1. Meaningful Social Studies & Meaningful Learning
Chapters 1 and 2

2. In your small group, answer:
What is Social Studies?
What is meaningful social studies?
What is meaningful learning?
What is the biggest hindrance in teaching social studies to elementary school aged children?

3. What is social studies?
NCSS defines social studies as "the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence.”
It is multidisciplinary
It is personal. Students take in information and interpret it in terms of their own prior experiences and knowledge.
Goal: to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good (citizenship).

4. Powerful Social Studies
Meaningful
Integrative
Value Based
Challenging
Active

5. Powerful Social Studies is Constructed
Students construct their own knowledge by being given the chance to make observations of, and interact with, a variety of sources and educational materials.
Students conclusions are developed through the values they, their families, and community have.

6. Powerful Teaching/Powerful Learning
The more teachers are able to use instructional activities that give students greater control of their learning activities, the more active their learning becomes.
When students “do” social studies, they draw on thinking skills and knowledge that helps them understand their social world.

7. The Great Connection
SS is the core to which all parts of the curriculum can be tied. Integration is important because the real world integrates all areas.
SS is an interdisciplinary approach that relies heavily on the social sciences and history to achieve its goal of preparing people to be active citizens of a democracy.

8. The National Standards: 10 Themes
I. Culture
II. Time, Continuity, and Change
III. People, Places, and Environment
IV. Individual Development and Identity
V. Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
VI. Power, Authority, and Governance
VII. Production, Distribution, and Consumption
VIII. Science, Technology, and Society
IX. Global Connections
X. Civic Ideals and Practices

9. Meaningful Learning
Meaningful social studies learning is an active construction process.
A network of experiences, ideas, and relationships come together to form knowledge.
Learning social studies meaningfully depends on the prior knowledge of the learner, the focus of the learner’s attention, and the learners interaction with events, people, and objects during instruction.

10. Traditional Teaching Behavioral Learning Theory Teacher Guided
Views knowledge as transmitted by the teacher or textbook.
Uses strategies that enhance memorization and recall.
Useful for recalling of facts.
Does not encourage students to find meaning in what they are learning.

11. Constructivist Approach
Encouraging students to find meaning often brings about conceptual change.

12. What is Conceptual Change?
Conceptual change occurs when students change their concepts.
Students do not give up their ideas without being convinced that the new idea is better and more useful.
The constructivist approach allows students to:
recall prior knowledge
connect new idea to prior knowledge
compare and confront prior knowledge with new idea
use metacognition; think about their own thinking

13. The Learning Cycle Lesson
The learning-cycle approach is designed to sequence the key elements of constructivist learning which allows students to:
become aware of their prior knowledge
compare new ideas to their prior knowledge
confront their prior knowledge
resolve their confrontation by constructing their “new” social studies idea
connect the new idea to what is already known
apply and transfer the new idea in novel situations

14. The Learning Cycle Lesson
The learning-cycle lesson fosters meaningful learning.
Three phases of the lesson; exploratory introduction, lesson development, expansion
Each phase has a different purpose and requires different student and teacher actions.
All three phases need to be completed for meaningful learning of an idea to take place.
Assessment takes place at each phase.
Each learning cycle builds on the previous one.

15. Small Group Activity Discuss and be prepared to share:
Each group has been given one phase of the learning cycle lesson.
Discuss and be prepared to share:
what the lesson phase is designed to do
the key elements of the lesson phase
activites appropriate for this phase
assessments useful for this phase

16. Reference Sunal, C. S. & Haas, M. E. (2008). Social studies for
Reference Sunal, C. S. & Haas, M. E. (2008). Social studies for the elementary and middle school grades: A constructivist approach. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.