The Social Studies in Action teaching practices library, professional development guide, and companion Web site bring to life the National Council for the Social Studies standards. Blending content and methodology, the video library documents 24 teachers and their students in K-12 classrooms across the country actively exploring the social studies. Lively, provocative, and educationally sound, these lessons are designed to inspire thoughtful conversations and reflections on teaching practices in the social studies.
Episode # 1
This program presents the purpose of the Social Studies in Action video library. It introduces all the components of the library, explains the goals of NCSS, and presents examples of classroom lessons throughout the library. This program also addresses a variety of ways in which the library can be used for enhancing the curriculum, teacher reflection, and best practices for teaching.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Length : 28 min
MPT2
Episode # 3
David Kitts is a first–grade teacher on the Santo Domingo Indian Reservation in New Mexico. In his bilingual classroom, Native American students are studying the history of farming through a lesson that compares farming in eighteenth–century New England to current– day practices in the Midwest. The lesson uses literature and the study of various farming tools and products to illuminate the changes that have taken place in the industry over time and in different parts of the country. The lesson includes group activity and discussion.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 2
This program includes K–5 classroom examples from across the country that define and illustrate the 10 NCSS thematic strands and present a variety of ways that they can be integrated into the K–5 curriculum. The primary grades begin to lay the foundation and groundwork for big ideas and concepts in social studies, such as a sense of place, time, community, and justice.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Length : 56 min
MPT2
Episode # 4
Mimi Norton teaches second grade at Solano Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona. In this lesson, students learn about China
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 5
Cynthia Vaughn teaches first grade at the Rooftop Alternative School in San Francisco, California. The objective of Ms. Vaughn
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 6
Meylin Gonzalez is a kindergarten teacher in Tampa, Florida. Ms. Gonzalez uses this lesson to introduce her students to several economic concepts, including production and cooperation. Using a children
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 7
Debbie Lerner teaches grades 1–3 at Red Bridge Elementary School in Kansas City, Missouri. Red Bridge incorporates a personalized learning curriculum in which students stay in the same classroom for all three grade levels. Ms. Lerner
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 8
Eileen Mesmer teaches a combined kindergarten and first–grade class in Salem, Massachusetts, a diverse community outside Boston. Ms. Mesmer asks her students to explore the many ways the holidays are celebrated and to find commonalities among the various celebrations. Ms. Mesmer reads to the students from "The Winter Solstice," using it to help students understand the greater theme of community. Through math, writing, and drawing stations located throughout the classroom, students interact with the content in a variety of ways and through diverse learning styles.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 9
Rob Cuddi, a fifth–grade teacher at Winthrop Middle School in Winthrop, Massachusetts, has been teaching for almost 30 years and has recently taken an active role in restructuring the social studies curriculum to accommodate both state and national standards. Mr. Cuddi
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 10
Osvaldo Rubio is a bilingual fourth–grade social studies teacher at Sherman Oaks Community Charter School in San Jose, California. Mr. Rubio
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 11
Diane Kerr is a fourth–grade teacher at Butcher Greene Elementary School in the ethnically diverse community of Grandview, Missouri, a few miles outside Kansas City. Ms. Kerr presents a lesson on the state of Missouri and its three branches of government. Students work in groups and create posters that represent the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The students also voice their concerns about what can be done to improve their lives. As a class, they then work to understand the process of how a bill becomes a law.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 12
Kathleen Waffle teaches fifth grade at John Muir Elementary School in San Bruno, California, a working–class suburb of San Francisco. In a unit on Colonial America, students examine an eighteenth–century business through a case study of a successful silversmith who lived in Colonial Williamsburg. In small groups, students use primary source documents (advertisements) and artifacts to identify the business strategies used by the silversmith. They then translate a historic contract between a master and an apprentice and examine how colonial apprenticeships compare with present–day job pursuits.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 13
Darlene Jones–Inge is a fourth–grade teacher at O
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 14
Libby Sinclair is a fourth– and fifth–grade teacher at Alternative Elementary School #2 in Seattle, Washington. In her lesson, Ms. Sinclair asks her students to define the term "stereotype" from a variety of perspectives. At the beginning of the lesson, Ms. Sinclair has students brainstorm individually and in groups to understand how stereotypes have affected their lives and their learning. After recognizing that the contribution of Negro baseball leagues has been omitted from the history of baseball, students thoughtfully plan and execute a letter campaign to contact text publishers.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 15
Lessons from grade 6–8 classrooms illustrate how the NCSS standards and themes can be integrated into the middle school curriculum. Middle school teachers explore a number of expectations and outcomes in their lessons and build on the fundamentals established in the elementary grades. Themes of civics, political science, and history begin to take on more meaning as the content in these lessons connects to students
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Length : 56 min
MPT2
Episode # 16
Gwen Larsen teaches sixth–grade social studies at Harbor School in Boston, Massachusetts. In her introductory lesson, Ms. Larsen guides students through an exploration of their family histories, leading to their place in the larger human family and the development of civilizations. Ms. Larsen
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 17
Lisa Farrow is a seventh–grade world cultures teacher at Shiloh Middle School in a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. Ms. Farrow's lesson provides her students with an understanding of African history and geography. After creating a personal timeline, the students create a historical timeline of Africa, focusing on the Bantu migrations, the rise of Islam, the West African trading empires, the Turkish empire, the slave trade, and European colonialism. Students take an active role in group work as they create maps and captions that define each period. Ms. Farrow concentrates on the importance of the trading empires and their connection to Africa's history as a whole.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 18
Gary Fisher is a teacher at Timilty Middle School in the urban community of Roxbury, Massachusetts, part of the greater Boston area. In his eighth–grade U.S. history class, Mr. Fisher examines the history of African American slavery through a dramatic mock trial based on the Amistad case in 1839. Serving as the defense, prosecution, judges, and other historical characters in the trial, students develop their cases and present them in a formal court setting created in their classroom. In his class, Mr. Fisher collaborates with the Spanish teacher who provides special support for second–language learners.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Previous Episodes Not Found
