Student Interview- Social Studies

Student Interview

If you had to explain to a stranger what social studies is, what would you say?

I would say social studies teaches us history.

What is history?

Like life long ago, it’s stuff that happened a really long time ago.

What kind of stuff?

You know, school and life.

What are important social studies topics?

Timelines, life long ago, transportation, communication, and school long ago.

Why are transportation and communication important social studies topics?

Because of all the inventions.

What kind of inventions?

The invention of the telephone, the invention of the car, you know, inventions like that.

Why do you think you are learning social studies?

Because Mrs. R wants to teach us about life long ago.

How can you use social studies in your everyday life? Can you give some examples?

No, I only use social studies at school.

Your teacher says, “It’s time for social studies.” What is going to happen? What will you be doing? What will Mrs. R be doing?

We will put our math book away and sit on the floor close to the board. Mrs. R will be teaching and I will be listening.

When you see someone who is good at social studies, what kinds of things can this person do?

They listen, know how to do the activity and they learn.

Do you think everyone can do well in social studies if they try?

Yeah!

Is social studies something that is useful to know? Why?

Yeah! If you know about social studies you can compare life long ago to now.

Are you good at social studies? Why?

Yes, because I try my hardest.

How do you best learn social studies?

Mrs. R and you teach social studies the best.

So, you learned social studies best when you have a good teacher?

Yes!

Is social studies your favorite subject? Why or why not?

No, Social Studies is okay, but I like math better.

Student Interview- Math

Student Interview: View of Mathematics

If I had no idea what math meant, what would you tell me? Or what is math?

Math is math books, which are kind of like homework. In math we do math stations and Mrs. B and now you help our class with math stations.

What are math stations?

Math stations are where we get in our small groups and go around the room doing different math activities. Sometimes we play math games on the mini iPADs and sometimes we play games like Money Bingo.

What are important math topics?

Subtraction, adding, knowing the minus and plus signs and learning about money. Math Bingo is important too because it helps us learn how much a dime, quarter, and penny is worth.

What do you think you are learning in math?

We are learning subtraction and have a test on Wednesday. I hope I am in your group! (They take their tests in small groups too).

How will you use math? Can you give me some examples?

I use math to add, subtract and count.

What are some examples?

Oh, um, 5+5=10 and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.10- That is counting.

Is there usually one-way to solve a problem or more than one way?

More than one way, that is the fun part about math!

Your teacher says, “It’s time for math.” What is going to happen (what will you be doing, what will the teacher be doing?)”

We don’t do whole class lessons. Mrs. R works with kids at stations. Us kids go through stations and we play games like Face Off and Math Bingo. We work in small groups in stations and sometimes we count coins other times we do our math page.

When you see someone who is good at math, what kinds of things can this person do?

They can do lots of things but they do it well. If they are really good, I say to myself, “Wow! They are really good!” It makes me happy they are working so hard.

Do you tell your friends they are really good at math?

Yes! It makes me happy!

Do you think everybody can do well in math if they try?

Yes!

Who is good at math?

Me, Mrs. R, Anders*, my mom and my dad are all good at math.

Is math something useful to know? Why?

Yes, it’s fun and we use it every day!

Are you good at math?

Yes!

Why do you think so?

I am good at math because I try and I don’t give up even when I get the wrong answer.

How is math best learned?

Math is best learned in the classroom with Mrs. R or at home with my mom or dad.

So you like to be in small groups or working one on one with a parent or teacher?

Yes, I don’t like big groups.

How do you learn math best?

Um, sometimes I learn best in small group and sometimes I learn best in large group.

Is math your favorite subject?

Yes!

Why is math your favorite subject?

Because adding is easy but we are doing hard subtraction and it challenges me.

Handprint Parent Gift

6 steps:
1. Make Salt Dough
2. Get child's hand print
3. Let dry
4. Paint hand print
5. Modpodge
6. Add ribbon 

To Make the Salt Dough:
**No baking required (Takes a few days to harden)
1/2 cup Salt
1/2 cup Flour
1/4 cup Water

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

A Timeline About Me

During our social studies unit about life long ago, we learned about timelines. Each student created a timeline and above is my example. I used this template and altered it because I wanted students to use dates instead of writing prompts. Students shared their timelines with the class and we all learned a lot about each other.

School Long Ago

In November, we started our social studies unit on life long ago. I taught a lesson on school long ago. I looked at our social studies book and it had two pages of information on school long ago. It was 3 paragraphs and I knew these first graders were capable of more than that. I kept the lesson objective the same as textbook, "Compare and contrast your school to one of long ago." I did research on Google and created my own PowerPoint. The PowerPoint was 20 slides long and covered Hornbooks, Dunce caps, quill pens, one room school houses, child responsibilities, subjects taught and more.

Here is one what my mentor teacher wrote about my lesson, "Ms. S taught a lesson in social studies about history. Our unit is comparing life long ago to now. She compared what school was like long ago to school now. She created a wonderful PowerPoint presentation complete with excellent photographs and visuals so students could compare and contrast school long ago to now. She also created an assessment where students had to write a sentence or two about school long ago and had to cut and paste pictures from school long ago into a school house. Both the PowerPoint presentation and assessment will be ones that I use in the future. They were so appropriate and engaging. After grading the assessment, we could truly see which students met the standard and which will need some re-teaching."

This is usually a lesson my mentor teacher skips so I was pretty excited when she asked if she could keep and use my PowerPoint and activity for the future. Below are some student examples of the assessment I created: