Social Studies for Secondary Schools: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

This popular text advocates an inquiry and activity-based view of social studies teaching that respects the points of view of students and teachers. Based in practice and experience, it offers systematic support and open, honest advice for new teachers, is conversational not pedantic, and provides lots of examples. While the structure and most of the topics remain largely the same as before, this Third Edition presents new lesson ideas in every chapter especially designed to help new teachers to address learning standards, to work in inclusive settings, and to promote literacy and the use of technology in social studies classrooms puts a heavier focus on what is important to know and why includes new essays on the politics of social studies education responds to opponents of project- or activity-based social studies instruction and multicultural education with a sharpened defense of both of these approaches throughout the book Intended as a text for undergraduate and graduate pre-service social studies methods courses, this text is also useful for in-service training programs, as a reference for new social studies teachers, and as a resource for experienced social studies educators who are engaged in rethinking their teaching practice.

Table of Contents:
Preface Chapter 1- Who Am I? Chapter 2- Why Study History? Chapter 3- What Is Social Studies? Chapter 4- What Are Our Goals? Chapter 5- Is Social Studies Teaching "Political"? Chapter 6- How Do You Plan a Social Studies Curriculum? Chapter 7- How Do You Plan a Social Studies Unit? Chapter 8- How Do You Plan a Social Studies Lesson? Chapter 9- What Are the Building Blocks of an Activity-Based Lesson? Chapter 10. How Can Social Studies Teachers Plan Controversy-Centered, Thematic, and Interdisciplinary Units? Chapter 11. What Is a Project Approach to Social Studies? Chapter 12. How Should Teachers Assess Student Learning and Our Own Practice? Chapter 13. What Resources Exist for Social Studies Classrooms and Teachers?

About the Author :
Alan J. Singer is a social studies educator in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York and the editor of Social Science Docket (a joint publication of the New York and New Jersey Councils for Social Studies). Dr. Singer received the National Council for the Social Studies Program of Excellence Award for the "New York State Great Irish Famine Curriculum Guide" (2002) and the "New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance" curriculum guide (2005), and the Rosa Parks Award for Social Justice, presented by Association of Teachers of Social Studies/UFT and Social Studies Supervisors Association, Greater Metropolitan New York Social Studies (2006).