My name is Kate Rasmussen. I am proudly embarking on my fifth and final year at Utah State University. So far I have half of a music minor under my belt, the equivalent of several art minors, and most of my teaching major completed. As you can tell from my unnecessarily extensive education, I have a variety of interests. I love art and music and consider creativity to be my greatest talent. I also love the outdoors. I particularly enjoy hiking, fishing, canoeing, and just about any outdoor activity that doesn't demand too high a level of coordination or skill.
I am also a hardworking and hopeful aspiring secondary education teacher. I am 22, although I am often told I look young enough to be in high school. I guess I'll fit right in! When I graduate, I will be certified with a Social Studies Composite Teaching Major. In other words, I will be able to teach history, geography, political science, psychology, sociology, and economics. Economics is at the end of the list because, for the sake of myself and my future students, it is the one subject I will hopefully never be teaching.
For me, social studies means studying and making sense of the world. I was drawn to this subject because it is a necessary and undervalued part of a complete education. Students who understand social studies are better able to read their world and are empowered to change it.
Literacy and social studies are deeply connected. My definition of literacy embodies skills such as synthesizing across sources, effectively expressing ideas, and having the ability to think and analyze critically. In every social studies subject, these skills are needed. Within social studies, students are forced to look at and understand different perspectives and come to individual conclusions. Students also need to express conclusions and ideas in a coherent way that can be shared with others. Literacy is a necessary tool in acquiring knowledge within the social sciences.
social studies
Hi Kate...thanks for your first posting. My favorite sentence was the following: "Literacy and social studies are deeply connected. My definition of literacy embodies skills such as synthesizing across sources, effectively expressing ideas, and having the ability to think and analyze critically." This quotation reminds me of the work of Sam Wineburg, a Stanford professor who does research on literacy in history. He says that reading in history includes noting how the affiliation of the author influences what s/he is saying; corroborating across sources; and noting how the local context of the text (e.g., time period, location, audience for the text and position of the writer) influenced what was said. I posted this comment on Duren's blog as well, but a lot of the research on critical literacy first came out of Wineburg's work on what it means to read like a historian. I think your blog posting summarized a lot of Wineburg's ideas nicely. Thanks for your posting and I look forward to reading more of your ideas as the semester progresses.
ReplyDeleteP. S. Here is a link to some of Wineburg's teaching resources if you're interested:
http://sheg.stanford.edu/
Leave it to Kate to design the most aesthetically pleasing blog. If anyone does not know... Kate is a fantastic artist.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised to hear that you dislike economics. I personally like history, geography, and economics best. I most dislike political science, psychology, and sociology.
You are exactly right when you say that social studies is one of the most important yet undervalued subjects in school. I totally agree. I am surprised that we haven't seen a shift lately that puts more emphasis on social studies, especially with the amount of social conflict emerging from around the world.
In looking through a little of Wineburg's teaching material it was interesting to see just how closely linked critical literacy and history are. Amy is exactly right in saying that your blog posting summarized Wineburg's ideas nicely.
Great blog, I really like your title.
That's funny that economics is the last thing you would want to teach, because that's the one that interests me the most. I guess all thanks to a great economics teacher in high school. I like how you look at social studies though. It kind of draws everything together and I've never really looked at it like that. We have a shifting world, and one thing that could definitely benefit us is being able to understand each other!
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