When we are teaching courses in the Social Studies department, it is often challenging to find the most effective way to introduce students to the course and the content. Teaching skills and Social Studies fundamentals in the first few class periods can help to set the foundation for your entire year and will help students get a strong footing in your subject area.
From organizational guides, discipline study, and reinforcing key terms, there are many great tips for teaching Social Studies to your middle school and high school students. Follow these five great tips for teaching Social Studies and you’ll start your school year on the right foot!
Teach an Organizational Guide
Organizational guides like SPRITE (Social, Political, Religious, Intellectual, Technological, Economic) and GRAPES (Geography, Religion, Achievements, Politics, Economics, Social Structures) help your students to dissect masses of information about geographic or period study.
With these acronyms, basic skill development in cause and effect for content organization, and use of an Interactive Notebook, students are able to keep content in order, ready and accessible when they need to review.
Introduce Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy is an organizational model that breaks down learning objectives by skill level. The Taxonomy includes the following classifications: Create, Evaluate, Analyze, Apply, Understand, and Remember.
By introducing these skills, students can tackle previously-unapproachable content with confidence.
Define & Examine Social Studies Disciplines
Define and Examine the Social Studies Disciplines, including History, Government, Geography, Economics, Psychology, and Sociology.
Encourage your students to embrace the connections between disciplines by examining, comparing, contrasting, and exploring history, government, geography, and more. Interconnected, these disciplines are omnipresent and beneficial in helping your students understand the content.
Reinforce Social Studies Key Terms
A basic understanding of key terms like cause, effect, social, and significance is critical for your students furthering their Social Studies education.
Explain these terms by applying them in your lessons. Introduce, define, and provide context for these terms in Social Studies in general, as well as with specific applications in the discipline/course.
Help students to correlate information by explaining when and where they will see these key terms again.
Provide Social Studies Tips
Build a strong foundation for your students by stressing the importance of studying for the course.
By providing them with clear-cut tips, goals, and instructions, your students are more likely to embrace their study instead of dreading it. Use classroom rules applied to the specific topic of study, and use rubric tools to help correlate tips.
Using these 5 great tips for teaching Social Studies, your students will become more engaged with the lessons, will retain more content, and will enjoy learning Social Studies! For even easier application, printable Social Studies poster sets are available to display these critical tips in your classroom.
Happy Teaching!
