Social studies of the present day!

Today I observed two groups' current events presentations. The first presentation by Felicia, Patricia, and Susan was very engaging, and the topic was very interesting. The topic was about 89 year old WWII vet, Richard Faulkner, who during his service declined his Purple Heart medal when his plane was destroyed in a crash. Today, Faulkner is requesting his medal in order to have something to pass onto his grandchildren. The teachers assigned topics to members of the class, and asked us to write a response to the article on a notecard using that specific "lens" of writing. For example, my response to the article was using an argumentative lens, which questioned if it was right for Faulkner to request his Purple Heart medal after so many years. I really liked the idea for writing in different lenses because it helped me to focus my writing, and look at an article from a different angle.

After finishing our responses, we were asked to come to the front of the class to tape our notecard to the "cube". I thought the cube was very engaging because it was a great way to display the class's responses in an appealing way. If used in elementary grades, I feel that this activity would be a big hit.

The second group of Julia, and Jean did the current events on digitalized libraries. I thought this was an interesting article because it is exciting to see that libraries are including more electronic resources. I like this article for current events because it is something that would effect children in elementary grades, teachers, and college students alike. I thought the "popcorn reading" was a great way to quickly read the article without boring the class with "round-robin reading." The quiz used at the end of the presentation was a engaging way to end the lesson, and tested how much I remembered from the article.

In all honesty, for both groups my only "wish" was that the groups had more time to present. The both had interesting articles, and fun activities to go along with them. Great job!

Read the article HERE