It’s still summer; I get it! But,… yes, there’s a but… This is also the perfect time to come up with good ideas for back to school in your Social Studies classroom. It’s prime time for planning without stress. It’s even better than prime time to start planning now so that you can take a break from your career BEFORE school starts back. Think of it as a vacation within your vacation. And, trust me, you will need a really good break before that first day of school.

If you are like me, you will go into full on stress mode in the week just before school starts back. I NEVER slept the night before the first day of school. NEVER. Not even a wink. My students experienced me for the first time each year on full, zero sleep, total adrenaline. But over the years, I learned that I could do the planning and prep work in the middle, dull part of the summer, and then take that last week off to decompress from summer and rest for school. It works! So, let’s plan. And prep. I can help with that!

First Things First for Your Social Studies Classroom

Some will argue that teachers should not waste time or funds on classroom set up (or decor), but I (and data) will argue otherwise. If you surround your students will content and draw their attention with visuals, they will absorb information. More importantly, things to see and think about will help their brain turn on, and help them better learn.

That just leaves the question of how to design your classroom. This is another place I will differ from the current theories. I did not decorate my classroom and I am not a fan of patterns or designs. I used content. Again, what students see, they learn. So post learning strategies and acronyms, study skills, or direct content for what you will be teaching. This could include posters on the presidents for Government, maps in a Geography classroom, or important people of the past in a History class.

Of course, there is far more to setting up your classroom than what you will hang on your walls. You should consider seating (I changed mine based on activity) and storage, but also where you want the things you will use the most or want to prioritize. Here’s a post with so many more ideas for setting up your classroom for back to school. Maybe a few will work for you. Need posters? Link here. Getting ready for back to school in your Social Studies classroom can also be fun! Think of it as a day of coloring on the walls – with posters!

Starting with Refreshers for Social Studies Classes

As you plan for the first days of school, it is so important to set aside a few days to reinforce Social Studies skills. While it can be said that this is a waste of time since students have learned and practiced these skills all through the years, it is never a bad thing to refresh that knowledge and get their minds back in the swing of things. Additionally, starting off with skills practice will help your students see the importance of mastery in the skills they need for Social Studies learning.

Start off with activities that will rebuild their knowledge, but also be an ease back into the school routine. Create maps, layout timelines, practice identifying and annotating primary sources in a fun way. Here’s a really fun activity that will practice annotation, encourage discussion, and work well as an ice-breaker to help build community.

Skills will be taught throughout the school year, and mastery of those skills will be your primary focus, so there is no better time to start on them than right at the beginning of the year. Need good skills practice lessons? Here’s the link.

Plan for Student-Centered Learning with Rigor

Students learn best when they are at the center of their learning. Activities that involve inquiry and choice are often the ones that engage students more and allow them a greater depth of learning and retention. Planning over the summer (or just before the new school year starts) is the perfect time to make sure how you teach will align with what you teach. Making sure that your lessons allow your students to take the lead, and to question and choose their focus, can not only take a stressor off of you, but open up many more doors for learning for them.

Adding in inquiry teaching strategies can be easy. It doesn’t have to all be done at once, but when that is a possibility, it is ideal. Choose lessons for each unit that have the same format, while the content changes. This helps students know what to expect, and it helps you to reduce, reuse, and recycle your lessons! Win-Win!

Keep in mind that you will always have to adapt your lessons for your students, but allowing choice and inquiry-focused activities will allow you a bit of freedom in your lesson planning. You can easily plan for each unit, while only planning for one. Need those lessons at your fingertips? Here you go!

Using Resources that Encourage Students To Take the Lead

The last, but most important thing you should think about as you plan for the new school year are your resources. For the greatest benefit to your students, they should be rigorous, content-filled, student-centered, and engaging. That’s a big order. Many resources will only address one or two of those, or only touch on the content you want to cover. And we all know that covering the amount of content we have to cover in the Social Studies classroom is insane. So it’s imperative that you find what will work best for your students, while at the same time making your life easier.

Many teachers think that they need to plan content or plan topics to teach. That is true, but in reality, that should be done by a content scope or curriculum map. How you teach each topic is the real challenge. It leaves you trying to plan lectures, internet-based tasks, or rote skills lessons that do not really teach the content or engage your students. Ideally, the resources you choose should be ones that can cover large amount of content in a way that allows student interaction (for engagement), draws the attention of the student with visuals or other media, includes primary sources for analysis, and practices skills that help to reinforce the learning.

How Can You Make This An Easier Job?

This is where I can really help. First off, read more of my suggestions for Back to School in the Social Studies Classroom! I have hundreds of posts that will give you ideas and suggestions for creating this type of learning climate for your students. But more importantly, I have hundreds of resources that will do all of the work for you! In my resources, I try to be creative. I try to use primary sources that will get students curious. And I try my best to set up activities in ways that keep students engaged and collaborating with their classmates. This is actually my truest agenda – I want students to interact with one another while they learn.

Where Are We Now in Teaching Social Studies?

We are no longer in a time where students sit quietly and learn by reading a textbook or completing a worksheet. We are in a time when they are expected to sit in front of a computer and read a section (or have it read to them) and complete questions or simple tasks. How is the now better than what it was back then? We are quickly realizing that this is not the most effective way for students to learn. Actually, teachers have known this all along, but who listens to teachers?! Moreover, it is detrimental for long-term student learning and for student socialization. Both of those are so important. And that’s why teachers are the key. Be that teacher!

Final Thoughts for Back to School

Okay, so let me step back down from my soapbox to make one more suggestion for your back to school. Take it easy on yourself. Teaching is hard. It is rewarding, but still gut-wrenchingly challenging. It can be the hardest thing you do each and every day for the next 9 months. So, just take it easy on yourself. Work a little today. Rest. Work a little the next day. Rest. Work a little in the middle of the summer. And then rest at the end before that first day of school. It will make the start of the year so much better for you.

Happy Teaching!

Be sure to check out other posts on the back to school season or on planning over the summer. I hope something you find will help make your first days of school as easy as a summer breeze!

And if you need those resources created for you, jump over to my store to see what I have already put together for your Social Studies classroom. I’m sure I have something that can make teaching easier for you and learning better for your students.