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Academic Areas & Divisions
Curriculum & Instruction
Social Studies in Elementary Education, 13th edition
Walter C. Parker
(Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2009)
I have three goals for this new edition. First, to present the most powerful social studies content and pedagogy for children in elementary and middle schools. (This is not social studies ‘lite’). Second, to offer this material in simple and accessible ways, keeping always in mind the readers of this book who are new to teaching as well as those for whom English is a second or third language. Third, to write in a first person active voice, not third person passive. Readers are getting this material through a “real person” who loves this subject matter and has beliefs about how children can best be helped to learn it. To summarize, powerful material, accessible writing, and active voice guided this revision.
The purpose of social studies education is twofold: to help students develop social understanding (knowledge of the social world—history, geography, government, economics, etc.) and the ability to think and act as a democratic citizen in a multicultural society. Neither social knowledge nor democratic competence materializes out of thin air. Both have to be created continually, and that is why we have social studies education in the schools.
The purpose of this book is to introduce new teachers to the world of social studies teaching and learning in elementary and middle schools, and to help them unleash their intelligence and creativity on this vitally important subject area. Geography, history, government and the other social sciences are delivered into the palm of the new teacher’s hand, along with a suite of tools and ideas for bringing authentic social studies to life in the elementary and middle school classroom.
Organization. The book has three major sections: the first orients readers to the mission of social studies education and to the increasingly diverse children we teach; the second concentrates on the curriculum—what we want these students to learn; the third deals with instruction—how we plan and teach this curriculum. There are thirteen chapters, including one (Chapter 10) that focuses squarely on resources for teaching and learning social studies. I have always believed that good teaching is utterly dependent on good resources. Excellent teachers certainly are not writing all those lessons and materials themselves; there’s just no time for that. Rather, they know where to find them and how to adapt them, and they don’t hesitate to borrow good ideas and resources from others.
Curriculum & Instruction
