Social Studies Instruction in Clinicals

Social studies instruction takes place after physical education and is done in small groups. I have not actually seen social studies instruction happen, but my cooperating teacher and I have talked about it a lot because I will be teaching a social studies lesson. My cooperating teacher explained that she tries to do social studies instruction at least two-three days a week because from her past teaching experiences in Texas, she incorporates science with social studies. The teaching strategy she uses are called, “Mind Missions” which have students read a passage on a topic and then apply their knowledge by doing an activity or responding in some way. For example, my cooperating teacher explained students read a factual passage on the State of Liberty and the way it was constructed and why, then students broke into small groups and had to recreate an actual model of something that symbolized the State of Liberty and the history of the symbol. My teacher reads the passage aloud with students and gives guidelines to their small group activity, and then students break off into small groups to work together o their activity. After students are finished, the class gathers as a large group again to share their activities. My cooperating teacher supports students by observing small groups and gathering permanent documents of student’s work. I think students are highly engaged and are curious and motivated to apply their learning in the activity. Also, I think students like working in small groups and sharing ideas to create something together. I have talked with some of my students, who share their experiences about some of the social studies activities they have done, like the President’s stories they created together after studying each Presidents biography and the requirements and job of the President. Many of the students could recall a lot of information they learned, factual information, President’s names,, and were excited to tell me what they used in their stories. I think using “Mind Mission” lessons allows children to think creatively and work together to apply what they have learned to create something that exemplifies their knowledge and response to the information they have gotten. I really like that children take control of the activity, while the teacher gives guidelines and then observes students working in groups. Also, I like that using this teaching practice allows the teacher to incorporate literacy, science, and math in social studies lessons. I have never seen social studies instruction in any of my other clinicals, so this kind of teaching practice for social studies is new to me because what I do know of social studies instruction is that I just have seen students reading from a textbook. Also, this kind of teaching practice is somewhat similar to what I am learning in my social studies class this semester because when making workjobs, students are able to use these activities to practice and apply what they know to review and engage in the information. I actually think that if I could suggest to my cooperating teacher to use workjobs in her classroom for assessment and for extension to activities that it would help support student’s knowledge of what they are learning in social studies instruction. From what I have seen in my clinical classroom this semester, I really like the teaching practice that my cooperating teacher uses and I think I would use these strategies to incorporate social studies instruction in my future classroom. Also, I think as a future teacher if I were to use this teaching practice I would use workjobs to support my student’s knowledge and extend what they have learned in our activities to practice their skills. I think the workjobs would be a great tool for assessment and I think it would provide children with activities to use during free choice time.

Here are two activities I found that I thought were great for using with the teaching practice that my cooperating teacher uses in her classroom and thought these activities use great materials to support children's engagement and application of instruction. These might be great ideas for my future social studies lessons that I will have to implement in my clinical classes.

 This activity would be great for children to do in small groups so that the could talk about what should be included in each level and how they want to set up each level of their globe from Earth to their city.

Social Studies Community Cups

This activity has students create geographic 2-d art after studying different forms of art that are seen in structure around the world, and in groups they must come up with a way to use multiple shapes, lines, and colors to create their own 2-d art. Rulers are required to measure and create symmetry.

Social Studies, Art, and Math

Here are two workjobs I found that I thought were very good at extending the topic and details provided and help support children knowledge on the topic. I think these are great examples of workjobs that I would include in my future classroom.

This workjob asks students to properly match the great inventors with their corresponding invention and date of invention.

Great Inventors Timeline

This workjob has students matching the facts and resources of the ecosystem with the picture of the ecosystem. This challenges students to recall information and identify facts about certain ecosystems. 

Ecosystems