Thank You & Homework & Lecture Slides

Gracias! to: IT Coordinator Mrs. Kucera for fixing my PC’s problems that were preventing log-ins.

HOMEWORK:

For Thursday:

Students need to bring in their Concept Review and their Sort the Meme assignments.

LECTURE SLIDES:

Revolutions in Worldviews

MAKERS OF WORLDVIEWS II

As part our study of worldviews, students are comparing the ideas of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

NEWTON QUESTIONS

Were given as homework last week in case anyone lost their copy:

MAKERS OF WORLDVIEWS

Students are continuing to learn about the paradigms and past worldviews that help make up their own Worldview.

Students had a short reading on a summary of Aristotle’s ideas and began watching a biography of Sir Isaac Newton using the graphic organizer below to take notes.

CRITICAL THINKING, CREATIVITY and CONTENT in SOCIAL STUDIES

Below is a synopsis of how units are constructed and delivered in 8th grade Social Studies:

I divide each Social Studies unit into content and conceptual mastery, analysis and creative interpretation because public education, has three core objectives:

1. To impart a body of knowledge and academic skills deemed valuable by society.

2. To teach the students to think analytically, critically and independently.

3. To render the students capable of discovering original insights and pursuing the discovery of new knowledge or invention.

The first goal has been delved into depth by educational researchers and gurus like E.D. Hirsh of “Cultural Literacy” fame, Chester Finn, William Bennett, Diane Ravitch and others, and is reflected in such legislation as NCLB, which has put tremendous pressure on school districts to focus on test scores in a few basic subjects and expanding the amount of content in the curriculum by increasing the time spent on rote memorization exercises and skill-based drills. Breadth but not depth.

The second goal is reflected in what used to be termed ” liberal education” or “Great Books” programs, “enrichment” or the upper tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Schools do this less effectively across the nation but there is still a fair emphasis on eliciting critical thinking in public education, most of all in Honors and AP classes, gifted and talented classes and special programs like and Paideia and International Baccalaureate. Colleges and universities, of course, are also intended to focus on liberal education but the degree to which this is true in practice has declined since the 1960’s.

The final objective, made possible by the teaching of creative thinking and synthesis to students, public education does not do well at all at present, here or in any industrialized nation, where measurable declines in the creativity and problem-solving abilities of k-12 students appear across the board. Some people even consider creative thinking to be inimical to mastering content or logical analysis; this is untrue. One cannot think creatively or engage in analysis without content knowledge and content is itself meaningless unless the student can effectively put it to use in the real world. Content knowledge, critical thinking and creativity are like the three legs of a stool – our students need them all.

Ken Robinson, noted educational expert, giving a lively talk on creativity and public education ( 20 minute video clip):

Perception vs. Reality

The students were introduced to two concepts today – that Perception and Reality can be very different and that Western Civilization has two basic and opposing Worldviews on the nature of Reality itself (going back to Plato vs. Aristotle). Characters from the sci-fi movie, The Matrix, were used to illustrate the point.

After viewing material and discussion, questions were asked:

And now, simply for fun !:

Cognition, Perception and Worldviews Unit

The introductory unit ” Cognition, Perception and Worldviews” focuses on how people’s understanding of the world around them is affected by their culture, ideas and history; and, in turn, how their actions can create systemic changes that shape worldviews. The following are terms, concepts and individuals used for this unit of study ( If you don’t what some of these are, don’t panic – the whole point of education is to learn new things, not rehearse what you already know):

Concepts:

Perception, Perspective, Position, Philosophy, Values, Orientation, Cognition, Metacognition, Meme, Culture, Society, Rule-set, Worldview, Paradigm, Paradigm-Shift, Evolution, Cultural Evolution, Objective, Subjective, Bias, Social Contract, Empiricism, Scientific Method, Natural Law, Revolution, Humanism, Framing, Feedback, O.O.D.A

Worldviews:

Prehistoric, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution

Thinkers:

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Montesquieu,

Charles Darwin, Thomas Kuhn, Richard Dawkins, George Lakoff, John Boyd

Follow the 8th Grade Social Studies Class on TWITTER!

Mini-updates can be found below or get a twitter account and follow us at:

SocialStudies8x

BACK TO SCHOOL! 2009-2010!

Welcome back 8th graders! Hope that you had a great summer!

On to official business……

It is required that you have a notebook dedicated to Social Studies:

You will be filling it with……

• Lecture Notes
• Sketches
• Questions
• Diagrams
• Quotations
• Concept Maps
• Brainstorming sessions
• Geographic Maps
• Instructions

And much more!

Test – Video Embed