Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary Education Classroom

Catalog description

This course will focus on the pedagogy and methods of teaching social studies in first-through-fifth grade classrooms. This course covers methods for teaching developmentally appropriate social studies (civics, history, geography, and economics). Emphasis will be placed on developmentally appropriate instruction and active learning strategies, including the use of technology in instruction, and on performance-based assessment. Students will work with manipulatives and technology to explore social studies, solve problems, and learn ways to teach this content to children. For those taking this course at a graduate level, students will research and identify seminal articles about social concepts introduced and embedded in children’s learning through various means including children’s books, conversations, dialogic reading, and explicit instruction. Students will learn how to teach social studies as part of an inquiry-based learning experience and demonstrate this type of learning by constructing a social studies unit.