Page 120 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

92 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
hope students would come to appreciate the range of ways families celebrate (and might even adopt similar practices for their own special events) or value and respect the range of shelter types that exist in Mexico because of the climate, available economic resources, or personal choices.
Life-application goals are accomplished to the extent students retain their learning in a form that makes it useable when needed in other contexts. For example, if students have been learning about opportunity cost in the context of virtually shopping at open air markets in Mexico, they should be able to apply the decision-making model in their own lives. They can be encouraged to discuss with their families how they decide what to buy when they go to the city market or grocery store. They will soon realize that whenever anyone goes shopping, there are some things s/he needs to give up and that decisions involve choices.
How do I go about developing powerful ideas for my units? While it might sound boring—or perhaps even slightly simplistic—we suggest you begin by reading the section in a current encyclopedia (or a reliable online encyclopedia) that focuses on your specific topics. Continue by reading supplemental texts on the subject. Your social science college textbooks along with your class notes can be other useful references. For example, if you took an introductory course in political science, it could serve you well if you were plan- ning a unit on government. The NCSS themes referenced earlier along with the chapters in this text focusing on disciplinary knowledge can be very useful. Grade-level social studies textbooks and authentic children’s literature related to the topic are other possibilities for helping you formulate your ideas.
For our unit on government (the planning tool for which is located in Appendix A) we used all of the above resources. Our planning tool illustrating government provides examples of the big ideas we included. The other big ideas are listed below. Focus on selected understandings from the following list:
Main Ideas to Develop
• A community is a place where people live, work, play, and share special times.
• People in a community work together, accomplish tasks, and achieve goals through
cooperation.
• Members of communities are called citizens.
• Good citizens tend to be respectful, to be responsible, to think and act for the good of
the community, and to be open to ideas of others that may be different from their own.
• Rules are designed to remind people of their rights and responsibilities. They
help people get along, keep things fair, protect individual and public property, and
keep people safe.
• A community (e.g., township, town, suburb, city) is a place where people live and
usually have many common needs and wants. Among them are community services.
• Many people work for the community to make it a better place to live.
• Different communities have different needs based on their location and size.
• Families pay money to the community. This money is called taxes. Tax money pays
for the community services.
• People living in a community also need rules and laws.
• Laws are rules made by the government leaders of the community that everyone in the
community must follow.
• Leaders are elected by the people (of voting age) to make and enforce the laws.
• In some communities, the mayor is the chief leader. In other communities there are
township boards. Other leaders help the mayor, manager, or board watch over the community.
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