ELA, Social Issues, Technology, and Grade 6 SocSt. Curriculum.....

My first degree is a BA(adv) in Sociology, and I realized that a) it took me 4 years to acquire all the jargon and concepts to be able to have some understanding of social science; and that b) after acquiring all that knowledge I didn't have a clue how to speak about it in everyday English to a non-sociology grad. I don't know if that experience really colours my experience teaching middle years social studies, but somehow I STILL look at the curricula and think, "My gosh, how many years of university did it take me to make sense of some of this stuff!!!)

I still struggle with "teaching the skills" as Prof. Dhand would say, and covering the curriculum.

One attempt for me is tying the study of literature 2ith the study of social issues. A few years ago, my (then) co-grade 5/6 teacher and I decided we didn't like any of the Canadianized American ELA reading programs, and so we decided to order various novels from Oxford University Press (which yes, are unabashedly British). While a lot of work, I've found that having these novel sets have given me instructional flexibility. I have some novels that are written at a 2-3 year reading level, and a middle level interest level. I have some that are at year 5 and 6 reading and interest level, and I have some that can provide enrichment.

I have created a page of Youtube video links to add to the study of the social issues aspect of the novel studies.

On Thursday when no students were here, Donna helped me via Skype to create a new page of video links for my Grade 5 and 6 page. (The few students who were in the lab thought I was off my nut speaking into my computer screen!) I found some cool stuff, and a lot of school project type stuff (well, Youtube IS democratic!!!) I even found out that Grace the Pirate isn't just a level 3 reading story, she is in fact an historically documented Irish female leader of the Elizabethan age.

We haven't been able to start the novel studies yet...Monday's the day. I hope all this work is worthwhile.