Two-Column Notes

Date:
11/8/16

Name: Cerina Russo

Class/Subject: EDTL 2760

Preview Assignment
Bower, B., Lobdell, J., and Owens, S. (2010). Preview assignment. Bring learning alive! Methods to transform
middle and high school social studies. Palo Alto, CA: Teachers Curriculum Institute, pp. 22-26.
Page #

The Text Says

Notes (key concepts, direct quotes, etc.)

I Say
My notes, commentary

22

The goal is to spark interest, activate prior

knowledge, tap a wide range of
intelligences, and prepare students to
tackle new concepts.

I strongly agree with this quote. It is imperative

that teachers attempt to spark interest in
students. Once they do so, students will be
more eager to learn the information and apply
the knowledge to tackle new concepts and use
higher order thinking. These higher-level
thinking skills allow students to retain
information over time and find more significant
meaning in the information.

23

Students recall the key points of a

previous unit or lesson to make predictions
about or connections to the topic they will
be studying.

I find this idea very important. In all subjects,

including social studies, tying all the
information that you have taught together
helps students understand the information and
encourages a deeper level of thinking and
understanding. It also allows students to look at
cause and effect and recognize patterns that
can be used to predict future units and future
world events.

24

Students answer relevant questions to

Making connections to the students lives is an

their life to relate to a personal experience

that foreshadows key themes of the
upcoming lesson.

extremely important job in regards to teaching.

Like we discussed in the first blog post, if
students feel the information they are learning
is not relevant to their life, they will think it is
unimportant and not put in the effort to
understand and interpret the information.
However, if students can make the connection
between the content and their lives, they will
be willing to put in the work to learn, use and
understand the information.

Connections:
This reading has similarities to blog post one when it talks about making connections and relating the
content to students lives. In the study Why Kids Hate Social Studies, we see that when there is
seemingly no connections or relevance to the real world, students are less likely to enjoy learning about
the content. This reading also relates to blog post seven with the Five Standards of Authentic
Instruction because it mentions the importance of preparing students to use higher levels of thinking
(higher order thinking) and using it to tackle new concepts. In the study from blog post seven,
Newmann and Wehlage write about higher order thinking and using essential questions to get students
thinking and understanding information.