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3rd Grade Social Studies test

Submitted by Reggie on Tue, 04/22/2008 - 18:10

My third grade daughter has a Social Studies test today. I've been helping her study over the last few days. She's been asked to memorize the Great Lakes, capitals of some states and come other general geographic locations. It's been grating on me that this is the type of assessment, the type of work that she's been asked to do.

She can get the answers to these questions at any libary, or off the internet in a few minutes. Instead of teaching her something rich in context, information or how to find reliable sources, she's memoring.

This has been written about many times before, but when it's my daughter its hard to smile and encourage her without ripping up her assignment in frustration. 

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Essential knowledge

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 13:05.

As a special ed teacher and tech coordinator I constantly struggle with what is essential knowledge and what is trivia. I have students in my high school class who still do not know the difference between a city, state or country. Yes they are sped students, but they are within the normal range of IQ. Will it matter in their lives if they don't know where the Great Lakes are or even the names of 2 of them. I think it does. The social walking around knowledge most of us have allows us to communicate more effectively because we can assume the other person has a core of essential social knowledge. If we did not have this core essential social knowledge we would have to explain the Cold War when we are talking about our political views. Yes we can all look up the Cold War on the internet and be over whelmed by the amount of information, but that does us no good as we are having a conversation with a co-worker, date, peer, friend. My worry is that students that don't develop this core knowledge will be marginalized, I see it with the students in my class.
I do agree that school spend too much time teaching trivia and not problem solving skills, but I also believe that we need to be careful that we don't trivialize essential knowledge.

Good point...

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 15:42.

Your observations are certainly valid. I also work closely with a teacher that covers Life Skills for our school's special ed population. Her task is to 'arm' her students with the kind of information that allows them to function on a daily basis.

I guess my frustration stems from the fact that this is pretty much all my daughter seems to get. While she'll have some of that core knowledge, the tools and strategies that will allow her to ultimately build that core knowledge herself are not being taught.

However knowing one's students and understanding the context in which they learn and their abilities is what makes teacher's so valuable. A single 'solution' for all is impracticable.