Social Studies for the Elementary and Middle Grades: A Constructivist Approach

Building on the success of previous editions, Social Studies for the Elementary and Middle Grades discusses flexible strategies for teaching today's diverse learner, the structure of the knowledge to be learned, how to help students reconstruct present ideas, and how to translate theory and recent research into lesson plans and units.

Packed with activities, up-to-date technology, teaching strategies, and a constructivist approach, this text demonstrates how to use developmentally appropriate strategies to help students construct important social studies ideas and skills.

“The textbook serves my students well with its emphasis on inquiry, concept development, and attention to the various social studies disciplines. Activities discussed and illustrated, show how teachers and their students can make use of local (and free or inexpensive) resources for teaching social studies.”

–Becky J. Widener, Columbia College

Building on the success of previous editions, Social Studies for the Elementary and Middle Grades provides the structure of the knowledge to be learned, strategies to help students attain more control of their own learning, and models for translating theory and recent research into lesson plans and units for teaching 21st century diverse learners. Not only does the text guide pre-service teachers to teach social studies within a constructivist framework, but it also models that framework of guided inquiry in the organization of each chapter. Every chapter begins with an exploratory activity that challenges students to remember and reflect on their prior knowledge on the chapter's topic, moves into the more teacher-guided phase where students find explanations and activities that develop their understanding and social studies pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and ends in an expansion phase in which students must apply the main ideas of the chapter to other school and life contexts.

New To This Edition

• New 2-color design highlights important features for students: Learning Cycle Lesson Plans, “Building on Diversity”, “Making a Literature Connection”, and “Using Technology” boxes.
• New Learning Cycle Lesson Plans appropriate for a range of elementary and middle school classrooms have been added to the text (and others moved to the Companion Website) to provide students with a greater selection of fresh ideas for social studies teaching.
• A chapter on assessment has been moved up earlier in the text to complement the focus on assessment throughout all of the chapters. In addition, Learning Cycle Lesson Plans identify the use of formative assessment and summative evaluation.
• A continuum representing the amount of student control over learning identifies where the various instructional strategies fall in terms fostering student-centered education.
•  “What You Will Find on the Companion Website” has been added to the end of chapter as a guide to the resources provided on this book’s Companion Website.
• Application activities to do in class and in the field now appear in the “Expanding on This Chapter” section at the end of each chapter.
• Reference to NCSS standards or “thematic strands” highlighted by marginal icons.