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Social Studies

As a greater emphasis is put towards reading, writing, and math, social studies is

becoming rarer and rarer in elementary classrooms. This drive towards certain goals at the

expense of other subject areas is a disservice to our students. Social studies teaches students to

explore the past, think critically about what happened and why, look for patterns and apply their

new knowledge to their life today. It also teaches students to understand their world, see how

our global society is interconnected, and find their place in the world. Social Studies also helps

students learn about how their society works, how laws are made, how advancements to rights

are fought for and achieved through decades of struggle led by strong and courageous men and

women who show tremendous tenacity. Social studies is in many ways the most human of all

subject areas, the most applicable to how students live their life, how societies are formed and

transformed over years and centuries, how our world is shaped through centuries of wars,

conflicts and compromises, explorations and discoveries. As Mindes (2005) argues that through

social studies education, students will not only learn “the content that focuses on citizenship

education in all its permutations, but also learn how to learn and how to consider multiple

perspectives” (p. 7). This ​lesson plan​ has students consider how our understanding of the world

around us is shaped. The lesson has students evaluate and try to order chronologically different

maps of Alaska. They have to consider what they could determine from these maps about what

the explorers knew about Alaska, how they explored it, and what they didn’t know at the time.

There are many ways to have students engage in their discovery of different aspects of

social studies. Student research, discussion, and debate are great ways to develop the critical

thinking skills required for social studies (Lesh, 2011). This lesson plan has students work
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together to analyze maps, discuss the order they should be in within a group, and then debate

proper placement with the entire class as the whole class tries to determine the correct order of

the maps. The skills they use in this lesson are not only valuable for social studies, but also for

other subject areas.

Social studies also helps students with their literacy skills. As Goldberg (2011) argues,

through a social studies education, “students can analyze historical text; they can interpret graphs

and charts of data…; they can ​read​ a photograph or a historical painting; they can measure

distances on maps” (p. 126). All of these skills that are naturally embedded in social studies

education are valuable for students to learn. As the National Council for Social Studies (2017)

explains, “In a world that demands independent and cooperative problem solving to address

complex social, economic, ethical, and personal concerns, core social studies content is as basic

for success as reading, writing, and computing.” Social studies is not only a valuable subject

area to explore. It is also a vehicle for teaching other essential skills. In this lesson, students

practice their visual literacy skills to gather information from maps. They also have to practice

their communication skills as they work with their team to find and organize the information

from the maps and make conclusions based on the information they found. These skills are

valuable to their life outside of school and can be transferred to other subject areas as well.
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References

Goldberg, S. (2011). Social studies is essential for literacy. ​Social Education 75(3).​ Retrieved
from: ​https://www.socialstudies.org/publications/reflections_on_secretary_duncan​.

Lesh, B. A. (2011). ​"Why won't you just tell us the answer?": Teaching historical thinking in
grades 7-12​. Portsmouth, NH: Stenhouse.

Mindes, G. (2005). Social studies in today’s early childhood curricula. ​Young Children, 60(5),
1-8. Retrieved from
http://ocw.umb.edu/early-education-development/eec-preschool-learning-standards-and-g
uidelines/social-science-readings/Social%20Studies%20in%20Early%20Childhood%20C
urricula.pdf/at_download/file.pdf​.

National Council for the Social Studies (2017). Powerful, Purposeful Pedagogy in Elementary
Social Studies. Retrieved from:
https://www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerfulandpurposeful