Social Studies 8 Foundation, continued

DISCUSSION PROMPTS: WORLDVIEW, WORLDVIEW ELEMENTS, STAR TREK

UP NEXT: Literature appreciation a.k.a. LITSPIRATION!

Our introductory investigation into the 7 elements of worldview culminated on Monday, but fear not: worldview will be back! In fact, it will be an undercurrent during our whole year in grade 8!

Over the last few days, we carefully watched the film Star Trek: Into Darkness, taking notes using a graphic organizer to help us consider the 7 different worldview elements.

Engaged, and engage!

After the film was over, we worked in small groups to critically consider what the BEST example of each of the 7 elements might be, using large sticky notes to help us organize our thoughts.

Colours help us organize our thoughts.

We ended up with many examples of each element, which we then reconsidered as a large group to ensure these examples actually were strong examples of each element. Because we used different colours for each element, and combined our thoughts together on the bulletin boards outside our classroom, we were able to easily determine which elements we had a good handle on, and which elements some of us might be confused about.

These categories were sparse...fewer examples in the film AND less clarity on these elements as some sticky notes from these elements were moved to other categories.

The "Responsibility to Others" category was well-understood (all the oranges stayed there), but it seems other categories were not as well understood as many colours are represented here!

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Social Studies 8 Foundation

DISCUSSION PROMPTS: WORLDVIEW, WORLDVIEW ELEMENTS

We started school less than a week ago, and have hit the ground running with our inquiry into the Social Studies 8 Program of Studies. As an introduction, we talked about the different themes of years past such as "Government" in grade 6, "Confederation/Canada's History" in grade 7, and some even remembered as far back as grade 4's theme! This year, our big idea, worldview, is abstract, difficult, and as we explored in class, might make us feel intellectually uncomfortable at times. It's going to take the year for a lot of students to get a firm handle on this concept, while others might grasp the smaller details more quickly. We have to work on being comfortable with being a little "uncomfortable."

As a large group, we explored the idea of "worldview," coming up with a definition, some factors influencing it, and some analogies to help us understand (goggles and art galleries).

Next, we went a little deeper and started digging into a model that will help us to deconstruct this abstract idea. Here is the guide to the 7 Elements of Worldview* we used in class today.




Then, we used the World War C scenarios from last week and had a relay race to see which team could match up the most scenarios with the BEST corresponding worldview element.






Our next step to help us dig in to the individual elements more deeply, is an awesome film study...

*Mr. Dittmann and Ms. Groeller modified these a bit from resources on Learn Alberta. 

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Up and Running!

We have had a successful first week! The start-up to any school year is often tough, especially coming out of a 2-year loop. Grade 8s, you have really made it a great start!

Last week during the beautiful weather on Friday afternoon, we took a stroll to Bishop Pinkham's field to play some games and get to know each other a bit better. The shoe relay was fun to watch! Click any picture for a fun video, password "shoes".