Bruce A. VanSledright

The fully updated fifth edition of Elementary Social Studies provides a rich and ambitious framework to help social studies teachers achieve powerful teaching and learning results. Organized around four commonplaces of education—learners and learning, subject matter, teachers and teaching, and classroom environment—and deeply rooted in inquiry-based teaching and learning, this book deeply probes the basic elements of quality instruction—planning, implementation, and assessment—always with the goal of creating and supporting students who are motivated, engaged, and thoughtful.Book features and updates to the fifth edition include: • New guidance on tackling controversial issues in the social studies classroom. • Fully revised chapter on creating a genuine learning community, which now addresses socio-emotional learning and family involvement in the classroom. • New perspectives on the importance of teaching for social justice. • Increased attention to the C3 Framework for state social studies standards. • Chapters on using the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) to understand inquiry-based teaching and learning and to develop IDM inquiries. • Real-classroom narratives that introduce chapters and provide in-depth access to teaching and learning contexts. • Practical curriculum and resource suggestions for the social studies classroom. • End-of-chapter summaries and annotated teaching resources.By blending the theoretical and the practical, this book is essential reading for pre-service and in-service social studies teachers.

The fully updated fifth edition of Elementary Social Studies provides a rich and ambitious framework to help social studies teachers achieve powerful teaching and learning results. Organized around four commonplaces of education—learners and learning, subject matter, teachers and teaching, and classroom environment—and deeply rooted in inquiry-based teaching and learning, this book deeply probes the basic elements of quality instruction—planning, implementation, and assessment—always with the goal of creating and supporting students who are motivated, engaged, and thoughtful.Book features and updates to the fifth edition include: • New guidance on tackling controversial issues in the social studies classroom. • Fully revised chapter on creating a genuine learning community, which now addresses socio-emotional learning and family involvement in the classroom. • New perspectives on the importance of teaching for social justice. • Increased attention to the C3 Framework for state social studies standards. • Chapters on using the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) to understand inquiry-based teaching and learning and to develop IDM inquiries. • Real-classroom narratives that introduce chapters and provide in-depth access to teaching and learning contexts. • Practical curriculum and resource suggestions for the social studies classroom. • End-of-chapter summaries and annotated teaching resources.By blending the theoretical and the practical, this book is essential reading for pre-service and in-service social studies teachers.

Organized around four commonplaces of education—learners and learning, subject matter, teachers and teaching, and classroom environment—Elementary Social Studies provides a rich and ambitious framework to help social studies teachers achieve powerful teaching and learning results. By blending the theoretical and the practical, the authors deeply probe the basic elements of quality instruction—planning, implementation, and assessment—always with the goal of creating and supporting students who are motivated, engaged, and thoughtful. Book features and updates to the fourth edition include:• Two new chapters on using the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) to understand inquiry-based teaching and learning and to develop IDM inquiries. • Revised chapter on ideas and questions. • Revised chapter on literacy to more fully incorporate media literacy and digital citizenship. • Real-classroom narratives introduce chapters and provide in-depth access to teaching and learning contexts.• Practical curriculum and resource suggestions for the social studies classroom.• End-of-chapter summaries and annotated teaching resources.

Assessing Historical Thinking and Understanding advocates for a fundamental change in how educators think about making sense of learners’ developing cognition and understanding in history. Author Bruce VanSledright argues that traditional and typical standardized testing approaches are seldom up to the task of measuring the more complex understandings students are asked to attain, as they cannot fully assess what the student knows. Rather, he points forward along a path toward changes in learning, teaching, and assessing that closely aligns with the Common Core State Standards. He delves into the types of history knowledge the standards require, illustrates how they can be applied in-use in history learning contexts, and theorizes how the standards might fit together cognitively to produce deep historical understandings among students in teaching-learning contexts. By providing a variety of assessment strategies and items that align with the standards, and identifying rich, useful assessment rubrics applicable to the different types of assessments, he offers an important resource for social studies teachers and curriculum writers alike.

Assessing Historical Thinking and Understanding advocates for a fundamental change in how educators think about making sense of learners’ developing cognition and understanding in history. Author Bruce VanSledright argues that traditional and typical standardized testing approaches are seldom up to the task of measuring the more complex understandings students are asked to attain, as they cannot fully assess what the student knows. Rather, he points forward along a path toward changes in learning, teaching, and assessing that closely aligns with the Common Core State Standards. He delves into the types of history knowledge the standards require, illustrates how they can be applied in-use in history learning contexts, and theorizes how the standards might fit together cognitively to produce deep historical understandings among students in teaching-learning contexts. By providing a variety of assessment strategies and items that align with the standards, and identifying rich, useful assessment rubrics applicable to the different types of assessments, he offers an important resource for social studies teachers and curriculum writers alike.

Every few years in the United States, history teachers go through what some believe is an embarrassing national ritual. A representative group of students sit down to take a standardized U.S. history test, and the results show varied success. Sizable percentages of students score at or below a "basic" understanding of the country’s history. Pundits seize on these results to argue that not only are students woefully ignorant about history, but history teachers are simply not doing an adequate job teaching historical facts. The overly common practice of teaching history as a series of dates, memorizing the textbook, and taking notes on teachers’ lectures ensues. In stark contrast, social studies educators like Bruce A. VanSledright argue instead for a more inquiry-oriented approach to history teaching and learning that fosters a sense of citizenship through the critical skills of historical investigation. Detailed case studies of exemplar teachers are included in this timely book to make visible, in an easily comprehensible way, the thought processes of skilled teachers. Each case is then unpacked further to clearly address the question of what history teachers need to know to teach in an investigative way. The Challenge of Rethinking History Education is a must read for anyone looking for a guide to both the theory and practice of what it means to teach historical thinking, to engage in investigative practice with students, and to increase students’ capacity to critically read and assess the nature of the complex culture in which they live.

Every few years in the United States, history teachers go through what some believe is an embarrassing national ritual. A representative group of students sit down to take a standardized U.S. history test, and the results show varied success. Sizable percentages of students score at or below a "basic" understanding of the country’s history. Pundits seize on these results to argue that not only are students woefully ignorant about history, but history teachers are simply not doing an adequate job teaching historical facts. The overly common practice of teaching history as a series of dates, memorizing the textbook, and taking notes on teachers’ lectures ensues. In stark contrast, social studies educators like Bruce A. VanSledright argue instead for a more inquiry-oriented approach to history teaching and learning that fosters a sense of citizenship through the critical skills of historical investigation. Detailed case studies of exemplar teachers are included in this timely book to make visible, in an easily comprehensible way, the thought processes of skilled teachers. Each case is then unpacked further to clearly address the question of what history teachers need to know to teach in an investigative way. The Challenge of Rethinking History Education is a must read for anyone looking for a guide to both the theory and practice of what it means to teach historical thinking, to engage in investigative practice with students, and to increase students’ capacity to critically read and assess the nature of the complex culture in which they live.