What is “effective Social Studies teaching”?

Concept Attainment

Effective Social Studies Teaching

Attribute: Engaging Attribute: Hands on Attribute: Reflective

There are so many ways to
bring rich and engaging
content into social studies.
Textbooks should be used as
tools, but there are so many
tools that are available to us
to make students
experiences more meaningful
and long-lasting.
Only a small portion of
students are going to learn
best by reading out of a
textbook and answering
recall questions. Social
studies is the most effective
through hands on activities
and lived experiences.
Students need to make sense
of content in their own lives
in order for it to stick.
Students need to be given an
appropriate amount of time
to explore their own
thoughts and ideas around
issues in social studies. A
large part of the curriculum
focuses on identity and
citizenship, and without time
for ample self-reflection
these focuses will remain just
out of reach.

Example: Example:

Rich literature in the forms of
auto/biographies, journals, novels, children’s
books being brought into the social studies
classroom.
Class discussions are a basic but effective
strategy to use in social studies. This can be
done in a variety of formats including sharing
circles, think-pair-share’s, jigsaw’s, and whole
class discussions.

This is an example because: This is an example because:

Literature from a diverse range of authors When discussions flow based on student
brings multiple perspectives to life in the interest, the learning that takes place is
 classroom. Not only does it support cross-
curricular competencies, bringing literature
into social studies is an effective and
impactful way to teach difficult concepts and
perspectives.
meaningful and effective. This allows
students to have greater ownership over
their learning, and encourages peer-based
learning.

Definition:

Effective Social Studies teaching is when students are learning information, and will be able
to revisit the learned content a month later with the same confidence. It creates passionate,
involved, and informed citizens.

What is the most important thing you learned or the most important step you’ve made in the
last three weeks toward this vision of effective Social Studies teaching?

The amount of resources available that align with the Alberta Social Studies curriculum is
astonishing. There are far too many valuable resources provided to social studies teachers to
primarily teach out of one textbook. It is our responsibility as teachers to utilize the resources
that we have, and to ensure our students are getting the most out of the resources we are
asking them to examine.

Identify two goals you have for your professional learning related to effective Social Studies
teaching:

Include more Francophone perspectives when possible, as I have noticed this is an area where
my knowledge is really lacking.

Get familiar with using all different types of concept teaching strategies.