Chapter 10, SS

I don't teach Social Studies, but before even reading the chapter, I realized how important this subject is. I agree with the very first page of this chapter that SS can be vital to all subject areas. As it said, it helps students recognize and appreciate diversity and various cultures, exlpore our rich history as humans, solve problems from various perspectives, and helps with reading/writing skills. As it mentioned on page 227, SS isn't required to be tested yearly by all students and doesn't count towards AYP. This is the case in our district as well. Half the students test on SS, and the other half test on Science. Surpringsly, all 3 grade levels in our school do extremely well on SS testing. As the book touches on, our SS teachers target higher-thinking skills and do lots of creative things to capture their students' attention. As I've talked to our SS teachers, I know that the instructional approach they take is to find many other methods to get the lesson across beyound their textbook. THe approach our SS teachers take is to find ways to implement Bloom's Taxonomy as much as possible to promote deeper thinking and probing. Obviously it works, as their high test scores are a result. I know that our SS teachers also take the approach of leading the students to make connections with what they're studying. Our 8th grade take a field trip to Charleston every Spring, led by the SS teacher. I've talked to all 3 of the teachers here in the building, and they all seems to have good strategies and approaches to delivering instruction.
Although I don't teach SS, one idea mentioned in this chapter that I could utilize is the POSSE strategy on page 231. This idea very well applies to writing and literature. I could think of a lot of lessons in which I could implement this simple (but brilliant) idea! I could also very well utilize the idea of POWER metnioned on this page as well. THis would be very helpful when I teach the writing process and everytime we write an essay. Mnemonics is also another good strategy I could use with spelling and vocabulary, as discussed on page 232. The students can learn ways to learn the new words as well as making easy associations with the word.
I could continue to talk with the SS teachers to glean new ideas of how they can serve our students and how I can as well. We could work together using some of the same strategies. We could learn from each other. I could use some of the websites on page 236 when I'm teaching settings of the things we're reading. I could also continue to use partner work and peer-tutoring as mentioned on page 238.