Whose Responsibility is it to Protect the Amazon? Misty Galloway Tucker also in this issue:Creating Anti-Bullying PSAs in the ClassroomAndrea Saltzman Martin, Valerie Ooka Pang, Eric J. Ginsberg, Jennifer M. Pang, Luke Duesbery, and Edward R. Dial Surviving Eighth GradeAndrea S. Libresco

Enabling students to pose and answer their own questions helps them evolve from passive learners to students who are actively engaged in their coursework.

Teaching about the civil rights movement in the elementary grades has, in many schools, focused exclusively on the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Many students are well versed in the content of King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, and they know well that Rosa did not give up her seat on the bus. While these moments and heroes of the movement are essential in the study of this era in history, the study of more obscure and lesser known people and events is a great way to deepen our students’ understanding of the sacrifices that so many thousands of ordinary people made in the…

This article focuses on children’s literature by and about Jane Goodall. Readers are provided with recommended titles; examples for how to address social studies skills and concepts using her biography; and compelling and supporting questions that can drive students to investigate her work. The associated pullout, by the same author, consists of a brief elementary-level biography, “The Inspiring Jane Goodall,” and follow-up activities and questions for further study.

This article describes the month-long social studies unit on mindfulness that the kindergarten teacher co-taught in her classroom with Sarah, an elementary social studies professor, and Maya, then a teacher candidate. After exploring the intersections between mindfulness and social studies education, examples of activities and resources from the unit will be provided, including breathing techniques and children’s literature.

Teaching students about the history and patterns of authoritarianism can help bolster our own collective awareness of the vulnerability of democracy.

This 2020 issue of Social Education, marking the centennial anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, seeks to broaden understanding of the suffrage story in several ways: by considering the strategies and tactics used by the suffragists to foment their agitation; by acknowledging the ways in which further work was needed to secure voting and other rights for all women; by acknowledging the need for women in positions of political leadership and for stories about their accomplishments; and by placing the U.S. women’s suffrage story within the context of the larger struggle for women’s rights…

The authors describe five types of inquiry that keep students engaged, promote student agency, and meet the need of teachers for curriculum flexibility.   

Many elementary and middle school students are confronted by media messages constantly. They receive messages not only from family and friends, but from television and social media outlets.1 The media messages about current events are often politically biased, polarized in nature, and potentially inaccurate, especially on social media platforms. Teachers can model how to evaluate media for potential biases, showing students that just because something is political does not mean it should be off limits for discussion. This article draws upon experiences from both a sixth grade social studies…