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Education 420

I. Course Title: Methods for Elementary Social Studies Instruction

II. Course Number: EDUC 420

III. Credit Hours: 3 credits

IV. Prerequisite: None

V. Course Description:

In this course candidates will learn to design inclusive instruction that connects diverse elementary students with their communities, from local to global, in both past and present. Models, theories, and methods informed by child development, disciplinary literacy, inquiry-based learning, multicultural education, social justice, and global education will also be studied. Candidates will create lesson plans that connect to big ideas about the world, build upon student curiosity, include opportunities for real engagement, and align to state, national, and international standards.

Note(s): Co-listed with EDUC 520

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

Effective teachers recognize the power of rich instruction in the content areas to motivate elementary students to investigate the world around them, to become better readers and writers, and to develop skills for the real world. Social studies, in particular, should inspire students to ask questions, examine evidence, collect stories, and discuss multiple perspectives on profoundly important concepts. Children in elementary classrooms are eager to encounter big ideas like change, freedom, equality, tolerance, conflict, power, resources, interdependence, sustainability, culture, identity, and tradition, among many others. In turn, these discussions prepare students to draw informed conclusions, empathize with others, communicate ideas orally and/or in writing, identify and solve problems, and participate in civic action – the skills that set them up for future success in life and career.

VII. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

The course format includes large and small group discussion, individual and group presentations, journal article and textbook reading, demonstration lessons, role plays and simulations, interactive note taking, and practical applications. Because the course is taught as a co-requisite with EDUC 430, students will also develop, implement, and evaluate a unit plan specifically for their early field experience placement.

VIII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

Goals, objectives, and assignments address the Virginia Department of Education regulations for preparing early/primary and elementary educators and the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) and National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards.

Candidates successfully completing this course will demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and dispositions to:

1. Practice world-ready skills – perspective taking, communication, critical thinking, and taking-action – to better understand their students and communities and to promote and develop world-ready citizens in the multicultural and democratic classrooms necessary for developing an effective citizenry.
2. Define social studies and demonstrate the requisite content knowledge in each of the social sciences including, but not limited to:
a. History – relationships across time among key events, ideas (documents), and individuals in VA and US history (including connections to ancient civilizations)
b. Geography – the shaping of environments by both human interactions and physical processes and the tools for representing and studying such processes
c. Civics –how the principles, practices, laws, and responsibilities of our local, state, and national government impact citizens and define citizenship in a democratic republic
d. Economics – how the economic decisions of individuals and groups impact the economy
3. Demonstrate knowledge, skills, and processes for teaching history, civics, economics, and geography and aligning all instruction to Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning: Comprehensive Standards for Four-Year Olds, the Virginia Standards of Learning, and national and global standards appropriate to the elementary school curriculum.
4. Study and evaluate lesson designs that focus on historical thinking, geographic analysis, economic decision making, local to global connections, and responsible citizenship for their cultural and/or global competence, interdisciplinary connections, and best practices for creating inclusive instruction.
5. Reflect critically upon the roles of teachers, policy makers (standards), and private enterprise (text/resource developers) in determining what voices are privileged and what voices are marginalized by collective decisions about what to include and how.
6. Match task demand to varied and appropriate teaching methods, including direct instruction (when task calls for sound intellectual routines like studying and using historical and geographic sources, supporting an argument, practicing academic vocabulary, engaging in dialogue, encountering difference, making decisions, and resolving conflict) AND inquiry-based or problem-based instruction (when task calls for open-ended, creative, and/or innovative applications and integrations of knowledge and skill).
7. Select, adapt and/or create appropriate instructional materials, including historical sources, artifacts, maps, models, charts, hands-on activities, vocabulary and language development, graphic organizers, children’s literature, art, music, technology, and other media to enhance learning for all students (including children with disabilities, gifted children, children who are English learners, and children with diverse cultural backgrounds).
8. Use a variety of formative, summative, and self-reflective assessment techniques to plan, differentiate, monitor and document student progress, and improve practice in elementary social studies instruction.
9. Design an implementation-ready unit plan aligned with appropriate curriculum standards in social studies (e.g. SOL) that sustains intellectual curiosity and addresses the learning needs of all students (including children with disabilities, gifted children, children who are English learners, and children with diverse cultural needs) by including multiple means of engagement, representation, and student action and expression (Universal Design for Learning).

IX. Assessment Measures:

A variety of assessments may include, but are not limited to:

Lesson plans that reflect cultural and/or global competence, as well as considerations for diverse learners (may include the plans developed for the unit – see below)
An implementation-ready unit of social studies instruction aligned to appropriate curriculum standards and with an interdisciplinary connection to be used in the candidate’s field placement (as appropriate).
Journal entries, reading annotations, and/or other informal writings
Presentations or micro-teaching exercises
Quizzes, tests, or formal writing assignments
Class participation and discussion

Review and Approval

Revised April, 2009

August 2020

March 01, 2021