Social Studies at the Center: Integrating Kids, Content, and Literacy

This is a wonderful resource for teachers of all grade levels. The authors provide detailed descriptions of lessons, techniques, and sound teaching practices. Their ideas inspire creativity while providing an approach to teaching children that is student centered. They take into consideration student learning styles, the multiple intelligences, and student interest. While their specific unit ideas can immediately be included in your classroom curriculum, they also provide unit guidelines so you can design units of your own including their key ideas. In addition, they provide many references, answers to common questions, and a list of their favorite teaching strategies. I would recommend this book, and others by the same authors, to all teachers.

Social Studies At the Center: Integrating Kids, Content, and Literacy is an immensely useful guide to using social studies content as the core of an integrated school curriculum. Plainly written by teachers, for teachers, the book's backbone is a detailed pair of fourth and fifth grade units, "Windows on the World" and "Immigration." Both units feature lesson plans that may be followed as closely--or loosely--as one wishes. In a helpful Q & A section, the authors grapple with hard questions like "How Do I Learn to Listen to My Students?" "What About Testing?" "How Do You Foster Student Inquiry?" and "What about Textbooks?" The authors' answers are relevant and timely for any teacher in any stage of his or her career. For myself, the most useful part of the book is the unit on Immigration. I've already started a modified unit with my middle school students, and it's proven so compelling that even my most reluctant learners have found joy in it. I've only owned Social Studies At the Center for a few weeks, and already it's dog-eared, scribbled-in, and thoroughly indispensable.