Examining the State Framework and CSET Overview for Social Science they
seem to be pretty similar, where the CSET is pretty much a wide variety of
content from World History, United States History, California History,
Economics, and Government/Civics. The State Framework goes into more depth
looking at each grade level from K-12 and gives more specific objectives and
standards. So, for discrepancies between the two is just the level of detail
needed to be covered from each grade level.
In my teaching experience I have found that the State Framework has been
very useful to reflect on my subject and guide me in the right direction of
what the major events within my content area are that need to be covered, but
beyond that a quick look at the State Framework I pretty much keep the book on
my shelf at home. Most of the textbooks that I have used all have the State
Standards at the beginning of the text and at the beginning of each new chapter
on which Standards will be covered. As for really knowing my content I have
found myself within a new subject teaching that I try to follow those Standards
as closely as I can, but with experience I start to tweak how the content is
delivered and vary a little to deliver the content the best way for all the
students to understand and can flow with it.
With examining my United States History teaching year already looking at
my gaps coming in the pre-colonial times and post-Vietnam era, I will examine
the gaps in other fields that I have taught and most likely will teach again in
the future. First starting with World History (tenth grade) I’d have to say
that my biggest gap would be the Asian history. And when I say Asian History I
am talking about all of Asia; Japan, China, India, Middle East, etc. My gap
would be from the time period previous to where most of these countries were
independent from European influence, as my interest has always been in European
History that I really lack the content needed to explain why a lot of the
events occurred within the Asian region. I manage when I teach the subject as
World History has more of a Eurocentric viewpoint, but I really want to know
more for my personal understanding and in case I have students that want to
know more depth and I could be able to share that with them.
The other subject that I find that I have gaps in that I have taught in
the past and again could teach again in the future is Government/Civics (twelfth
grade). Even though my Major in college was Political Science I feel that this
is one subject that I have a lot of gaps in. Looking at the State Frameworks
book as the focus is on the American Political System there is a lot on how our
government works but you only have one semester to do all of this. A lot of the
fundamentals are assumed to have been learned in previous years, such as 8th
Grade U.S. History with the Constitution and then again in 11th
Grade U.S. History, but the depth of the concepts that need to be learned
already are not and it’s hard to re-teach all the fundamentals and to then go
for much more in-depth with our system of government in the short amount of
time given. As for my strengths in this subject is the theory and practice of
our government and when I have taught it in the past I like to bring up as much
current issues as possible to hold a discussion/debate to practice the key
concepts that we need to learn and understand how these issues affect us all. So,
I would say that this is one area that I do the most deviations in with regards
to the State Frameworks. Another piece that I feel I have a gap in within this
subject area is a similar one that I have with United States History is the
Supreme Court case in regards to the depth needed to know about all the various
cases.
I hope to continue to learn and explore all the fields of history to
continue to strengthen my gaps within my teaching and to grow my content
knowledge to better prepare my students with the most important and relevant
information to all them all to succeed. As an educator I have taken on the
responsibility of being a lifelong learner and I look forward to what I still
can learn and bridging those gaps in my content knowledge. One thing that I
think will truly help with regards to United States History and
Government/Civics is visiting Washington D.C., which I have wanted to do for some
time now to further my understanding of this country and how it functions from
a personal experience.
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