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I’m included in Larry Ferlazzo’s most recent, and always wonderful, Classroom Q&A.  This week’s question:  What are the differences between Project-Based, Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning? My response, in part:

The key question teachers should ask themselves about inquiry is who is actually doing the inquiry work. Early in my career, I thought I was doing inquiry-based learning, but really, I was the one doing inquiry, not my students. I had what I thought was a great unit on US Foreign Policy based on the question, “Why are we at War in Afghanistan?” which traced the development of US interventions from the Spanish American War to today. But I was the one doing all the work. Students learned lots of facts about various US interventions, but I was the one connecting everything. For explanatory questions such as the one I asked, it’s only inquiry learning if the students are the ones doing the connective work. It’s also essential that the answers to the questions need to be evidenced-based.

Read the whole piece here (free registration required).

Earlier today, I had the incredible and humbling honor to testify as a classroom teacher before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on testing and accountability within the reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act in an attempt to fix No Child Left Behind. I want to thank Senators Alexander and Murray for hosting me and the rest of the panel. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of discourse on the panel and the extent to which Senators listened and really engaged, through good questioning, with our ideas.
It was a surreal experience, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say soon. In the meantime, you can read my full testimony on the Shanker Blog or Washington Post’s Answer Sheet.

UPDATE: Video is available here:  I also submitted additional testimony in response to some questions from Senators, which is here.

Larry Ferlazzo’s always wonderful advice column has a particularly resonant question this week: How can we best respond to student grief after losing a loved one?  My response is one of many featured.  I also participated in a brief podcast on the issue, which you can listen to here.

I’ll be part of the group leading the second one, which is being held at my school on May 7. From the flyer:

THE ATSS/UFT CENTER FOR THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF SOCIAL STUDIES CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO: WHAT’S IN THE NEW SOCIAL STUDIES C3 INQUIRY ARC FOR ME?

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“The C3 Framework is the result of a three year effort led by more than 20 States with the cooperation of 15 Social Studies Content Organizations, including the National Council for the Social Studies, (ATSS/UFT is New York City Local Council affiliate). The C3 Framework was developed for states to upgrade their state social studies standards and for local school districts, schools, teachers and curriculum writers to strengthen their social studies programs. Its objectives are to: a) enhance the rigor of the social studies disciplines; b) build critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills to become engaged citizens; and c) align academic programs to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies.”

The event is free, but registration.  For more info, click the link below.

C 3 INQUIRY ARC May 3 workshop PDF flyer

My third piece on the C3 framework is up at C3teachers.org.  Comments and ideas are welcome and appreciated over there.

My second piece on the C3 framework, which will be of special interest to SBG folks, is up at C3teachers.org.  Comments and ideas are welcome and appreciated over there.

For the first time in three years, I’m teaching a history class this semester!  While I enjoy the Civics, Government, Econ, and English I teach the rest of the time, history will always feel most like home.  I’m trying something that might be a little crazy: a 100% open inquiry course, where what we learn is entirely based on students’ questions stemming from current events and issues.

This is very much tied into my thinking of the C3 Social Studies Framework, so I’m trying to blog pretty regularly about the course at shadowrocket小火箭apk.  The first piece on the class is up now:

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For the rest of the school year, I’m hoping to use this space to share thoughts on my continued relationship with the C3 as I try to implement it in one global classroom.  In this first post in the series, I want to give some context for my work.  While every school is unique, mine is especially so in many ways and it is important for readers to realize early on that I have rare freedom and flexibility. In subsequent posts, I’ll discuss the challenges I encounter, how I try to deal with them, and share my inevitable failures and hopeful triumphs.

Read the whole piece at C3teachers.org.

This Wednesday at 7 pm, there’s  a webinar hosted by the Center for Teaching Quality discussing the new national C3 Framework, which I love.  The webinar will feature Kathy Swan, the lead writer of the framework.  If you’re interested in joining the webinar, register here.  Here’s a full description of the webinar:

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards has been developed by CCSSO to guide and enhance the rigor of standards in civic, economics, geography, and history. Though states will be developing their own standards for these subjects, the pedagogical shifts implied by the framework will be felt in social studies classroom across the country. Find out from one of the framework’s authors–a practicing teacher–how you can begin to prepare. Bring your own challenges–we’ll devote part of the webinar to finding solutions together.

More urgently, Monday is the deadline for giving feedback on new New York Social Studies Framework.  My take went up on Chalkbeat NY this week (the re-branded Gotham Schools). There’s also a very thorough and thoughtful news piece on the Frameworkfrom Chalkbeat’s Patrick Wall.

If you’re a stakeholder in New York Education, please take the time this week or weekend to respond.  Before then, please forward this to all Social Studies teachers, administrators, and concerned parents that you know.  Here is the link to read the new Framework and submit feedback:

http://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-common-core-k-12-social-studies-framework

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K-thru-12socst

Here’s my piece: Continue reading Moving Social Studies Forward

I think I’m officially out of the habit of blogging at this point, but I have written a couple of pieces for other places recently:

• I have a piece up at C3Teachers.org.  If you’re a Social Studies teacher and you haven’t checked out the new C3 Framework yes, I highly recommend it. The site will be something special too as it expands over the course of the year.
• I was also recently asked to write a piece for the Education Funders Research Initiative discussing how NYC is doing on implementing Common Core: