Improving Social Studies Instruction

!--1724Q-6, 0-13-117244-1, Martorella, Peter H., Teaching Social Studies in Middle and Secondary Schools, 4/E//-- This readable, accessible book offers prospective teachers a comprehensive introduction to teaching social studies to middle and secondary school students. With the purpose of social studies being the development of reflective, competent, concerned citizens, the book first examines the origins and evolution of social studies and citizenship education across the United States. Following this, targeted chapters address the art, science, and craft of social studies teaching as a means for engaging learners in knowledge construction. In the final section, the authors look at ways to improve social studies instruction through the incorporation of emerging technology into the social studies curriculum. For middle and secondary school social studies teachers.

Preparing students to be active, informed, literate citizens is one of the primary functions of public schools. But how can students become engaged citizens if they can't read, let alone understand, their social studies texts? What can educators—and social studies teachers in particular—do to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and motivation to become engaged in civic life? Building Literacy in Social Studies addresses this question by presenting both the underlying concepts and the research-based techniques that teachers can use to engage students and build the skills they need to become successful readers, critical thinkers, and active citizens. The authors provide targeted strategies—including teaching models, graphic organizers, and step-by-step instructions—for activities such as * Building vocabulary, * Developing textbook literacy skills, * Interpreting primary and secondary sources, * Applying critical thinking skills to newspapers and magazines, and * Evaluating Internet sources. Readers will also learn how to organize classrooms into models of democracy by creating learning communities that support literacy instruction, distribute authority, encourage cooperation, and increase accountability among students. Realistic scenarios depict a typical social studies teacher's experience before and after implementing the strategies in the classroom, showing their potential to make a significant difference in how students respond to instruction. By making literacy strategies a vital part of content-area instruction, teachers not only help students better understand their schoolwork but also open students' eyes to the power that informed and engaged people have to change the world.

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

This book demonstrates how teachers can help their students understand their social studies texts, leading them to become successful readers, critical thinkers, and active citizens.

Social studies teachers will find classroom-tested lessons and strategies that can be easily implemented in the classroom The Teacher’s Toolbox series is an innovative, research-based resource providing teachers with instructional strategies for students of all levels and abilities. Each book in the collection focuses on a specific content area. Clear, concise guidance enables teachers to quickly integrate low-prep, high-value lessons and strategies in their middle school and high school classrooms. Every strategy follows a practical, how-to format established by the series editors. The Social Studies Teacher's Toolbox contains hundreds of student-friendly classroom lessons and teaching strategies. Clear and concise chapters, fully aligned to Common Core Social Studies standards and National Council for the Social Studies standards, cover the underlying research, technology based options, practical classroom use, and modification of each high-value lesson and strategy. This book employs a hands-on approach to help educators quickly learn and apply proven methods and techniques in their social studies courses. Topics range from reading and writing in social studies and tools for analysis, to conducting formative and summative assessments, differentiating instruction, motivating students, incorporating social and emotional learning and culturally responsive teaching. Easy-to-read content shows how and why social studies should be taught and how to make connections across history, geography, political science, and beyond. Designed to reduce instructor preparation time and increase relevance, student engagement, and comprehension, this book: Explains the usefulness, application, and potential drawbacks of each instructional strategy Provides fresh activities applicable to all classrooms Helps social studies teachers work with ELLs, advanced students, and students with learning differences Offers real-world guidance for addressing current events while covering standards and working with textbooks The Social Studies Teacher's Toolbox is an invaluable source of real-world lessons, strategies, and techniques for general education teachers and social studies specialists, as well as resource specialists/special education teachers, elementary and secondary educators, and teacher educators.

No plan to increase achievement and enact reform in the social studies classroom will succeed without recognizing the central importance of the teacher as the “gatekeeper” of instruction. In this book, Thornton details why teachers must develop strong skills in curriculum planning and teaching methods in order for effective instruction to occur. Thornton helps teachers to develop a vision of their practice that will build strong social studies programs and inspire students to learn. Features: An approach to preparing purposeful teachers, acknowledging that teachers make daily decisions concerning what to teach and how to teach it. Replicable examples of the kinds of reflective practice that will enable teachers to animate classroom instruction and create a dynamic social studies curriculum. An analysis of how teachers adapt and shape state and district level curricula and classroom materials to fit the specific needs of their students—a model of how to develop an instructional program with suggestions for lesson planning. In-depth examinations of alternative ways of educating teachers in subject matter and teaching methods. “In this important book, Steve Thornton brings a Deweyan perspective to current problems in social studies education. He does more, however, because his analysis can be extended profitably to every subject in the curriculum.” —From the Foreword by Nel Noddings “A thoughtful and carefully documented analysis. . . . Let us hope that this book encourages a richer dialogue than the now-tedious and generally unproductive separate disciplines v. integrated social studies debate.” —Linda S. Levstik, University of Kentucky, Lexington “A refreshingly clearheaded, historically grounded, altogether enlightening analysis. This is the book I've been waiting for.” —Walter Parker, University of Washington