Chapter 1 Take Aways

The first thing I took away from Chapter 1 was the meaning of purposeful and powerful Social
Studies. From what I understood, students need to be able to relate to the information being taught
and apply past experiences to them to formulate new opinions and thoughts. This also means that
students need to be able to classify and describe what they are learning, but some students struggle
with this skill and by challenging them and providing lessons that have a purpose they can relate to they
will being to recognize patterns in the world.
Another things I took away from this chapter is how as teachers we need to not only have social
studies content knowledge but that there is also general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical
content knowledge. These make up how social studies is instructed. General pedagogical knowledge is
what helps us in classroom management. Pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge on how to
teach social studies, and content knowledge is the information and facts specific to social studies. All
three work together and be in balance to successfully teach.
Social studies is a very packed subject with 10 themed standardized areas. These themes help
students ensure the student is getting a well rounded social studies education, and that they are
learning exactly what social studies is. Standards are also good for the teacher because they serve as
benchmarks in student progress and knowledge. Students should be mastering the content and by
breaking it down into categories teachers can easily pin point content areas that students may be
struggling with.
Really though, social studies is essential for students because it represents human life, and
everything from cultural differences to the history of civilizations. It helps students to understand
similarities and differences between different people and can be used to teach difficult topics like race,
religious, economics and ethics.
Chapter 2 Takeaways
One of the first things that I learned in this chapter is about using behavioral learning theory in
social studies instruction. In traditional teaching that has a teacher sharing a lesson and expecting an
answer to questions or assignments as a way to figure out if students have received the
information. Teaching in a more meaningful way doesnt replace all of the aspects of traditional
teaching, but it includes other methods that encourage students to use more than just recalling
information.
Another thing that I took from this chapter is the phase of the learning cycle. The phases of
understanding allow for a more meaningful teaching approach. It provides the key elements and
conditions that all students experience the different phases. I think that this way of teaching allows for
students to figure out what their own knowledge is from the beginning and it meets them where they
are instead of trying to get everyone to start from the same place.
The third thing that I took away from this chapter is that there are two forms of assessing
whether or not students understand the content. In a formative assessments are used throughout the
learning cycle, almost like a checkpoint. This can be useful to see areas that a student needs more focus
or to expand on. Summative evaluations are done at the end of a lesson and allow for students to put

together and transfer all the information that they gathered. In high school I was fortunate enough to
have a team of teachers who believed in using this tool instead of the traditional lecture and
memorization approach. I felt my learning was more meaningful and that I was able to truly understand
what the information was instead of just memorizing words or numbers to be able to recite back on an
exam.
The fourth thing that I took away from this chapter was about effective strategies to promote
conceptual change in social studies lessons. Specifically this section touched on the idea that, social
studies knowledge begins when the learner actively works with events in everyday life, both in and out
of a classroom (p. 32). If students cant relate to the topics and content in social studies or be able to
visualize how it plays out in everyday life, it is less meaningful and easily forgotten. I think this also is a
way for teachers to check where students are at with respect to their prior knowledge.
Lastly, I liked that this chapter broke down the exploratory introduction, development and
expansion phase in a lesson and what those look like in a social studies lesson. These phases of the
lesson plan require the teacher to be able to know what students past knowledge is like so they can
build a lesson that starts from an appropriate place. They need an instructional activity that helps to
introduce this exploratory phase. In the development phase, the teacher will provide more guidance
then in the introduction phase. This is the meat of the lesson and where the teacher will provide
explanations or the kea ideas that the students need for the lesson. Teachers can use a variety of
instructional strategies to address the lesson, and it should incorporate as many of the multiple
intelligences as possible so ensure student success. I had teachers that only taught one way, and
sometimes that way wasnt help for me, and I would struggle to find a way to take the information that
was provided and translate it in a way that made more sense to me and my learning style.
Chapter 3 Takeaway
1. Inquire Skills

Preschool children use their senses to develop their early inquiry skills when they play. Things like
touching things with different textures, running fingers through people's hair, and tasting anything that
they can stick into their mouth. These skills facilitate the investigation of for children as they develop.
These inquiry skills happen before children ever experience social studies content. Having these basic
inquiry skills are required to understanding social studies concepts. These skills include basic and
higher-level integrative though processes that are important and necessary for exploration and
investigation.
Social studies inquiry skills can be grouped into five areas by their fucntions: data gathering, data
organizing, data processing, communicating, and reflecting.
2. Observations, Inferences, and Hypotheses
Observations use the five senses and being able to identify which sense is being used.
The senses help to describe to other people what objects are composed of. An example is that food
tastes salty, or the shirt feels smooth.
Observations represent a single case or event. They cannot be used to make predictions but
observations can lead to statements of facts.

Inferences use observations but go deeper and beyond what had been observed. Inferences require
students to be able to also recognize common characteristics within observations and group them
together to create an inference
Hypotheses describe two ore more variables and their relationship to one another. More simple
hypotheses usually contain only two variables as opposed to more complex ones that involve more
variables.
Hypotheses combine more complex ideas and condense data into a more general statements to cover
all the possibilities.
3. Critical Thinking
Having criticial thinking involves having good reasons to support what you believe in.
Qualities involved in critical thinking include, careful, precise, persistent and objective analysis of
information and the ability to judge its vailidity.
Critical thinking requires the ability to be well informed and to seek complex reasoning in addition to
looking atll the different angles to a situation.
4. Creative Thinking
Creative thinking uses thought processes to construct novel or aesthetic products.
Creative thinking uses prior knowledge to come up with possibilities in other contexts or to take an idea
in a new directions.
Creative ability goes further into interests, and requires exploration and create change.
5. Creating Conditions that Promote Student Thinking in Social Studies
There are three strategies that create a proactive approach to teaching thinking in social studies:
questioning, structuring and modeling.
Questioning requires students to use prior knowledge of an idea and use it as a beginning point.
After that initial response students may have questions that develop like, "what is your evidence for that
statement?" or "What can you do now to beome more sure about, or comfortable with your answer.
Effective social studies teaching encourages students to ask more questions and requires the teacher to
give less answers.
In order to do this teachers must prepare by planning for higher-level thought questions. and teachers
need to ask for evidence from their students in their responses. This also makes students ore aware of
their own thinking.
Structuring involves creaing opportunities for interactions between the students and their learning
environment. Teachers should create ways for students to interact with real people and real objects
and real social experiences. A safe learning environment is positive and a creatve atmosphere that
encourages students to be open to other people's thoughts and ideas.
Modeling involves posing a problem and also demonstrating a solution. A teacher would use modeling
to show how to properly measure distance for example and then would allow students to then do it
independently.
Chapter 4 Take Aways
1. Facts are statements about peoples events, or objects. They are what help us to develop concepts,
generalizations, attitudes, and values. Facts are specific in nature, and they are made using
observations. Examples of facts are "There are 30 students in the class," "There are 12 months in the
year," or "The 4th of July is Independence Day." Facts are single occurances that either take place in the
past or the present. Facts can also allow us to make predictions about what may happen at an event or
in a future occurance.

2. Concepts are different from facts in two ways: one is that facts are isolated pieces of information that
we gain using the senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling or smelling). Another difference is that
concepts are more involved and detailed than an observation. Secondly, concepts usually take mutliple
observations and summarize them into catagories based on the characteristics that they have. Concepts
are also a reflection of our cultures. They are defined by humans and may differ depending on the
location of the people. There are three types of concepts: First, Formal definition, concept name, and
operational description.
3. Generalizations show the relationships between concepts. After students form concepts, they can
learn to make the connections between these concepts and to form generalizations. Generalizations are
taught in social studies and can sometimes lead to inaccurate or alternative genralizations because of
the limited experience of students. They may take one experience and form a generalization from
that. The more experiences that students have the more generatlization that they may form. The issue
with this is that students may not be generalizing things that are accurate and forming inaccurate
opinions about topics.
4. Things that distinguish generalizations from facts and concepts are:

They identify relationship between two or more concepts.Constuct explanations of cause and
effect.
Enable predictions of a future occurrence of the relationship stated in the generalization
Are expressed in a complete sentence while a concept is epxressed in a single word or short
phrase.
Are objective and impersonal and require evidence to support them.

5. Generalizations can be used to make predictions. When generalizations are used to organize facts
and concepts in a summary they can then describe the relationship between them. Once
generalizations are formed, it can then be used to predict what happens next. Generalizations can also
be used to form hypotheses that can then be tested. Having the ability to predict using generalizations
is an important skill to have because it allows us some control over our lives. In social studies it helps
students to look at the life around them and the things that have happened in history and to have better
abilities in predicting what happens when the same generalizations are used with similar concepts taht
are repeated throughout history.
Chapter 5 Takeaways
1.

Citizenship is something that is defined by the members of that group and includes the
behaviors that they deem to be appropriate. Schools are an institution that is instrumental in
helping young people to develop habits of a good citizen.
2. Students should have some understanding of how their government works and have some
political awareness. This has been left to textbooks for younger students (k-4). Part of this is
due to the fact that political science is considered abstract in nature, and it is hard to
conceptualize.
3. Since so many different groups have their own understanding and definition of citizenship it is
important to look over any materials that are given to teachers before passing them on to the
students. When in doubt, the education department has a database of resources matched to
the state objectives.

4. As citizens, we should participate in our communities. For students this can be in a classroom
setting, or their school. Service learning and participation can be tools to help the students
become more involved in the changes that are currently happening in society. It will help
students to gain a sense of what their community is made up of.
5. Students can participate in student government as a way to be active citizens in their
school. This allows students to practice democracy in a real life setting and not just through
text. It also gives them the chance to learn how to initiate ways to address issues in the school
and help to solve those problems.

Chapter 6 Takeaways
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Our lives are more and more connected to the lives of people in different countries. It is
possible for American citizens to indirectly and/or directly affect the lives of people outside the
U.S. This can be done through corporations, governments, organizations, individuals, and states
that are involved in global interdependence. It is important for teachers to know what is
important for students to be aware of and what to include as topics from around the world in
their curriculum.
At a young age, students should be experiencing an in-depth learning of different countries that
is free from stereotypes or superficial facts. These units can be a positive influence for students
and how they feel towards learning about cultures outside of their own. This can also be a tool
to examining social issues related to different places and people.
Global education is the study of economic, political, ecological, and technological
systems. There are four problems that the entire globe faces and are the focus of global
education. Peace and security, national and international development, environment problems,
and human rights.
In middle school global education can be tied into political science, law, climate change or
science. It is also closely related to the peace education movement. Peace and security is a
persistent problem in the world and it is important to consider these problems at an
international level.
Information is much more readily available through the computer and internet. Students are
able to use technology to see reports of news happening all over the globe. They provide the
students opportunities to critically think about the articles and how this impacts other parts of
the world.

Chapter 7 Takeaways
1.

Teachers who have an effective social studies pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) are able to
create powerful social studies instructional goals and lessons.
2. Teachers should teach in a way that supports meaningful learning. This includes:
a. Clarity or clear instruction
b. Variety using reading, activities, and student discussion in a way that brings
everything together
c. task orientation powerful social studies learning for a significant amount of
time at all grade levels

d. student engagement effective classrooms need to be nonthreatening and

supportive for students. Use time efficiently and consistently to create a
powerful experience.
3. Cooperative learning is one way to make social studies more meaningful. Students share the
time of the teacher and the learning resources. It requires students to participate and
cooperate throughout the lessons. It ties well into social studies since social studies includes
human and civic behaviors and this requires students to work together.
4. Guided discovery allows for students to be involved in activities related to the topics being
taught and to form an understanding of them before they are given an explanation by the
teacher.
5. Useful activities for lessons can include demonstrations, field trips, guest speakers, games, role
playing and teacher presentations. Using a mix of these keeps the lessons interesting and
prevents the students from being bored by the same thing each lesson.

Chapter 8
1. Planning meaningful social studies units involves focusing on the significance of the topics to the
students, the key ideas, and what the students need in order to appropriately instruct and
assess.
2. Thinking-skills focus units are specific to the content learned and is less important than the skills
to be developed. It is more about thinking, or inquiry.
3. Issue and problem solving units give students the opportunity to explore issues, identify
possible solutions, and examine the arguments for and against the solutions. It helps the
students to develop thinking skills to work and apply what they are learning.
4. Developing integrated units requires thoughtful consideration, purposeful organization, and
reflective evaluation.
5. Planning units is a key skill to have as a teacher because in order for the units to be successful a
teacher must be able to relate the content to the students experiences. It involves the teacher
and students making choices that will increase the quality of the learning that takes place and
also the success of the students learning outcomes.
Chapter 9
1.

Students can sense from their first steps in the classroom how much their teacher respects
them. The way the room is arranged and the instructional procedures tell whether it will be an
informal or formal set up. It also shows how the communication will be between students and
the teacher.
2. It is important that the curriculum be respectful of the diversity within a classroom. Respect for
all the students is communicated through the curriculum and can foster really powerful
discussions. It allows the students to learn and create diverse opinions.
3. During elementary and middle school students develop their sense of self and their sense of
independence. They learn to cope with feelings of fear and aggression, and jealousy while the
navigate forming new friendships. Because of this new cognitive development they are more
able to plan solutions to problems and understand the social environments that come with it.
4. One way to reduce aggression is to eliminate the conditions that promote it. This can include
frustrating situations and aggressive media programs. Another way to reduce aggression is to
teach students that aggression does not reward them.

5. Conflict resolution abilities are important for managing students aggressive feelings. These kind
of programs encourage students to resolve disputes peacefully outside of the traditional school
disciplinary procedures.
Chapter 10
1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

Students who have disabilities and are placed in a regular classroom must be given the
appropriate support and services they need to be successful in the classroom. This can include
an aid or modifications to the curriculum.
Strategies for having an inclusive classroom include:
a. Identifying the learning needs and characteristics of the students.
b. Identifying the goals for instruction
c. Comparing the learning needs and goals to the teaching materials to determine
whether the content, instructional techniques, or setting require modification
d. Determining specific modifications of the teaching materials
e. Modifying the materials
f. Conducting ongoing evaluation as the materials are used
Cooperative group activities give the opportunity for students who may need help to have the
support of their peers as well as helping with social integration.
Teacher need to have a culturally responsible classroom. Teachers need to make the effort to
learn about their students and their cultures so that they can support the personalities of the
students in their classroom.
ELL students bring a different kind of diversity into a classroom. It is important to encourage ELL
students to participate and contribute to classroom discussion as best that they can. This can
help to foster their desire to learn a new language and help them to practice. Social studies
requires more language use than some other subjects and if a teacher can learn some basics of
the students language they can help to make the student more comfortable.

Chapter 11
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

History helps to prepare students to be responsible citizens, further their learning, and be
productive employees. It helps students to have knowledge about diverse cultural heritages of
different nations and about the world community.
Young people who are learning to sequence events in their lives are actually learning
history. This helps to teach them to recognize that there are links between their actions and the
consequences that follow. In curriculum students will see plenty of examples of that being
played out.
Timelines are a great tool for learning to develop a sense of chronology. Students may struggle
with remember time-related concepts and a timeline helps to organize it as well as provide a
visual to where things are in relation to another concept.
Museums are artifacts are a great resource for teaching history. It helps to provide a positive
memory of the topic in history and gets students asking questions or discussing what they
encounter during their trip.
Attending a reenactment or drama that portrays different historic events is a great way to get
students interested in what they are learning. They can get an idea of what life was like during a
particular time period and relate it to their current lives.

Chapter 12
1. Five themes of Geography
- Location: Fundamental assumption of geography.
- Place: Both natrual and human features of the landscape
- Relationships within places: Natural environment tends to limit what people can do in a place. But
humans have been clever in dealing with the limitations of the landscape.
- Movement: Movement of ideas and products affects not only places of origin and destination but also
places along the way.
- Regions as a working definition for k-12: Within a region, geographers study all the places and
activities defined by the other four themes.
2. Resources for teaching geograph include field work, drawing, photography and talking about what is
important. There are satellite images that students can use to see different parts of the earth.
3. Geography is integral to abilities to locate, move or control natural resources that apply to our lives.
4. Geographic knowledge is found throughout the elementary curriculum. All six elements of the
standards are stressed in every grade level. Young children begin to learn about geography through
personal interactions with their surroundings.
5. Two important characteristics of geography curriculum are the organization of geographic
information and the involvement of students in minds-on learning through inquiry.
Chapter 13
1, Microeconomics is the student of individual households, companis and markets and how resources
and prices combine to distribute wealth and products. The government regulates those businesses that
have a monopoly to protect consumers and ensure an adequate supply of the products produced by
these businesses.
2. Macroeconomics is the study of the big picture and of economics as a whole. It provides an overview
of the entire nation. Inflation occurs when the prices of all goods and services tend to go up in the
nation during the same time period.
3. People encounter scarcity every day and have to make choices because of them. Rather than
accepting the first solution that comes to mind, people are encouraged by economists to make rational
decisions that consider the economic lon and short term consequences.
4. Students at all grades, all ability levels and all socioeconomic levels can learn economics. Economics
plays an integral part in all societies including the one that exists when students interact within the
classroom.

5. The goals of classroom society programs go beyond the recognition of concepts requiring students to
apply and analyze concepts and make decisions.
Chapter 14
1. Evaluation is the process of using information to judge whether a program is meeting students' needs
effectively. They tell us what students' needs are, how well we have met those needs, and what we
might reform to better meet students' needs in both the affective and cognitive domains.
2. Social studies requires assessments reflecting all the content areas supporting the social studies.
3. Social studies educators need to help students find connections between what they study and its
importance to their lives and to the world in which they live.
4. In student-led conferences, students present the information concerning their work and progress to
the family members and teacher who ask questions.
5. Reflection on their practice is the primary way in which teachers enhance their professional
development.