# data[].attributes.body
1. Casey, H. K. (2009). Engaging the Disengaged: Using Learning Clubs to Motivate Struggling Adolescent Readers and Writers. Journal of              Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(4), pp. 284-294).

2. Daniels, H. & Zemelman, S. (2014). Tools for Thinking: Reading Strategies Across the Curriculum. In H. Daniels, & S. Zemelman, Subjects            Matter: Help for Struggling Readers (2nd ed., pp 277-289). Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States of America: Heinemann.

3. Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N. (2007). Writing to Learn. In H. Daniels, S. Zemelman, & N. Steineke, Content Area Writing. (1st ed.,      pp 204-235). Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States of America: Heinemann.

4. James R. Squire Office of Policy Research. (2011). Communities of Practice: A Policy Research Brief. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of        English.

5. Kohnen, A. M. (2015). They’re Not Keeping a Journal of Feelings: Literacy Initiatives and Career and Technical Education. Journal of                    Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 58(8), pp. 660-669.

6. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), pp. 465-491.

7. Larson, L. R. & Lovelace, M. D. (2013). Evaluating the Efficiency of Questioning Strategies in Lecture-based Classroom Environments: Are We      Asking the Right Questions? Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 24(1), pp. 105-122.

8. National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). (2013). The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards:      Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History, pp. 1-108.

9. NYU Steinhardt. (2008). Culturally Responsive Differentiated Instructional Strategies. Metropolitan Center for Urban Education.

10. O’Neil, K. E. (2011). Reading Pictures: Developing Visual Literacy for Great Comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 65(3), pp. 214-223.

11. Polleck, J. & Shabdin, S. (2013). Building Culturally Responsive Communities. The Clearing House, 86, pp. 142-149.

12. Waring, S. M. & Robinson, K. S. (2010). Developing Critical and Historical Thinking Skills in Middle Grades Social Studies. Middle School                Journal, pp. 22-28.

# data[].attributes.headline
Context For Learning: Pickerington Central High School

# data[].attributes.subject
Context For Learning: Pickerington Central High School

# data[].attributes.body
1. About the School Where You Are Teaching:

The school where I am completing my student teaching is at a suburban high school in Pickerington, Ohio. The school consists of 1,665 students, 9th-12th grade, with various demographics within the student body. About 25% of the student body is African American, 5% of the demographic is Hispanic, 8% of the students have a multiracial background, 2% of the demographic are Asian students, and the remaining 60% are White students. Additionally, about 25% of the entire student population is economically disadvantaged with 3% of students being English Language Learners. Pickerington Central has some cultural diversity within the school and community which builds cultural responsiveness. The overall graduation rate is 97% and this number has decreased by one percent in the past five years.

The classroom setting where I am student teaching has no special features except for one class, which is an inclusion class and a Special Education teacher assists the class. Primarily, the classes that I teach are general education classes. The school setting does offer Honors and Advanced Placement courses but my mentor teacher does not teach such classes.

The requirements and expectations that might affect my planning and delivery of instruction is the required curricula that is needed for the AIR standardized test. The planning was discussed with the mentor teacher because the material presented must correlate with information that is tested on the American Institute of Research (AIR) test. My mentor teaches two preps, American History which is primarily for sophomores and Modern American Wars and this course is a social studies elective course open for all students 9th-12th grade. The Modern American Wars course has no standardized test unlike the American History prep which students are assessed for on the AIR test.

2. About the Class Featured in this Learning Segment:

The name of the course, specifically for this Context for Learning, is American History which students meet daily for 42 minutes for the entire school year. The school schedule consists of 9 periods and each period is 42 minutes. Students must enroll in this course because students are eventually tested on this class content during the AIR test. All American History courses in the state of Ohio requires sophomores to take this specific course, or an Advanced Placement (AP) course similar to it.

For this American History course, there is no ability grouping or tracking. All the students in this course have relatively balanced educational abilities and only a handful of them have IEPs or 504 Plans.

The textbook, The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century, for this course is used as a foundation to provide content during lectures and station activities. The publishing company is the Houghton Mifflin Company and the textbook was published in 2003. This textbook is used more as a reference rather than teaching the information from it to the class. Content is balanced from a variety of sources to incorporate multiple perspectives while telling the narrative of history.

List of other resources present in the classroom:

Personal Chromebooks for each student

PowerPoint with the Pear Deck Tool

Online articles and sources

Differentiated material such as vocabulary lists, definitions, and texts with highlighted words.

3. About the Students in the Class Featured in this Learning Segment:

For this American History course, the grade-level composition is 31 sophomores and one junior.

This course consists of 32 students in total with 15 female students and the remaining 17 are male students.

There are a variety of learners in this American History class and several have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and/or 504 plans.

Out of the 32 students, five of them have IEPs for learning disabilities. For these students, the best support and accommodations for them are to provide differentiated handouts with bolded words, guided notes for PowerPoint lectures, and highlighted words to focus on key concepts. Additionally, many students use their Chromebooks to complete course work but for students on IEPs, hardcopies are distributed to them to support their learning.

A total of six students have 504 Plans specifically for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Additional accommodations will support these students such as differentiated instructions that provide a variety of instructional activities and class material that will enhance student engagement in the classroom. Activities that involve movement, such as a stations activity, allow students to move freely around the room while learning social studies content.

One student in this course has specific language needs and is an English Language Learner. Supports for this student entail bolded words, key terms with definitions, and sentence starters during classroom discussions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why Document-Based Questions Are Important

# data[].attributes.subject
Why Document-Based Questions Are Important

# data[].attributes.body
Bloom's Taxonomy is an inquiry theory of teaching and using document-based questions is one successful practice that branches off from this concept. Bloom's Taxonomy consists of six categories of questioning which are remember,  understand, analyze, apply, evaluate, and create. This theory is used heavily in the classroom daily but one specific practice greatly incorporates this concept which is called a Document-Based Question (DBQ) activity. This is specifically used in a social studies classroom and it entails of various primary and secondary sources that students dissect to answer complex questions. I think this practice is important because it drives students to think extensively about the class topic. More specifically, these deeper thinking questions encourage students to analyze sources into chunks by breaking down the texts or images so they can critically dissect the information (Waring & Robinson, 2010).

This practice is effective because it teaches students literacy skills and the process of applying the knowledge they learned from breaking down the content. I think it is important for social studies teachers to utilize this practice and I will teach several DBQ lessons while student teaching. For the DBQ activity, it is imperative to be selective in the material to ensure that texts are not too difficult and to introduce key vocabulary to assist the analysis process (Daniels, Zemelman, & Steineke, 2007). To successfully incorporate this practice, the teacher must provide multiple texts because it will offer different perspectives. By providing multiple perspectives in the primary and secondary sources, it enables students to build their analysis abilities because of the various levels of Bloom questions. A DBQ is one effective practice that derives from Bloom's Taxonomy because it enables students to answer more complex questions thus increasing their knowledge and applying skills.

# data[].attributes.body
A culturally responsive classroom is a theory that teachers should greatly consider for daily planning and as a classroom norm that focuses on student-centered instruction. The concept of a culturally responsive classroom is a pedagogical approach that incorporates students' social experiences, backgrounds, and any prior learning knowledge into the class community to establish a more responsive culture (NYU Steinhardt, 2008). With this, one teaching practice that teachers should utilize to build a culturally responsive classroom is reflection journals which is a student-centered instruction. I think that the students are the core of the school community, and the community in general, and this practice enables students to learn skills at their own performance level. Specifically, using a technique where students use journals to reflect about material learned in class is based off student-centered instruction (Kohnen, 2015). This activity focuses on the student's thoughts which enables the teacher to assess their learning while allowing students to express themselves in their writing.

Reflection journals can be content driven but higher-level Bloom questions is key to ensure the journals are student centered. For example, asking broader style questions rather than questions that focus on restating information. I think that a practice of community enables individuals in the classroom to communicate respectively because it encourages students to support one another in multiple disciplines. Student-centered instruction can serve a common purpose that could potentially solve recurring issues with assignments and content during the student learning process (James R. Squire Office of Policy Research, 2011). Effective practices, like journal reflections, is a fundamental practice to the culturally responsive classroom theory that brings awareness to the classroom. These journals can be discussed in class enabling students the opportunity to teach one another. I think students need to understand each other's experiences to enhance their cultural awareness towards their fellow peers and reflection journals are one effective practice at incorporating a culturally responsive classroom.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the most important theories that teachers can utilize in their teaching practice is scaffolding. Scaffolding is an effective strategy that thoroughly supports students in the classroom. Modeling is a process where teachers model tasks as the students follow along on a step-by-step basis to enhance their understanding of the material and how to apply it to their work. This theory is very important to me because students learn in various forms and some need additional support to understand the material. Specifically, teachers who model assignments build student's mental processes of the skills they are improving on instead of them continually struggling with it (Daniels & Zemelman, 2014). I think that this method enables students to perform better academically due to the various formats in which a teacher can scaffold learning.

Besides modeling, some additional scaffolding techniques are differentiated instructions which offer multiple formats for student learning and using large amounts of visual aids which can enhance comprehension abilities for students (O'Neil, 2011). I think all of these practices are imperative to support student learning, but modeling helps students stride collectivity with the teacher to comprehend and apply the content. Scaffolding helps to chunk the teacher's lesson and providing tools, such as modeling, that will make learning easier to accomplish while also keeping the material engaging (Casey, 2009). This concept asserts the importance of modeling. I understand the importance of the scaffold-learning theory and I will not hesitate to utilize this teaching practice to enhance student learning while student teaching and during my teaching career.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why 4 Corners Are Important                                                                                                                                                                       

# data[].attributes.subject
Why 4 Corners Are Important                                                                                                                                                                       

# data[].attributes.body
Collaborative Learning is an effective theory that can encourage students to share ideas to enhance their knowledge. More importantly, this theory builds a sense of community in the classroom. Each student brings different experiences to the school community and incorporating a 4 Corners activity enables students to share information. I intend to implement this practice as often as possible when creating lesson plans. I think it is vital for teachers to use this method because it encourages a culturally responsive classroom. Specifically, "culturally responsive classrooms can and will increase students’ achievement" (Ladson-Billings 1995).

The sense of community and understanding leads to higher levels of success in the classroom which then transcends outside the community. I think that students explaining whether they agree or disagree on a topic, that is supported by their personal perspectives, creates a communal learning environment. Collaborative Learning can be effectively accomplished by planning an activity that enables students to know more about different backgrounds and how to learn multiple concepts and skills" (Polleck & Shabdin, 2013). I think that the practice of a 4 Corners activity is essential for teachers because it creates a safe learning environment that promotes classroom community among the students. I intend to utilize this teaching practice while student teaching and during my teaching career because it increases student achievement and engagement while also creating a sense of belonging.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why the C3 Framework Is Important                       

# data[].attributes.subject
Why the C3 Framework Is Important                       

# data[].attributes.body
Inquiry-based learning is highly effective at teaching students complex topics that incorporates deep thinking. Specifically, the C3 Framework provides teachers with an "inquiry arc" that focuses on the development of questions and how to apply them to various social studies disciplines such as history, geography, and economics (C3 Framework, 2013). I think inquiry-based questions structured from the C3 Framework are important because it pushes students to really dive into the material. Once the students have dissected the material, their knowledge on the topic they are learning can enable them to answer complex questions. The success of inquiry-based learning can be described as, "questions that engage higher-order processes such as application and interpretation" (Larson & Lovelace, 2013, p. 106).

I think that teachers who practice asking deeper-thinking questions, based off the C3 Framework, enable students to use their knowledge from the content presented in class. Additionally, this practice is important because it encourages students to share their ideas which enhances their understanding of the topic. For social studies, many topics are complex and controversial, and I intend to use this teaching practice in my classroom. Inquiry-based learning promotes deeper thinking skills in the classroom that ultimately echos across various curriculums which is why this theory is vital for teachers to practice and the C3 Framework can promote students to think more critically.