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A Modern Classroom- 7th Grade Social Studies

November 20, 2021

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Some changes are coming to Social Studies class. After a great deal of research, reflection, and re-evaluating, I will be changing the design of how the class runs each day. 

This will be starting after Thanksgiving. Students will be allowed to self-pace (within certain limits) through the material. Each lesson will look something like this: Bellwork, watch a video of me talking through the notes (usually less than 4 minutes) and making sure they get their notes down, one or two tasks that align with our learning target for the day, a self-reflection of their own effort, and then they must pass a short quiz called a Mastery Check to be sure they understand the material. When they pass the Mastery Check they may move on to the next lesson. 

This will have several benefits, it will allow those students that are done and ready to move on the chance to do so and dig a little deeper into the material, it frees me up from being upfront talking the entire time and allows me to be more available to those students that need help, and it allows those that do need that extra time and help to get the things they need. I will have a pacing guide to help students keep track of if they are on pace to get done on time, behind pace which means they either need assistance or to kick it into gear and get to work, or ahead of pace to get done on time. Each week the assignments will be due on Friday unless otherwise stated. I will be working to communicate with you all more often to keep you up to date on where your student is, such as if they are behind pace or maybe they are ahead of pace. The idea is that students should only have homework if they are behind pace and need to get caught up (In which I would suggest they use TA or Study Skills so they may come to ask for help if needed).