Early in the school year, students often ask me, “why do I need a history class?” They go on to say they know why science, math, and English are taught, but they don't know why they need to learn so many random dates and historical facts. They are skeptical about memorizing facts from the past and its relevance to their future. I generally respond by saying something along the lines of, “you don’t need to memorize everything,” because a vast amount of information is readily available to today’s students online, but I emphasize that there's more to history and social studies than just dates and figures.
Teachers should offer a wide variety of literacy support in their social studies curricula, otherwise students can fall behind.
Vocabulary instruction in social studies is important because it builds background knowledge that is essential when students are assigned to read complex non-fiction texts. When students have a strong vocabulary, it makes them better readers.
As educators, we always notice gaps and different learning styles among our students, but do we ever think why? Researchers have deemed this “the achievement gap,” which refers to the difference in test scores between different groups of students.
Mental maps are representations of what a person “knows” about a place. This knowledge comes from first-hand experience and impressions of places from family, friends, school, the wider culture, and various forms of media. Mental maps blend objective information, subjective impressions and opinions. In the classroom, mental mapping helps students understand how individuals visualize the world in both similar and different ways.
How do you start your class every day?
There is a lot of information out there about inquiry-based learning: what it is, how effective it is, and so on. However, a question that many have is, “how can inquiry-based learning be used with digital activities?” Let’s look at some examples of how to combine inquiry-based and digital learning.
