Role-Play: A Strategy for Teaching Social Studies
One of the reasons social studies is viewed as a tough academic discipline is the result of force-fed historical dates and data. It is also one of the reasons that students think history is boring and irrelevant. Furthermore, their inability to relate to the culture and people of the past creates a what-does-this-have-to-do-with-me attitude early on in their education that directly influence their future performance. The misconception that social studies is about facts and dates is continuously supported by teachers who persist in using direct teaching and long lectures, believing that it is the most convenient way to teach students. Although lecturing is useful for presenting information, it does not provide students the opportunity to process and apply what they learn in class. Thus, a more effective teaching strategy in social studies classes, appropriate for all levels, is through role-playing. Role-playing is often overlooked by teachers because it is a student-centered learning strategy that requires teachers to be skilled in classroom management. However, there are many advantages to role-playing that can transform students' attitude and enhance their experience in learning social studies.
Direct teaching is a straightforward and time efficient approach to teach students. It is useful and appropriate when teachers need to provide students with specific dates and details. The disadvantage of direct teaching is that it does not allow students time to process and demonstrate that they comprehend what they have learned. In addition, direct teaching does not give teachers the chance to assess students knowledge and observe whether students have grasped the con...
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The classroom in video case 42 was made up of 12 English language learners. The students were learning U.S. History content vocabulary in small, collaborative, interactive groups. The teacher used visuals – words written on a white board, a graphic organizer of the concept definitions, and a Power Point presentation with pictures and simple definitions. The teacher provided background knowledge through the use of textbooks, so the children could be successful in future history classes. The teacher used songs to assist the auditory learners in the class as well as a video to further assist the visual learners to see the concepts from the lesson in context. All of these resources were culturally appropriate as English language learners often learn best when a lesson is developed through multiple strategies and with a variety of resources.
Wineburg astutely notes that "History offers a storehouse of complex and rich problems, not unlike those that confront us daily in the real world. Examining these problems requires an interpretive acumen that extends beyond the 'locate information in the text ' skills that dominate many school tasks." (51) By being given the challenge of recognizing and combating natural psychological tendencies towards presentism and ethnocentrism, as well as the challenge of comprehending and analyzing complex and diverse historical sources, biased points of view, cultures, contexts, and historical ramifications, students are encouraged and supported in developing the reasoning skills and patience needed to accurately listen, analyze, empathize, interpret, make evidence-based
Colle, John. "Teaching A Tale of Two Cities." Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2014.
Numerous students who have told me that they did not spend much time learning social studies in their elementary school, so to close some of the gap, I have added a unit on basic geography skills. Once they have completed the geography unit, I begin to compare and contrast the ancient world advances in education, religion, politics, and economics with our world today. As we go through each subtopic, we discuss how those achievements have evolved over time and continue to influence our world today.
"Learning social studies is to no small extent, learning to be stupid." (LMTTM 298.) What happens when history teachers and textbooks lie? Not only will the children grow up to be uneducated, but they'll continue to teach the same lies to their own children. The excuse most teachers use, according to Loewen, is they "feel they are supposed to defend and endorse America." (LMTTM 289.) If teachers told students about Woodrow Wilson being racist, Columbus forcing Indians into slavery, or how the FBI worked against the civil rights movement then children would be too aware of how the world works. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, because the truth is always better than a lie, regardless of how ugly it may be. In order to be a truly good American, children must learn this country's true his...
Seefeldt, Carol. Social Studies for the Preschool/Primary Child. 7 th. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2004. 132-136.
Ornstein, A. C., & Lasley, T. J. (2004).Strategies for Effective Teaching. (4th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
In this paper I will be writing about Why we teach social studies. I will also go over why and how we teach social studies. I will also go what makes me a good candidate to teach social studies. I will go through these in good detail and try to provide good information to use in this essay.
Texas Education Agency (1998). Texas essential knowledge and skills for social studies: Subchapter B: Middle school. Retrieved from http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter113/ch113b.html
Providing the explicit information they need through instruction is practical because it takes into account cognitive load theory, the link between working memory and long-term memory. Studies observing students in a classroom discovered that “when students learn science in classrooms with pure-discovery methods and minimal feedback, they often become lost and frustrated, and their confusion can lead to misconceptions” due to the lack of instruction (Kirschner et al., 2006). On the other hand, studies involving strongly guided learning showed that students learn more deeply and their quality of education is improved when they are given instruction and feedback on their work. Instructed learning provides a superior quality and amount of learning because it decreases cognitive load, provides worked examples that show students how to solve a problem, and employs methods such as process worksheets which assists students in providing more accurate answers than students who rely on discovery learning (Kirscher et al.,
In the educational philosophy of social reconstructionism, learning takes place through both affective and psychomotor experiences. Since the majority of subject matter will be hard for many students to comprehend due to its intensity and honesty, students will need to develop strategies for dealing with discussions on controversial issues. In order to be best prepared to hold discussions about these issues, students will need to understand that there are multiple perspectives and beliefs on each topic discussed (Philosophical Perspectives in Education). These affective experiences result in a variety of learning taking place, including increasing one’s perspectives in inquiry, dialogue, and multiple perspectives through learning about other
Another concern that some students might have is communication. Some students might not need to have a teacher in front of them and teach the course material to them, to whereas some students might need the te...
Social Studies education is a subject in today’s schools that is undervalued. The study of social studies in schools help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world (Seefeldt, Castle, & Falconer, 2010). When participating in social studies class children are learning so much about who they are, where they came from, how to succeed in the world, and more. Most of what we teach daily includes an aspect of social studies. But, since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 de-emphasis or nonexistence of elementary social studies is the national focus because of high stakes testing (Sunal, & Sunal, 2008). Social studies
When most people think of social studies, they think of history or government, including myself, until now. After my first semester of college studying social studies education I realize it is so much more than history and government; or even geography, economics, and sociology. Social studies is the study of us— humans that is— and social studies education is becoming increasingly important in today’s world, more so than most realize. As a future social studies teacher, I now realize that importance. Before understanding social studies education, it is important to discuss what social studies is, how and why we should teach it, and lastly why I make a good candidate to be a social studies teacher.
In most curricular areas the curriculum has become strict rules that need to be adhered to. The constructivist approach brings a new light to a child’s learning experience with the focus being on practical interactive learning. Children often experience this type on learning before they reach primary school. For example when a child encounters a jigsaw they are not just shown on a whiteboard how to finish the jigsaw, the child is guided by an instructor through hands on experience. The child learns techniques to then complete a jigsaw by themselves and will move on to complete more complicated jigsaws with time. Education should not be focused on day to day learning but more focused on life-long learning and experiences. Adopting the constructivist approach in the classroom especially through the subjects of history and geography is essential for children to reach their full learning potential.