Making Connections in Elementary and Middle School Social Studies

Book excerpt: Making Connections in Elementary and Middle School Social Studies is based on the idea that students learn more and are more motivated to learn when they are able to connect their own knowledge, observations, ideas, imagination, and emotions with the content at hand. This book demonstrates how personal connections can be incorporated into social studies education while meeting NCSS thematic, pedagogical, and disciplinary standards. It is written in a very direct, reader-friendly style. Each chapter describes a variety of practical strategies and creative activities that novice and experienced teachers can use to make social studies more interesting and to help students make meaningful personal and academic connections. Each chapter contains a wealth of classroom strategies, pedagogical techniques, activities, and lesson plan ideas that can be used to enhance learning and make lessons more interesting, active, and student-centered. The book covers the three types of standards that elementary and middle school teachers work with as they teach social studies. o Thinking Ahead questions invite the reader to reflect on his/her own experiences, as they relate to the material covered in the next chapter. These can be used as discussion points for a class or small group, or simply as pre-reading prompts to enhance comprehension. o Teachers in Action boxes contain real life narratives from practicing teachers. These cases are designed to expand upon key issues presented in each chapter. Every case is accompanied by the author′s personal reflection on the case. These reflections are intended to give the reader an opinion against which he/she can measure his/her own reactions. After each case, the reader is prompted to think about the narrative presented and think about the way that his/her reactions compare with those presented by the author. o Go There boxes provide links to Web sites that offer additional resources for teachers, lesson plans, and other activities to enhance a social studies classroom. This text is accompanied by a dynamic Instructor′s Resources CD. The CD includes classroom video footage that can be shown in class to illustrate the concepts presented in the book and stimulate class discussion.