Social Studies In Elementary Education

This new edition of the most popular elementary social studies methods text on the market houses a wealth of content, strategies, tools, and resources for teaching K-8 social studies. Writing with the same clarity, friendly tone, and solid content of previous editions, Parker details the mission of social studies education and explores the many ways this mission can be made to serve the full complement of learners in a diverse multicultural society. He lays out the elements of a strong social studies curriculum, explains effective teaching methods, and presents a wealth of field-tested examples, exercises, activities, and lesson plans that will enliven every social studies classroom. The fourteenth edition features integration with myeducationlab, Pearson's online learning environment designed to connect students with real teaching situations through assignable videos, case studies, artifacts, and a personalized study tool.

Organized around four commonplaces of education—learners and learning, subject matter, teachers and teaching, and classroom environment—Elementary Social Studies provides a rich and ambitious framework to help social studies teachers achieve powerful teaching and learning results. By blending the theoretical and the practical, the authors deeply probe the basic elements of quality instruction—planning, implementation, and assessment—always with the goal of creating and supporting students who are motivated, engaged, and thoughtful. Book features and updates to the third edition include: • New chapter on classroom assessment that outlines and compares existing assessment strategies, contextualizes them within the framework of state standards, and articulates a constructivist approach that moves away from traditional high-stakes testing towards more meaningful ways of evaluating student learning • New chapter that highlights and explains key elements of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, and shows how the incorporation of critical ELA instruction into the social studies curriculum can foster more ambitious teaching and learning • Real-classroom narratives that introduce each chapter and provide in-depth access to teaching and learning contexts • Practical curriculum and resource suggestions for the social studies classroom • End-of-chapter summaries and annotated teaching resources

The author wrote this new edition of the most popular elementary social studies methods text on the market with the following three goals in mind: to present the most powerful social studies content and pedagogy for children in elementary school, to offer the material in simple and accessible ways, and to write in a first person active voice. The purpose of this book is to introduce new teachers to the world of social studies teaching and learning in elementary and middle schools. Geography, history, government and the other social sciences are delivered into the palm of the new teacher’s hand along with a suite of tools for bringing social studies to life in the classroom. The book is organized into three sections–the first orients the reader to the mission of social studies education to the increasingly diverse children we teach, the second concentrates on the curriculum, and the third deals with instruction, how we plan and teach this curriculum. Three central themes continue to pervade the book–democratic citizenship, diversity, and the social sciences–to ultimately encourage teachers to excite their students about closing the gap between social realities and democratic ideals. An exceptionally strong chapter on multicultural issues (Chapter 2) helps future teachers truly understand the changing demographics of the American classroom. Abridged NCSS standards and their classroom applications are automatically packaged with every copy of the book.

The author wrote this new edition of the most popular elementary social studies methods text on the market with the following three goals in mind: to present the most powerful social studies content and pedagogy for children in elementary school, to offer the material in simple and accessible ways, and to write in a first person active voice. The purpose of this book is to introduce new teachers to the world of social studies teaching and learning in elementary and middle schools. Geography, history, government and the other social sciences are delivered into the palm of the new teacher’s hand along with a suite of tools for bringing social studies to life in the classroom. The book is organized into three sections—the first orients the reader to the mission of social studies education to the increasingly diverse children we teach, the second concentrates on the curriculum, and the third deals with instruction, how we plan and teach this curriculum. Three central themes continue to pervade the book—democratic citizenship, diversity, and the social sciences—to ultimately encourage teachers to excite their students about closing the gap between social realities and democratic ideals. An exceptionally strong chapter on multicultural issues (Chapter 2) helps future teachers truly understand the changing demographics of the American classroom. Abridged NCSS standards and their classroom applications are found atwww.myeducationlab.com.

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.

The field of elementary social studies is a specific space that has historically been granted unequal value in the larger arena of social studies education and research. This reader stands out as a collection of approaches aimed specifically at teaching controversial issues in elementary social studies. This reader challenges social studies education (i.e., classrooms, teacher education programs, and research) to engage controversial issues--those topics that are politically, religiously, or are otherwise ideologically charged and make people, especially teachers, uncomfortable--in profound ways at the elementary level. This reader, meant for elementary educators, preservice teachers, and social studies teacher educators, offers an innovative vision from a new generation of social studies teacher educators and researchers fighting against the forces of neoliberalism and the marginalization of our field. The reader is organized into three sections: 1) pushing the boundaries of how the field talks about elementary social studies, 2) elementary social studies teacher education, and 3) elementary social studies teaching and learning. Individual chapters either A) conceptually unpack a specific controversial issue (e.g. Islamophobia, Indian Boarding Schools, LGBT issues in schools) and how that issue should be/is incorporated in an elementary social studies methods courses and classrooms or B) present research on elementary preservice teachers or how elementary teachers and students engage controversial issues. This reader unpacks specific controversial issues for elementary social studies for readers to gain critical content knowledge, teaching tips, lesson ideas, and recommended resources. Endorsement: (Re)Imagining Elementary Social Studies is a timely and powerful collection that offers the best of what social studies education could and should be. Grounded in a politics of social justice, this book should be used in all elementary social studies methods courses and schools in order to develop the kinds of teachers the world needs today. -- Wayne Au, Professor, University of Washington Bothell, Editor, Rethinking Schools