"The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery is often presented as an exciting adventure story of discovery, friendship, patriotism. However, when viewed through a non-colonial lens, this same period in U.S. History can be understood quite differently. In BEYOND ADVENTURE, the authors provide a conceptual framework, ready-to-use lesson plans, and teaching resources to address oversimplified versions of the Lewis and Clark expedition"--
"Thomas Jefferson's Corps of Discovery included Captains Lewis and Clark and a crew of 28 men to chart a route from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. All the crew but one volunteered for the mission. York, the enslaved man taken on the journey, did not choose to go. Slaves did not have choices. York's contributions to the expedition, however, were invaluable. The captains came to rely on York's judgement, determination, and peacemaking role with the American Indian nations they encountered. But as York's independence and status rose on the journey, the question remained what status he would carry once the expedition was over. This is his story."--Provided by publisher.
This textbook is a comprehensive and practical guide to teaching middle level social studies. Middle level students are just as capable as high school students at engaging in hands-on, progressive, reflective activities, yet pedagogical strategies designed specifically for the middle grades are often overlooked in teacher education programs. This text provides both progressive and traditional teaching methods and strategies proven effective in the middle level classroom. The content of this book consists of conventional chapters such as “What is Social Studies?” and “Unit and Curriculum Planning,” as well as unique chapters such as “The Middle Level Learner”, “Best Practices for Teaching State History” and “Integrating the “Core” Subjects in Middle Level Social Studies”. In addition to the unique chapters and lesson plans many additional features of the book will be useful for middle level teaching and learning. These features include: • A list of website resources that provide links to thousands of lesson plans, state and national standards, and other multimedia tools that can be used in the classroom. • Individual, collaborative, and whole class activities that will help methods students develop a better understanding of the topics, lessons, and strategies discussed. • High quality lesson ideas and classroom tested teaching strategies embedded throughout the book. • Images of student work samples that will methods students visualize the finished product that is being discussed. • An examination of state and national standards that will help guide methods students in their lesson planning
The FOX television show The Simpsons has been around for over 30 years, with more than 700 episodes. A satirical, animated comedy, The Simpsons has millions of fans around the world and its numerous characters are instantly recognizable. Two of the main characters, children Bart and Lisa, are in elementary school and their educational experience is satirized frequently, with episodes taking place at Springfield Elementary and featuring their teachers, classmates, and administration—often with biting criticism of curriculum, privatization, and standardized testing, to name a few. The Simpsons also features episodes retelling historical events, where the family experiences different countries and cultures, and participates in the political process. The Simpsons is unique in that the show itself is also a historical source, having been on the air since 1989. Issues that were current in the early 1990s at the height of popularity of The Simpsons are now considered historical, and there is room in classrooms to critically analyze the show with students about whether the show has adapted well to the 2020s, particularly with the show’s use of cultural stereotypes. This edited book offers a collection of classroom-ready tools based on the Hollywood or History? strategy and designed to foster historical inquiry through the careful use of episodes or clips from The Simpsons. This book will be organized by the 10 Themes of Social Studies as outlined by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS, 2010). Each of these 10 sections of the book feature two or three lesson plans from the massive catalog of The Simpsons. There is also an 11th section featuring two lesson plans using episodes of The Simpsons that satirize public education more broadly, which can be used by teacher candidates in methods classrooms to examine the realities of the history of public education and current issues that affect the profession.
All education and educational scholarship occurs on Indigenous Lands. Despite this reality, U.S. social studies education and scholarship has reinforced settler colonialism through curricula, teacher education, professional development, policy research, and more. To confront settler colonial social studies and transform the field, educators and scholars must engage relational approaches, prioritize community and student expertise, and commit to action that recognizes Indigenous Ways of Knowing. This book brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, practitioners, and community partners from across the U.S. to share experiences of, stories about, and hopes for anti-colonial social studies. By sharing these examples, the book also provides methodological guidance for researchers, teacher educators, curriculum developers, and policymakers looking to learn about scholarly processes and partnerships with Indigenous communities. In addition to individual chapters, contributors engaged in conversations and collaboration between chapters and about the book as a whole. Chapter co-authors and thought partners dialogued about the following questions: • What is relational research, and how can it help confront settler colonial content, processes, and praxis within social studies education? • How has social studies education and research (mis)represented and (mis)applied Indigenous Ways of Knowing? • How can a re-envisioning of social studies educational research be more intentionally participatory and relational to improve social studies teaching and learning, especially for and with Indigenous communities and youth? ENDORSEMENT: "Through relational scholarship, the co-editors and contributing scholars bring forward an essential call to action that centers Indigenous identities, histories, relations to land, and sovereignty. Embodied in Indigenous research and anti-colonial research methods, the collective work uniquely privileges Indigenous Peoples at the core of transforming the field of social studies for Indigenous futurities. Threaded throughout this book, are critical questions we should all be asking ourselves as we engage in advocacy, agency, and resurgence with and for Indigenous Peoples." — Jeremy Garcia (Hopi/Tewa), University of Arizona
A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. The book features some of the best articles from Rethinking Schools magazine alongside classroom-friendly readings on climate change, energy, water, food, and pollution—as well as on people who are working to make things better. A People’s Curriculum for the Earth has the breadth and depth ofRethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World, one of the most popular books we’ve published. At a time when it’s becoming increasingly obvious that life on Earth is at risk, here is a resource that helps students see what’s wrong and imagine solutions. Praise for A People's Curriculum for the Earth "To really confront the climate crisis, we need to think differently, build differently, and teach differently. A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is an educator’s toolkit for our times." — Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate "This volume is a marvelous example of justice in ALL facets of our lives—civil, social, educational, economic, and yes, environmental. Bravo to the Rethinking Schools team for pulling this collection together and making us think more holistically about what we mean when we talk about justice." — Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison "Bigelow and Swinehart have created a critical resource for today’s young people about humanity’s responsibility for the Earth. This book can engender the shift in perspective so needed at this point on the clock of the universe." — Gregory Smith, Professor of Education, Lewis & Clark College, co-author with David Sobel of Place- and Community-based Education in Schools
The Social Studies Curriculum, Fifth Edition updates the definitive overview of the issues teachers face when creating learning experiences for students in social studies. Renowned for connecting diverse elements of the social studies curriculum—from history to cultural studies to contemporary social issues—the book offers a unique and critical perspective that continues to separate it from other texts. The social studies curriculum is contested terrain both epistemologically and politically. Completely updated and revised, the fifth edition includes fourteen new chapters and covers the politics of the social studies curriculum, questions of historical perspective, Black education and critical race theory, whiteness and anti-racism, decolonial literacy and decolonizing the curriculum, gender and sexuality, Islamophobia, critical media literacy, evil in social studies, economics education, anarchism, children’s rights and Earth democracy, and citizenship education. Readers are encouraged to reconsider their assumptions and understandings of the purposes, nature, and possibilities of the social studies curriculum.
Plan and deliver a curriculum to help your students connect with the humanity of others! In the wake of 2020, we need today’s young learners to be prepared to develop solutions to a host of entrenched and complex issues, including systemic racism, massive environmental problems, deep political divisions, and future pandemics that will severely test the effectiveness and equity of our health policies. What better place to start that preparation than with a social studies curriculum that enables elementary students to envision and build a better world? In this engaging guide two experienced social studies educators unpack the oppressions that so often characterize the elementary curriculum—normalization, idealization, heroification, and dramatization—and show how common pitfalls can be replaced with creative solutions. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, methods student, or curriculum coordinator, this is a book that can transform your understanding of the social studies disciplines and their power to disrupt the narratives that maintain current inequities.
Plan and deliver a curriculum to help your students connect with the humanity of others! In the wake of 2020, we need today’s young learners to be prepared to develop solutions to a host of entrenched and complex issues, including systemic racism, massive environmental problems, deep political divisions, and future pandemics that will severely test the effectiveness and equity of our health policies. What better place to start that preparation than with a social studies curriculum that enables elementary students to envision and build a better world? In this engaging guide two experienced social studies educators unpack the oppressions that so often characterize the elementary curriculum—normalization, idealization, heroification, and dramatization—and show how common pitfalls can be replaced with creative solutions. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, methods student, or curriculum coordinator, this is a book that can transform your understanding of the social studies disciplines and their power to disrupt the narratives that maintain current inequities.
This book presents a vision of education for democracy built around promoting equity and social justice. In doing so, Camicia and Knowles challenge many of the common perspectives of democratic education, deliberation, and the common good. The authors have published widely on the topic of education for democracy. This book builds upon their work to assist practicing teachers, teacher educators, graduate students, and educational researchers in understanding the background of education for democracy, as well as new directions for the field. While one of the primary goals of public schools is to teach students how to build better communities, this goal is increasingly difficult given the degree of political polarization within societies. Recent events provide no shortage of challenges to democracy in the United States and beyond. Utilizing theory and research, Camicia and Knowles promote instructional methods that are responsive to changing cultural and political contexts. There is an increasing need to rethink democratic principles and how these principles might be supported in classrooms in order to teach for social justice. This requires a move away from often stated idealistic notions of deliberative democracy, toward a perspective of education for democracy that incorporates aspects of identity, interests, and inequitable power relations within society.
