Associated Colleges of Illinois: Mentor Online

Today I want to call your attention to an excellent book for anyone struggling with teaching Social Studies. It’s a collection of essays about how (and why) to use cooperative learning methods in Social Studies classes. The essays are quite practice oriented and relatively short. For instance, one essay – entitled “Teams-Games-Tournament (TGT): Applications to the Social Studies Classroom” – is 22 pages long and explains “a strategy that requires students to ‘compete’ in games and tournaments as an extension of team-based cooperative learning efforts.”
The first essay in the book is by the editor (Robert Stahl). It provides you with a very convincing discussion of the benefits of cooperative learning, including the facts that students who participate in cooperative learning over the long-term tend to score higher on academic tests, have more positive self-concepts, have more positive attitudes toward school and learning, and much more.
Though the book apparently has not been reissued since its 1994 printing, several of the on-line used book companies have copies available. Alibris has several (some for a little as $2.06!); Barnes and Noble has several.
The complete citation for the book is as follows.
Stahl, Robert, Ed. (1994). Cooperative Learning in Social Studies: A Handbook for Teachers Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN: 0-201-81786-1
Do yourself a favor: get a copy!

Posted by Dr. Jim Vandergriff

Prior knowledge: the knowledge your students bring to class with them. There’s probably not much that’s more important to learning than a child’s existing knowledge, or incorrect knowledge, or lack of knowledge about what you are preparing to teach. When children get new information or experiences, they interpret it in accordance with what they already know (or don’t know). So, the best place to begin a Social Studies lesson – whether history, or geography, or government, or anything else – is to find out what the students already know and don’t know.
How do you find that out? It takes time an effort, but you really can’t proceed without it. If your students don’t have the necessary background knowledge, they can’t learn what you’re teaching. One way to collect such information is to give pre-tests, analyze the result, the fill in the blanks in students’ knowledge. Another way, and one I like better, even though it isn’t time efficient, is simply to talk to the class about what they understand about the topic – the informal method. It may take time, but the result is worth it.

Posted by Jim Vandergriff

One of the best ways to interest kids in Social Studies is to tie it to their existing knowledge. For instance, if you are teaching mapping skills, have the students create a map of the school or the neighborhood — depending on their ages, of course. Even 1st and 2nd graders can create pretty good maps, with a little help. If you are teaching History, take a cue from Eliot Wigginton’s Foxfire project and have them study the history of their world — the school, the neighborhood, the city. With a little help and guidance from you, even 5th graders can create some pretty good oral histories. Kids generally get into studying things they’re already familiar with and can relate to.
What do you think?

posted by Jim Vandergriff

This week I want to recommend to you an article by Ronald V. Morris that was published in the Journal of Social Studies Research in 1998. It is available free on-line through Find Articles at

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3823/is_199810/ai_n8808860

or perhaps more conveniently by simply searching for “Morris, Ronald V.”

The title of the article is “Common Threads: How to translate best practices into teaching.” The subject of the article is how to effectively use drama in middle school level Social Studies.

Morris does an excellent job of explaining why it is that British teachers seem to succeed at using drama in Social Studies while American teachers are generally not so effective. He also does an excellent job of explaining how to make it work.

I really recommend this article to you. As I said above, it’s free on-line through Find Articles. Also, if you are a person like me, who doesn’t like to read stuff on-line, you can print off a copy without charge. It’s about 16 pages long, but well worth the paper!

I want to call your attention to an article by Mahmoud Suleiman entitled “Teaching Social Studies Multiculturally.” The article is available in full-text format (pdf) on the ERIC website (www.eric.ed.gov). Its ERIC number is ED442712.
Suleiman argues that because classrooms are becoming more and more diverse, and because schools desire to instill democratic values in students, social studies teachers must become “cultural brokers and social engineers who have the ability to lead and empower their students.” (p.3)
The article presents a very useful list of guidelines that should underlie social studies curriculum and instruction. He follows that list of philosophical underpinnings with a list of specific and practical guidelines that should govern social studies courses.
It’s an excellent and useful article. Every k-12 social studies teacher should read it carefully – especially those new to the profession.

Let me call your attention to “Social Studies in Action,” part of Annenberg Media’s “Advancing Excellent Teaching in American Schools” project. http://www.learner.org/resources/series135.html

This media project provides a large number of free “video on demand” resources for classroom use, such as this series of workshops around teaching with primary sources.

Workshop 1. The Virginia Company: America’s Corporate Beginnings

Workshop 2. Common Sense and the American Revolution: The Power of the Printed Word

Workshop 3. The Lowell System: Women in a New Industrial Society

Workshop 4. Concerning Emancipation: Who Freed the Slaves?

Workshop 5. Cans, Coal, and Corporations: The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition

Workshop 6. The Census: Who We Think We Are

Workshop 7. Disease and History: Typhoid Mary and the Search for Perfect Control

Workshop 8. Korea and the Cold War: A Case Study

Besides the free video, Annenberg also has a regular broadcast schedule and an on-line store for purchase of videos.

It requires a broadband connection and Windows Media Player – and a free login sign-up.

It’s an excellent resource!