We must engage students with the social studies early and often.
A Wordle reflecting pre-service teachers' conceptions of the social studies.
In response to the focus on math and literacy high stakes testing in recent years, many elementary schools have reduced or eliminated time for social studies (geography, history, civics, cultural studies, and economics). This is a tragedy! Distinct social studies time should be preserved and rich cross-curricular opportunities should be expanded given the important content and skills that students need to be well-rounded and effective members of a democratic society as well as thoughtful members of their current social and future professional communities.
The resources in this website are intended to provide support to elementary school teachers working hard to find ways to maintain and even increase social studies into their school days. As part of their social studies methods courses, pre-service teachers at Iowa State University have contributed the units that you find here. Other materials like the links to PK-8 national and local resources have been compiled by elementary school teachers and university professors to serve as inspiration for quality, critical, meaningful social studies instruction.
In addition to checking out these resources, please join our active group of 500+ educators from across the country sharing resources at Critical Resources for Elementary Social Studies Teachers (CRESST) on Facebook.
If you have ideas for what should be included in this list, please send an email to Katy Swalwell at [email protected]. Thank you and best of luck!
Katy Swalwell
Associate Professor
Elementary Education Program
Iowa State University
Ames, IA
The resources in this website are intended to provide support to elementary school teachers working hard to find ways to maintain and even increase social studies into their school days. As part of their social studies methods courses, pre-service teachers at Iowa State University have contributed the units that you find here. Other materials like the links to PK-8 national and local resources have been compiled by elementary school teachers and university professors to serve as inspiration for quality, critical, meaningful social studies instruction.
In addition to checking out these resources, please join our active group of 500+ educators from across the country sharing resources at Critical Resources for Elementary Social Studies Teachers (CRESST) on Facebook.
If you have ideas for what should be included in this list, please send an email to Katy Swalwell at [email protected]. Thank you and best of luck!
Katy Swalwell
Associate Professor
Elementary Education Program
Iowa State University
Ames, IA