Page 175 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 7
HOW CAN I TEACH THE OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES POWERFULLY?
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Alyssa Frollo, First-Year Teacher
Before reading Chapter 7 in this book I was extremely hesitant about teach- ing psychology, sociology, economics, and civics and government. You see, I was a science major and the only social studies classes I had taken since I graduated high school were five classes required by the elementary educa- tion program/university, none of which had anything to do with the social science topics covered in this chapter. Because of my lack of knowledge in these four areas, I was really hoping that this chapter would help me gain a better insight into the content and how to meaningfully teach my elementary students.
Sure enough, after reading Chapter 7, I feel better equipped to teach these content areas to elementary students. I was especially struck by the sections that addressed children’s knowledge and thinking. I am now beginning to understand the importance of assessing students’ prior knowledge and to incor- porate the results in my planning.
There were many fantastic ideas and teaching strategies in this chapter but there was one that really stuck out to me and was proven to be true in my internship. In the section on psychology the authors mention that, “the particular activities that teachers use to help students develop their con- cepts of self and personal identity are not as important as the attitudes and beliefs that teachers project in the process.” This statement applies to teaching any lesson in any subject. During my internship I found that this was something that was extremely important when teaching my second gra- ders—students will pick up on biases, feelings the teachers have toward a topic, and so forth. It is crucial for an educator to always reflect on his or
© Keith Knighton
TEACHER VOICE