Best Practices For Teaching Social Studies

"Randi Stone has assembled an exciting collection of teaching methods to benefit all learners. The book brings together an esteemed group of teachers who are to be congratulated for sparking interest in a subject that is too often taught solely from a textbook." —Heather E. Robinson, Fifth-Grade Teacher Desert Canyon Elementary School, Scottsdale, AZ Adopt or adapt these exemplary social studies strategies from the nation′s best teachers! Randi Stone transports readers into the lively classrooms of award-winning teachers in this collection of outstanding methods for teaching social studies to diverse elementary, middle, and high school learners. Like its companion volumes for teaching writing, mathematics, and science, Best Practices for Teaching Social Studies presents firsthand accounts from educators offering fresh ideas and inquiry-based techniques to build student confidence, increase academic achievement, and develop critical thinking skills. Highlights include master teachers′ tips on how to: Organize and produce oral history projects Use technology to explore diversity Teach the art of geography and the geography of art Put the "social" back into social studies, and more! Beginning and experienced teachers alike will discover an abundance of creative teaching practices to strengthen the social studies curriculum.

Randi Stone transports readers into the lively classrooms of award-winning teachers in this collection of outstanding methods for teaching social studies to diverse elementary, middle, and high school learners. Like its companion volumes for teaching writing, mathematics, and science, Best Practices for Teaching Social Studies presents firsthand accounts from educators offering fresh ideas and inquiry-based techniques to build student confidence, increase academic achievement, and develop critical thinking skills. Highlights include master teachers' tips on how to: Organize and produce oral history projects Use technology to explore diversity Teach the art of geography and the geography of art Put the "social" back into social studies, and more! Beginning and experienced teachers alike will discover an abundance of creative teaching practices to strengthen the social studies curriculum.

Teaching Social Studies: A Methods Book for Methods Teachers, features tasks designed to take preservice teachers deep into schools in general and into social studies education in particular. Organized around Joseph Schwab's commonplaces of education and recognizing the role of inquiry as a preferred pedagogy in social studies, the book offers a series of short chapters that highlight learners and learning, subject matter, teachers and teaching, and school context. The 42 chapters describe tasks that the authors assign to their methods students as either in?class or as outside?of?class assignments. The components of each chapter are: > Summary of the task > Description of the exercise (i.e., what students are to do, the necessary resources, the timeframe for completion, grading criteria) > Description of how students respond to the activity > Description of how the task fits into the overall course > List of readings and references > Appendix that supplements the task description

Designed for use in elementary and secondary social studies education courses, this book supports the teaching of social studies methods in a range of educational settings. By highlighting long-standing content and principles of social studies education in a concise and direct way, this volume offers the building blocks of a comprehensive course, for use as springboards to the effective presentation of professors' desired course emphases. With sections on foundations, subject areas, and best practices, this text explains the intersection between the "modelling" role of social studies teachers as democratic citizens, social studies fields of study, and strategies implemented in the classroom to encourage students' critical thinking and values formation.

With the national push towards inclusion, more students with disabilities are being placed in general education settings. Furthermore, when placed, more students with disabilities are entering social studies classrooms than any other content area. Classroom teachers are being asked to “reach and teach” all students, often with little support. There are numerous texts on the teaching of social studies, an equal number on teaching students with disabilities. Blending best practice in social studies and special education instruction, this book provides both pre – and in-service educators simple, practical strategies that support the creation of engaging, relevant, and appropriate social studies opportunities for all students. Though the strategies presented are useful for all students, they are particularly beneficial for students with disabilities. From Universal Design for Learning, mnemonics, graphic organizers, and big ideas, to co-teaching, screen readers and the Virtual History Museum, this book offers hands-on, practical ideas general educators can use when teaching K-12 social studies in inclusive classrooms.

Designed for preservice teachers, this text consolidates social studies content into a framework for practical instruction and lesson planning. It places social studies in a thoroughly modern context and explores how such factors as language diversity and standards¿at the local, state, and national level¿affect teachers. The text retains its hallmark features, such as model unit lessons, teacher-tested activities, technology updates, and authentic children's work, and the Resource Handbook serves as a valuable tool for on-the-job use.The emphasis on current topics includes coverage of constructivist learning, cooperative learning, service learning, character education, and the teaching of children with limited English proficiency.Specific examples from the NCSS help students connect standards to the model lessons and activities presented in the text.

Instructional Strategies for Middle and High School Social Studies: Methods, Assessment, and Classroom Management is an exciting methods-based text that integrates appropriate management and assessment techniques with seven distinct teaching strategies. Writing explicitly for pre-service social studies teachers, veteran teacher educator Bruce E. Larson offers detailed descriptions of a range of instructional strategies, along with guidelines for deciding how and when to use each. Part I offers the foundations for teaching and learning in a social studies classroom, and explores contextual, theoretical, and policy factors that all teachers need to consider before entering the classroom. Part II delivers a range of comprehensive strategies for providing instruction that is appropriate for particular lessons, student abilities, and classroom environments. The practical strategies in Part II build upon the learning theories described in Part I, positioning Instructional Strategies for Middle and High School Social Studies to be the go-to, all-inclusive teacher's guide to the social studies classroom. New to this Edition A list of goals before each chapter presents an overview of the chapter's content focus, and provides an outline for the chapter review. Extensively revised Part I (chapters 1-4) provides an updated review of national standards developed for teaching history, geography, civics, and economics. In-depth applications of the Common Core State Standards for the social studies are also explored. New "Reality Check" feature provides directions for integrating field-based experiences into the chapters, and contextualizes the ideas in the book for a classroom setting. Each chapter in Part II (chapters 5-11) has been expanded to include a section labeled "Enhancing Student Learning with Technology," offering websites, links, and other resources for integrating recent technologies into the classroom. Chapters 5-11 include a new "Making Your Lesson More Meaningful for ELLs" feature, which provides ideas--based on current research and theories about learning language--for engaging ELLs, specific for each instructional strategy. Expanded discussion of the "Understanding by Design" model equips teachers to design learning experiences that promote student understanding by intentionally designing what happens in the classroom, and developing authentic formative assessments of student learning.

A team of researchers from 35 states across the country developed a survey designed to create a snapshot of social studies teaching and learning in the United States. With over 12,000 responses, it is the largest survey of social studies teachers in over three decades. We asked teachers about their curricular goals, their methods of instruction, their use of technology, and the way they address the needs of English language learners and students with disabilities. We gathered demographic data too, along with inquiries about the teachers' training, their professional development experiences, and even whether they serve as coaches. The enormous data set from this project was analyzed by multiple research teams, each with its own chapter. This volume would be a valuable resource for any professor, doctoral student, or Master’s student examining the field of social studies education. It is hard to imagine a research study, topical article, or professional development session concerning social studies that would not quote findings from this book about the current status of social studies. With chapters on such key issues as the teaching of history, how teachers address religion, social studies teachers’ use of technology, and how teachers adapt their instruction for students with disabilities or for English language learners, the book’s content will immediately be relevant and useful.