Even without in-person field trips, photographs stored online can stimulate enriching investigations of historic places.

Strategically designed word walls can help students build the vocabulary needed to ask and explore important questions in the social studies.

This article models how to teach civic dispositions using popular trade books that do not have an obvious connection to critical themes (e.g., power, privilege, identity). In doing so, the authors show how to create opportunities to teach civic dispositions within a school environment that may forbid some books as “too controversial” or that might accept lessons that gradually introduce students (and their parents) to a topic that may be controversial.  While focusing on the read aloud as an opportunity for civic learning, the authors describe how the pedagogical frameworks of critical…

In this article, the authors explain how to use the "evidence on the U" strategy support deep and complex thinking i elementary students, and give examples of scaffolding activities that gradually place much of the responsibility for learning on the students themselves over the course of a year. They also describe how this teaching strategy supports the goals of social studies education in the elementary grades and beyond.

Learning about world religions (as opposed to teaching religious beliefs) as part of social studies can provide a space for students and teachers to have conversations about religious diversity in a respectful, balanced manner. In this article, the authors discuss reading stories and discussing religious diversity as a vehicle to open conversations about religion and diversity, and use the book Lailah’s Lunchbox to provide an example of content and questions teachers can use in their classroom. 

We often live within the status quo, therefore it's sometimes difficult to see how the world exists beyond our everyday lives. The past has so much to teach us, as do our students. How do we intersect effective social studies instruction and culturally relevant learning in a way that honors students' cultural competence?  Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) is a lens to examine the curriculum and classroom activities and make it relevant to the students in their classroom. Using CPR with primary sources can help our learners understand history while reflecting on their own knowledge and…

Despite massive efforts, the gap between students at the top and bottom of the socioeconomic scale hasn’t narrowed in 50 years—and may have increased significantly. While there’s been no shortage of attempted explanations, it was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a fundamental and pervasive root cause that no one was talking about. Elementary schools spend hours every week on decontextualized reading comprehension “skills,” like “finding the main idea,” leaving little or no time for social studies and science—especially in schools where…

Listen to moderator Jane Lo as she leads a spirited 20-minute discussion about Project-Based Learning (PBL). Professor Lo's guests are Social Education authors John Larmer, Stacie Brensilver, and Rob Hallock. They examine how they first came to use PBL—and the challenges and rewards it offers to students and teachers over time. They provide beneficial advice to all teachers ready to try PBL for the first time. Read the special section (an introduction and six articles) of the January/February 2018 issue of Social Education for a more in-depth look at PBL. It will make you passionate about…

Listen to moderator Jane Lo as she leads a spirited 20-minute discussion about Project-Based Learning (PBL). Professor Lo's guests are Social Education authors John Larmer, Stacie Brensilver, and Rob Hallock. They examine how they first came to use PBL—and the challenges and rewards it offers to students and teachers over time. They provide beneficial advice to all teachers ready to try PBL for the first time. Read the special section (an introduction and six articles) of the January/February 2018 issue of Social Education for a more in-depth look at PBL. It will make you passionate about…

Social studies narratives that portray individuals as either heroes or villains not only stifle students’ feelings of civic agency, but they minimize the role of community in creating social change