Missouri Veterans Classroom Project

 

  INTRODUCTION  
     
     
  TEACHERS  
     
     
 

STUDENTS

  
     
     
  VETERANS  
     
     
  HOME  
     
     
 
     
 

Applying the Show-Me Standards

  
     
  Missouri Show-Me Standards Performance Goals

The involvement of veterans in Missouri's classroom can assist teachers in addressing the Missouri Show-Me Standards Performance Goals in the following ways:

  
     
  Goal 1:   Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas.  
         
     
  • Students can refine skills for information gathering through developing questions to be used in interviews and surveys given to veterans
  • Students can develop their comprehension and evaluation of the presentation of information provided by veterans either orally or through their written responses
  • Students can use technological tools provided through this project to conduct research and locate possible first-hand sources for information
  • Students can compare and analyze distinctions between the accounts of veterans, media, and texts, or compare responses and attitudes from veterans with different service era backgrounds
  • Students can work to discover and analyze patterns present in the information  provided by veterans through these means and data gathered through research 
  • Students can organize the information they have gained from interactions with veterans into a variety of formats that could be used for analysis or presentations      
 
         
  Goal 2:   Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom  
         
     
  • Students can refine writing communication by working through a drafting and revision process in order to write letters to government agencies, elected officials or veterans regarding issues pertaining to veterans
  • Students can interview veterans either orally or through means of electronic communication to improve their ability to communicate while recognizing the differing perspectives of others
  • Students can complete written papers and oral or visual presentations on the information they have learned, with the potential for using technological tools during these presentations
  
         
  Goal 3:   Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to recognize and solve problems  
         
     
  • Students can use their interactions with veterans to identify past or current world problems and define their scope and elements 
  • Students can gain insight into how others have resolved problem situations, as veterans can help discuss how specific problems were solved in military service and the process that was used to reach these decisions 
  • Students can develop their own conclusions through inductive and deductive reasoning about current events or past conflicts from provided information and discuss these conclusions
  • Students can evaluate the solution to the problems used or alternate solutions they create, assessing the costs and benefits of each approach.
 
         
  Goal 4:    Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to make decisions and act as responsible members of society.  
         
            
  • Students can gain a greater understanding of the duties, rights, and responsibilities of citizens in the United States from interaction with veterans, as they serve as a representative model of the active citizenship that is the purpose of social studies education
  • Veterans can help provide students with information on the importance of citizenship in our nation and how we protect the freedoms that we hold. 
  • Students can use the information they have gained from veterans to explain the reasoning behind past historical decisions and their own personal beliefs and decisions regarding current events.
         
       

 

  
  Missouri Show-Me Standards for Social Studies

The involvement of veterans in Missouri's classroom can assist teachers in addressing the Missouri Show-Me Standards for Social Studies in the following ways:

  
     
  #1   Principles expressed in the documents shaping constitutional democracy in the United States  
         
     

  • Veterans can explain to the students why there are certain concepts and freedoms written into the constitution and how these freedoms and concepts are often those that we are fighting to protect either for our own nation or in other nations throughout the world.

  
         
  #2   Continuity and change in the history of Missouri, the United States and the World  
         
     
  • Teachers can interrelate the personal experiences of veterans and their influence on the changes in our nation and the world into the context of nearly every social studies area or era of history.
  • Veterans can be a valuable asset to lessons and units on World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, Desert Storm, and the recent conflicts in Bosnia and Afghanistan.
  
         
  #3   Principles and processes of governance systems  
         
     
  • Veterans can help describe the role that the military plays in our current governmental system and the role that it has had in our government in the past.
  • Veterans can relate their role with the governments of other countries they have been stationed at or involved with, and how that governmental system affected their actions.
  
         
  #4   Economic concepts (including productivity and the market system) and principles (including the laws of supply and demand)  
         
     
  • Veterans can discuss with the students the idea of competing economies for various goods and natural resources and how it impacted their service
  • Veterans can discuss issues of economic sanctions and what happens to various economies during wartime.
  
         
  #5   The major elements of geographical study and analysis (such as location, place, movement, regions) and their relationships to changes in society and the environment  
         
     

  • Veterans can be useful to the study of the geographic elements of our world through sharing experiences from various regions of the world and about the people that inhabit them

  • Veterans can help demonstrate how military campaigns are one of the principal examples of how geography affects the inter-relation of nations and regions.

  • Veterans can share their crucial understanding of how actions can effect regions and the changes that can occur on the landscape and to societies.

  
         
  #6   Relationships of the individual and groups to institutions and cultural traditions  
         
     
  • Veterans can help promote cultural awareness through discussion of their experiences abroad and their reintegration into American society after being away.
  • Veterans can discuss social norms and how they vary from country to country.
  • Veterans can discuss the role of the military and individual soldiers in American society and the cultural tradition created by our nation’s veterans.
  
         
  #7   The use of tools of social science inquiry (such as surveys, statistics, maps, documents)   
         
     

  • Veterans can help with the promotion of the tools of social studies inquiry through assistance with the analysis and use of maps through a visual recounting and discussion of their personal experiences

  • Students can conduct surveys on veterans regarding various issues or other items in order to to gather statistics regarding veterans for incorporation with other activities