Social Studies: Introduction & Doing History

Brief history of social studies in school:
1916 First Social Studies movement in the US due to high amounts of immigration. SS was to prepare US citizens for a democratic society.

1992 NCSS adopted new definition of SS (paraphrased): “the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence…to help young people develop ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in the interdependent world.”

2003 Civic Mission of Schools gave new definition: "to prepare students for living in a democratic society and interdependent world." This definition is more global with three goals which are to be informed and thoughtful, act politically, and have moral and civic virtues such as concern for others, social responsibility, and the belief in the capacity to make a difference. This last part of the definition is incredibly important, especially in urban schools with kids who face rough circumstances.

The mission also stated that even before the age of 9, children are able to develop social responsibility and interest in politics. This statement differs from what many educators, researchers, and child developmentalist believe. Therefore, teaching social studies is incredibly important.

Doing History
This curriculum was created by Linda Levstik and Keith Barton. They define SS as "about judgment, building and evaluating warranted and grounded interpretations. History is not just opinion, it's teaching how to gather and analyze information on the past. Historyical thinkingneeds to take place in a social context. We must also consider who writes most textbooks, and how their perspective may affect the text.

• Create a community of inquiry where students jointly pursue a problem or question, share sources of of information, share standards for evaluating information, build and critique interpretations, reflect on their findings.
• This is important because it is respectful towards student contributions, accounts differing views based on ethnicity/gender/culture/religion, gives skills for democracy and inquiry, creates empathy towards others (past and present), builds understanding for current events, and develps appreciation for historical understanding.

Lesson Activities for learning about your own history:

1. Brainstorm ideas
2. discuss with others
3. create a timeline of own life
   
4. analyze and evaluate events
5. select the most important event
6. collect historical information

We also discussed how it can be difficult to do this timeline assignment with children who have difficult circumstances (poverty, broken homes, foster, etc.). Some ideas to help kids are to:

• talk about the positive aspects
• validate their experiences, don't dismiss them
  
• add a timeline of what they want in their future
• tell them it's not their fault and
  
• explain that we are all different and have different lives
• their experiences are ok, "that's who you are"
• be sure to create a community where everyone belongs at school. People need a sense of belonging and will search for it which could lead to gangs or even worse circumstances than their current situation.