Core Social Studies Practices

The practice of creating essential questions and enduring questions is important to ensure that the students are learning what they are supposed to be learning. These questions should have multiple entry points and multiple potential answers. This is important so the topic can go in many different directions. Essential questions and objectives go hand in hand, as the objectives should be able to answer the question. Objectives should also be “SMART,” meaning that it is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. If an objective is SMART it will be able to help students achieve the goals and ensure that the students will be able to reach these goals to learn and succeed. In the social studies toolkit our group’s questions had multiple entry points and answers. For example, one of our questions was “what does the word family mean to you?” In our toolkit we answered this question by talking about the vocabulary of people in their family, such as uncles and cousins, and the students also bring in an object that is representative of their family, such as food, an ornament, or family memorabilia. This topic can be taken in many different directions, and because the entire unit was about the idea that families are all different from each other, thus no student would have the same answer to the question of “what does the word family mean to you?”

Cultural and Community Relevance is important so the students are able to relate the social studies to society around them and to current events. It’s important to ensure that students are learning about current events that are relevant to society. This was done in the toolkit when students talk about different families and that they are different. It’s important to build an understanding that not all families are the same. The toolkit could have included some field trips that can relate to family, which was part of blog post #5. Talking about families that are not part of the traditional family shows cultural relevance and that they are learning about different types of families.

Meeting students’ needs is important for all students: those with special needs, and those who are gifted. If students’ needs are not met, they will not have the proper opportunities to succeed and learn. In the toolkit, students with special needs would get one-on-one assistance from the teacher or aide to work on any of the projects they may have difficulties with. In regards to the final assessment, the gifted students will be able to do some additional student inquiry as they look geographically where their family came from and locate it on a map. This will ensure that the gifted students will be challenged and are able to grow as well.

The sixth practice is authentic assessment, which is important in classrooms so that the students are able to take action and engage in what they are learning. A classroom that engages in lots of authentic assessments is Cowhey’s classroom, from Black Ants and Buddhists, as they continually strived to make a difference and show students that they are an important part of society. In the toolkit the students engaged in authentic assessment as they made a connection between school learning and their own life when they ask their families about their heritage and put that on their family rainbow. Displaying their final projects in the hallway will allow other students to see how different all families are, which will help create more tolerance and understanding among students, who are members of society. Students also use their knowledge of the content to engage in higher level thinking as they are instructed to include someone on their rainbow that is not related to them, but someone that acts like or feels like family to them.

Incorporating multiple forms of communication within lessons is important because not all students learn best in some realms of communication. This was seen in my field placement, as some students learned well when public speaking, where others learned better, and were able to better demonstrate their skill, in written form. Thus, the teacher would try and incorporate multiple forms of communication within the lessons. In the toolkit there were many forms such as: public speaking, interviewing, and drawing, which provides students with many different opportunities for the students to demonstrate their knowledge.

When students engage in social scientific thinking, the eighth core social studies practice, they are able to discuss social justice topics and engage in higher level thinking. Additionally, it’s important to teach this to help students learn about the roles of citizens, and also look at data and how it can be used to understand different social studies topics. In the toolkit students were thinking social scientifically when they used the social studies topics they learned about family in order to learn about the social world, especially when it comes to tolerance of different types of families. We could have looked at data with the students in terms of looking at how family types have changed over various years to demonstrate a numerical representation of different family types.

Within the toolkit we did not have students practice historical thinking; however, it is still an important lesson to teach, as it is seen as a main social studies concept. We could have asked students to look at historical families in the past, such as presidents’ families or other popular or influential families. Students looked at their own family history when interviewing their family for the family rainbow.

This unit included many opportunities to critique the dominant narrative. In a previous blog post, I wrote about critiquing the dominant narrative regarding Ellis Island and having a family name changed there. However, throughout these lessons in the toolkit, we mostly critique the dominant narrative of a “nuclear family” of one mother and one father. Going against the dominant narrative is important for students, so that misconceptions can be altered and realigned.

The final core social studies practice is an inclusive and democratic classroom. This is important for students to draw on prior knowledge and navigate controversy. In the toolkit, students learned about new and different families through books and their peers. They also look at multiple perspectives of families and draw on their prior knowledge of a family. Additionally, it’s important that students learn to navigate controversy so that they can engage in a respectful and appropriate discussion of opinions, which is important in academia. Through talking about different perspectives and opinions, students are able to form their own opinions and engage in perspective taking.

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