Page 279 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 12
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CURRICULAR INTEGRATION?
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Kristy Brugar, Doctoral Candidate and Former Middle School Teacher
The simple answer to integrating social studies and literacy is often “I’ll read a book about it!” or “I’ll have my students read a book about it.” However, effec- tive integration of social studies and literacy must go further than “reading the book” in order to open up a world of possibilities for our students to access information and to better understand the past and present: they must think critically.
This chapter explains that curricular integration “appears to be an obviously good idea.” Throughout this chapter the authors help pre-service and in-service teachers use this “good idea” to create powerful and meaningful learning experiences for their students. I appreciate the cautious approach the authors take to curriculum integration in this chapter. They identify the potential of integration by providing viable suggestions of curricular
experiences in order for students to develop an enhanced understanding and greater appreciation for social studies.
As a former classroom teacher, I consistently tried to make social studies relevant to my students. By nature, social studies is an interdisciplinary subject, and effective social studies teachers combining civics, economics, geography, and history to help their students better understand the world around them. With constraints on teachers’ time and resources, it is important for educators to understand not only how to integrate the subjects that make up the social studies, but also how to integrate social studies with the other elementary school subject areas, especially literacy.
© Keith Knighton
TEACHER VOICE