Connor Even AYA Social Studies

09/28/2016

What Is Social Studies And Why Teach It

For my field experience I have been assigned to Mr. Herms of Penta Career Center. He is an
American Government teacher with a mixture of grades in his class. After being in the field three
times now I have developed some questions: How to get students more involved when learning
material, and how democratic a class room should be.

How to get students involved

The first day I went to Mr. Herms class the kids werent paying much attention to him and were
throwing drinks around the room. That could have been since we came in and interrupted his
class making them lose focus, but I felt like he should have had a better control over his class. As
class went on kids kept talking over Mr. Herms. Every now and then he would stop and remind
them that they had to do good on this next test if they want to pass roping them back in. The one
way that I noticed how he keeps them thinking is by giving out rewards to students who perform
better than the rest. One flaw I noticed with this however is that if a student knew he/she couldnt
win he/she wouldnt participate at all.
My most recent visit to the school Mr. Herm was absent leaving a sub in his place. The students
payed her zero attention not even bothering trying to hide their disinterest in the class. They
would hold conversations over top of the sub trying to teach and had to be pleaded with to even
do their work. Most of them copying off the students who cared. Some of them of on their own
not caring about any of it. I felt so bad for the sub trying to help rope in the kids being disruptive
and copying. They met my trying to help them with annoyed looks on their faces. I was lost on
what I should do. The document why kids dont like Social Studies (Schug, Todd, and Berry,
1984). Began to really show to me during this visit. You could really see how they thought Social
Studies didnt matter at all and how none of them seemed to be enjoying learning about it asking
questions or digging deeper into the concepts. They were only there because they had to be and
that was all. I need to find a way to engage them more in fun creative ways so they actually can
enjoy Social Studies and not just keep looking at the clock.

How democratic a classroom should be

In Mr. Herms classroom the students hold a good deal of power: They are allowed to walk
around the classroom freely, they are allowed to have their phones out at all times from what I
have observed, they can listen to music as long as he is not talking, and they for the most part
have the right to speak whenever they please. I believe that he thinks this allows the kids to not
feel the pressure of a strict teacher, just wanting to leave the class as soon as possible. Instead it
allows them to enjoy a class period at their own pace and gives them stuff to do if they are done

with their work. However, from what I have seen it has become a major distraction for most of
the students in his class to have all these freedoms. Yes Mr. Herms is well liked by his students,
but at the same time some of his students arent learning anything.
He talked to me after class once when I brought up that some of his students werent really doing
anything and he said that he wish he could be more strict with them, but in the building he is
teaching in the kids are really only there for their lab classes. If he was strict he said that most
kids would just give up on the class altogether. I had not complicated that into why he had such a
laid back teaching approach. Out of the three types of citizens Personally Responsible,
Participatory, and Justice-oriented defined in the document Beyond personally responsible
(Patterson, Misco, and Doppen, 2012) Mr. Herms is most likely to be a Personally Responsible
citizen. Showing many of the characteristics of one such as, honest, respectful, hardworking,
self-sacrificial, and Unique set of abstract values.

My thoughts
As for getting students involved more and actually paying attention Mr. Herms needs to be
stricter with them. Maybe using some of their freedoms against them. Threatening to take them
away unless they clean up their acts and improving their grades. We cant keep letting certain
kids cheat either because that doesnt help them at all and when its time for the test they will
fail. It also sends a bad message to the kids who actually try, seeing the other kids get the same
grades as them putting forth zero effort. All in all, this classroom needs a change. The students
are only doing enough to get by learning nothing. Having no fun only looking forward to the
class because of all the freedoms they get when they are in it.

References
Schug, M., Todd, R., & Beery. R. (1984). Why kids don't like social studies. Social Education,
48(5), 382-387.
Patterson, N., Misco, T., & Doppen, F. (2012). Beyond personally responsible: A study of teacher
conceptualizations of citizenship education. Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice,
7(2), 191-206.