Tod Emerson

EDTL 2760
9/28/16
What is social studies, and why do we teach it?
For my field experience, I have been placed at Bowling Green High
School. The teacher that I am working with is Mr. Hudok. Mr. Hudok teaches
social studies classes that are not normally viewed as traditional social
studies classes. He teaches popular culture classes and current event
classes. The students were all juniors and seniors in high school and the
classes were made up of many different cultural backgrounds. The couple of
questions that I want to answer are: Is this type of social studies considered
more interesting than other school subjects? How does these classes meet
the state of Ohio Learning standards or the National Council for the Social
Studies standards?
Is this type of social studies more interesting than the other subjects in
school?
When I walked into the classroom of Mr. Hudok for the first time, I was
expecting that he would be teaching some type of history class or maybe a
government class. It was to my surprise that when I walked into the class
there were huge posters of bands and singers. Then, he explained to me that
he teaches popular culture classes and current event classes. The only

classes that I am there for are the popular culture classes. Next, to answer
the question on whether this part of social studies is more interesting, I am
going to reference the Why Kids Dont like Social Studies? (Schug, Todd,
Berry, 1984). In this study, it was found that students did not enjoy learning
social studies for a few different reasons. Also, it was found that students
thought that English and Mathematics were rated higher than Social Studies.
One of the main reasons why students did not enjoy social studies was
because they found it not to be interesting and that it offend repeated itself. I
found by during my field experience that there are types of social studies
that we do not normally think about that students have found interesting.
With the study of popular culture the students are learning about history and
politics but from a viewpoint that students can relate to, and in the case that
I have seen it is music. I found by observing students that students tended to
participate in class more and enjoyed listening and watching examples of the
different music. The students and teachers were able to relate the different
types of music to the historical time period and the political movements of
the time. For example, students were learning about the rapid growth of
Punk Music in the 1970s. They were able to relate the music to the
historical events like the change to a new culture where people wanted to
different things like rebel against society and try things like drugs. Also, they
were able to describe how people started to have a large mistrust in the
government with events like Watergate and the Vietnam War.

How does these classes meet the state of Ohio Learning standards or the
National Council for the Social Studies standards?
To answer this question I will refer to the Ohio State Learning
standards (Ohio Department of Education, 2010) and the standards set forth
by the National Council for the Social Studies (National Council For the Social
Studies, 1992). The state learning standards set standards for high schools
based on the course. The philosophy of the state standards is to set content
standards that incorporate history, geography, government and economics in
order to prepare students to be participating citizens. So according to the
philosophy the best way to teach students to be participating citizens is
through history, geography, government, and economics but the classes that
I observed was not any of these. This mean that this popular culture classes
are not teaching to any standard. However, since this is an elective, I can see
how some of the lessons learned in these electives could assist with learning
the standards. Next, the NCSS focuses more on more areas than just history,
government, geography, and economics. So I could see how the classes that
I see during my field experience relate more to the NCSS than the State
Standards.
Thoughts
I have really enjoyed this field experience so far because it focusses on
different things besides the traditional social studies. I have found way that I
could help use other resources to help teach the standards. The only down

side to having a field experience that teaches electives is that I do not get to
see the traditional teaching that the standards for graduation requires.
References:
National Council for the Social Studies. (1992). A vision of powerful teaching and learning in the social
studies: Building social understanding and civic efficacy. Retrieved from
http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful.
Ohio Department of Education. (2010). Ohio's new learning standards: Social studies standards.
Retrieved from http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Ohio-s-New-LearningStandards/Social-Studies/SS-Standards.pdf.aspx.

Schug, M., Todd, R., & Beery. R. (1984). Why kids don't like social studies. Social Education, 48(5),
382-387.