Pondering a meaninful, well-planned Social Studies lesson

I will tackle this topic by first listing a few things that it is not.

It is not:
* quickly thrown together.
* questions at the end of a textbook chapter.
* arbitrary.
* crammed into the class schedule.
* BORING!

I must admit that I did not like Social Studies in school. In fact, I don't remember Social Studies prior to 7th grade Geography. (I think I only remember that class because I had to memorize the locations of all of the countries on each continent.) I associated Social Studies and History classes with a large, heavy, boring textbook and rote memorization. Yuck! While I am sure that my teachers did not quickly create each lesson, they certainly were not interesting enough to capture my attention. Now that I am older, I wish that I had paid better attention in these classes; I would know more about history, economics, politics, and geography.

I hope that I am able to create a better experience for the students in my classroom.

I hope to do so by:
* spending time crafting meaningful lessons.
* asking students what interests them about the topic they are studying.
* finding ways to connect the topic to their lives in a meaningful way.
* integrating Social Studies into other content areas.
* making Social Studies content come ALIVE for the students!

I will have to spend time getting to know the students' interests and prior knowledge on each topic for which I am planning lessons. This will help me to create lessons that are of interest and not bore them and waste time reviewing things they already know.Once I have done that, I will have to spend time, a lot of time, planning a course of lessons in order to integrate the topic into other content areas. This will ensure that I am able to devote an appropriate amount of time to the content I wish to cover. I must also make sure that during the planning stages that Social Studies interesting, relevant, and meaningful for the students. I will do this by continually assessing the students' interests, as well as finding ways to connect the content to their lives and experiences.

I have read about many sterling examples of innovative, meaningful, well-planned Social Studies lessons. One that resonated the most with me was that of a teacher who brought in a newspaper article to her class that was about the state insect of Maryland. This sparked a class conversation about whether or not their state had a state insect, which led to research, and ultimately, a class project to try to get an insect adopted as their state insect.

What a powerful lesson for these students! Not only were they learning about their state (part of fourth grade curriculum), but they were actively participating in their government. I cannot think of a better, more appropriate way for students to learn about that topic in a way that makes sense to them and will, most likely, stick with them. These students will forever remember how laws come to pass in their state, participated in the process, all the while practicing language arts skills in practical application.

I hope that I will be as innovative in my classroom as that teacher was in hers. I know that it will take a lot of planning and creativity, but I am up for the challenge. After all, I am becoming an educator to inspire and challenge my students, which is a lot of hard work, but I owe it to my students to put in the effort necessary to plan lessons that are meaningful.