Content-Free Social Studies Classroom

Instead of teaching social studies as a series of events to be remembered, connect events to what is going on today.

In 7th grade we are studying the Eastern Hemisphere. Protests in Ukraine and Thailand, a civil war in Syria, events in North Korea, and tension between China and Japan has made it easier for me to help the students understand:

• the geography of these places,
• the government types of the countries
• economic concepts (embargo, boycott, trade, EU, GDP, etc.)
• historical events that shaped these areas (Arab Spring, collapse of the USSR, 9/11, Korean War, WWII,....)

I feel that with good discussion and access to technology, social studies should be taught from a current events perspective. They want to know why these events are happening. Recent historical events (if they were truly significant) would connect to events of today. It wouldn't be us telling them which events were important, but them discovering how past and present connect.
I refer to it as "The Content-Free SS Classroom." Which doesn't make my curriculum director too comfortable, but I have students much more interested in SS than I have had in the past.

I explain this a little better in a talk from last year.    http://youtu.be/yrYGFdzQSmg

The Only Way to Teach Economics

The Comcast and Time Warner merger was in the news today so I had the students read and article about it in USA Today.  It was a little over their head (7th and 8th graders) and I told them so - they don't read too many business articles during their free reading time.  The article had a nice graph showing the number of customers different cable companies or satellite companies had around the country.  This graph alone led to some great discussion.  The article gave some pros and cons to the merger from the perspective of the companies and the consumers.  We ended up defining many economics terms in our notes (capitalism, communism, competition, monopoly, and specialization).  They were interested in this!  The discussion went all hour with great engagement from all - okay, most.
I really can't fathom trying to teach economics and civics without connecting the concepts to current events.  The current events should lead the content.  Teach them what is going on in the world and they will be interested.  You can connect most everything in the curriculum to current events if you take the time to make the connections.

Student need to LIKE Social Studies!

I feel social studies is the most important class students should take if it is taught the right way. We shouldn't focus on the facts and dates in the curriculum, but the skills and critical thinking that needs to be done by students to be successful.
I really don't care if students don't remember much of what I teach them, but reach an understanding that we are what we are because of the people and events that came before us. Their decisions made a difference and the decisions being made today may be of equal importance.
I feel the only way to effectively teach SS is to incorporate current events into the class daily. I really haven't found any other way to get my students to care about economics, civics, and geography without connecting it to their lives. Also, I'm amazed how often the history lessons of any given day connect with the stories in the news that day.
Also, keeping up with current events each day keeps ME from getting bored with my class. It is fun to learn with the kids and they like to keep me up to date on stories we have talked about in class.
It doesn't matter if they forget some of the historical facts from their classes. It matters if students leave school thinking SS is boring and has no relevance for them. We want them to become active citizens when they are adults - don't turn them off when they are 15!

Economics Connections

My 8th grade classes were talking about Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations.  We were discussing the private ownership of businesses and the free market.  In the news the next day was a big story about the stock market taking a big dive.  We got in a good conversation about capitalism and communism and they saw that Smith's ideas from 1776 were the basis of our economic system today.

Today's Current Events is Tomorrow's History

We made some great connections over the last few weeks between our current events discussions and the history we are learning.  While we were studying about the Constitutional Convention, we watched part of President Obama's State of the Union address.  He was giving the address because in 1787 the founding fathers wrote that the President needs to do this "from time to time".  I think they were more interested in hearing what he had to say when they knew he had to do this because George Washington and Alexander Hamilton told him he had to centuries ago.  Also, Egyptians were voting on a new constitution for their country at the same time.  Should they adopt this new government?  The same question Americans were asked after the Constitution was written.  We still talk about it today.  Will this vote in Egypt be in the history books of Egypt in 200 years?