1. I think we can all agree that the face of Social Studies needs to change. There is simply too much to teach if we continue teaching it the way we were taught; pen in hand, poised above the spiral notebook, copying notes from the blackboard or power point, listening to our teacher(The Sole Source of Knowledge). If we continue to teach this way, we will drone on and spout words in and out of ears of our students. Or frantically cram in as much information as we can possibly jam into the brains of our students. I know I had a difficult time remembering everything in 2001 when I graduated high school. It’s unrealistic, and unfair, to expect students to add nearly 20 years worth of more events.

So, what’s the answer?

Less is more.

I am not teaching specific dates, names, places. I am teaching concepts, and more importantly, how to access those details. In an age where so many people are device ridden, it seems like a waste of time to teach, or retell, mundane details when they can be looked up  in mere seconds.

Take the 4th grade class I’ve adopted, for instance. On the first day of our European Exploration Unit I gave the class a “MiniLecture” (1o minutes). They received the handout I read aloud from, and took notes from it. The way they took notes? The way that made sense to them. They have been taught in Reading Workshop how to write about their reading, and they transferred the knowledge to Social Studies. I gave them some reminders and tips that are especially helpful for historians to consider when taking notes. The next day, we spent class using “talking prompts” and they created a Seed Entry in their notebook (a seed entry meaning, they will return to it and grow it into something better through revision later on). The next day, we explored several resources (videos/text) on explorers. Hopefully by tomorrow they will be able to choose one to focus on. Our Learning Target today was, “Today we will explore many resources, So we can choose one topic to become an expert on and use precise details”. This is another hybrid of ELA. This is also bringing my social studies philosophy into more clear focus. I think it’s paramount to expose kids to all of our history, but I think it’s even more important to let them choose what to become an expert on. When I was a new mom, someone said to me, “You can’t do it all and do it all well”. This definitely applies to teaching Social Studies. Instead, let’s adopt a “less is more” approach, where we allow kids to survey topics, and choose one to dive deeply into. We’ll undoubtedly empower future citizens this way.

It is becoming increasingly more important for me to ask students what they think about a topic we’re studying. After all, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”(Thank you, George Santayana). You don’t know history if you don’t think about it. And you won’t know history if you’re forced to try to memorize all of it.

For most of my teaching career I have been seeking to strike a balance between literacy and content. I taught Social Studies for 7 years, and I was never the ¨chalk and talk¨ type. I have always wanted to kids to experience the same joy I did when opened up a book and read about places, people, and events of the past. Only then will they be inspired to talk about how to preserve excellence and prevent atrocities-and put their ideas and thoughts into action. This means every social studies (any content, for that matter) teacher must be a teacher of reading and writing. And I don´t mean reading the blue words, and I don´t mean a cookie cutter five-paragraph essay.

In the Name of Keeping Things Real, I confess that 13 years in…I´m still in the middle of a mess. It can be really hard and frustrating when I see talented teachers, professionals, and researchers all on the cutting edge of their work…and   I´m still here, meekly figuring it out. In the middle of a mess.

I recently went to the Teachers College 94th Saturday Reunion (see the previous blog post!) where I had the awesome privilege of attending a session entitled ¨Authoring Different Genres to Engage Student in Social Studies Content¨. The session was inspiring and downright helpful, but one phrase especially has changed my approach.

The writing process is the same in all content areas.

Duh, right? Sheepish lightbulb moment if there ever was one.

TC Staff Developer Tim Steffan was the workshop presenter, and I believe he was quoting The Lovely and Talented Mary Ehrenworth. My notes are scraggly from the fast and furious scrawling. Anyway-this statement makes total sense, and it has alleviated a lot of my struggle.

I tried a Social Studies unit in December with a 5th grade class where the classroom teacher and I took an If/Then Writing Unit of Study and paired it with our 5th grade social studies curriculum. TOUGH STUFF. It was not perfect, and there are a lot of things I would do differently. So…I´m trying again. We are now using our US Government unit, and thinking about the Information writing type, with the writing process really guiding our instruction. We will be using the same teaching points from both Information Reading and Writing Units of Study, and echoing the note-taking ways students already know from Reading Units of Study. US Government content is guiding us and anchoring the lessons. The writing process is truly my north star. Each time I doctor up the curriculum map or lesson plan I am keeping in mind that students during the beginning of the unit are researching and collecting information, and as they progress they will be drafting and revising those seed entries. By the end of the unit, hopefully, they will be publishing ¨Presidential Papers¨, where they will explain the branches of government and foundation for The Constitution. I have no idea if this will work. Fingers crossed, salt over the left shoulder, and prayers prayed. I´ll be steadily updating progress here on the blog.

On the back burner, I´m cooking up a ¨Research Clubs inspired¨ 4th Grade Social Studies unit on Explorers. Stay tuned. Lots of mess in the works. This is just the beginning; the middle will come shortly, and in the end, we will be smarter about our craft of blending content and literacy. And honestly, I´ll be lucky if it is that clear-cut. I think the middle will extend for quite a while! One could say I´ve been in the middle for a long time already, and this is just the beginning of the unit.

But arguably, I´m a step closer.

Have you ever gone to a restaurant or event where there´s a buffet only to end up getting paralyzed by the amount of choice? This happened to me lately in the educational realm when I went to The Teachers College 94th Saturday Reunion. Teachers, I ask you: When is the last time you went to a PD event and felt like you couldn´t decide which session to attend because the offerings were all so great, PLUS they were offered by rockstars? If you never been to a Teachers College Reunion Day (or Institute), you HAVE to place it on your professional bucket list. The quality of PD is immeasurable. I always leave feeling 10x smarter than when I arrived and I am able to get a ton of mileage out of it. What is even better though, is that I always feel as if I am a valued member of their community. There is something about spending the day with some of the brightest minds in education on a private, Ivy League institution that is a time-honored center of research; somehow the air quality better, I swear. Always good for a professional to be a scholar and to feel as if they are a part of something ¨bigger¨.

This time I went with several colleagues and administrators from our district which heightened the experience even more. We haven´t had a formalized district debrief yet (that is in the works) but in the meantime, we are connecting and contacting each other during plan periods to touch base on sessions we attended. Not to sound all peace, love, and granola, but this has been great bonding for us.  We rarely get that gift of connecting outside the classroom with our colleagues. We run so raggedly during the school day that most of our energy is siphoned off by 3pm…when we muster up enough more to bring some home to our families. The TC Reunion Day was jeweled because I was with colleagues who believe with their whole heart that we can make a change. Every single person I traveled with really believes that they can take the work we learned about, apply it, and make a difference. Actually, not only apply the work-but is excited to apply the work. When we connect during the school day for PLCs, there is often a  naysayer. What made the experience so elite was having colleagues by my side to share in the thinking, conversation, and application in the week and coming weeks after.  Not only were neural pathways about literacy and education created- but also a sense of belonging. Last year I shared a phrase with many of the ELA teachers I work with, a phrase that I use during times of adversity ¨I can, and I will¨. I´m thinking that it is now better used as ¨We can, and we will¨.

You can´t pour from an empty cup. Seek out PD from a place where you get a palpating vibe of energy, thinking and learning…and bring a colleague who shares your belief and will to make a difference in the lives of kids.