Shownotes
Have you ever been told you're teaching social studies… but given absolutely nothing to work with?
No textbook. No pacing guide. No curriculum map.
In this video, I’m walking you through exactly how to teach social studies without a curriculum- and still create structured, engaging, and meaningful lessons your students will love.
Whether your district is in transition, resources are limited, or you're expected to build from the standards, this video will give you a clear system you can actually use.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
• Use your state standards to build your curriculum
• Create a simple year-at-a-glance plan
• Structure your week so planning feels manageable
• Find and use quality resources without starting from scratch
• Focus on social studies skills, not just content
• Build consistency in your lessons without overwhelm
You don’t need a full curriculum to be an effective social studies teacher. You just need a plan—and I’ll show you how to build one.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start, this will help you move forward with confidence.
➡️ Want ready-to-use, structured social studies lessons? Check out my resources here:
Social Studies Guided Curriculum
Transcripts
Hi there, and welcome to another episode of the Social Studies Teacher podcast. I hope you've had a fantastic day and week so far. If you're watching this on another day than when it's airing live, happy April. I can't believe that it is April. Again, every month I say this, but it's truly crazy how much time flies, and I am just excited to be here and to share with you some more strategies and tips for social studies.
ittle easier with some clear [:Or maybe you're watching this and you're not really thinking about next school year, but you do wanna finish the year strong, and maybe this episode can give you some tips on that process. Maybe you haven't taught social studies at all before. And you're being told by admin, guess what you're going to be teaching.
Insert grade level here, social studies next school year. Get ready. It's exciting. It actually is exciting. So like I love social studies. It's one of my favorite subjects to teach obviously as I create social studies, resources and all that great stuff, but. Either way, it can be overwhelming if you have taught another subject and you're not really familiar with how social studies is structured, or maybe you're here because you truly do not have a curriculum.
ust here with the vibes, and [:More episodes or you want to be notified of certain episodes, you wanna make sure you subscribe so it pops up onto your YouTube feed. Or you can also listen to these episodes wherever you love to listen to podcasts. And as a reminder, I have over a hundred. Episodes on my audio feed. These are all audio only episodes, so if you want more content related to social studies, I highly recommend you check out the audio podcast wherever you love to listen to podcasts, whether it's Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
dred percent sure. Just make [:The present day. So that's just something I wanted to plug in. Before we get started, I did also, speaking of plugging in things I did want to mention, if you don't have a curriculum, I'm just gonna say it outright. I do have a guided curriculum that is geared to third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grade.
's not really aligned to any [:It's just. It's the curriculum is based off of my structure that I create, but it is specifically based on the teaks. But there are still some topics out there and there's some units out there that could be applicable to other states. So if you are in another state and you happen to teach US history or contemporary world cultures and you talk about different regions of the world, then I still think you could potentially benefit.
From checking out the guided curriculum, I'll make sure to link it in the description just in case you wanna take a look at it. But I also do have, as well, another year long program. It's not quite a curriculum like we're gonna talk about today, but there are daily passages and these workbooks that you can order off of Amazon and ship to your home or to your school location is not.
based. So it is not just for [:In your classroom. So it's up to you of how you want to utilize it, but I just wanted to make a plug out of a couple of resources that might be helpful before we get started. Alright, with housekeeping out of the way, we are going to first talk about something. Do not panic. That's the first thing. I want to preface this by saying we are gonna normalize something.
in place or some type of big [:Budgets can be tight. They might be downsizing or there might be some transitioning going on. I know in my state there are districts that have to close down schools because they can't afford to keep it open and they have to, uh, rezone and redraw boundaries and send students. Even though it's a physically closer school, they have to send them to another school 'cause they just cannot afford to keep the school open.
maybe in reading time or ELA [:So that is just something that is the current state of things and that's just kind of how it is. And sometimes you're just expected to, yes, you gotta teach it, you gotta just pull it from the standards and figure out a way to make it happen. It does not mean you're failing. It just means you need a system.
So that is what we're going to be building out today. We're gonna talk about the first step to creating or building your curriculum, and that is to start with the standards. That's step number one. If you don't have a curriculum, the standards are going to be your starting point, and that is going to be basically your curriculum.
omics? What's really focused [:Print them out, highlight them, group them together, find patterns and bucket them together in a way that makes sense. I'm gonna draw on Texas as an example, because that's what I am the most familiar with. But as of today, as of this year, because standards for social studies are gonna be changing in the next five or six years.
But there are currently eight strands in the teak standards, and for every single grade level from K through 12, they go through the same strands in the same order. So the first one is always. History. And then you've got geography, economics, government citizenship, culture and social studies skills, and within culture, science, technology, and society.
orated throughout all of the [:Going into just five main domains, geography, history, culture in society, so anything related to art, science, technology, literature, all that great stuff, and celebrations as well in that culture aspect. Government and citizenship and economics would be the fifth one, so you can bucket it into however you see fit and what makes the most sense with the standards you have for your specific stakes.
wanna see is the structure. [:Think about how many weeks do you have in a school year. Go find the calendar for the upcoming school year and see how many weeks do you have and take into account the days. Or weeks that you will not be in school. So make sure if you want, you can just say, okay, spring break, we're out. So I'm gonna not count that as a week.
uided curriculums range from [:There's really no harder fast rule of how many units, but if you want a starting point, eight to 10 units could be great for the year. And just thinking of it as one per month. Another thing to ask yourself is what should I teach first? To build background knowledge. I've always started my curricula with geography just because not only is it the easiest, it's a nice stepping stone, especially after summer break, but it can build background knowledge of the where, where the setting takes place.
ls and then going into early [:And also going into government and economics. And actually I should link an episode. Related to how I structure the, um, different topics throughout the year. It's a really great episode to listen to and go back to refresh yourself on and maybe get some ideas for how you can structure it. This year at a glance map truly is year at a glance.
You do not have to map out a 40 page pacing guide with a ton of detail. Just a basic roadmap will do the trick on one or two pages, and it helps with the stress level. When you see the year at a glance, it really helps drop the stress level dramatically. Now, let's go into step number three. Use a simple weekly structure.
med with the daily planning. [:Wednesday, a primary source or some type of deeper reading. Thursday application or project, and then Friday review or assessment. When your structure stays consistent, you do not have to reinvent the wheel every week. It's predictable. Students love the routine. You love the routine 'cause you know where to plug and play.
My guided curriculum has a daily structure, so you'll see a mini lesson with guided notes and a slideshow, some sort of practice activity. And exit ticket. And then later in the unit you'll see a review game or activity or study guide and an assessment or project at the end, depending on the grade level and the unit.
So [:Section four is to lean on quality resources. There are a variety of resources out there. You do not have to build things from scratch. You just go on TPT, go on a website, go in a store, or go to my store if you want. Type in a topic and see what comes up. You'll be surprised at the amount of resources that you have, but some ideas include primary source activities, kid friendly news, articles, biographies, BrainPOP.
nd if you want to build your [:That is something I had to do. Gladly did to make sure my students got what they needed. You could do timeline templates, guided notes, some type of cause and effect chart or discussion prompts that you wanna create. Chat GPT is a really great source or some type of AI tool to help you construct customizable.
Things and activities for your students. Step number five is to focus on skills, not just content. When you don't have a curriculum, it can be a little tempting to overfocus on content. Social studies is about skills. Make sure you're teaching students how to analyze sources cause and effect. Look at different perspectives, understand biases, interpret maps, create maps.
There's all [:So just letting you know about that. You wanna make sure you do have clear objectives, a strong hook. Active learning, some type of evidence or sources and a reflection. That's your formula. When you repeat that structure across units, you build confidence and a rhythm, which helps your students and yourself.
ices, and you get to curate. [:You're not stuck following somebody else's script. You have the ability to design your own learning intentionally. So to recap the different steps, make sure that you, number one, first and foremost, start with the standards. Secondly, making sure that you can have a year at a glance roadmap. Create that, build it however many units you want.
Use a consistent weekly structure or daily structure if that's more of your thing. Number four, making sure you're leaning into quality resources. Focusing on skills, not just the content. And lastly, to keep it simple and consistent. Hopefully this video helped you feel less overwhelmed of the upcoming year.
lp. And if you're interested [:Make sure to subscribe and follow along for more episodes, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll talk to you again next time
