Purpose: This article describes an effort to ease the tension between boundary spanning roles for interns participating in a yearlong Professional Development School (PDS) program. In order to do this, the structure of a Social Studies Methods course was revised to mimic a professional learning community (PLC) and assignments were not evaluated…

Oral history research projects are assignments that can foster student engagement and learning in undergraduate survey history courses. However, existing scholarship indicates that these assignments are seldom used in undergraduate survey courses. Since the aims of undergraduate survey history courses are to satisfy graduation requirements, foster…

The absence of social studies curriculum is a problem because it undermines the essential purposes of schooling: to prepare participatory, contributing members of a democratic society. In this article, we argue that integrating the literacy and social studies curricula is one meaningful way to support such civic-minded social studies instruction…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) was created to support teachers in implementing college and career readiness standards in order to teach literacy skills throughout the content areas. Teachers work collaboratively with coaches to further develop their expertise and design standards-driven, literacy-rich writing assignments within their…

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards calls upon social studies teachers to enhance the rigor of civics, economics, geography, history and the other social studies disciplines while building the critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills of students to help them become actively…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) was created to support teachers in implementing college and career readiness standards in order to teach literacy skills throughout the content areas.Teachers work collaboratively with coaches to further develop their expertise and design standards-driven, literacy-rich writing assignments within their…

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) as one strategy to support teachers' and students' transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts. This report provides an early look at the implementation of LDC in eighth-grade history/social studies and science classes in two…

The 2001 reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)," represented a turning point in federal policy for the education of English Learners (ELs) in U.S. public schools. At the center of the changes in the 2001 reauthorization of the "ESEA" lie the English language proficiency (ELP) standards. These ELP…

This article describes early childhood educators' responses to a professional development series aimed at helping them to understand and incorporate early learning standards for social studies. While the primary aim of the professional development was to focus on the social studies content standards, the secondary aim was to introduce early…

This action research report describes a program to improve and enhance students' social skills in and out of the classroom. The targeted population consisted of two fourth grade classrooms at two different suburban sites. The need to address this issue seems to have grown due to an increase in school violence and the decline of the traditional…

Checklists cover six important dimensions of computer use in social studies: (1) what a computer can do to achieve educational goals, (2) planning for implementation, (3) major modes of computer uses in education, (4) important qualities, (5) technical features of good educational computer programs, and (6) checking out software. (RM)

An action research project implemented a program for the development of citizenship, cultural awareness, and positive character attributes. Targeted population consisted of middle and high school students in several growing, middle class communities located in northern Illinois. Problems of lack of awareness and sensitivity are documented through…