Deck 3: How Do I Select Powerful Goals and Powerful Content

Question 1

Life application goals are accomplished when

A)students graduate from high school with an understanding of social studies.
B)parents and teachers collaborate with students regarding social studies.
C)students participate in service learning projects outside of school.
D)students retain their learning and apply it in other contexts.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The scope and sequence for skills should be an integral piece of the curriculum

A)mapped onto goals of understanding, appreciation, and application.
B)mapped onto items in standardized tests.
C)considered in every authentic home assignment.
D)considered in every formative and summative assessment.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The NCSS position statement regarding Five Qualities of Powerful Teaching included integrative, active, challenging, appropriate, and textbook based.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A goal-oriented curriculum designed to teach important ideas for understanding and application will provide a basis for authentic ideas that call for students to think critically and creatively in the process of conducting inquiry, solving problems, and making decisions.

Question 5

Major social understandings and civic goals tend to get lost as operational plans are developed for implementing state and district curricular guidelines.

Question 6

The authors of the textbook consider social studies ideas to be powerful if they match what is found on the state tests.

Question 7

Powerful ideas

A)are a tool.
B)are embedded in the networks of knowledge
C)are an action principle.
D)are generative in nature.

Question 8

A parade-of facts curriculum is preferred because it emphasizes reading and recitation and prepares students for standardized tests.

Question 9

The authors of the text believe that in planning curriculum and instruction there are three kinds of goals to emphasize: understanding, appreciating, and naming skills.

Question 10

Reflective teachers

A)work within state and district guidelines exclusively to ensure that all standards and benchmarks are addressed.
B)design all of their lessons and units to match quarterly assessments.
C)work within state and district guidelines and adapt and supplement to support students' social education needs.
D)utilize the district's pacing guides to ensure that all necessary content and skills are addressed.

Question 11

The academic disciplines are a means of generating and systematizing knowledge, while the school subjects that draw on them are a means of preparing students for life.

Question 12

The authors recommend that content and the skill components of a unit be

A)integrated.
B)isolated.
C)separated.
D)sequenced.

Question 13

In order to maintain a focus on important ideas and develop topics with an emphasis on powerful ideas, teachers need to ask which textbook will best match the topics identified by state standards and benchmarks.

Question 14

Generic goals of teaching for understanding should apply to

A)all school subjects.
B)social studies and literacy exclusively.
C)every subject but math.
D)social studies and science exclusively.

Question 15

The academic disciplines are a means of

A)creating standards for teaching and learning.
B)focusing on the core of a liberal arts education.
C)generating and systemizing knowledge.
D)transmitting knowledge to a new generation.

Question 16

An important social education goal is to

A)build on students' initial understandings to enable students to grasp the basics of how that aspect of the social world functions.
B)connect the past and present.
C)better understand the human condition.
D)learn facts about geography, history, and cultural perspective.

Question 17

Social studies teaching is powerful when it relates to the standardized tests that are administered.

Question 18

Students' prior knowledge should be elicited when the teacher is concerned about

A)preparing for a quiz or other form of assessment.
B)the range of learning styles in the class.
C)developing understanding and promoting conceptual change.
D)developing new instructional strategies or activities.

Question 19

The unit approach to teaching

A)offers reliance on direct instruction, inquiry, or any other selected approach.
B)offers a basic set of instructional activities that are constant throughout.
C)Guarantees that the content will be developed in goal oriented ways.
D)provides flexibility with respect to teaching methods and learning activities.

Question 20

Brophy, Alleman, and Halverson recommend that instructional planning focus first on the unit level, rather than on the more specific lesson or activity level.

Question 21

What does it mean for students to understand content? Select a powerful idea. Describe how you would know the students understand the content. Provide at least two concrete examples to illustrate this.

Question 22

How will the current focus on standardized testing influence your social studies planning?

Question 23

What can you do as a teacher to help students appreciate social studies? Select a unit topic and describe what you will do.