Social Studies

       I have Social Studies on my schedule to teach 30 minutes every day, but also it's integrated into Reading and Writing very often!  Sometimes Social Studies and Guided Reading are combined for the week, depending on the unit.  For example, we (my 2nd grade team and I) combined it for a Polar Express Unit, focusing on comparing communities and their traditions in S.S. and sequencing events in Reading.  Instructional approaches I take to teach S.S. that stem off of textbook and lecture, as stated in Ch. 10, "Textbook and lecture should still be done, just integrated with new and supportive techniques," are the following:

• Inquiry - making connections to the real world, student-centered, students being social scientists and solving problems, planning and organization on my part as the teacher, and cooperative groups
• Making Connections - Reading (comprehension) and Math (map skills) integration
• Strategic Instruction - helping students identify different test structures (key words), Reading and Writing assistance with organizers (POSSE, POWER)
• Simulations - students acting out events (for ex: other cultures' traditions, the voting process in government, following map routes, role playing and dressing up for historic figures)

Accommodations I make for my students to better meet their needs for excelling in Social Studies is giving extra time for completing projects to LD students, having separate settings when needed, assigning reading partners, assigning partner work, assistive technology (webquests) and concept maps. 

       Instructional Approaches that I'm not doing to help some of my students bring up their grades in S.S. is working with them in small groups to give assessments.  Some directions on assignments and tests aren't as clear as they could be.  More materials for weekly lessons is something I'm not doing.  This could be because at my school, Science is taught every day as well and the preparation is hard to make each lesson for both subjects every day seem highly stimulating with materials.

       To put these approaches into practice and help all my students excel in S.S., I could assess some in small groups where I can reread the directions more.  They could also be given highlighters to highlight test directions and also directions given in partner and individual work.  I need to plan better to have every lesson have at least one material that will cause thinking for all students to move from abstract to concrete thinking.  I could also have more partner work for my class before assigning individual work and tests.