Task 1 – Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy Based Approach by Emily Schell & Douglas Fisher

Chapter 4 in Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy Based Approach by Emily Schell & Douglas Fisher gave a lot of good ideas to remember as my group and I prepare to create our integrated unit on Historic Murfreesboro. 

At this time my group has planned our integrated unit on Historic Murfreesboro to be centered on grade 1 and transportation.

Reading the whole section on the author’s discussion of topics, themes, concepts, and big ideas made a lot of sense on the way to organize social studies information to teach.  Topics are mostly stand alone, clear and direct, facts provided with a focus on people, places, and/or events.  Themes are a way to integrate in all subject areas and expands from the topic teaching providing a way to incorporate multiple examples contained under one theme.  Concepts include facts and ideas focused solely on social studies in an abstract way.  Big ideas are usually stated as a statement and planning is done through a focus on standards and objectives, and stresses an importance beyond the areas of study to other subjects.

Some of the ideas I really liked and may try to include in our unit are:

-Timelines – Where students compare long ago to now and record different transportation used and the time frame of when it was used. 

-Simulations – Students could explore/pretend different ways to get around a long time ago compared to now (such as horse and carriage and/or boats where you had to row)

-Read Aloud/Book talks – We had discussed reading a few books that relate to Amelia Earhart or the Wright Brothers.  We could incorporate having a book talk after reading these books.