4D competency reflection

4.D Candidates consistently engage in culturally responsive practices that

empower students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically to develop
knowledge, skills, and attitudes. I was able to complete this competency by
completing my course work in teaching and learning 385 which is teaching
elementary social studies. Students were allowed to work in a group and create a
unit plan for a curriculum design. My group’s unit plan was titled “What is a
Community?” The purpose of the unit plan was to apply our understandings rom
this course into our teaching. We combined lesson one: Lesson 1: Children’s
Literature, Human Rights, & Children’s Rights, with lesson 2/3: Since Time
Immemorial Learning Activity, Eco-Citizenship, Democracy in Action. Throughout
the semester we learned about the core democratic values as well as how to
teach social studies to younger students. Our unit plan is for first grade, including
math, ELA, and science standards. The purpose of our unit plan was to introduce
students to their role as a citizen and what a community is. As a group, we
wanted to engage our students by creating instruction that apply to all students.
We followed Following Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model, the beginning
lessons of this unit will introduce students to human rights and responsibilities
that we are held accountable for as members of society. We want to empower
our students as well as developing their knowledge on civics, history, and
geography.
Since completing my final portfolio for this course, this unit plan
demonstrates this competency that develop critical thinking as well. As teachers,
my group took the multiple perspectives teaching approach and to teach social
studies. This unit plan is to support students as well as gain perspective and
knowledge about themselves and the community around them. We also tie in the
teaching of indigenous people by teaching with them rather than about them.
When creating understanding for students in their role as well as in the
community it is important, we teach students about the community we live in now
and how it might have changed over time. By providing students with
opportunities to engage with materials, resources, videos, discussion’s etc. it
allows for conversation and empowering students and their role in the class
community as well as school. The goal of this unit plan was to embrace our
differences and diversity within our classroom. Furthermore, this lesson aims to
complete these learning outcomes:
By the end of the project/unit, students will be able to:
SWBAT…
-understand how humans have the right and responsibility to be respectful
citizens, regardless of race, ethnicity, and/or culture
- identify how the decisions we make as individuals impact the people and
community around us.
-recognize how diverse families make up the community we live in.
-recognize how geography and available resources affect the way families live in
other places.
-to recognize how communities, develop over time.
-record information relating to famous indigenous tribes and or nations in the
United States.
-understand how Native Americans are the original people who lived in the
United States, who lived in tribes and nations that had their own religions,
traditions, and languages.
-recognize how culture is dynamic and always evolving.
This lesson aligns with this competency by further exploring how to empower
students and embrace diversity.
When thinking about my own classroom, I would want to use this to teach
my students about community and continue the lesson series. Our ultimate goal
is to create students critical thinking skills as well as their sense of self, and how
they connect to the world in various ways. In order to create an extension for this
lesson we would include more activities and have students then think about
themselves and how they affect the community around them. We then would
continue educating our students on we will be reaching out to members of the
Native Tribe closest to our school and plan on having a guest speaker come into
our classroom to share their way of life and teach students about new
perspectives. Additionally, we will be using an online platform to participate in a
virtual museum tour of Native American artifacts, allowing students to engage
with an interactive worksheet
When thinking about how to utilize this in my future classroom, I will be
thinking about how I can implement unit plan in the most effective way. This unit
plan would help create my classroom community and create stronger
relationships between students. This unit plan allows for us as teachers to
recognize and embrace diversity from our students and this is what makes us a
stronger community.