Keep social studies in the elementary school.

Keep social studies in the elementary school. In my elementary social studies methods course, I ask my studentsto discuss three social studies topics they studied during theirelementary years. After some thought, most students could name onetopic, without prompting. With some prompting, most could name twotopics. Yet even after prompting, only a few students could name threetopics! Following this activity, we discuss the state of social studies intoday's elementary schools elementary school:see school. . It is startling star��tle?v. star��tled, star��tling, star��tlesv.tr.1. To cause to make a quick involuntary movement or start.2. To alarm, frighten, or surprise suddenly. See Synonyms at frighten. to discover my methodsstudents' perceptions about social studies content in theelementary school. From their own experiences and observations, thesestudents believe that there is some social studies content in the 3rdthrough 5th grades, but very little in kindergarten kindergarten[Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary school but one in which children's creative play instincts would be to 2nd-gradeclassrooms. As a methods professor, I became concerned, because theirbeliefs mirrored my experience teaching social studies in my final yearas an elementary school teacher. High-Stakes Testing A high-stakes test is an assessment which has important consequences for the test taker. If the examinee passes the test, then the examinee may receive significant benefits, such as a high school diploma or a license to practice law. Diminishes the Social Studies Content During my final year teaching at the elementary school level, Ifound it extremely difficult to find time to include social studiescontent. The time available to cover social studies content had changeddramatically in my six years as an elementary school teacher. Duringthat period, my state implemented high-stakes tests in literacy,mathematics, and science for K-12. In the years before theseassessments, my peers and I considered social studies to be veryimportant in the elementary curriculum. Teachers were given ample timeto teach social studies and valued the content they presented. Now, students and teachers are evaluated with the high-stakes testsresults in mind. My state's high-stakes tests did not and still donot test for social studies content. In many classrooms' dailyschedules, social studies is pushed aside to provide more time to teach"tested" material--language arts, mathematics, and science. Mysocial studies methods students are seeing, firsthand first��hand?adj.Received from the original source: firsthand information.first , the outcome ofthese decisions. In some extreme cases, they find that teachers havecompletely stopped including social studies content in the monthsleading up to the standardized test A standardized test is a test administered and scored in a standard manner. The tests are designed in such a way that the "questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent" [1] . This is why I am concerned aboutwhat is happening around my state in particular and in the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. in general. Social studies is essential in elementary curriculum. It isimportant to reflect on the definition and the content that constitutessocial studies in the elementary school. Within the context of the worldtoday, I believe one could make a compelling argument that socialstudies should be of utmost importance, especially in the elementarygrade levels. In 1994, the Board of Directors of the National Councilfor the Social Studies National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) is a US-based association devoted to supporting social studies education. HistoryFounded in 1921, NCSS engages and supports educators in strengthening and advocating social studies. (NCSS NCSS National Council for the Social StudiesNCSS National Council of Social Service (Singapore)NCSS National Cooperative Soil SurveyNCSS Non Commenting Source StatementsNCSS National Center for Sports Safety ), the largest organization of socialstudies teachers in the United States, created the following definition: Social studies is the integrated study of the social sciences andhumanities to promote civic competence. Within the school program,social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon suchdisciplines as anthropology anthropology,classification and analysis of humans and their society, descriptively, culturally, historically, and physically. Its unique contribution to studying the bonds of human social relations has been the distinctive concept of culture. , archaeology archaeology(ärkēŏl`əjē)[Gr.,=study of beginnings], a branch of anthropology that seeks to document and explain continuity and change and similarities and differences among human cultures. , economics, geography, history,law, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate contentfrom the humanities, mathematics and natural sciences. The primarypurpose of the social studies is to help young people develop theability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good ascitizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in aninterdependent in��ter��de��pen��dent?adj.Mutually dependent: "Today, the mission of one institution can be accomplished only by recognizing that it lives in an interdependent world with conflicts and overlapping interests"world. (Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, 1994, p.3) For this article, I will focus on four disciplines of thecurriculum: history, geography, economics, and citizenship. My intent isto appeal to other professionals for an increased emphasis of socialstudies in K-5 education. I will provide examples of how an elementaryschool teacher can incorporate those four disciplines into the classroomcurriculum. History and Historical Comprehension comprehensionAct of or capacity for grasping with the intellect. The term is most often used in connection with tests of reading skills and language abilities, though other abilities (e.g., mathematical reasoning) may also be examined. The content of history is the largest of the disciplines beingpromoted within the social studies. The discipline of history is wellcovered in a student's compulsory education An editor has expressed concern that this article or section is .Please help improve the article by adding information and sources on neglected viewpoints, or by summarizing and program. It is notuncommon for a student to be exposed to history in at least grade 8 andgrade 11. Some curriculum models have students being exposed to historyin grades 4 and 5. It is apparent that the knowledge of history, if notthe skill, is very important to curriculum writers. I believe that theteaching of the skills of history (e.g., chronological chron��o��log��i��cal? also chron��o��log��icadj.1. Arranged in order of time of occurrence.2. Relating to or in accordance with chronology. thinking andhistorical comprehension) should begin very early in a student'seducation. Chronological thinking is "the ability to distinguish past,present, and future time" (Zarrillo, 2004, p. 286). Zarrillodefines historical comprehension as the ability "to reconstruct re��con��struct?tr.v. re��con��struct��ed, re��con��struct��ing, re��con��structs1. To construct again; rebuild.2. literal In programming, any data typed in by the programmer that remains unchanged when translated into machine language. Examples are a constant value used for calculation purposes as well as text messages displayed on screen. In the following lines of code, the literals are 1 and VALUE IS ONE. meaning of a historical passage, identify important questions inhistorical narratives, identify historical perspectives, use historicalmaps, find information in illustrations, and understand data in chartsand graphs" (p. 286). Chronological thinking helps students understand the difference intime and how that difference affects human behavior. One can see how theGreat Depression affected the behavior of those living at that time.Likewise, if one has an understanding of Iraq's history, then therecent clashes between religious and ethnic groups are placed in acontext that is more understandable. Chronological thinking can be introduced by using time lines in theclassroom. Time lines show chronological events in order, are usuallyrepresented horizontally, and use intervals of equal distance. A2nd-grade teacher could use a piece of butcher paper and keep a weeklychronological list of classroom events, and then ask students questionsabout the events. Two questions that lead to good discussions are:"What initially preceded the event?" and "Whatsubsequently followed the event?" Thus, these discussions establishthe foundation for deeper chronological thinking. The older the student,the more complex the time line can be. Completing a class time lineshould take no more than 15 minutes per day. Historical comprehension requires resources; however, not allresources have to come from outside of the classroom. Shared classroomexperiences can be sources for historical comprehension. Primary sourcesare the most helpful for attaining this skill. While historicalcomprehension may seem to be more appropriate for higher grades, it doesnot necessarily have to begin there. Elementary teachers routinelychange the learning environment within a classroom. By photographing thechanges in the environment, for example, teachers provide concreteprimary sources, which then can be used to guide students'discussion of the classroom's similarities and differences. Inaddition, teachers can share classroom photos from their own elementaryyears to compare and contrast with the students' present classroom.Remember--for elementary children, what happened 15 or 20 years ago ishistory! These activities can be the foundation of the skill that ishistorical comprehension. As students continue their education, primarysources can be connected to time lines so that students can have deeperunderstandings of different time periods. Geography and Understanding Location Geography may be the most visible of all of the social studiesdisciplines in the elementary social studies. When you walk into mostclasses, you will see wall maps and, possibly, a globe. Unfortunately,these resources often accumulate dust and are seldom used in manyclassrooms. But, what could you do with a map? The map can be used todemonstrate the geographic skills of absolute and relative location. Ifthe class is reading a story with a different setting, the world or U.S.map can be used to place the setting in spatial terms. When studentsdiscuss where they were born, the class can actively compare birthplacesand the school's location. The objective of that activity could beunderstanding the relationships between the two places. Usingchildren's literature children's literature,writing whose primary audience is children.See also children's book illustration. The Beginnings of Children's LiteratureThe earliest of what came to be regarded as children's literature was first meant for adults. and discussing the setting can allow studentsto see where the story takes place in relation to where the class islocated. For younger students, elementary teachers can draw a map of theschool complete with cardinal directions “Cardinal point” redirects here. For other uses of the term, see Cardinal point (disambiguation).In geography, the four principal directional indicators are marked as points or arrowheads on a traditional magnetic compass rose. and a legend, and display thisin their classrooms. Then, the students can use the school map tounderstand their classroom's location in relationship to otherareas in the building, such as the cafeteria cafeteria:see restaurant. , media center, nurse'soffice, or principal's office. Introducing students to the conceptsof absolute and relative location can help build a better understandingof their world. Economics: The Invisible Discipline Economics is probably the least visible of the four social studiesdisciplines in an elementary school. My students tell me that themajority of their economic instruction took place during their highschool years. In today's society, however, an elementary studentmust become a savvy consumer to avoid being easily swayed sway?v. swayed, sway��ing, swaysv.intr.1. To swing back and forth or to and fro. See Synonyms at swing.2. by the glut glutpronounced as rut, slut Vox populi An excess of a service or skilled labor in a particular area. See Physician glut. oftelevision commercials and other ads that appeal directly to children.Economics within the elementary classroom can begin by studying twoareas: scarcity ScarcityThe basic economic problem which arises from people having unlimited wants while there are and always will be limited resources. Because of scarcity, various economic decisions must be made to allocate resources efficiently. and personal finance. The concept of scarcity can be thought of as the choices made whenthere are limited resources. Elementary students need to understand thatthere are limited resources and that choices have to be made in how weuse those resources. Elementary students can be shown that evenclassroom resources, like paper, are limited. Students can plan how theywill use paper, and thereby learn that what seemed like a good choice,initially, may not really be the best choice. If each 4th-grade studentreceives only five sheets of paper per day to do all of his or her classwork, then individuals may think twice about using the paper for passingnotes to peers or doodling. The students will fully realize the resultsof wasteful choices when they come to the last subject of the day andthey have no more paper. Older elementary students can be shown thattime is also a limited resource. The classroom teacher should model thechoices made as she or he plans the day. Thinking aloud, a teacher candiscuss how much time each item will take and plan accordingly. Theteacher can estimate the time for each activity and then record theactual elapsed time e��lapsed timen.The measured duration of an event.Noun 1. elapsed time - the time that elapses while some event is occurring . This is a clear demonstration of effective timemanagement. Next, the time budget can be connected to personal finance. Olderelementary students should be shown how to budget their days and weeks.The teacher then can show the connection to money. Discussions canrevolve around Verb 1. revolve around - center upon; "Her entire attention centered on her children"; "Our day revolved around our work"center, center on, concentrate on, focus on, revolve about how they budget money, which is a similar skill set tobudgeting time. In this instance, money becomes the limited resource andthe choices can be discussed as needs/wants and goods/services. Overtime, this may set the foundation for becoming successful managers anddisciplined consumers. Citizenship: Roles and Responsibilities Of the four disciplines of social studies that I listed, I believecitizenship is the most important. Citizenship has a variety ofdefinitions throughout the educational landscape. However, thedefinition that I tried to promote in my classroom can be attributed toEngle and Ochoa (1988), who made a case for viewing social studies as ablend of socialization socialization/so��cial��iza��tion/ (so?shal-i-za��shun) the process by which society integrates the individual and the individual learns to behave in socially acceptable ways. so��cial��i��za��tionn. and counter-socialization. Socialization could beconsidered the understanding and embracing of a society's norms,rules, and laws. Counter-socialization is the ability to question thoserules, norms, and laws when they are oppressive. Citizenship can beconsidered the roles that the citizen plays within the norms, rules, andlaws. Within the elementary classroom, students assume many roles. Theyare first and foremost students, but they may have other rolesthroughout the school. As students, they are, in effect, citizens withintheir classroom. The rules, laws, and norms of the specific classroomaffect each student. The skills that students learn or are taught aboutthe decision-making that goes into each norm, rule, or classroom law arean intricate part of elementary students' citizenship education There are two very different kinds of Citizenship education,The first is education intended to prepare noncitizens to become legally and social accepted as citizens. . From my own observations and experiences, most elementary studentslearn about this type of citizenship education in a very passive manner.Basically, students are taught what the norms, rules, and laws are. Thenthey are expected to follow these policies, even though they had littleinput in the process of forming them. Elementary teachers can addressthis shortcoming short��com��ing?n.A deficiency; a flaw.shortcomingNouna fault or weaknessNoun 1. by allowing students a much more active part in thisprocess. At the beginning of the school year, students can help decidethe appropriate classroom rules to follow. This experience allowsstudents to not only see how the rules come into effect, but alsounderstand the reasoning behind the rules. The class should discussclassroom policies or laws, then consider which ones are appropriate.Finally, teachers can guide students to recognize that this is whatcitizens do within their communities. If classroom laws or rules are broken, teachers can allow studentsto take part in the deliberation deliberationn. the act of considering, discussing, and, hopefully, reaching a conclusion, such as a jury's discussions, voting and decision-making. DELIBERATION, contracts, crimes. process. As an elementary schoolteacher, I frequently had to hand down consequences. As much as I triedto be equal in all consequences, I was not. The repeat offender offendern. an accused defendant in a criminal case or one convicted of a crime. (See: defendant, accused) , thestudent with a history of breaking classroom laws or rules, would bedealt with differently than one who committed only a few infractions. Ittook me a few years to realize that I could do a better job of teachingcitizenship education by discussing my own deliberations with mystudents. This discussion allows the students to observe thatconsequences and rules or laws within the classroom, and in society, arenot arbitrary. The counter-socialization aspect of the Engle and Ochoa definitioncan be discussed throughout the process of deciding and implementing theclassroom rules and laws. Thus, students can begin to understand adeeper definition of equality and justice through their activeparticipation as citizens within their elementary classroom. For olderstudents, teachers can conduct parallel discussions of their roles ascitizens in their classroom and the roles of citizens within theircommunity, state, and nation. With this connection, students can betterunderstand that in a democracy, the citizen's role is mostappropriate and effective if it is an active, participatory role. Conclusion I appeal to the educational gatekeepers to keep the disciplines ofsocial studies at the forefront of elementary curriculum. Throughpersonal discussions and examples from specific disciplines, I hope thathas taken place. I wrote this piece with the idea that the activities Isuggested could be completed without investing excessive resources ortime. The skills learned from doing these activities can constitute asocial studies curriculum, even in an elementary classroom that, becauseof external influences, does not have an explicit social studiescurriculum. As discussed in the NCSS definition, there are many moredisciplines within the definition of social studies. There is really nohierarchy, except within educational practice. The social studies dealwith people and their interactions and relationships through time andspace. At this juncture junc��turen.The point, line, or surface of union of two parts. in time, when so many people are concerned withour future, and so many choices are being made that affect our future,isn't it time social studies in elementary school becomes aneducational priority? References Engle, S., & Ochoa, A. (1988). Education for democraticcitizenship: Decision making in the social studies. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : TeachersCollege Press. National Council for the Social Studies. (1994). Expectations ofexcellence: Curriculum standards for social studies. Washington, DC:Author. Zarrillo, J. (2004). Teaching elementary social studies: Principlesand applications (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River Saddle River may refer to: Saddle River, New Jersey, a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey Saddle River (New Jersey), a tributary of the Passaic River in New Jersey , NJ: Prentice Hall Prentice Hall is a leading educational publisher. It is an imprint of Pearson Education, Inc., based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6-12 and higher education market. HistoryIn 1913, law professor Dr. . Ernest Andrew Brewer is Visiting Associate Professor, FloridaAtlantic University “FAU” redirects here. For other uses, see FAU (disambiguation).Florida Atlantic University, also referred to as FAU or Florida Atlantic, is a public, coeducational research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. , Boca Raton Boca Raton(bō`kə rətōn`), city (1990 pop. 61,492), Palm Beach co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic; inc. 1925. Boca Raton is a popular resort and retirement community that experienced significant industrial development in the 1970s and 80s. .