Murray State University
COMMON SYLLABUS
DEPARTEMENT: HIS COURSE NUMBER: HIS 361 CREDIT HOURS: 3
I. Title: HIS 361-01 Teaching History
"Labor omnia vincit improbus."
from Virgil, Georgics
II. Catalog Description: A course offering practical approaches for teaching history in the public schools using a concepts-and-problems approach. The course will focus on either the history of the United States or world history, and therefore could be taken twice for credit if the focus is different the second time. Consult the department chair.
III. Purpose: This course (or EDU 303) is required for secondary certification in History and the Social Studies. The purpose of the course is to provide future teachers with the necessary tools to become exemplary secondary History and Social Studies teachers. Students will examine and compare different Social Studies disciplines, and explore ways to integrate those disciplines. Students will learn classroom organization and management techniques. Students will be introduced to a broad range of teaching strategies, and will be provided with opportunities to demonstrate those strategies in classroom settings. For the greater significance of this course, consider the following quotations:
"Then let us not leave the meaning of education ambiguous or ill-defined. . . .For we are not speaking of education in this narrower sense, but of that other education in virtue from youth upwards, which makes a [person] eagerly pursue the ideal perfection of citizenship, and teaches him how rightly to rule and obey. . . . That other sort of training, which aims at the acquisition of wealth or bodily strength, or mere cleverness, apart from intelligence and justice, is mean and illiberal, and it is not worthy to be called education at all."
Plato, The Laws
"I have this romantic idea of teaching as gift exchange. What matters is if I reach a few students at a level that transforms them and gets them to see the world in a different way. Gift exchange. Sure, teaching is method and information, but it's something else, a gift, an enrichment of your life, a transformation that you spend the rest of your life discovering." Ron Sharp, Kenyon College
"And gladly would he learn and gladly teach."
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
"For most of us, the communication of beauty takes two, the teacher and the hearer, the pointer and the looker. . . . The teacher points and says Look; the response is Yes, I see."
Walker Percy
IV. Required Textbooks: Teaching the Social Sciences and History
in Secondary Schools: A Methods Book (Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc., 2000)
James M. Banner, Jr., and Harold C.
Cannon, The Elements of Teaching
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999)
V. Course Objectives: (Numbers in parentheses indicate Kentucky's New Teacher Standards (KNTS). See Syllabus attachment, “New Teacher Standards and Benchmarks.”)
Students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the similarities and differences between various disciplines in the Social Studies curriculum. (KNTS - I, III, V, VIII)
2. Plan ways to integrate various disciplines in the classroom. (KNTS - I, II, V, VIII)
3. Demonstrate an understanding of planning for instruction by preparing a unit of study with daily lesson plans. (KNTS - I, V)
4. Demonstrate a variety of appropriate teaching skills and strategies. (KNTS - I, II, III)
5. Demonstrate effective instructional strategies through the completion of a microteaching experience.
(KNTS - I, II, III)
6. Demonstrate the effective classroom use of various visual and auditory media. KNTS - I, II, III)
7. Demonstrate the effective use of technology in and out of the classroom. (KNTS - I, II, III, IX)
8. Develop and model effective techniques of classroom management. (KNTS - II, III)
9. Demonstrate the ability to assess learning through a variety of techniques.
(KNTS - IV, V)
10. Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of behaviors advocated by the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program and the Kentucky Education Reform Act guidelines.
(KNTS - I-IX)
*KNTS [Kentucky New Teacher Standards]
VI. A Disclaimer: HIS 361 Teaching History is a methods course. Nothing can substitute for a sound knowledge base. Although this is a methods course, you must realize that all the methodology in the world cannot replace or cover over a lack of sound content knowledge. Notice how Kentucky’s Academic Expectations for Social Studies dovetail with the National Council for the Social Studies Curriculum Standards:
Kentucky Academic Expectations NCSS Curriculum Standards
2.14 Understanding democratic 10. Civic ideals and practice
principals
2.15 Describe various forms of 6. Power, authority, and
government governance
2.16 Observe, analyze, and 4. Individual development
interpret human and identity
behaviors, social 5. Individuals, groups, and
groupings, and institutions
institutions
(individuals and groups)
2.17 Interact and cooperate with 1. Culture and cultural
ethnic and cultural diversity
groups (nation and world) 9. Global connections
2.18 Understanding economic 7. Production, distribution,
principals consumption
2.19 Understanding the relationship 3. People, places, and
between people and environments
geography
2.20 Historical perspective 2. Time, continuity, and
change
8. Science, technology, and society
(NCSS Standards 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10 included here as well)
The primary aim of Murray State University’s teacher preparation program is to educate individuals who will become Reflective Decision-Makers, that is, candidates who demonstrate the proficiencies delineated by Kentucky’s New Teacher Standards and the indicators articulated by the learned societies of their disciplines (in our case the National Council for the Social Studies). Kentucky’s New Teacher Standards and the standards of the National Council of the Social Studies, as well as the Kentucky Core Content (basic content knowledge to be learned by Kentucky public school students) and the Social Studies sections of the Praxis Examinations (Content Knowledge 0081 and Interpretation of Materials 0083) are covered in various required or recommended courses in the Social Studies Secondary Teacher Certification Program at Murray State University (CIV 101, CIV 102, HIS 221, HIS 222, POL 140, SOC 133, GSC 110, ECO 231, PSY 180, HIS 361). Other upper-level elective courses in your major and minor will supplement and strengthen your preparation.
VII. Grading and Testing Procedures: Course grades will be based on the following criteria:
Teaching Notebook...... 200
Discipline Studies Report...... 100
Microteaching Demonstration...... 100
Unit Examination ...... 100
A = 450-500
B = 400-449
C = 350-399
D = 300-349
E = below 300
1. Teaching Notebook: Students will be required to organize and compile a Teaching Notebook. The Teaching Notebook will include a weekly journal, a Unit of Study (planned by the student and complete with daily lesson plans), reflection on activities assignments, and other entries. The Teaching Notebook will be due on 27 November 2006. An outline of materials to be included in the Teaching Notebook will be distributed by the instructor.
2. Discipline Studies Reports: Due on 18 September 2006, these reports will focus on a particular Social Science Discipline other than History (Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Economics, Anthropology, or Geography). The reports will include oral and written components.
3. Microteaching Sessions: Class Sessions on 9 October, 16 October, 23 October, 30 October, and 6 November 2006 will be devoted to videotaped Microteaching Sessions. You will teach, and your peers will make up your class. Again, more information on this assignment will be given later in the semester.
5. Final Examination: The Final Examination on 11 December 2006 will cover Chapters 13, 14, and 15, as well as discussions on November 13, 20, and 27, and December 4. Synthesis and application of this material will be stressed on the examination.
VIII. Make-up Examination Policy: No make-up examinations will be given for the Final Examination.
IX. Academic Honesty Policy: Plagiarism and cheating are serious academic offenses at Murray State University. Students are to avoid giving or receiving information on tests or examinations, using any unauthorized aids on tests or examinations, or submitting someone else's work for their own on tests or examinations or any other class assignments. Please refer to the Murray State University 2005-2007 Undergraduate Bulletin, p. 10.
X. Attendance Policy: Class attendance is required. Each student should attend each class session from 6:00-9:00. Roll will be taken. Class attendance will influence borderline grading decisions. Chronic absenteeism will definitely affect the student's final grade, and students with 4 or more unexcused absences will receive a failing course grade.
XI. Important Advice for Student Success: You are preparing for a career as a classroom teacher. Just as you prepare to be a model teacher, it is crucial that you perform as a model student this semester and throughout your life. Don't ask your students of the future to meet standards that you are unwilling to meet at present.