Teaching Social Studies in Early Childhood Education

Catalog description

This course will focus on the pedagogy and methods of teaching social studies and various genres of writing in the PreK-3rd grade classroom. 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 way to teach this content to children. They will also learn the importance of the reading/writing connection, traits of effective writing, how to analyze and respond to early childhood writing, and how to conduct writing workshops. The class will also explore new literacies and innovative ways to integrate technology in writing with connections to social studies.