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Social Studies Statement

Standard: Candidates know, understand and use the major concepts and modes of inquiry

from the social studies. The integrated study of history, geography, the social sciences

and other related area to promote elementary students' ability to make informed decisions

as citizens of a culturally diverse democratic society and interdependent world.

Social Studies is an important field that covers many different content areas.

Some of these are human geography, geography, economics, government, and history.

Each of these areas brings important concepts to add to the knowledge of social studies.

Social studies is essentially the study of people and should promote historical empathy,

historical thinking, diversity and should help empower students to become informed,

responsible, and involved citizens. In this lesson on American symbols that I created

during my social studies practicum in a forth grade classroom I tried to engage the

students in the process of thinking about symbols that they may have seen numerous time

in a new way. Lesh (2011) talked about the idea of encouraging students to become

historical thinking. Although my lesson was not learning about an historic event, I think

that the idea of critical and historical thinking go hand in hand. I asked my students to

think about the bigger meaning behind common symbols of our county and what it means

to them and their classmates as well as what they mean to our country.

Teachers of social studies are not merely teaching social studies, they are also

teaching reading, writing, and cultural diversity throughout the social studies curriculum.

When reading social studies text, teachers can encourage students to use strategies such

as asking questions while reading and using graphic organizers (Harvey and Goudvis,

2007). For this lesson, I decided to have the students fill out a graphic organizer while I
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was reading the book to organize the information about the symbols that they were

hearing. Picking the best transmission strategy is an important consideration when

developing a social studies curriculum. I plan on using various trade books in my

classroom because I feel that these often provide meaningful ways to connect to the

characters and events happening in the book. This can encourage empathy and a personal

connection to the past. For my social studies lesson on American symbols, I decided to

use the book, Blue Sky, White Stars by Sarvinder Naberhaus. While I was reading this

book, I wanted students to think about the symbols they were seeing in the book and what

they meant to our country. I also wanted them to think about the people and the diversity

in the book. This book is a great way to spark class discussions. Another way to promote

a deeper understanding as suggest by Schmoker (2018) is to have students write in all

content areas. At the end of my lesson, I had students pick one symbol and write a

paragraph about how their symbol represents a democratic idea of the United States or

shows patriotism. Students were able to put into their own words a summary of what they

had learned and hopefully gain a deeper understanding through writing.

The social studies content area is an important part of a child’s education. In the

social sciences the student will learn to think of history as a way to understand how we

got to the current place. They will also learn how to be a member of the society by

learning about the U.S government, other areas of the world and their cultures.

References
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Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2017). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension

for understanding, engagement, and building knowledge, grades K-8. Portland,

ME: Stenhouse.

Lesh, B. A. (2011). "Why wont you just tell us the answer?": Teaching historical thinking

in grades 7-12. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse.

Schmoker, M. (2018). Demystifying Writing, Transforming Education: Writing enables

deeper thinking and learning in every content area. Let’s teach it in every content

area. Educational Leadership, 75(7), 22. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mih&AN=129418888&si

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