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Making Time for Social Studies
A Four-Step Process for Unit Planning in the Elementary Classroom
Elementary social studies teachers often struggle to make time to teach social studies. In her book, Rachel Swearengin shows how this can be done in all elementary classrooms with the right tools. Her unit planning process supports teachers as they unpack social studies standards, providing them with strategies and practices specific to social studies that promote students’ participation and lasting interest.
Benefits
- Apply the claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) approach to their assessments
- Employ key practices to ensure an enduring understanding of social studies standards
- Learn primary source analysis strategies to use with students
- Receive completed sample and planning templates for the K–2 and 3–5 grades
- Create their own social studies units and daily lesson plans using their completed planning templates
- Select grade-appropriate primary and secondary sources and understand the use of each
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Step 1—Making Meaning of Social Studies Standards
Chapter 2: Step 2—Creating Assessments
Chapter 3: Step 3—Choosing and Analyzing Primary Sources
Chapter 4: Step 4—Choosing and Analyzing Secondary Sources
Chapter 5: Turning Your Unit Into Daily Lesson Plans
Appendix A
Appendix B: Completed Planning Templates
PRINTABLE REPRODUCIBLES
Appendix A
- The Four-Step Planning Process Template
- The Frayer Model Template
- Vocabulary Knowledge Rating Scale
- Sequencing Sources Chart
Appendix B: Completed Planning Templates
- Sample Grades K–2 Completed Planning Template: Rules
- Sample Grades K–2 Completed Planning Template: Then and Now
- Sample Grades 3–5 Completed Planning Template: Inventions
- Sample Grades 3–5 Completed Planning Template: Civic Duty
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
Books
- Argentar, D. M., Gillies, K. A. N., Rubenstein, M. M., & Wise, B. R. (2020). In M. Onuscheck & J. Spiller (Eds.), Reading and writing strategies for the secondary science classroom in a PLC at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Argentar, D. M., Gillies, K. A. N., Rubenstein, M. M., & Wise, B. R. (2021). In M. Onuscheck & J. Spiller (Eds.), Reading and writing strategies for the secondary social studies classroom in a PLC at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Bailey, K., & Jakicic, C. (2023). Common formative assessment: A toolkit for Professional Learning Communities at Work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Driscoll, T., & McCusker, S. W. (2022). Becoming active citizens: Practices to engage students in civic education across the curriculum. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Flygare, J., Hoegh, J. K., & Heflebower, T. (2022). Planning and teaching in the standards-based classroom. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Resources.
- Fogarty, R. J., Kerns, G. M., & Pete, B. M. (2021). Literacy reframed: How a focus on decoding, vocabulary, and background knowledge improves reading comprehension. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- McLeod, S., & Shareski, D. (2018). Different schools for a different world. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Ness, M. (2024). Read alouds for all learners: A comprehensive plan for every subject, every day, grades K–8. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Nickelsen, L., & Dickson, M. (2019). Teaching with the instructional cha-chas: 4 steps to make learning stick. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Nickelsen, L., & Dickson, M. (2022). The literacy triangle: 50+ high-impact strategies to integrate reading, discussing, and writing in K–8 classrooms. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Novak, S., & Slattery, C. (2017). Deep discourse: A framework for cultivating student-led discussions. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Pandolpho, B. (2020). I’m listening: How teacher-student relationships improve reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Wexler, N. (2024). Foreword. In M. Ness, Read alouds for all learners: A comprehensive plan for every subject, every day, grades K–8 (pp. ix–xii). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Websites
Chapter 2
- TextProject
- iCivics
- Sample Mock Trial Scripts, United States District Court, Middle District of Florida
Chapter 3
- The Skydiving Beavers
- Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse Sets
- Chronicling America
- Life Magazine Photo Archive
- DocsTeach, the National Archives
- Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery
- History Lessons: Reading Like a Historian, Digital Inquiry Group
- The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
- KidCitizen
- Teachinghistory.org
- Primary Source Sets, Digital Public Library of America
- Soldiers Carry a Wounded Comrade Through a Swamp, DocsTeach
- American Reinforcements Arriving on the French Coast, DocsTeach
- Veterans Day Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, DocsTeach
- Digital Inquiry Group
- Thinking Routines, Project Zero, Harvard University
- Teaching With Primary Sources (TPS) Wester Region
- Document Analysis, Educator Resources, National Archives
- Drawing by Alexander Graham Bell, 1876, Library of Congress
- Weather Forecasting Primary Source Set, Library of Congress
- How to Use Private i History Detectives, iCivics
- Veterans Day Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, DocsTeach
- Soldiers Carry a Wounded Comrade Through a Swamp, DocsTeach
- American Reinforcements Arriving on the French Coast, DocsTeach
- Visitors Search for Names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, DocsTeach
- “Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982,” Maya Lin Studio
- Condolence Letter From President Kennedy to the McAndrews, DocsTeach
Chapter 4
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, National Council for the Social Studies
- Who Was? Series
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, National Council for the Social Studies
- Knowledge Quest Blogs by Tom Bober
- Database of Award-Winning Children’s Literature
- NewsELA
- ReadWorks
- TextProject
- ELA/Literacy Lessons, Achieve the Core
- CommonLit
- Britannica Kids
- Lauren Tarshis
- Veterans Day Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, DocsTeach
- Soldiers Carry a Wounded Comrade Through a Swamp, DocsTeach
- American Reinforcements Arriving on the French Coast, DocsTeach
- Visitors Search for Names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, DocsTeach
- “Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982,” Maya Lin Studio
- Condolence Letter From President Kennedy to the McAndrews, DocsTeach
- Vietnam War, History.com
Chapter 5
- Veterans Day Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, DocsTeach
- Soldiers Carry a Wounded Comrade Through a Swamp, DocsTeach
- American Reinforcements Arriving on the French Coast, DocsTeach
- Visitors Search for Names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, DocsTeach
- “Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982,” Maya Lin Studio
- Condolence Letter From President Kennedy to the McAndrews, DocsTeach
- Teachinghistory.org
- C3 Teachers
- Digital Inquiry Group
