Teaching Social Study: The Study Of Social Studies

Becoming a successful teacher goes far beyond just teaching students social studies. Social studies is defined by the NCSS (2008) as the study of social sciences and people to encourage civic competence. My role as a history teacher is to develop students both intellectually and socially. I want my students to connect and relate that their present lives are the result of social studies. This happens from events created by imperfect beings who made mistakes (most of the time unaware) in which the consequences have resulted in these actions. Studying social studies goes much deeper than just flipping pages in a book, looking at pictures, and reading brief summaries of important people. Teaching social studies involves both the teacher and students

Subject matter is covered, not examined in ways that produce in-depth conceptual understanding. (p.43) As a teacher, I want to strive to do the opposite. I want to push students to use higher-level thinking, interpretation, and problem solving to generate comprehension.

I want to set a culture in my classroom that promotes lesson plans that characterize student engagement and higher-level thinking, and to strive for each student to express his/her opinions and find connections from history to the present. I want my students to be actively engaged, and to focus on differentiation throughout my classroom so that each student has the same opportunity to learn. In my lesson, for example, I would use cause and effect, change and continuity, turning points, through their eyes, and using the past as ways to promote thinking like a historian (Mandell and Malone, 2007, p.12). I will strive for my lessons to be far more than just simple comprehension, and I want to allow my students to fully create and absorb an overall understanding of the topic at hand. My main focus will thrive from the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (NCSS). The NCSS (2008) states, “Social studies educators teach students the content knowledge, intellectual skills, and civic values necessary for fulfilling the duties of citizenship in a participatory