Featuring tools, activities, and insightful stories from a CIA analyst and instructor with 30+ years' of experience, this practical and engaging book supports busy educators to teach the lifelong skills of news and media literacy to their students. Based on existing curriculum and teaching standards, this guidebook shows how social studies and…

This study explores how two elementary teachers (first and fifth grades) integrated social studies content and skills throughout their school day. More specifically, we describe and explain their social studies instruction in terms of integration as it reflects fractured, healthy, and stealthy integration (Hinde, 2015). As researchers, we spent…

Discover ways in which teachers interpret and innovate research findings into actual classroom practice to create positive classroom transformations. Like the middle grades themselves, the chapters in this volume are organized by academic content area including language arts, social studies, science, and math: (1) Understand the benefits of using…

Framed in theories of multimodality and picture books, this interpretivist research examined teachers' use of visual literacy elements during one school year as they taught language arts and social studies in their upper elementary grade classrooms. The data, which included field notes, interviews, observations, classroom artifacts, and…

Current educational discourse is rife with the phrase "critical thinking skills." The term is wielded with such indiscretion among educators, reformers, and education policy makers that is has become commonsensical to believe that imparting critical thinking skills is an indispensable aspect of education. For example, according to the…

The result of a three year state-led collaborative effort, the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards was developed to serve two audiences: for states to upgrade their state social studies standards and for practitioners--local school districts, schools, teachers and curriculum writers--to strengthen…

The transition from preservice teacher to classroom teacher occurs rapidly, requiring that teacher candidates assimilate into the field quickly. In order to do so, these teachers must demonstrate appropriate language development as it relates to the teaching profession. Not only do novice teachers need to be able to articulate what they and their…

This study investigated the use of Apple's iPads as a means to engage students in learning and help them to relate what they are learning in school to the real world. Research suggests students are increasingly disengaged from school because schools are out of sync with the digital world in which "Millennial" students have grown up.…

With the realities of standards-based accountability, it is imperative to model and demonstrate for students how subject areas and teaching methods transcend across traditional boundaries. In an effort to prepare future social studies educators to teach for global awareness and to meaningfully integrate critical literacy skills into their…

This brief guide is designed to help teachers learn how to integrate content and problem solving skills in the social studies curriculum. Problem-solving skills include analyzing an in-depth question/problem, selecting a format for recording information, gathering and recording information, and writing a summary. Materials in the guide include: a…

Explains why educators need to utilize the writing process as a teaching tool in the social studies. The article also examines research on creative writing and language development and suggests guidelines for developing writing assignments to improve student skills and content master. (DB)

These action oriented activity cards dealing with conflict situations are for use with secondary students. The cards are intended to supplement any course dealing with conflict, including U.S. history, sociology, English, literature, economics, area studies, or political science. The cards are organized by color into certain broad categories which…

Learning activities on the topic of aging which were developed and field tested by K-6 teachers in the public schools of Acton, Massachusetts, are provided. They are designed to overcome many of the myths that children hold about aging and to help them develop a more realistic and positive view of their own future as people who will grow old. The…

The activities on global awareness in this guide are designed for use in elementary grades in social studies, reading, language arts, and creative arts courses. The activities are organized into four major sections each of which addresses a specific goal. The four goals are: (1) to learn to recognize the interconnection between one's own life,…

Describes an art activity titled "Art Clue" that is designed for prereaders or beginning readers. Helps students to carefully observe, interpret, and discuss works of art while making connections to three other content areas (language arts, mathematics, and social studies). (CMK)