Kirsten 0:00
This is the social studies teacher podcast a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know if you southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.
Hi there, welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. Today's topic is about three important social studies skills that every upper elementary student needs to know. Social Studies is an important part of a well rounded education. It provides students with an understanding of the world around them, where they live, and the people cultures and societies that make up this world. And upper elementary students are beginning to develop a deeper understanding of social studies concepts and themes, and how they enter lap with each other. And along with the content knowledge that we're teaching students from each of those domains like geography and history, and government. There are three important social studies skills that every upper elementary student needs to know. By mastering these three skills students can become active and informed citizens who are able to engage with the world around them in meaningful ways, not just as adults, but even as early as right now.
All right, the first important social study skill is critical thinking. Critical Thinking skills can be applied across a variety of disciplines such as English language arts, and math, reading science. Critical thinking involves questioning and analyzing information, evaluating evidence and drawing logical conclusions based on facts. Students can develop critical thinking skills by using primary and secondary sources, where they're looking at original text or photographs of a certain time period, or reading about some type of historical period or reading about supply and demand, whatever social studies topic that you need to be teaching. And then also, students can develop critical thinking skills by analyzing information through sequencing, interpreting maps, charts, and also just considering different points of view or perspectives on a topic or current event. So there's a lot that goes into critical thinking And it something that is easily transferable across different subjects. By teaching critical thinking students can become better researchers, writers and problem solvers.
The second important social study skill that I believe that every student needs to know is communication, reading, speaking, writing, listening, communication, all those four aspects. These skills are so important and involve expressing ideas through different mediums. So through technology, through writing an essay through reading a novel, communication also involves using the appropriate social studies terminology, creating effective written and visual material that is communicating their thoughts to others. developing strong communication skills is important for students social and emotional development, because it helps them better articulate their thoughts and feelings, not just in social studies, but in other subjects outside and inside of academia, and also getting better at it, they would be able to communicate better as adults as well.
The third important skill I believe everybody needs to know is problem solving. This can also be integrated with math and science. Because we know problem solving is important there. It's also a crucial skill in social studies as well, by teaching students how to approach complex issues and analyze different perspectives. Teachers can help students build their problem solving and decision making skills, these are so essential for navigating the complex social, political and economic issues that students will encounter throughout their lives. So thinking about different situations and scenarios, thinking about how there is a lot of people on Earth. So maybe going into the sub problem solving process with human overpopulation, maybe going into the problem of natural hazards, and the problem of how maybe a certain city or country has a really bad drought or hurricane happening. And so what how would they be able to solve that problem? What would they have to do? Would we they have to move somewhere else would they have to kind of, you know, what, what are the different options for those communities, there's so many different problem solving activities that you can incorporate into your lessons. So it's definitely important to think about as you're planning your social studies lessons for the school year.
Alright, so this is short and sweet. I just want you to be aware of important social studies skills, that I believe that is very integral. The great thing about all three of these social studies skills is that they can easily be integrated in other subjects. Again, the critical thinking you can use pretty much in any subject, especially in upper elementary, you have to have students utilize critical thinking skills. And they're all transferable. Those ELA reading skills and strategies that we always teach him with inferencing, drawing conclusions, making connections, it's easily able to be used in social studies as well. And then communication is something that students are doing, doing in ELA or just even working with partners or in groups. And then problem solving, something that we always have students do in math and science. These are all really great skills that can be used throughout the year in social studies as well.
All right, well, that is the end of this episode. I hope to see you again next week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.
