Assignment+1

Comparative Civilizations 12 is a course with a broad scope, allowing teachers to be very flexible in the content they choose to include. Here is the IRP that can be found on-line with the Ministry of Education: Civilizations 12 IRP

The following are the curriculum organizers for Civ 12: 1. Research and Presentation Skills The prescribed learning outcomes in this organizer emphasize the skills and attitudes required for the study of cultures in both the acquisition and presentation of information.

2. Foundations of Civilization In this organizer, students are provided with the knowledge base and context essential for the study of civilizations. Students develop an understanding of key cultural concepts and elements, and learn to recognize the relationship between culture and civilization.

3. Culture and the Arts Students learn about artistic expression in order to understand the links between the arts and other facets of culture. Students are given opportunities to gain insight into artistic expression, enabling them to better understand world cultures

4. Culture and Values Students are encouraged to appreciate the diversity of world views and cultures, and to recognize the range of values inherent in those cultures.

'These are the "suggested themes" for Civilizations 12:

1. Belief Systems Mythologies • founding myths and legends • worldviews (includes cultural perspectives of the world) • cultural heroes

Religions and Philosophies • ritual processes and practices • religious and philosophical communications (sacred texts, glyphs) • ideology • divinities • archetypes • animal totems, spirit doubles • eternity, afterlife

Symbolic Structures and Representations • symbols and imagery • cultural icons • architecture and monuments • pictorial art • performing arts • literature • regalia

View of Nature and the Universe • scientific rationalism • mysticism • romanticism • spiritualism • transformation and metamorphosis • order and harmony

2. Daily Life/Transmission of Culture • forms of writing (journals, diaries, letters) • oral tradition (storytelling, song) • education (formal and informal) • art

Social Organization • gender roles • matriarchal/patriarchal social structures • morals • class/caste structures • clans/tribes • rites of passage

Routines and Behaviours • language • home life • work • manners • economic structures • technology • art (literary, fine arts, applied arts) • food, clothing, and textiles • entertainment • games and sport • markets and consumerism

3. Power and Authority Images of Power and Authority • archetypes • monuments • costumes/regalia

Institutionalized Religion • theocracy • taboos and folk ways • censorship

War and Conquest • empire building • militarism in society • the “just” war • peacemakers and peace movements

The State • government structures • law and order • leadership • citizenship

In choosing Comparative Civilizations 12 as my focus course for assignment number one, I took a few things into consideration. I teach Comparative Civilizations, and thoroughly enjoy the flexibility within the Integrated Resource Package in terms of learning outcomes, fields of study, curriculum organizers, and suggested themes. It differs greatly from other senior Social Studies courses in that way, for example History 12 has a very structured curriculum regarding the history of the 20th century. In Civilizations, I have changed the content year to year that presents the challenge of also finding great media that will accompany my lesson plans and new unit themes. For example, this year I approached the course with a distinctively “art history” flavour, following the progression of art and culture through pre-historic all the way into the 20th century. By choosing Civilizations as my focus course I will be able to delve into our own library’s current collection and identify areas in which media needs to be added, and/or replaced. So, to be honest, this has been a thoroughly selfish choice as it will ultimately results in additions to our library collection that benefits my teaching area (I hope ☺)! I am relatively familiar with the collection in our library, particularly the DVD’s that have been purchased that cover different cultures and civilizations. What I am not as familiar with are the resources in our book collection. This on-going assessment of our library’s collection will hopefully familiarize me better with that area of our library. I have a relatively extensive personal at-home library collection that I rely upon (Actually, my husband would say I have a slight book-buying addiction, but I figure as far as addictions go, it could be worse, right?), so I have been somewhat lazy in sussing out what our school library may have that could be helpful, not just to me in terms of lesson preparation, but for my students as well. Civilizations 12 includes a component of research and presentation within which all students must demonstrate proficiency. Students today seem to run to Wikipedia and google before any other source. If I was more competent with the book resources in our library, perhaps they could be led towards using them more often. I do enjoy teasing them a bit, explaining that they needn’t spend too much time looking for the “power on/off” button with these books, just open and they’re ready to go! I suppose the Kindle/Kobo e-readers may be making that joke obsolete? Civilizations 12 attracts a very diverse group of learners, from the highly academic student who plans on attending university, to the student with mild learning disabilities, to students who take it purely for an interest in art and culture. Therefore, differentiated instruction is a key part of my role as a Civilizations 12 teacher, and I’m always challenged by how to present curriculum in diverse ways that appeals to and is understood by all levels of learners. In addition, how can students then present their learning to me in unique and diverse forms? I believe the library collection could provide great resources in order to help Civilizations 12 be that all-encompassing course that reaches out to all learning styles and levels. In addition, the content within Civilizations 12 could well expand into other Social Studies/Humanities courses so the resources could be shared and used by all teachers and students in many areas. So far, my rationale has been purely teacher-focused. When putting on the teacher-librarian "hat" I would take into consideration a few concepts when it comes to aligning the media collection with a course such as Civilizations 12. First, unfortunately, would deal with budgetary concerns. Is this an area that is replete in resources? Or is it in dire need of updating. Can other focus areas use the same resources in different ways? In chapter 1, Bishop recommends considering the question of whether "the same or a similar item is quickly accessible through a resource sharing network or the Internet". (p. 2) I think that is an important consideration when budgetary concerns will be pressing the teacher-librarian to "pick and choose" what new resources should be acquired at a time. Later, Bishop states that "the media program should exemplify the total media concept, providing access to materials in a variety of formats, appropriate equipment, trained personnel, and resources housed inside and outside the media centre". (p. 3) I'll be interested to see, in particular, whether there are Civ 12 resources that could be housed outside the media centre. The course itself is such a human interest course, it would be great to see outside groups (i.e parents) be able to access that same media. For students, the importance of being able to access materials outside of the library, outside of normal library hours interests me as well. I know that with our school website, students have a host of EBSCO academic articles they can download and read, but wouldn't that be something if they could watch our DVD collection on-line? What a way to facilitate outside of school learning opportunities. Bishop also refers to the need for evaluation of the collection, through surveys, circulation statistics etc. (p 15). Because I feel the Civ 12 collection would be so wide-ranging in scope I could see many of the materials accessed by various humanities departments (Social Studies, English, Art), and would, as a teacher-librarian, want to advertise widely the new additions to the collection so other academic areas could suss the material out and determine if it is useful for their course work as well. I am really looking forward to doing more work with Civ 12 and the concepts surrounding library media and collections for this course. Selfishly, I hope to teach it for a few years more, so this type of investigation will surely result in my continued awareness of what is new out there for classroom and student use. Also, to be able to approach the concept of media that will be used in this subject area, but from the teacher-librarian "lens" will be quite a unique and interesting experience, I am sure.

Reference:

Bishop, K. (2007). The collection program in schools: Concepts, practices, and information sources. (4th ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.