Exam 4: What Social Studies Planning Tools Are Available

Powerful planning begins with developing hands-on/minds-on instructional activities.

In order to guarantee high test scores for all students, teachers need to follow all content standards and use the pacing guides and textbooks as directed by the principal and curriculum committee.

One of the advantages of long-range planning is the ability to use student test data in diagnostic ways.

Imagine the elementary principal is going to observe you in an attempt to determine your competencies in the area of planning social studies instruction. As the principal, what would you look for and what kind of evidence would you collect?

Goals are most likely attained when all the curricular components are

Today, with increased pressure on standardized testing, there is a debate about whether  planning for instruction should be the responsibility of the ​

Teachers who use textbooks successfully typically concentrate on starting with

Imagine standardized testing gets lots of hype in your school. How will you prepare your students for standardized testing without letting test-preparation dominate your teaching?

Most technology-based lesson plans are

If you use "backward" planning, you should first determine the activities that will help students master the goals.

Research indicates that networks of connected knowledge structured around powerful ideas can be acquired with understanding and retained in forms that make them accessible for application.

The authors of Powerful Social Studies advocate

Ideally, every unit that you develop should

When planning, remember wise integration demands

NCSS states that the aim of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed decisions for the public good as ​

In a carefully designed social studies program you should try to avoid unanticipated learning opportunities that surface during instructional interactions.

Research on learning tasks suggests that activities and assignments should be repetitious, interesting enough to motivate student engagement, and easy enough for all students to achieve high rates of success if they invest reasonable time and effort.

The NCSS (2010)publication, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies Teachers: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment is intended to serve as a script for long- and short-term social studies planning.

Frequently, teachers lose sight of their instructional goals because

Typically, state social studies standards are