During the summer, I will be sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past eight years. You can see all those collections from the first seven years here.
Here are the ones I’ve posted so far:
This Year’s Most Popular Q&A Posts
Best Ways to Begin the School Year
Best Ways to End the School Year
Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning
Today’s theme is on Teaching Social Studies . You can see the list following this excerpt from one of them:
*Ways to Strengthen Students’ Information-Literacy Skills
A series on teaching information literacy to students finishes up with suggestions from Elliott Rebhun, Dr. Laura Greenstein, Michael Fisher, Dr. Barbara R. Blackburn, and Douglas Reeves.
*'We Need to Teach Our Students to Be Smart Consumers of Information’
Carla Truttman, Josh Perlman, Jennifer Casa-Todd, Bryan Goodwin, Frank W. Baker share their suggestions for information-literacy lessons.
* ‘Students Need to DO History, not Just Listen to it’
Big mistakes are made in social studies instruction. What can teachers do to avoid them? Annie Brown, Amy Okimoto, Amy Fast, Lynette Yorgason, Mike Kaechele and Dr. Rebecca Testa-Ryan weigh in.
* Ways to Use Tech in Social Studies Classes
Sarah Cooper and Ken Halla share suggestions on how to use tech in Social Studies classes.
* ‘We Should Embrace Writing in Social Studies’
Martha Sevetson Rush, Andrew Miller, Melissa Miles, Donna L. Shrum, and Richard Byrne contribute their thoughts on writing in social studies classes.
* Ways to Integrate Writing in Social Studies Classes
Stan Pesick, Ben Alvord, Dawn Mitchell, Rachel Johnson, and Rebecca Testa-Ryan share their suggestions on integrating writing into social studies classes.
* Helping Students ‘Get Into History’
Diana Laufenberg, Sarah Cooper, Chris Hulleman, Suzie Boss, and Erin Brandvold discuss how we can make social studies lessons more exciting!
* Social Studies Is ‘About Creating Skilled Inquirers’
Andrew Kozlowsky, Stephanie Smith, Greg Milo, Dr. Donna Wilson, Marcus Conyers, Andrew Miller, and Tamara Fyke contribute their ideas on how to make social studies lessons more engaging.
* Common Core Moves Social Studies From ‘Memorization’ to a ‘Meaningful Place’
Sarah Cooper, Michael Fisher, Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, Jody Passanisi, and Eugenia Mora-Flores share their thoughts on the impact of the Common Core State Standards on social studies classrooms.
* Common Core in Social Studies Looks Like ‘the Work of Historians’
Jennifer Hesseltine, Kenny McKee, Erik M. Francis, Wayne Journell, and Dave Stuart Jr. contribute their ideas about the social studies connection to the Common Core State Standards.
* Teachers Lose ‘Credibility’ If We Don’t Address ‘Controversial’ Topics
Lorena Germán, Adeyemi Stembridge, Stephen Lazar, Jen Schwanke, and Aubrie Rojee share their ideas on how to handle so-called “controversial” topics in the classroom.
* ‘Fear’ Should Not Stop Us From Exploring ‘Controversial’ Topics in School
Gabriella Corales, Tom Rademacher, Martha Caldwell, Oman Frame, Danny Woo, Paul Barnwell, and Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski share their responses to the question: “How do you handle controversial issues in the classroom?”
* Teachers Should Examine ‘Biases’ When Discussing ‘Sensitive’ Topics
Dominique Williams, Matthew Homrich-Knieling, Meg White, Kristina J. Doubet, Jessica A. Hockett, Vance Austin, and Stephanie Smith contribute to Part Three in a series on handling “controversial” issues in the classroom.
* ‘Don’t Avoid Controversial Topics’ in School
Today’s answers on dealing with controversial issues in the classroom are provided by Sara Ahmed, Jennifer Borgioli, Kevin Scott, Erik M. Francis, Phil Hunsberger, Jackie Walsh, Beth Sattes, and Dave Stuart Jr.
* It’s ‘Vital’ for Teachers to ‘Integrate Controversial Topics Into Lessons’
A five-part series on handling controversial topics in the classroom is wrapped up with commentaries by Meg Riordan, Lymaris Santana, Sarah Thomas, and Thomas Armstrong, along with many comments from readers.
* Ways Principals Can Assist Social Studies Teachers
Troy Hicks, Kristina J. Doubet, David Sherrin, Kirke Olson, and Barbara Blackburn share their thoughts. I’ve also included comments from many readers.
* ‘Doing’ Geography Instead of ‘Studying’ It
Today’s guest responses come from Kelly Young, from whom I’ve learned more about teaching than from anyone else; Elisabeth Johnson, who is the best social studies teacher I’ve ever seen; middle school educator Lisa Butler; and Matt Podbury, who teaches geography at an International School in France.
* Engaging With Race and Class in the Classroom
Three educators—Ashanti Foster, Melissa Bollow Tempel, and P. L. Thomas—and a number of readers share their thoughts on this challenge.
Four educators—John T. Spencer, Diana Laufenberg, Jennifer D. Klein, and Jason Flom—respond to this issue.
* Teaching History by Encouraging Curiosity
Educators Diana Laufenberg, Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez, and Peter Pappas contributed their responses to this piece.
* Teaching History by Not Giving ‘the Answers’
Bruce Lesh, PJ Caposey, and Dave Orphal share their thoughts in this post, and I’ve also included comments from readers.
* Ways to Deal With ‘History Myths’ in the Classroom
Three talented and experienced educators share their thoughts on the topic—Stephen Lazar, ReLeah Cossett Lent, and Bill Bigelow.
* Ed Week Readers’ Ideas on How We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively
Many readers and I contribute our suggestions.
* Additional Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively--Part Two
Social studies teachers Eric Langhorst, Beth Sanders, and Russel Tarr all write about what they’ve learned from experience.
* Several Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively--Part One
This post includes guest responses from three talented and experienced educators: Stephen Lazar, Bill Bigelow, and Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez.
I hope you’ve found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!