My Social Studies Manifesto

Wow! It’s hard to believe that the semester is coming to an end and I will be student teaching in the spring and graduating in May! I know that my views on Social Studies have been completely transformed this semester. My own experiences as a student had left me less than thrilled about Social Studies, until this semester. Although I have read about and seen with my own eyes how Social Studies has been left out of most classrooms, I am determined to have Social Studies as a pillar in my curriculum. I think that elementary students need to learn about Social Studies to learn how to be good, responsible citizens. I also think that introducing basic geographical skills to young students is very important. They need to learn about cultures, traveling, directions, and connections to literature. I feel that this can be introduced at a very early age with concepts like near and far. I want my students to feel responsible for their own learning and behavior, so I plan to have a democratic, student-centered environment in my classroom. I want my students to create the procedures for the classroom and sign them, which I feel is a great way to introduce our country’s history and the Constitution into the classroom. I want to have a culturally responsive classroom, so I plan on having my students do the Invisible Knapsack assignment. I will also need to remember what my own Invisible Knapsack contains, and realize that everyone comes from different backgrounds with different views and experiences. I also want to avoid the tourist model in my classroom and avoid stereotypes. I will need to be an advocate for my students, but I will also have to pick my battles wisely. When I need to, I will use my critical voice to advocate for my students. My critical voice has developed and become stronger through experience and the feeling of wanting what is best for my future students. I also realize that in many circumstances, actions speak louder than words, and I can use my critical voice without saying a word. If I teach at a school were Social Studies is sidelined, I will incorporate it into my curriculum. I feel that Social Studies can easily be integrated with other subjects like Science, Math, and Language Arts. Integrating Social Studies can be as easy as using a Social Studies text to teach grammar. I know that I will use every resource at my disposable such as websites, colleagues, conferences, libraries, and field trips to teach Social Studies. I feel that active learning is very important in the classroom for all subjects. This semester in CUAI 4220, doing and learning how to implement different activities such as Box City, Geocaching, and the Living History Museum, I have realized how important an active, hands-on approach to teaching Social Studies (and all subjects) is to engage students and enhance their learning experiences. I want my students to be as eager to learn and as excited about Social Studies as I have been this semester.

Historical Myths

We talked about how to address Historical Myths, such as the First Thanksgiving, in our classroom.  I think depending on what grade you are teaching, the myths need to be dispelled. The most important thing for a teacher in the lower elementary grades to do is not to reinforce the myths. The older the student, the more the teacher can explain about these myths. No matter what grade I teach, I will be sure not to reinforce historical myths.

Social Studies Standards

Some may wonder if there are curriculum standards for Social Studies. There are 2 sets that can both be viewed on the web. The NCSS (National Council on Social Studies) has a broad set of standards. Each state, including Tennessee have their own, more specific set of standards. The Tennessee State Standards for Social Studies can be viewed by grade on the Tennessee State website.

Living History Museum Assignment

Our Social Studies teacher gave us the assignment of picking, researching, and then portraying someone who impacted history. I decided to do my assignment on Ann Harnett, who was the first woman signed to the All American Professional Girls Baseball League in 1943. The experience was very educational.  I not only learned a lot about Ann Harnett, but I learned about every historical person that was portrayed in my class. While I would modify the assignment for my own classroom by giving more specific instructions, the Living History Museum will definitely be a part of my curriculum. I think it was fun and wonderful learning experience.

Using Alternative Assessments

In my Social Studies class this semester, my teacher has never and does not plan to give us a typical multiple choice test. Instead, she has used alternative assessments. For our mid-term, we created a concept map of what we had learned so far in the semester. I feel that this use of alternative assessment is very useful. I plan to also use alternative assessments in my own classroom. I feel that alternative assessments can be very useful. The students don't have to feel the stress that formal assessments can cause, while the teacher can still find out what they have learned.

Book Talks

This week  everyone in my Social Studies class did a Book Talk. A Book Talk is a 3-4 minute explanation about some of a book, however you never want to give away the end. The point of a Book Talk is to give enough information that the people listening to the Book Talk will want to read the book. Our class all picked chapter books that were relevant to Social Studies. We also each made a PowerPoint slide with the book's title, author, and at least one Social Studies Standard the book addresses. I think this is a great lesson. Students can read a good book, tell their class about it, and then the whole class would have an entire list of great, entertaining Social Studies books (not just textbooks).

Geocaching

We learned about Geo-caching in my Social Studies class. Anyone can Geochache, however teachers can use it as a great tool for teaching longitude and latitude, geography, and even history. When Geocaching, you use a hand-held GPS and look for hidden "treasures" by going to geocaching.com to get the coordinates of their location. One suggestion our teacher gave us was to use geographical markers as places to hide caches because they incorporate history and geography. I hope to use geocaching in my classroom, and to do it on my own time. It is a lot of fun!