Tim Brown

InTASC 5
10/4/18
InTASC 5: Content Application

Next on the InTASC standards list is the idea of applying your content in a diverse way.

The standard holds that “the teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing

perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving

related to authentic local and global issues.” Not only is having a deep understanding of your

content necessary, but so is the ability to link that knowledge with lessons that will expand your

students’ ability to think critically and to connect concepts together with real world issues. It

focuses on tapping into your students’ perspectives on different topics and being able to draw

connections to them as you cover them in a lesson plan. It also involves a teacher using students’

knowledge of other disciplines to help them in a different classroom.

A teacher must understand that being able to link current events with in class content is

one of the best ways to ensure your students remain interested and invested in the material at

hand. Mixing current events, paired with cross disciplinary content is another method to keep

students hooked. For example, a Spanish and world history teacher get together to plan a lesson

that link Spanish conquest and particular vocabulary terms. While you’re discussing the Spanish

conquest in world history, the Spanish teacher could also focus on vocabulary that links directly

to the lesson such as verbs and nouns relating to conquest or colonization. Or, if teaching a

lesson on the various amendments of the Constitution, link some current news articles to the

lesson that are in the current news cycle.

 In a social studies classroom, there are infinite opportunities to link your content to

current events or at least the overarching ideas. For example, if teaching a history class and

covering the Civil War era, the recent news cycle offers plenty of opportunity to extend

connections to the current events. You could teach a lesson that links the fundamental principles

of the Civil War to the erection of monuments to Confederate generals. We could have a

discussion that connects the causes of the Civil War to students’ own personal opinions on why

there are controversies surrounding statues of Confederate generals.

I feel that this standard is one of the most essential in creating a classroom in which your

students actually want to be there. It can be very difficult to get students motivated to learn civics

or pre-modern American history. The mastery of this standard will allow you as a teacher to

devise activities that keep your students invested in the material. In addition, students tend to not

pay attention to the daily ins and outs of what is going on in the news and being able to link

current events to the material covered in class will hopefully motivate them to pay attention to

more news than just the president’s tweets. Understanding that our responsibility as teachers is

more than just the material at hand, but also to motivate students to want to learn outside of the

classroom.