Powerful Social Studies

1. Challenging

1.1. Works hard to develop a learnng community. The class is like there own little community that has rules and boundaries. They learn to all work together co-operatively

1.2. being thoughtful and having a sense of purpose was one of the things I seen in the video. The teacher was thoughtful and considered all the many types of holidays that different cultures celebrate all around the world. She wanted to teach the children that even though they may be different cultures that all people celebrate holidays and there is a common reason why we all celebrate christmas (light).

2. Active

2.1. Plans for student interaction and hands on activities: The teacher had many hands on activities thoughout the video, the students even got to make rice pudding. The centres really help students interact with their peers, and even start to help each other out.

2.2. Provides guidance but also encourages more and more independance: at one point in the video the teacher is asking the little girl what she should do with the rest of the paper. Cut it or roll it, she let the child decide for herself what she wanted to do, I noticed that while students were in their centers they did not need much help from the teacher whch promotes independance.

3. Meaningful

3.1. Students cultural identities are taken into consideration when material is taught, helps students see importance of content: The teacher made sure toinclude as many traditions as each culture celebrated in that holiday.

3.2. Students are taught to make connectons between prior knowledge, previously studied content and new material: there were a few instances in the video where the teacher would ask the students what they previously learned which connects to what was being taught. there was one spot where the teacher asks the students about native americans and what they learned about them.

4. Integrative

4.1. Centres (which integrated other subjects. ie art, math.

4.2. Integrates across time and space: they examined previously about native americans, and how people celebrate holidays in the present.

5. Value-Based

5.1. Teachers are aware of their own values: the teacher made it cear that she loves to use literature "as it helps students learn the rich language, and understanding different perspectives of authors" this is something that the teacher values and she wants the students to learn that also.

5.2. students engage in experiences that develop fair-mindedness: she made sure to include all the different types of holidays so that each student would be able to connect with one of the holidays, and that the students would learn to understand others way of celebrating the holidays.