Mentor Texts for the American Revolution and Letting Your Students Take Ownership

I am a little late, but I thought I would link up Collaboration Cuties' Must Read Mentor Text linky for Social Studies.  I am glad they and Jivey are recommending some books for the American Revolution.  Most of my students are studying the American Revolution right now.

Mentor Texts

A couple texts we are reading the next couple week are:

Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak

This book describes different points of view of different every day citizens around Boston leading up to the Boston Tea Party.  It is a great text to get students to discuss the events of the Boston Tea Party, but also how it affected different people.  After each person, we discuss if they were a Loyalist or Patriot and how we know from the details the person gave. After reading the book, I would have students write from the point of view a citizen in Boston or even write a skit from a patriot and a loyalist debating the events.

Let It Begin Here: Lexington and Concord

This book describes the events of Paul Revere's midnight ride and the events that got the Revolution started.  It is a great introductory text to the American Revolution.

George vs. George

This is a great book to explain the differences between the American and the British points of view.  This book will give your students an overview of the major concepts surrounding the Revolution.  This would be a good text to photocopy a short portion to do a close read.

A New Approach to Teaching Social Studies

I have been taking a little different approach in Social Studies and some other areas lately.  Instead of just teaching the material to my students or assigning them material to read, I have been giving them more ownership.  I have been creating study guides with essential questions and performance tasks.

This idea came about during a graduate school meeting in December. Every few weeks, some of the students and professors in my graduate program get together to discuss research ideas for gifted students. In our December Saturday morning, my advisor said something so simple and yet profound it jumpstarted a whole new approach to teaching for me. He said, "Students should always work harder than the teacher." They are the ones who should be learning and growing and struggling as part of that process.  He emphasized that in a blended learning environment like the one I work in, where the kids have access to technology, what the kids really need in order to learn are to be given good questions.

By giving them a set of essential questions to research and answer without me really teaching them much of the material they take ownership of their learning and also practice reading with a purpose.  They have to be move from passive learning to very active learning. I have given them access to different resources, and it is their job to research the essential questions and answer them.  Then, they have been completing different performance tasks to demonstrate their understanding.  We just finished studying the Causes of the American Revolution.  My students made dioramas, made posters, and made Power Point presentations to show they understood events like the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.  Some of the students work on the study guides by themselves and some work with a partner. At the end of the unit, we are discussing it all together. This is part of why we are reading the mentor texts to discuss what they have already researched.  Now though, they are very familiar with the events in the stories as I read them.

Here is an example of the Causes of the American Revolution Study Guide I gave my students.  

It has been fun the last few weeks to watch them.  They actually are very excited to do Social Studies at the end of the day, and they often have been asking to get started on it during Language Arts. How do you encourage student ownership?

Curriculum Maps for Common Core that tie to Social Studies

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever. I went to Orlando last Wednesday through Sunday to spend some time with my brother, dad, and my grandparents. It was a great trip even though it was short. I got to do relaxing and reading (which are two things I never seem to have enough time for).  On the way back, I got bumped to First Class so a family could sit together. Poor me...  It was fun! I had never sat in First Class before. I will miss the meal, the hot towels, and the glass of wine next time I have to sit in Coach.

The other day I came across a new resource for Curriculum Maps that tie to Common Core.  I had already purchased Common Core Curriculum Maps for Language Arts on Amazon this summer as a resource. I first read about this book last summer and had not gotten around to purchasing it.

The book has six different units for each grade level, which many of them are theme based and tie in to Social Studies. I plan on using some of the ideas for 4th and 5th Grade to plan out some of my read alouds, shared reads, and assigned nonfiction reading this year.  There are actually also some great suggestions of poems.

One area that is always a struggle to find great texts is Social Studies.  Actually, the problem is not finding texts but choosing the right ones. Since many of my students are gifted, it is important for my curriculum plans to include a lot of independent learning. If students work more independently and through more of an inquiry approach, the teacher becomes less of the central vehicle for the students to obtain new knowledge.  This is where the right text becomes important.  Students still need a vehicle to learn the content.  A high interest text can make all the difference. Commoncore.org is a website with curriculum maps that tie to the Common Core Standards.  (This website is different from the site where you can find copies of the standards.) 

CommonCore.org is a nonprofit organization that has worked to create curriculum maps that tie to the Common Core Standards. You can purchase a yearly subscription to access the maps.  They have maps for Language Arts.  (I did not purchase this subscription since I had already purchased the other book above). The part I was excited about is that they have Curriculum Maps for Social Studies.  It was $20 for a one year subscription.  They have curriculum maps for both World History and US History.  Each type of History has 18 topics that have maps.  For each topic, there are suggested anchor texts with other text suggestions.  They include text dependent questions, assessment ideas, and links to other resources like Primary Sources and websites.  I am excited to add these resources to my other curriculum.  I have been wanting to find more History nonfiction texts and historical fiction to incorporate into Language Arts.  I tend to spend a lot of time researching texts and going to the library.  I am hoping this will cut down on my time researching texts, so I can spend more time creating projects and activities to go with the texts and also finding engaging primary sources.  Do you have any great resources for curriculum maps for Social Studies or lists of great History nonfiction texts?

Must Read Mentor Texts for Social Studies: You Wouldn't Want to Be...Series

I really thought I was going to finish some products this weekend for my store and classroom.  Instead, I was up late Friday night doing Statistics homework.  Saturday morning I did bootcamp and holy yoga.  The rest of the weekend was filled with cleaning, organizing, purging, donating to Goodwill, moving furniture around, laundry, grocery shopping, church, and getting ready for the week.

It's Sunday, so it is time for Collaboration Cuties' Must Read Mentor Text linky.

 

This week's topic is Social Studies. Can we say love?  I am starting my PhD in Educational Psychology with emphasis in Gifted and Talented Education. (That is why I am taking Statistics this summer).  My career goal is to create Social Studies/History curriculum for Elementary kids.  I feel like History is so important, and we need more resources that make it come alive and feel relevant and tangible for Elementary kids.  A great text is a fabulous way to help kids relate to a historical figure or time period.  Historical Fiction always has and always will be my favorite genre.  I discovered my love of reading when my grandmother introduced me to Ann Rinaldi.  She is still one of my favorite authors.  Her books are probably more Middle School reading level, so I always try to encourage my higher level fifth-grade readers to explore her books. I remember reading In My Father's House in 6th grade.

It is about the McLean family.  The Civil War started right in front of their house.  They moved to Appomattox to escape the war.  Then Lee used their library to sign the surrender.  I remember visiting Appomattox the summer after 6th grade with my grandparents.  I was so excited when we saw the McLeans' house in Appomattox.  I told my grandmother when we got to the library there was going to be a doll left on the sofa.  My grandmother thought I was silly, but sure enough there it was.  Will McLean's little girl leaves her doll in his study and it is taken over to sign the surrender and end the civil war. She is upset because she wants her doll, not understanding the importance of what is happening behind closed doors. I love historical fiction because often kids can relate to history so much more when they can relate to the age or gender of the characters.  It is such an easy way to learn history and absorb interesting details.

I often have done a round of book clubs with Historical Fiction in my classroom or had my students choose from a list of books when we are studying a period of time. I am teaching US History again this year, so I am excited to use more picture book mentor texts.  This year we studied the US Regions and Westward Expansion.  I am excited to actually cover most of the major events in US History again. 

This year was my first year to use Common Core.  I live in Texas, so I had previously followed the TEKS.  The private school I am at now follows Common Core. With the emphasis on nonfiction in Common Core I used a lot more nonfiction this year in Science and Social Studies for mentor texts.  Engaging nonfiction is hard to find that reads well aloud, so I love finding great nonfiction mentor texts. My "go-to" Social Studies source for mentor texts is the "You Wouldn't Want to Be" series.  Students always love them!  I would like to read this one to use this year: You Woudn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier. 

The series always presents the worst part of a time period - the hardships and disgusting details.  It always helps to paint a picture though about the hardships of a place and time, and the kids eat it up.  If you scroll through the other related books at the bottom of the Amazon page, you can see a bunch of the other books in the series. There are tons of books in the series for American History and World History. Usually after I read one aloud, it gets read and reread during independent reading. What is your favorite Social Studies nonfiction mentor text?

Planning How to Logically Teach 5th Grade US History

I need to finish my second post on ideas for teaching dialogue.  The month of June is already flying by...

Today I was working on making Scopes and Sequences for next year for the different subjects I teach. While looking at our 5th Grade US History curriculum I noticed they covered most of the US History topics and then covered US regions at the end of the year.  I understand the logic behind this, but I find having an understanding of the differences of the climate and geography of each region better helps students understand US History and the way people adapted to new environments. I decided we are going to cover the regions at the beginning of the year and then start with the Jamestown and the Colonies after covering the regions.  I think we will plan "a road trip across the US" as we study the different regions.  Maybe we will make a little "travel scrapbook" or write entries for a pretend travel blog.

Time to teach Social Studies each week is always limited.  I also think I like the idea of using an interactive student notebook this year.  I tried it some last year, but it did not really work.  My students work at different levels and paces so we are not always doing the same thing.  I like the idea of interactive student notebooks where they incorporate more visual notetaking and have a creative output to show their learning.  I want my students to learn how to take notes and take ownership of it. I think if I take on interactive notebooks I will have to make some templates for them to use and put a detailed guideline of what to do on my class website. I am even playing with the idea of just doing the notebooks in a binder instead of a composition notebook since my students have to work a little more indepedently.  I like the idea that in a binder you can move things around if they accidently get put in the wrong spot.  I am thinking instead of left/right thinking for inputs and outputs we could just do like front and back of the page.

When studying the US regions, I also like to touch on the Native Americans of each region so students can understand that often many of the differences in various tribes was largely to do with the climate and natural resources of where they lived. I decided that while we are studying the regions in Social Studies, we will complete a unit in Language Arts on Native Americans.  My plan is to have us read either Native Americans myths, legends, fiction, or nonfiction each week to go with whatever region we are discussing.

Then I spent a lot of time today doing research on lessons on Native Americans, projects, and book lists of Children's Literature about Native Americans. The other day I read Hiedi Raki's post about how she used Livebinders to create student portfolios.  It reminded me I had not used Livebinders in a few months.  I have found Livebinders to be a fabulous way to collect research on different units I want to plan. Today I made a Livebinder for a Native American unit. You can see my livebinder below.  I am going to make a Livebinder for each major unit I plan to teach with collections of sites and ideas I come across in my research. Here is the link to my livebinder.

What are some of your favorite books to use when teaching about the Native Americans?  Do you have a favorite way you like to organize your approach to teaching US History?

The US Regions and Analyzing Characters

I hope you had a fabulous break.  I got back from Vegas on Thursday just in time for dinner and clean-up at my house with my in-laws.  They were here through yesterday.  I told myself I would be productive this weekend, and I took a nap instead. How about you?  I did spend time yesterday working on my "Common Core Paragraphs" unit.  Hopefully I will finish in the next couple days.  My store is on sale for 20% off today and tomorrow.  (So like everyone else you can get up to 28% off at my TpT store).

Social Studies - Five Regions of the US

Today in Social Studies we began our discussion of the Midwest.  We have already discussed the West and the Southwest.  Next week, we are going to start a project where they have to imagine if they were going through the Midwest, Southwest, and West on a roadtrip, where would they go?  For our text for learning about the regions we are using Jill Russ' Five Regions of the USA Complete Unit from TpT.  It really is fabulous. 

Each region comes with a booklet with five sections that total about 6-8 pages.  It covers things like land and water, landforms, climate, natural resources, and culture. It comes with questions, a test, and a little scrapbook. I really want to work on writing, so this week instead of using the questions they are writing a 1 paragraph summary of each section using a graphic organizer. In the past, we would try to read the whole 6-8 pages in a couple days.  They were really struggling with answering the questions and pulling information out of the text.  This week because there are five sections, they are reading 1 section each day.  This seemed a lot more manageable to them.  By the end of the week, they will have five paragraphs on the Midwest.  They will then put the info in the little scrapbook.  We will probably take the test on Friday.

Along with these packets on the regions, we are learning about the Native Americans of each region while we discuss that region. 

Reading - Analyzing Characters

In Language Arts today, we talked about analyzing characters and adverbs.  I decided at the last minute to make a little bookmark for them to write down their thoughts on the characters in their book while reading.  Before Thanksgiving break, we talked about letter writing a lot, so we are going to start a weekly reading response letter where they write to me about what they are reading.  Each week, I want them to focus on different skills in their reading response.  They can use their thoughts from their bookmarks to help gather ideas for their letter.  I was going to type a bookmark and copy it, but then decided to just cut out cardstock and show them what I wanted them to write.  Sometimes all the copies get old.

To model it, I grabbed a book from my shelf and started it today and wrote down things about the character Sprig from the first three chapters. Each bookmark is about 1/4th of a sheet of paper so they would have room to write. I had them put their name and date, the title of the book (underlined), a reading focus skill, and then words and phrases about the characters. We brainstormed all the things they could look for while analyzing characters.  At the end of reading time, we shared about what we read and they used their bookmarks to help them. I want to build more sharing time into our reading workshop.  We do pretty well with sharing our writing (although I do love the idea of a more formal author's chair).





I am trying to move toward a Daily 5 where they have more choice over the order they complete the elements of Balanced Literacy. Because I am using a lot of technology that needs modeling, I just have not quite gotten there yet. I am playing with the idea of trying to create the mini-lessons (or at least some) for Daily 5 on the computer to create a "flipped learning" aspect to the mini-lessons and then focus more on opening and closing the workshop with sharing and setting goals. I really want to start doing more small-group lessons and individual conferencing and less whole-group lessons. I will probably use the "Listen to Reading" portion of Daily 5 for read aloud or shared reading. Have you tried incoporating technology into your Daily 5?  How does it work for you?

Last Minute Election Resources and Text Suggestions

One of my primary goals as a blogger has been to share texts and ideas to incorporate Social Studies and Science with Literacy.  I love Literature and feel that it should be integrated into all learning experiences. Having your students read nonfiction is so important in this digital age, as so much of what we read in our daily lives is nonfiction. I am going to try to be more consistent on sharing text suggestions for Social Studies and Science topics, as well as technology resources that apply.

Everyone has been sharing great Election resources and products.  We have been discussing Native Americans and the US Regions, and my students have been doing book club units with My Side of the Mountain and Island of the Blue Dolphins. As a result, we have not had much time yet to discuss the Election.  I wanted to start discussing it some today, but I was sick. We are going to spend most of tomorrow looking at some Election Resources and possibly the rest of the week.

Readworks.org is a great resource I came across a couple weeks ago.  It is completely free and has great lesson ideas for Reading and Common Core. Here is a link to some passages they have on the election.

ReadWriteThink has some lesson plan ideas related to the election.

While at home sick today, I was researching the exemplar texts for Common Core.  One of them is So You Want to Be President. I checked it out from the library tonight, and we are going to read it tomorrow. 

Here are some ideas for using with this book:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/so-you-want-be-president
http://coolkidlit-4-socialstudies.pbworks.com/w/page/16473227/So%20you%20Want%20to%20be%20President_Lesson%20Plan
http://www.irvingisd.net/vote08/lessonpdfs/ES_3_5_vv_for_everyone.pdf


We also are going to read The Kid Who Ran For President over the next two weeks as a read aloud. There are some resources for this book on TpT.  I will probably just use my graphic organizers that are tied to Common Core.

Another cute book is Off and Running by Gary Soto.  It is about two kids who run for class president.

I made a Live Binder of all the fabulous resources other bloggers have been sharing.  In case you are last minute like me, hopefully you might find something helpful.

Social Studies Texts to help introduce economics

So for my Social Studies texts for this week, I have two related books for you by Marjorie Priceman.  Both books introduce some basic economics concepts and ideas of trade and how things are made.

1) How to Make Cherry Pie and see the U.S.A

(For this one, no picture was available on Amazon.) This book goes over all the components that would be needed to make a charry pie and where you in the U.S.A you would have to go find them if the market was closed.  I like how this story shows how things are made and how the different parts come from different places.  I think most kids are used to just going to the store and they may not have wondered where it all came from.  It also shows how different parts of the country grow different things.  So this story could be used with discussions of trade, economics, production, US regions, etc.  It really can tie into lots of Social Studies topics. 

2) How to Make Apple Pie and See the World 

This story is similar to the US story, but looks at different countries.  I think I would have students follow this up by studying some different cultures or maybe trying foods from different cultures.  You really could do some fun activities with both of these books. 

Students could become different countries or states and tell you about the products they are known for.  I like the idea of instead of just having students make an entire book or project on all different facets of a state or country, maybe just focus on components like food or domestic products.  Let them learn one thing well and present it. 

With my Social Studies instruction this year, I want to narrow topics a bit instead of always covering huge encompassing topics and periods.  I want to chunk the learning and ideas into more manageable parts like trade, transportation, food, etc. 

Social Studies Texts: Scrambled States of America

For my Social Studies text recommendations this week, I have two books for you: The Scrambled States of America and The Scrambled States of America Talent Show.

Both of these books are super cute and would be a great introduction to learning the states or looking into the different regions.  The Scrambled States of America is such a cute story.  Some of the states are feeling happy with their location so they decide to throw a party and all get together. The states mingle, have a good time, and some of them to decide to start switching places.  After trying out new locations, they all find they are more unhappy and go home.  It is a great story to infer information about the different climates and and regions of the country.  I would follow this up by having students do a RAFT writing activity from the point of view of a state.  I would probably have them do some research on a state and then write from that state's point of view.  I might even make a little grid menu of writing/project ideas to go with this book to share with you later. 

In the Scrambled States of America Talent Show, the different states decide to have a talent show and all the states perform different songs and dances.  I would read this book with the first one just because it is cute. I would probably follow up this book by having students research cultural aspects of the different states and regions.  See what types of music and foods are in different parts of the country.

Map Skills, a Brain Break, and a Journey

So today I had my real first brain break of the summer.  It was nice.  I slept in and lounged all day with a book.  (Then, I went shopping for shorts because only one pair fit.  Got to love hypothyroid and a slow metabolism.  But that is another story.  I am going to focus on the more fun part of my day).

After enjoying my brain break, I figured I should return to the world of blogging for a bit.  So I know I will be sharing Social Studies and Science texts with you each week, but I may not stick to the Tuesday/Thursday schedule.  If I'm honest, Tuesday/Thursday will always be Wednesday/Friday.  So I might as well just plan on sharing but not limit myself to a specific day. I do want to try to stick with sharing my writing inspiration on Wednesdays for the consistency if you decide to use this feature in your classroom.

This week I am combining my Social Studies text recommendations and my writing inspiration in one post. For the next couple weeks, I want to focus my Social Studies texts on geography and map skills. I did some research Monday and checked out tons of books yesterday at the library.

Social Studies Texts

Text 1: Are We There Yet, Daddy? by Virginia Walters
The AR level for this book is 2.2. This story is written in rhyme and describes a boy's 100 mile journey to Grandma's house with his father. Every 10 miles he asks "Are we there yet, Daddy?"  His dad's constant response is to look at the map.  The book describes everything he sees in the 100 miles and has different pictures of maps to show the journey's progress along with what he sees at each moment. What I like about this book is that I think it helps illustrate the point that maps show real places.  I think it can be difficult for students to understand that we can use maps to show one place from multiple perspectives. I would pair this book with my second recommendation.

Text 2: Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
This story is very simple, but is shows all the ways one place can be mapped: a girl's room, her street, her town, her state, her country, the globe, etc.  I can't tell you how many fifth graders have no clue what the difference between a city, state, and country are. So this is a story I plan to read even with 4th and 5th graders.  I would follow this up by having students draw a map of their room, their street, maybe their journey to school.  Then, you could follow that up by studying maps of the state and country. Before students can really jump into studying history, they need these foundations of perspective, geography, and map skills. One of my goals the next week is to work on some map skills activities to share.

Writing Inspiration: A Journey

My writing inspiration for this week is inspired by this idea of geography and map skills. 

Poem: You could easily use my first text suggestion as your poetry for the week as the book is written in rhyme.  You could always have students write their own poem about a journey they have taken and pair it with drawing a map of that journey. Or even consider describing a journey a character in a book took and drawing a map.

Another obvious poem suggestion would be The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.  I have actually shared this poem before, but it is one of my favorites so I will probably use it more than once a year in my own classroom. This poem lends itself to such great imagery and discussion.

Quote:  I liked this quote because I think we all live such busy lives it is easy to be so caught up in everything we are trying to achieve.  Sometimes we need to slow down and enjoy the moment - the process.  I also find it a great reminder as a teacher to remember that for students it is about teaching them a thinking process and not about creating a final product.

Picture:  Last year I went to Napa with my mom and got to take a hot air balloon ride.  This is one of the pictures I took.  This to me is full of such great writing potential it does not need much explanation. The sky is the limit!

Tomorrow morning, I am going on my own little mini-journey to see my dad for the day in Houston, equipped with young adult books on CD from the library. (I finally am going to read listen to Gregor the Overlander.)  I hope you have a wonderful Thursday.  I am going to try that whole scheduling a post thing for tomorrow, so let's see how that works. :)

Tons of History Tuesday: Point of View

So today is Tuesday, which means it is my second "Tons of History Tuesday."  I went to the library last night right before they closed and grabbed stacks and stacks of books on the fly to find something I wanted to review for this week.  Then, today while blog-stalking I found a better source of inspiration.

While reflecting this weekend on the History topics I wanted to cover for the next few weeks, I decided I wanted to cover some of the things I consider to be a good foundation.  Most state standards for Science and Social Studies will encompass things like covering natural resources, landforms, and the way people adapt to their environments.  Four years ago when I first started covering US History, I found myself frustrated when my students were not grasping much of the information we were covering.  It took awhile, but I finally realized it was because they lacked the basic foundation they needed to be successful with US History.  You need a solid foundation on skills like basic geography, understanding that natural resources and climate affect the way people adapt and survive, and concepts like point of view and timelines.  So my goal over the next few weeks is to find texts to share with you targeted at some of these foundational social studies skills.

Today I saw that Lynn at Inside this Book was sharing a book called Encounter by Jane Yolen.   The AR book level is 4.2.  I have not read the book yet, but I am excited to read it.  I enjoy Jane Yolen's books.  The book is about Christopher Columbus' encounter with the Taino Indians and is told from the perspective of a young Taino boy.  Lynn shared this book as a way to teach voice; however, I was intrigued with the story because of the ability to teach point-of-view.

Point of view is an important concept.  Children often think of things as black and white...right and wrong...good guys and bad guys.  Unfortunately, History is more gray.  There are always two sides and two points of views.  I always explained point of view as the way we understand the world.  Things that affect our point-of-view are gender, age, culture, language, country of origin, religion, family situation, and even interests. Imagine the differences between Columbus and the young Taino boy.

Point-of-view is a great concept to introduce the writing strategy RAFT, which stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic.  The role of the narrator is their point of view.  What if you had the students write from Columbus' point of view instead of that of the Taino boy?  What if you also used RAFT to discuss things you read as a way to work on "Read like a writer and write like a reader?"

A great realistic fiction text to discuss point of view is The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume. The AR book level for this book is 3.1  The book is about a brother and sister who have very different points of view of each other and their parents.  This would be a great text to pair with Encounter though because having a sibling is something many students can immediately relate to.  Point of view is also a topic students who are originally from another country should be able to relate to.

I usually end the discussion of point of view with having students analyze what things shape their own point of view of the world. I had a 5th grade student at the beginning of last year who used the metaphor of a computer to explain his point of view of the world.

If you can't read it very well, it says:

My point of view is... well I like to compare my point of view with a computer. Full of many icons. It is very big that I am always thinking of random things.  Talking with a friend and thinking about the moon.  Taking a picture and thinking of birds. People also say how I'm too smart for my age.

I can relate on so many levels to a brain that wanders and multi-tasks.  Don't forget about my giveaway below for my teacher binder covers and calendars.  It is going until Thursday.

 

How do Science and Social Studies work with the Common Core?

So, I think all of us have interesting stories about what brought us to blogging.  It might be a blog you stumbled across, a Facebook page, or even a comment by a coworker.  I found the teacher blogger world through Laura Candler’s Facebook page.  I had used her website for a long time and started following her Facebook page and getting her newsletter. Gradually, I found bloggers who posted on her site and started exploring.  (I actually think this would be a super fun linky to see everyone’s story about what brought them to blogging.)  So far, I love blog-stalking and sharing ideas.  It’s like one huge, continuous conversation amongst lots of verbal and creative people.  This might be another interesting survey/topic: What types of learning styles are drawn to blogging?

Okay, I will come back around to a point.  I read and researched blogs for a while before jumping in.  I am very much a detail-oriented person, but I like a big picture first.  As a teacher, one of my greatest areas of frustration was teaching Social Studies.  I love History and my favorite genre of Literature is Historical Fiction.  However, I struggled to teach History in a way that was meaningful.  I incorporated a lot of Historical Fiction and texts into English. 

Often, I think Science and Social Studies do get left out or taught mainly as whole-group lessons once to three times a week depending on your schedule.  From what I can tell, the Common Core Standards focus on Math and English with reference to Literacy in Science, Social Studies, and Technical Subjects.  After that, are most of you following state standards for Science and Social Studies?  Here in Texas, we have the TEKS and the Texas standards are extremely detailed for every possible subject under the sun. I think there are so many great resources right now to differentiate English (like Daily 5 and Guided Reading) and Math (like Clutter Free Classroom’s Management Board that looks amazing).

Fifth Grade usually is U.S. History, and I struggled to find great resources and fun activities for teaching U.S. History.  I found most of my students lacked a thorough understanding of geography and natural resources.  You have to understand geography and natural resources fairly well to understand how various explorers/settlers responded to a new terrain.  I guess I’m just curious how others teach Science and Social Studies in authentic ways.  To respond to literacy in these subjects, note-taking and graphic organizers are great.  I really wanted to teach History with a project-based learning approach; I just felt sometimes I lacked the time to do it properly. 

You could have students each take an aspect of a period and research it and then present on the topics.  When I tried this though, it didn’t work as well as it looks in the professional development videos.  My students usually didn’t remember anything from other people’s presentations even if they took notes.  Some of this comes back around to they need better speaking skills.  Honestly, I have learned more history probably through Historical Fiction than anything else.  I found this to be a very successful method with my students as well.  It helped them better understand the challenges people faced in different periods and circumstances.  The History feels more alive.  United Streaming has some great videos.  Scholastic has some great e-books, especially during the dollar days. 

I am curious how others are approaching Science and Social Studies with the Common Core and what types of resources they are looking for.  Are you looking for note-taking skills resources, graphic organizers, Historical fiction suggestions, nonfiction suggestions, lesson ideas, project ideas, informational text handouts you could just copy and hand out, etc.?

I decided to start blogging and creating TpT products because I wanted to create meaningful Social Studies resources for the Elementary level. That’s another challenge: you start looking for books or resources and they are too mature for a 10 year old.

One of the things I wanted and never really found a good source for other than Edhelper was short informational text passages on various topics to hand out to the kids.  Sometimes when you only have Social Studies a couple times a week you don’t have enough time to get through a 5-8 page lesson in a text-book and discuss/answer questions/do an activity.  I wanted something shorter we could read, discuss, and then do a fun activity with.  Maybe, what I am trying to say is I felt at the Elementary level sometimes the information needed to be broken into smaller chunks.  There are great resources out there to do fun activities and projects.  My question was always, how do they do the project when I can’t find the right videos or text to present all the information?  In all my spare time as a teacher (spare time, huh, what’s that?), I didn’t get all these wonderful handouts created though. Would you be interested in having informational text passages on specific topics with questions/activities/vocabulary to go with them?  What topics do you struggle the most to teach?

Actually, one great resource is the whole series on “You Wouldn’t Want to Be…”   They are funny, and usually somewhat gross.  The kids remember lots of details.  It focuses on all the worst parts of a period of History, which inadvertently teaches kids about the challenges of the period.  I might actually start with making activities to go with the books in these series as a good starting point.  There are some great graphic novels, too, on Biographies and wars if you can find them at the library. 

Maybe, I will do a weekly blog series with Science and Social Studies text suggestions.  Would you rather have text suggestions by topic or by type of book? Like one week do graphic novels, one week do Historical Fiction, one week do informational texts, one week do picture books, etc?  Or one week suggest books on the Civil War or inventors, etc.?  Maybe, I'll start with the “You Wouldn’t Want to Be…”   series.  Anyway,  if you have been reading my rambling thoughts on thic topic, welcome to my brain.