Standard+1

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__** 1 Teachers know the subjects they are teaching **__ The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines she or he teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils.

Evidence1: [|Globalization Wordle Directions and Rubric] [|Wordle Website]

Rationale 1: A current global issue studied in 8th grade social studies is globalization. Students are introduced to several aspects of globalization including its causes and effects in relation to world trade, culture, transportation and governance. Following the acquisition of knowledge, students are exposed to several types of materials that pose the positives and negatives of globalization. The evidence for this standard comes in a formal assessment using the Wordle website for making word clouds. After evaluating both perspectives on globalization, students must develop an opinion and be able to support it. This opinion is presented in a wordle where the student must use good word choice and design to visually present their perspective and support. The evidence provided includes the website, as well as my blog post that demonstrated an example of a wordle for this assessment.

The use of the Wordle website for an assessment of my content was beneficial to the development of my content knowledge as a social studies educator. In order for students to be able to synthesize an educated opinion, I needed to be sure I had provided them with enough materials that were age appropriate, reading level appropriate and relevant to the issue to evaluate the concept. If they didn’t have quality materials, they were not going to be able to think critically to make their word cloud. Students would struggle to determine what words to include and emphasize. However, using my background knowledge of the content topic, I was able to find primary and secondary materials for students’ learning. The process of finding grade level appropriate materials for complex social studies concepts expanded my content knowledge. The materials used were important to the knowledge growth and development of my students, too, because they had materials that they could relate to on an academic level and personal level during mastery of the content.

KSD: 1.K.1 The teacher understands the major concepts, assumptions, debates, processes of inquiry, and ways of knowing that are central to the discipline(s) s/he teaches.

Globalization is a current global issue that involves all aspects of the social studies field and provides for controversy. Using Wordle allowed students to internally debate a concept and then visually debate their opinion with other students. Students had to pass far beyond the thinking levels of knowledge and comprehension and reach levels of evaluation and synthesis of one of the discipline’s most all-consuming concepts.

1.S.6 The teacher creates an interdisciplinary learning experience, that encourages students to integrate knowledge, skills, and methods of inquiry from several subject areas.

The creation of word clouds required important Language Arts skills. Word choice was central to delivering a message without sound. Students had to deliberate on which words most effectively delivered their message. After choice of word, the student then needed to evaluate the level of emphasis shown in relation to each word. Which words should be bigger than others, what words play a smaller role in my opinion? Once word and size were determined, a design aesthetic came into play. Using an artistic eye, students needed to select a font, color and layout that made the word cloud attractive, yet interpretable.

1.D.2 The teacher appreciates multiple perspectives and conveys to learners how knowledge is developed from the vantage point of the learner.

An important aspect of becoming a productive global citizen is to be able to weigh an argument from different perspectives before developing an opinion. Once the opinion is developed, one must be able to support it with relevant and intellectual evidence. Students must be taught to adjust their clouded glasses in order to step into another’s shoes so they can gain more insight to an opposing perspective. Delivering a perspective in more than just a verbal way is also essential to a global society that can understand each other. The preparation and creation of a word cloud in Wordle allowed for students to practice both seeing an argument from all sides and seeing all sides of an argument.