really paying attention, but when Mr.
Krueger started making people stand up and act out a section from what they were learning, the
student instantly started paying attention and continued to do so once they realized that what they
were learning could be fun. If more teachers did what Mr. Krueger does, teaching in ways that
benefit the students, then more students would be able to have a better understanding of what
they are learning.
Are teachers asking their students the right questions?
Students of all ages want to be pushed in the classroom whether they act like it or not, but it is up
to the teacher to push them. If students arent pushed in the class room, then they will take the
easy way out. Teachers must expect more from their students in class. During lectures teachers
will occasionally pause to ask a specific question to their students, and the students will respond
to their teacher with the one-word answer that the teacher wants to hear for then they can move
on. This needs to be changed in every classroom because it is limiting the students knowledge.
Newmann Wehlage stated that, Sharing is best illustrated when participants explain themselves
or ask questions in complete sentences and when they respond directly to comments of previous
speakers (Newmann, 2016). Asking questions in lectures is a great way to make sure the
students understand what they are learning, but teachers should expect their students to answer
their question by explaining why or how. This would force the student to explain their
answer in more depth, which would give them a better understanding of what they are learning,
or make them give their opinion. Also, having students explain their answer with more detail
could help other students who didnt know the answer to the question. This is something that I
have seen a lot of in my field experience. When Mr. Krueger ask a student a question, he always
will always ask how or for them to fully explain their answer. This seems to greatly benefit the
students, as well as start some very interesting debates between class members.

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Field Experience
After completing the first six weeks of field experience I am becoming more comfortable in the
classroom. As I work more and more with the students and Mr. Kruger I have taken on more
responsibilities in the class room, and the students have started to ask me more questions and
look to me if they need help with an assignment. They are currently learning about the events
that led up to the American Revolution and what caused America to turn against the British. All
of the assignments that they work on in class are group projects that vary from searching for
answers through the text to coming up with ideas for a debate between the Loyalists and the
Patriots. I have been getting more involved in these projects by helping the students with the
projects. For projects where they have to search for answers in the text I give them useful tips on
where they would be able to locate the information, or if they find multiple similar answers I
help teach them ways on how to eliminate answers. Mr. Krueger has given more complex tasks
such as thinking of ideas for group projects, and observing kids who struggle to pay attention and
write down what makes them lose focus and what makes them refocus. From what I have
observed from this, is that when Mr. Kruger starts to lecture for several minutes straight the kids
start to drift off, but when he interacts with them and relates what they are doing to their lives
they instantly start paying attention. From my observations and my own personal experience, I
found that once teachers start listing off facts nonstop it is very easy for students to lose focus,
but when the material is relatable and the teacher is active when they are teaching then it is much
easier to pay attention, and understand. If more teachers begin to teach like Mr. Krueger, more
students will start to really enjoy what they are learning.

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Work Cited

Newmann, F.M., & Wehlage, G.G. (1993). Five standards of authentic

instruction. Educational Leadership, 50 (7), 8-12
Bower, B., Lobdell, J., and Owens, S. (2010). Essential questions. Bring learning alive!
Methods to transform middle and high school social studies. Palo Alto, CA: Teachers
Curriculum Institute, pp. 226-228.