Real-World Investigations for Social Studies Inquiries for Middle and High School Students Based on the Ten NCSS Standards

This innovative book presents case studies called investigations that combine ready-to-implement middle and high school lessons with complementary guidelines to demonstrate how the principles of Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) can be used to meet NCSS social studies curriculum standards. This combination of CTL principles and NCSS standards creates a book that shows teachers-in-training examples of quality social studies instruction while simultaneously illustrating essential teaching methods.Intended to develop the attributes necessary for informed citizenship, each investigation provides a sequence of lessons using the teaching/learning styles that research has shown to be most effective with these age groups. Each investigation requires readers to face problematic issues, research and analyze data, construct meaning and understanding, evaluate competing points-of-view, and, finally, reach and defend conclusions. All coverage keyed to NCSS standardswith an investigation for each of the ten mandated competencies.Core or supplemental reading for middle and secondary social studies methods courses.

John D. Hoge is an associate professor of education at the University of Georgia, where he has taught for the past 14 years while engaging in curriculum development projects, research, and publication activities designed to promote effective elementary and middle school social studies education. Regarding the school uniforms case in chapter 6, he states, "It was a natural for me. It touched so many power, authority, and governance issues and related directly to the lives of the children and parents who experienced it."

Sherry L. Field is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Austin, where she is Program Area Head for Social Studies Education. She has recently served as Chair of the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies, Chair of the Research in Social Studies SIG of the American Educational Research Association, and President of the Society for the Study of Curriculum History. Her research in social studies curriculum and learning has been published in journals such as Theory and Research in Social Education, Social Education, Middle Level Learner, The Educational Forum, and Journal of Supervision and Curriculum. Currently, she is editor of Social Studies and the Young Learner.

Stuart J. Foster is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Education, the University of London. He received his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published widely on educational history and the teaching and learning of history and the social studies. His contributions in this book reflect his interest in the teaching of controversial issues, the politics of schooling, and the representation of ethnic groups in American education.

Pat Nickell is a former elementary teacher, school district administrator, and college professor. She served as president of the National Council for the Social Studies, 1996-1997, and has an extensive list of published articles, books, book chapters, and curriculum projects to her credit. She coauthored the NCSS Social Studies standards, Expectations of Excellence. She is currently a social studies consultant in the state of Florida.

Real-World Investigations for Social Studiesgrew out of a U.S. Department of Education grant that engaged the four author-editors in an exploration of the use of contextual teaching and learning (CTL) to teach social studies. Working with colleagues, doctoral students, teachers, and people in the community, we constructed 10 case studies that were designed to engage middle and high school students in issues-oriented inquiries that met the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) curriculum standards (NCSS, 1994).WritingReal-World Investigations for Social Studieswas both enjoyable and challenging. Essentially, the editors and authors of this text wanted to achieve a constructive combination of ready-to-implement middle and high school lessons and complementary guidelines for using major social studies instructional methods in support of these classroom lessons. The goal was to offer highly engaging case-based, issues-oriented instructional materials along with supporting methods to demonstrate how the principles of CTL could be used to achieve the 10 NCSS curriculum standards for social studies.Above all, we wanted to offer ready-to-implement instructional materials that were true to the principles of CTL. In order to help bring CTL into the social studies classroom, each investigation, first and foremost, aims to provide a practical sequence of lessons for teachers to use in middle or high school classrooms. Second, the lessons are designed to take into consideration the teaching and learning styles that many educators and researchers regard as most suited to middle and high school classrooms. Third, the lessons were developed with the intention of making the issues engaging, colorful, provocative, and relevant to the lives and interests of young people. Finally, the cases were designed to develop in middle school children key attributes necessary for undertaking their civic roles and responsibilities. As a result, every investigation requires students, individually and cooperatively, to wrestle with problematic issues, to research and analyze new data, to construct new meanings and understandings, to evaluate different and competing points of view, to reach (albeit tentatively) thoughtful conclusions, and, finally, to explain and defend positions taken. Arguably, no better preparation exists "to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world" (NCSS,1994).However, we also realized that the provision of these exemplary instructional materials offered a powerful platform--and an important opportunity--for teaching essential methods of social studies instruction. Thus, we added an introduction to the methods of CTL and an additional social studies teaching methods focus to teach each chapter's investigation. These materials are designed to offer teachers-in-training a contextually meaningful exposure to important social studies teaching methods. Practicing teachers, curriculum coordinators, and department chairs or curriculum leaders may also find that these methods materials refresh and reinforce their own classroom teaching practices. Organization of the TextThe 10 chapters ofReal-World Investigations for Social Studiesare structured to match the NCSS curriculum standards. Each chapter begins with an introduction, followed by a discussion of how the case helps students to meet the relevant NCSS curriculum standard. Next, each chapter includes a teaching methods focus that is tailored to its content and NCSS standard. This methods focus is often supported by explicit guidelines for instruction and key links to the lesson content.Ready-to-implement instructional materials follow, 'Kith each chapter offering an overview of its instruction, explicit lesson plans, all necessary handouts, and supporting materials.