Summary
Contents
With an emphasis on active learning, this supplementary text helps busy elementary and middle school teachers engage all students in the vibrant world of social studies. This inquiry-based book presents hands-on explorations, interaction with primary sources, and critical thinking activities, that provide concrete methods to successfully integrate the language arts into the social studies curriculum.
Key Features
Promotes the development of literacy skills by authentically integrating language arts; Supports differentiated instruction for specific grade levels, English language learners, and students with special needs; Connects to standards in language arts, social studies, and technology
Unit I: Building Research Skills
The National Council for the Social Studies' (NCSS; 1994) curriculum standards emphasize the importance of providing students with opportunities to model the processes and research methods of social science researchers such as archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists. Following an inquiry-based model of social studies, students will be involved in investigations in which they pose questions of personal interest and use data to form their own explanations and interpretations of historical events and information (Steeves, 2005).
Developing research skills on the part of students in the area of social studies naturally ties to authentic integration of language arts. Social scientists are constantly reading documents, building their comprehension of a particular event or topic. Publishing results of their work in articles and books is ...
