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What Does it Take to Teach Social Studies?

Hello everyone and welcome back! For this week's Social Studies Methods class we were required to read chapters 1, 2 and 3 from our textbook. I gained a lot of new knowledge and insights from reading these three chapters and want to share them with you all!

First and foremost, what is and why teach Social Studies? What can make the concepts of Social Studies "alive" and interesting for students? (chapter 1)

    1. Social Studies is defined as an integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civil competence.

    2. Teaching Social Studies is super important. This is because it can help students to retain as well as gain knowledge about the world around them. Social Studies content also allows students to learn how to explain relationships with other people and the environment. It also equips them with knowledge and understanding of the past. 

Next, what made social studies the way it is from the historical perspective? (chapter 2)

  • Powerful social studies teaching helps students develop important understandings in the core content areas of civics, economics, geography and history. It also assures their readiness and willingness to assume citizenship responsibilities. Social Studies must be understood by all educators to ensure that they are able to teach their students to the best of their ability. In the textbook, it is explained that the educational reform and movement towards new standards played a huge role in how Social Studies is taught, which made it the way it is today. There were many different changes such as how it moved to a larger group instruction and more training for teachers.

What are the pros and cons of standards? How can standards (SS Frameworks) help teachers and YOU in unit and lesson plans' design? (chapter 2)

    There are many different pros and cons to standards:

  •     Pro: Students are completely aware of what they are expected to know or be able to do. The standards are clear and precise. 
  •     Pro: Standards-based instruction guides planning and instruction and helps teachers keep their focus on the learning target
  •     Con: Execution is tedious and time-consuming for teachers.
  •     Con: Focus on product instead of process (lack of critical thinking, problem solving).

The standards of education can help teachers in unit and lesson plans' designs because they are able o create standards that are based solely on the lesson that they are teaching. The standards also provide teachers with a set of guidelines which are designed to explain what exactly students should be learning. 

Examples of standards: state standards, common core state standards and subject matter standards

How can teachers prove the positive and/or negative outcomes of curriculum integration? Provide examples from the textbook. (chapter 2).

    Teachers can prove the positive/negative outcomes of curriculum integration in a variety of ways. 

  • First, teachers can prove the positive outcomes by:
    • Allowing students to work together -- working in groups allows students to build off of one another's ideas and understand the importance of collaboration
  • Teachers can prove negative outcomes by:
    • Allowing students to work independently/separately from classmates -- working alone means that there is a lack of active encouragement from other students and can also potentially cause stress 
    Due to the fact that all students are different and some may like working in groups while others like working independently, teachers must strive to incorporate an equal amount of both. If they do this, there will be better outcomes for students and they success.

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