Inside the Social Studies Classroom

by Brophy, Jere; Alleman, Janet; Knighton, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9780203929452
• ISBN10: 0203929454
• Copyright: 2008-07-23
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

This book, resulting from a collaboration among an educational psychologist, a social studies educator, and a primary teacher, describes in rich detail and illustrates with excerpts from recorded lessons how primary teachers can engage their students in social studies lessons and activites that are structured around powerful ideas and have applications to their lives outside of school.

Table of Contents

@contents: Selected Contents

Introduction

Need for Improving Primary Social Studies

Our Partnership

Searching for a Feasible Method

Barbara Joins the Team

Negotiating Understandings and Inducing Principles

Focus of the Book

Prior Research on Primary Social Studies

The Need for a Powerful Content Base In Early Social Studies

The Expanding Communities Sequence

Cultural Universals as Unit Topics

Teaching Cultural Universals for Understanding, Appreciation, and Life Application

Topical Organization of Curriculum

Teaching for Conceptual Change

Addressing Prior Knowledge and Misconceptions

NCSS Standards

Other Research

Generic Aspects of our Instructional Units

Our Approach Compared to Alternatives

Developing the Unit Plans

Sequencing the Lessons

Pilot Testing and Revisions

Key Characteristics of the Units

Example Unit Outline: Shelter

Incorporating the Units Within the Larger Curriculum

Using Narrative to Build a Content Base

The Special Challenges of Teaching Young Children

Narrative Structures as Teaching Tools

Barbara's Use of Narrative

Clothing in the Past

The Story of Bananas

Concluding Observations

Structuring the Curriculum Around Big Ideas

Focus on Powerful Ideas

Three Layers of Powerful Ideas for Teaching

Barbara's Focus on Big Ideas

Maintaining Focus on Big Ideas without Getting Sidetracked

Techniques for Focusing Students' Attention on Big Ideas

Cultural Universals

Food

Clothing

Transportation

Communication

Developing Big Ideas About History

Teaching History for Understanding, Appreciation, and Life Application

Barbara's History Teaching

Countering Presentism

Co-constructing Timelines

An Example

Adapting Timelines to the Content

Developing Big Ideas: Geography

The Five Fundamental Themes of Geography

NCSS Standards Relating to Geography

Teaching Geography for Understanding, Appreciation, and Life Application

Barbara's Geography Teaching

A Map Lesson

Incorporating Geographic Context Into Other Lessons

Developing Big Ideas: The Social Sciences

Anthropology (Cultural Studies)Barbara's Teaching About Culture

Economic Development

Cultural Differences

Economics

Barbara's Teaching About Economics

Political Science (Civics and Government)Barbara's Teaching About Civics and Government

Using Instructional Resources

Teaching with Visuals

Books

Photos and Illustrations

Video and Other Technology

Constructed Learning Resources

Charts

Lists

An Example

Word Webs

Graphs

Barbara's Nine Principles

Making Connections and Avoiding Undesired Content

Making Connections

Foreshadowing

Tie-backs

Integrating Across Subjects

Controlling Students' Exposure to Anomalies and Misconceptions

Anomalies

Misconceptions

Controlling Students' Exposure to Undesired Content

Economic Disparities

Taboo Topics

Negative Emotions

Magic Words

Developing Big Ideas

Introducing New Knowledge Bases

Adapting and Elaborating Lesson Plans

Choosing Physical Settings

Choosing Instructional Resources

Developing Skills

Starting by Eliciting Wonders

Establishing the Initial Knowledge Base

Starting with the Prototypical

Building on Prior Knowledge

An Example

Alternative Topic Introductions

Building on Previous Lessons

Starting with a Question

Addressing Strong Interests First

Purposeful Sets of Examples

Introducing and Controlling Vocabulary

Deciding Which Terms and Distinctions to Teach

Tailoring Definitions to Instructional Goals

Enriching Understandings

Planned Redundancy

Other Vocabulary Teaching Techniques

Dropping in Definitions and Explanations on the Fly

Developing Knowledge Bases Through Structured Discourse

Supporting Learning Through Focused Content and Planned Redundancy

Sustaining Lesson Flow via Elaborations

Graduated Questioning

Scaffolding Learning and Retention

Establishing Prototype Images to Anchor Networks of Content

Reviewing Earlier Lessons to Set Up Today's Lesson

Reviewing to Consolidate Before Moving Forward

Modeling of Interio

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