Digital Commons Network^™

Clashing Cultures In Conversations: Engaging Students In The Study Of The Convergence Of Three Civilizations, Kristy Brugar

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This paper describes fifth-graders engagement associated with a curriculum intervention focused on the interdisciplinary (history, literacy, and the visual arts) teaching about issues 15th and 16th century migration. I address the question: In what ways do students demonstrate engagement about larger historical themes (e.g. interaction, treatment of others)? In order to answer this question, I observed a fifth-grade classroom over an eight-week period and documented student interactions in field notes. Students demonstrated procedural and substantive engagement during this instructional unit.

Culturally Responsive Teaching With Visual Art In The Social Studies, Julie Anne Taylor, Okezie Iroha, Vito Valdez

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article explores high school students’ perceptions of visual arts integration in the social studies. In an all-boys, public school in a major metropolis in the Midwest, lessons on art by African American and Mexican artists were introduced in a social studies classroom. To assess the impact of the program, the students’ anonymous responses to two surveys and their work on a collaborative, digital portfolio were analyzed. The findings of this study suggest that arts integration in the social studies increases students’ interest in learning, appreciation of culture, and understanding of history.

Historical Writing, Speaking, And Listening Using Informational Texts In Elementary Curricula, John H. Bickford Iii, Dylan Dilley, Valerie Metz

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

State and national initiatives have accentuated the significance of distinct instructional procedures and content. The (re)emphasis includes a strong focus on informational texts and diverse literacies, including writing, speaking, and listening. In short, history and social studies content will likely have a more prominent position within English/reading curricula. Beginning in the elementary grades, the required cognitive tasks foster historical thinking in age-appropriate ways. Students are to evaluate multiple texts representing diverse perspectives of the same event or era. Teachers, however, are not provided with practical curricular guides. To guide elementary educators, this research scrutinizes potential curricular supplements and proffers content …

Feature Films In History, Bryan Jack

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This essay discusses the use of feature films as historical sources and introduces readers to the ongoing debate among professional historians about films as history, highlighting the strengths and weakness of films as teaching tools. The essay also includes the author's experience with developing a class using historical films.

The Florida Joint Center For Citizenship, A Joint Project Of The University Of Central Florida And The University Of Florida, Stephen Stewart Masyada

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, recently released through the National Council for the Social Studies, offers social studies teachers and leaders a way forward for the development of standards and curriculum as well as serving as a guide for quality social studies instruction. This article discusses connections between the C3 Framework and NCSS's vision of powerful social studies teaching and learning, as well as how the framework and the vision serve together to guide students towards active inquiry and civic engagement.

Effectively Meeting The Needs Of Military-Connected Children Through Literature In The Elementary Social Studies Classroom, Hillary Anderson, Stacey Cutter, Bethany Hill-Anderson

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

There are two million military-connected children, and every school district in the United States has at least one military-connected student (Operation Educate the Educator, n.d.). The stresses on military children have increased in the post-9/11 era, and many educators are not prepared to provide an appropriate school environment to effectively meet these children’s needs. This paper examines some of the challenges military children face in schools and offers suggestions to enable educators to provide a safe and nurturing environment. An annotated bibliography of children's literature that is aligned with the NCSS Ten Primary Themes is provided.

Review Of "The Federal Reserve And The Financial Crisis", Scott Wolla

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Read The Past: Write Now! Responding To Historical Fiction Through Writing, Rebecca Giles Ph.D., Karyn Tunks Ph.D.

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

From the American Revolution through the Civil War and beyond, fictional characters enrich social studies by bringing the past to life for young readers. Historical fiction offers a great variety of topics in various formats, including novels, short stories, picture books, poems, and plays that provides useful background knowledge through a glimpse into the details of daily life during a particular time. This articles offers specific examples of how teachers can encourage writing using quality historical fiction picture books.

Arts Integration In The Social Studies: Research And Perspectives From The Field, Julie Anne Taylor, Timothy Monck, Sanaa Ayoub

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Teaching with primary sources has long been recognized as a vital practice, yet only recently have the educational merits of arts integration come under examination in the social studies. The objective of this study was to examine the use of art by practicing social studies teachers. The findings show that educators are teaching with a variety of art forms with some frequency in instruction, and they view the study of art as having positive effects on students’ motivation and learning. The social studies teachers, who participated in the study by completing surveys, reported that studying images of art improves students’ …

Illinois Democracy Schools: Preparing Students For College, Career, And Civic Life, Shawn Healy

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The current focus of school reform centers on college and career readiness, casting aside the original purpose of schools in this country-- preparing America’s youngest citizens to be informed and active participants in our democracy. Since 2006, seventeen Illinois high schools countered this trend and achieved recognition through the Illinois Civic Mission Coalition (ICMC) as Democracy Schools.

The Democracy Schools Initiative of the ICMC invites high schools to demonstrate commitment to their civic mission by completing a school-wide civic assessment and charting future plans for developing and sustaining high quality civic learning. Successful applicants are recognized through the ICMC and …

Service Learning In The Social Studies, Shaun Conway

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Education reform of the future starts with public service. Over the last two and a half years, I have built a public service program at Lake Park High School in Roselle, IL. The class allows students to pursue topical areas of self-interest in a classroom setting, while supplementing those subject topics with in-depth public service opportunities and experiential learning methodology outside the school building. Students can opt to take the semester elective during their junior or senior year (although the course was recently approved to be offered in full year format).

Reform of the future must start with public service …

Introduction: Education Reform Past, Present, And Future, Jeffrey Manuel

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This is an introduction to the special issue of The Councilor on the topic of education reform.

Author biography: Jeffrey Manuel is an assistant professor in the Department of Historical Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. His research and public scholarship examine the social, cultural, and political consequences of deindustrialization and envirotechnical history. His research has appeared in several journals. He is currently working on a manuscript that describes efforts to fight industrial decline in the Lake Superior iron mining region. He is also active in public history, including exhibit design and oral history.

Public School Principals’ Perceptions Concerning The Hiring Of Social Studies Teachers, Lindon Joey Ratliff, Joshua Watson, Patricia Ratliff

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The authors employed a qualitative research design to explore issues pertaining to the selection and interviewing of social studies applicants for teaching positions in public secondary schools. They specifically focused on the quality of the applicant pool, characteristics of desired candidates and the school principals’ perspectives of a desired interview. Analysis of the principals’ responses to the interview questions yielded two primary categories related to their perspectives regarding potential social studies teachers: (a) personal and professional educator attributes and (b) a candidate’s actions within the formal setting of an interview. Subcategories were developed that further delineated the expectations administrators have …

Teaching Social Structure In A Poststructural Classroom: A (Mild) Defense Of An Economic Deterministic Approach, Cory Blad

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Teaching social structure is difficult due to the fact that these supposed influences are regularly invisible and often function without the knowledge of those being influenced. At the same time, most of us – in particular undergraduate college students – are resistant to the idea that our actions and choices are somehow constrained or influenced. This essay examines the challenge of teaching social structure to potentially resistant groups and defends the use of a common budget-based exercise to connect students to the potential of structural constraints on individual action.

Daily Eastern News: April 12, 2018, Eastern Illinois University

April

No abstract provided.

Teachers And Librarians Collaborate: Teaching About Family And Community Through Children’S Literature, M. Gail Hickey, Margit Codispoti

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Through the use of children’s books about family and community, students have opportunities to learn about people, culture, traditions, values, and everyday lives similar to and different from their own. A Children’s Special Collection Librarian and a teacher educator worked together to help teachers use Patricia Polacco's books to teach about family and community, and enable students to explore realistic and memorable examples of the cultures of diverse peoples within their own community.

Locating Sociological Concepts In Business Games, Dylan Kissane, Helen Roux-Fontaine

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article describes one strategy for demonstrating the value of sociological concepts to business students by adopting a transversal approach to a business game at a French-American business school. This strategy proved effective in allowing a social science professor to demonstrate the practical implications of two concepts – gender and race – to undergraduate students while simultaneously allowing an international management professor to demonstrate how cross-cultural teams should be managed in order to work effectively. This article firstly explains the Ecotonas business game; secondly, it explains the crucial debriefing process for the business game and demonstrates how sociological concepts can …

Teacher Interpretations Of Moneyskill®, Thomas Lucey, Elizabeth White, Aline André

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

While much scholarship concerns the efforts to teach children and youth about personal finances, much less, if any, research concerns efforts of practicing teachers to evaluate and interpret financial curricula for schools. This paper conveys the results of a research study that interpreted teachers’ responses the high school modules associated with the Moneyskill® online education program. A convenience sample of teachers enrolled in a graduate level diversity course as a large teacher education institution in the Midwest completed assigned MoneySKILL modules and participated in group online reflections. Participants in the study interpreted the content as appropriate and relevant. They also …

We Shall See: Critical Theory And Structural Inequality In Economics, Neil Graham Shanks

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This paper seeks to provide educators with a critique of dominant narratives through the disciplinary tools of economics. Specifically; issues of race, gender, and geography are addressed via the common economic subjects of fiscal and monetary policy, economic indicators, wages, and economic growth. By providing a practical blueprint for a more critical curriculum in economics, these lessons and the literature that supports them demonstrates the potential of teachers to challenge taken-for-granted notions of what economics is and what it is for.

Trade Books’ Representations Of Benjamin Franklin, A Life Of Reinvention, Alyson Diver Thompson

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

State and national education standards require teachers to introduce historical topics through multiple diverse texts, with emphasis on informational texts. Historical based trade books allow teachers to meet both English/language arts standards as well as history/social studies standards. Primary sources help provide students with a balanced view of history that may not be covered in textbooks and trade books, allowing students to gain a more complete and accurate understandings. The standards allow educators the flexibility to select trade books and primary sources for their classrooms. My research empirically evaluated how Benjamin Franklin is represented in children’s trade books, a figure …

Documenting Local History: Using The Library Of Congress Site, Primary Sources, And Community Resources For Teaching Social Studies, Mary Ann Hanlin, Chris Herridge, Katie Janovetz, Cindy Alcaraz, David Mcmullen, Dean Cantù, Sherrie Pardieck

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

In the 2011 academic school year, a central Illinois jr. high school and a private university initiated a partnership to create a local history research project. Through a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Project at the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities, teachers and professors collaborated to identify information for research and design the inquiry’s final product for the project. Through the guidance of their teachers, seventh and eighth grade students accessed the Library of Congress resources and town primary sources for research. Historical inquiry included the identification of the town’s origination and important …

Helping Develop Students’ Civic Identities Through Exploring Public Issues, Jeremiah Clabough

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies teachers need to prepare students for their many roles and responsibilities as future citizens. This includes being able to analyze politicians’ recommendations about public issues and then making informed decisions on candidates and policies to support. In this manuscript, the author provides the steps and resources for an activity that builds students’ civic identity. Through the activity, students examine both Republicans and Democrats’ solutions to healthcare. They use the 2016 party platforms to complete this activity. Through all of the steps of this activity, students start to develop their own political identities about ways to address issues that …

Teaching African American History Through Museum Theatre, Julie Anne Taylor

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article examines museum theatre as a means of teaching African American history and culture. After participating in museum theatre experiences in the galleries of the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, the largest museum of African American history in the country, participants reported having a greater sense of connection to and interest in the past. The study suggests that interactions with professional, costumed actors in theatre sets develop historical empathy and understanding among participants. Historical events seem less abstract, and the impact of those events on people is better understood. This study suggests that collaboration between schools and museums …

Voices Of Cooperating Teachers And Preservice Teachers: Implications For Elementary Social Studies Education, Mary Beth Henning, Eiu-Kyung Shin

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Examining the current beliefs and practices of elementary social studies teachers and preservice teachers suggests that there are similarities and differences between how they perceive their roles as curricular-instructional gatekeepers (Thornton, 1991). Using both survey data and focus groups, cooperating teachers describe their contemporary elementary social studies teaching practices as a blend of stand-alone activities and integrated instruction. Elementary teachers recommend more hands-on activities and literacy development strategies be taught in social studies methods classes. Preservice teachers also reported their preferred teaching practices and rationales in social studies, showing some significant differences from cooperating teachers.

Boosting Chicago: Bird’S-­‐Eye Views As Maps Of Progress, Mark Newman

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Boosting Chicago explores the nature of bird's-eye views, the public face of Chicago views depicted between 1857 and 1916, and offers ideas on using these unique documents in the classroom. Bird's-eye views were popular lithographs of urban communities in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Subjective and incomplete documents, they were artifacts of civic pride. Though little studied by scholars or used by teachers, they offer unique windows into the perceptions of residents regarding their community. Boosting Chicago suggests that views of this city consistently pictured it as a bustling, growing metropolis that acted as a hub and tied its …

Teaching Students To Challenge The Status Quo: Recognizing Oppression In African Film, Roberta Di Carmine

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to share experiences and strategies about teaching race and oppression with African films and promote the use of non-Western films in the classroom. By referring to bell hooks' and Richard Dyer's works, the paper discusses how teachers have a responsibility to create a learning environment in which students learn to be open minded and to challenge the status quo.

African films offer an opportunity to achieve this goal. Films such as Black Girl demand students’ attention but also require in-depth discussions if we want to raise students’ awareness of films as political weapons …

Ten Illinois Oral History Projects Waiting To Be Assigned, Lindon Ratliff

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The article presents ten oral history projects which could be taught by a high school social studies teacher in Illinois. The author discusses the importance of oral histories as well as teaching strategies which can be used.

Review Of "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human", Jennifer Rehg

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

No abstract provided.

Grooming Tomorrow’S Advocates: Preparing Elementary Social Studies Teachers Today, Rachel Finley-Bowman

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) upon teaching and learning social studies at the elementary level are already well known. In light of the discipline’s increasing marginalization in the schools, the methods used to prepare elementary educators for teaching social studies and developing professional advocacy must be reexamined. This article, with reference to relevant scholarship, discusses eight key strategies to promote more effective teacher preparation, including a pledge of advocacy, meaningful pedagogy, pre-service professional development, knowledge of curriculum standards, content expertise, curriculum integration, significant field experience before student teaching, and reevaluation of NCLB.

Differing Voices: Stories Of The Holocaust From Various Perspectives A Lesson Plan And Personal Memorial, Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This lesson provides students with the opportunity to analyze varying perspectives of the Holocaust. The students will come to understand that the racism and discrimination of the Nazis extended past the Jewish population during the Holocaust. In fact, they will learn that it affected groups such as Polish Catholics, prisoners of war, and the handicapped as well. This will be done by the analysis of photographs, maps and graphs as well as the students' reading and discussion of Holocaust memoirs written by three separate individuals with different.