Teaching Elementary Social Studies: Principles and Applications

This text presents a methodology that offers every child a chance to succeed regardless of language, culture, intellectual ability, physical attributes, emotional capabilities, or social skills. Teaching Elementary Social Studies encourages teachers to recognize that each child is unique and brings a special set of skills and abilities to the classroom. The unifying theme of the text is diversity, and the author introduces several dimensions beyond the pluralistic nature of the student population. It promotes the idea that diverse students require a diverse pedagogy and offers specific ways to introduce meaningful topics in ways that will engage all students. Provides a foundation for teaching social studies. Informs pre-service teachers about the national standards documents that dictate curriculum planning for social studies. Introduces students to Expectations for Excellence: Curriculum Standards for the Social Studies, National Standards for Civics and Government, National Content Standards in Economics, Geography for Life, and National Standards for History. Addresses the fundamentals of teaching social studies. Provides instruction for creating lessons based on MI>inquiry and student interaction. Advocates the need for social studies lessons that infuse multicultural perspectives. Each lesson, mini-lesson, group project, or unit concludes with a section on “Effective Teaching in Today's Diverse Classroom”. Includes descriptions of activities, group projects, lessons and mini-lessons to model good social studies instruction. Includes numerous examples of multicultural literature. Samples lessons, mini-lessons, projects, and activities all reference multicultural and historical literature, and Internet websites teachers can access to enrich social studies teaching and learning. Promotes good citizenship as a goal of social studies.