Deck 2: How Do Students Engage in Powerful and Meaningful Social Studies

Question 1

Which of the following questions is NOT one that a teacher would ask when planning the development phase of the learning cycle?

A) How should the social studies idea, skill, or attitude be practiced, modeled, or demonstrated?
B) What activities can be provided to help special learners or to provide additional practice for those who may need it?
C) What other social studies concepts or generalizations are related to our topic of study?
D) What strategies or techniques can be used to assess the level of all students' understanding of the social studies idea, skill, or attitude?

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT a student behavior consistent with instructional strategies use in the exploratory introduction?

A) Think freely about the topic.
B) Suspend judgment.
C) Form new predictions.
D) Seek one solution.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following is a teacher behavior consistent with teaching an exploratory introduction for a lesson or unit?

A) Provide definitions and explanations of the new ideas to be learned.
B) Point out the best evidence and data students have in the materials they are using.
C) Guide students in how to use their skills to solve the problems they are confronting.
D) Observe and listen to students' comments and questions.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a teacher behavior consistent with the exploratory introduction?

A) Generate curiosity.
B) Provide definitions and answers.
C) Ask probing questions to redirect students' investigation.
D) Observe and listen to students' interactions.

Question 5

When teachers base their instructional decisions on knowledge of how students learn, they increase their ability to develop social studies lessons through which students will successfully learn.

Question 6

The middle part of the learning cycle is teacher guided as students:

A) are first presented with the definitions on which the lesson focuses.
B) read the textbook and avoid interacting with classmates.
C) are given one example of the lesson's topic to memorize.
D) are involved in activities that explain the content and provide multiple examples of it.

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT a behavior desired from students involved in a lesson's expansion?

A) Ask related questions that encourage future investigation.
B) Apply newly learned definitions and skills.
C) Take a written test on what they have learned.
D) Draw reasonable conclusions from new evidence.

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a major purpose of the exploratory introduction?

A) Relate prior knowledge to the new social studies idea or skill.
B) Bring out and make public students' prior knowledge about the lesson topic.
C) Get students to give correct answers to questions about the topic.
D) Introduce a new social studies idea or skill.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the development phase of the learning cycle?

A) It explains social studies through a variety of teaching methods.
B) It has students seek more information so they can better explain ideas.
C) It summarizes or provides a closure on the learning of new ideas.
D) It accepts all students' ideas without questioning their accuracy.

Question 10

The last part of the learning cycle social studies lesson is the expansion. In this phase of the lesson, students:

A) use the newly learned ideas in situations that are different from the one in which it was learned.
B) do a "fun" food or art activity that is somewhat related to the lesson's topic but mainly allows student to relax.
C) take a test on the new concept to help the teacher be sure they have learned it.
D) do follow-up homework that involves them in individually reviewing the concept.

Question 11

As a result of the exploratory introduction, the teacher might discover that:

A) students have many misconceptions to modify before the generalization can be learned.
B) students will need more structure in your assignments to teach the generalization.
C) students will need more concrete materials or examples than anticipated if they are to learn the generalization.
D) students will need all of the above.
E) students will need none of the above.

Question 12

In the exploratory introduction phase of the learning cycle, teachers:

A) define all new concepts and terms of the lesson or unit.
B) provide minimal guidance for student interactions with the content.
C) go over the objectives of the lesson or unit.
D) control students' reactions with carefully selected materials.

Question 13

As the social studies learning cycle begins, students should be engaged in:

A) taking a pretest that will enable the teacher to find out just what they know about the lesson's topic.
B) a task that involves them in applying their prior knowledge to a task that reveals to the students that they need different knowledge to solve the task.
C) listening to the reading of a book on the lesson's topic that will be of interest to them and will affirm the ideas they have.
D) writing down a list of everything they know about the topic.

Question 14

Meaningful learning in social studies is an active process. Students are involved in:

A) recalling memorized knowledge so that they can answer a question.
B) reviewing the definitions of major concepts.
C) accessing both prior experiences and prior knowledge and applying them to a problem on which they are working.
D) all of the above.

Question 15

Which of the following behaviors is NOT consistent with the teacher's behaviors during the lesson development phase?

A) Accept student explanations without justifications.
B) Help students link previous experiences to the topic.
C) Encourage students to explain ideas in their own words.
D) Provide explanations and new labels for concepts.

Question 16

Designing a lesson as a learning cycle adapts instructional procedures to help students:

A) create a freestanding item of knowledge.
B) construct new knowledge and restructure existing knowledge.
C) apply their knowledge in situations similar to the one in which it was learned.
D) recall previous knowledge.

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT a teacher behavior consistent with the development phase?

A) Help students to link previous experience to the social studies being studied.
B) Focus mainly on creating interest in the topic being studied.
C) Lead students step by step to define a new social studies concept.
D) Explain how to work step by step to learn a new skill.

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT a student behavior appropriate to do in the lesson development phase?

A) Question others' explanations.
B) Examine data resources.
C) Listen critically to others' explanations.
D) All of the above are proper student behaviors.

Question 19

A teacher creates an activity that presents students with a confusing situation. Students realize they are only partially familiar with the situation. This is an ideal type of activity for which phase of the learning cycle?

A) Exploratory introduction
B) Lesson development
C) Expansion
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 20

Traditional teaching focuses on:

A) the presentation of material by an authority, usually the teacher and/or the textbook.
B) facilitating students' efforts to make connections between their prior knowledge and new experiences.
C) using activities that convince students their existing idea does not work so they need to use the new idea built in the lesson.
D) confronts students' existing knowledge by helping them find it does not work in the new situation in which they find themselves.

Question 21

The expansion phase may be short or may involve out-of-school activities, or homework.

Question 22

The expansion phase of the lesson includes a review or demonstration of learning from the lesson development phase.

Question 23

In the exploratory introduction there is minimal guidance or expectations on the part of the teacher.

Question 24

When planning lessons teachers need to incorporate clear examples of social studies ideas for students to study.

Question 25

The expansion phase seeks to stabilize learning and assure that it is stored in the long-term memory.

Question 26

The expansion phase provides additional time and experiences that may modify what was learned in the development phase of the lesson and bring about conceptual change.

Question 27

Failure to include related expansion activities in a lesson or unit may result in the students forgetting what has been learned in the previous phases of the learning cycle.

Question 28

The best exploratory introductions ask students to begin the lesson by making a list or diagram of their present knowledge of the topic for study.

Question 29

Teachers who use the learning cycle design for their lessons and units have no reason to use multiple-choice or true-false test questions.

Question 30

Because social studies content is based on how people live, it is possible that students can learn about a social studies topic in another time period or place about which they have no or very little knowledge.

Question 31

During the development phase teachers may explain ideas through the use of analogies or reenactments.

Question 32

Because students like to use computer programs that include sounds, music, and animation, teachers should use computers when teaching social studies so students will be interested in the lesson.

Question 33

Depending on the program selected, electronic media can be used in all phases of the learning cycle.

Question 34

Because of their refined skills from watching television, students automatically obtain accurate facts and information from film and video presentations.

Question 35

The expansion phase of the lesson has students work independently to produce a product illustrating their learning.

Question 36

The activities of the expansion may also serve as assessments of student learning.

Question 37

The exploratory introduction may ask the student to address only a part of the new social studies idea to be studied in the lesson or unit.

Question 38

When using the learning cycle, teachers do not provide guided practice through step-by-step procedures.

Question 39

When teaching meaningful social studies teachers should not replace all memorization of facts, but severely reduce it.