Social Studies Instruction

Benjamin Franklin once said “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” So, the question I pose today is how do we involve children so that they learn? How do we spark that want inside of a student to because a lifelong learner. The best way to build students’ knowledge and thirst for greater understanding is by creating connections. Having connections between prior knowledge, different subject areas, the “outside” world, and what is being learned now and in the future will help students to achieve higher levels of thinking, as well as, the twenty-first century knowledge and skills that are needed in the collegiate and professional words today. One way to make these connections is by using integrated thematic units. Inga Randle (1997) discussed the fourth grade students of Barbara Pedersen who were so eager to learn they would willingly skip recess to be in the classroom learning. Pedersen used integrated thematic instruction to inspire her students. So, by learning what an integrated thematic unit is, why integrated thematic units should be used, and how to use integrated thematic units teachers can become more like Barbara Pedersen and prepare students more for independent thinking and higher education.

Who loves school? What makes school enjoyable? Is it the lectures, worksheets, and tests, or the group projects, in-class discussions and high-tech games? When thinking over the answers to these questions, many people unknowingly state a preference for a more progressive teaching style. A progressive teaching style includes student participation and a large variety of modern inventions which allow more students to enjoy learning. Students receive a more complete education through enjoyment in the learning when they have the ability to set a custom pace and are able to learn according to their preferred learning style. It has become increasingly apparent to many educators how disconnected students have become from the learning environment when lectures are the sole teaching method. This discovery has led several instructors to develop new methods to educate the next generation of students for their benefit, not just for the ease and convenience of the teacher. To figure out the best balance for the future of education, like anything else, one must first understand the history of education and where schooling originated. Schooling began with a traditional style of lectures and progressed to more modern teaching methods, which have proven to be more beneficial to a learner’s future, than the traditional practices in a teacher-centered classroom.

Teachers teach based on what resources are provided or what they can purchase or locate to assist in learning. Some contents have textbooks or consumables that are aligned with the state standards. This is not always the case. Some school have no textbook due to funding or students have to share the limited resources. With the continued changed in education, additional resources are sometimes needed to supplement instruction.

Social Studies is a very complex subject for educators to teach and for the students to be interested in learning, this is because it includes so many different disciplines. Not to mention, society is rapidly changing socially and technologically which affects what social studies content is being taught to our students( Passe,J 2002). In past years students were forced to learn at a relatively low cognitive levels, it lack the full meaning social studies that could be transferred into real life situations. It is because of this

Hayes (2010) has suggested that cross – curricular approaches can be defined using a variety of legitimate meanings, as it does not have a single identity. Moreover, cross – curricular approaches can be referred to as ‘interdisciplinary’ and a cross – reference can be made to ‘Curriculum integration’. ‘Interdisciplinary’ learning incorporates several subjects. Similarly, ‘Curriculum integration’ can be emphasised as subject disciplines being planned which all link together through a theme which can be known as thematic teaching (Caroll and McCulloch, 2014; Savage, 2011; Jacobs, 1989). Ordinarily, thematic teaching allows learning to take place with links being made between combinations of subjects within the National Curriculum (NC) (Department for Education, DfE, 2014). A MTP (Appendix A) can incorporate thinking and learning activities relating to thematic teaching, which provide opportunities for teachers to enhance thinking and

curriculum. Additionally, this enables for a higher than usual level of explicit teaching in all subject areas. However, it does not make integrated curriculum delivery very viable. Fortunately, Mrs. Bea has an innovative teaching style and adjusts her teaching to cater to Gardner’s multiple intelligences (1983) and diverse learning styles.

The main example I can recall where I knew and recognized the “integration of learning” concerned westward expansion through Manifest Destiny in the United States. I had learned about this event previously in grade school, so this was not an unfamiliar concept. Yet every time I was taught it, it was viewed as a positive thing, how it settled the country and led to the building of countless railroad tracks and telegraph lines. However, in my Environmental Studies class this year, this event had a much grimmer picture. The desolation of tribes and the pure fact that we justified our horrible and extreme actions in the name of God defined this event. I had always had the inkling in the back of my head that something was wrong with the picture

I asked Mrs. Barkley if she worked with other teachers to plan and jointly facilitate learning; she told me that she personally does not. She said that she never combines classes or teaches with another teacher in the same classroom. She said the only thing that the teachers do together is come together in meetings and discuss progress of their classes and test scores. This came as a shock to me, I thought that teachers would be meeting often to combine curriculum in a way that’s meaningful. I thought that teachers would want to allow for cross-curricular projects to allow students to make the connections between subjects. When I am a teacher, I would like to work with other teachers to jointly facilitate learning, if possible.

All learners are presently enrolled in honors level reading or English courses in addition to the focus social studies courses. Students must also be familiar with concepts such as main idea, summarizing, outlining, cause and effect, historical time flow, and generalizations.

There are two generational groups of teachers that exist within the Teaching and Learning Communities of the current Education Industry. The model of working with students in education is no longer traditional but dynamic and involves the teacher and the school system becoming diversity based to deal with the multitude of different types of people that use the education system. This new paradigm shift has promoted a new look at the difference in the generations of teaching and learning techniques. The landscape of education is extremely diverse today in every way. Even when working in the profession whether it is a public system or chartered system, schools have to hire and staff their schools that are also diverse in scope and

Presently, Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education is the program of study I’m enrolled in. Within my program of study, the ELM-350 Methods and Strategies of Teaching and Integrating Social Studies and the Arts and ELM-360 Methods and Strategies of Teaching and Integrating Science and Health are some of the courses I will be taking at GCU. Generally speaking, the Methods and Strategies of Teaching and Integrating Social Studies and the Arts will provide me with strategies of history, geography, the social sciences and arts. In like manner, the Methods and Strategies of Teaching and Integrating Science and Health course will provide me with knowledge, understanding, and concepts of physical, life, earth and space sciences and health education.

Teachers should be trained and proficient in the different methods of learning. It is important that teachers implement different tactics to address the diverse learning needs of their students.

furthermore, look for others' viewpoints to look for what is one of a kind in the circumstance, and scan for inquiries that

It is relevance to integrate social studies in students’ lives. I learned in this section that integrating social studies in the curriculum help us as future teachers to describe to students the world in which we live in. When science is used in classroom, it helps students to observe the physical phases of life. In the other hand, social studies encourage students to open their minds to the places of our world. I found that social studies curriculum does not only teach physical geography, but as students learn about the

I agree with Suzanne Krogh’s statement. Naturally, we learn through experiences that involve many different subjects. For example, exploring a sandbox can include math, science, social studies, and the language arts. The class can explore the five senses, where sand comes from, adding water to make the sand stick together, how heavy is the sand, and how can the sand be useful in the community. All of these topics can be covered and followed by a writing assignment, and the whole day can be dedicated to exploring the sandbox. The majority of elementary teachers believe that an integrated curriculum is the most effective curriculum (Parkay, Anctil, & Hass, 2014, p. 461). For teachers to effectively teach, there must be an integration of