TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SOCIAL STUDIES…“should be meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. These qualities of powerful social studies learning are foundational to the development of children’s knowledge, skills, and dispositions as participating citizens in a global society.” (NCSS, 2008)
Thus begins the powerful and purposeful platform for instruction advocated by the National Council for the Social Studies. What is the discourse surrounding the Social Studies in your Lutheran School? Is it indeed meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging and active? Or has the Social Studies been diminished in importance due to the attention toward I-LEARN standards and testing?
As your Superintendent of Lutheran Schools, I am striving to advance robust guidelines for all subjects in the curriculum. Beginning this year with monetary grants for writing Grade Level curricular resources in Social Studies, Julie Dietrich and Alicia Levitt will lead this collaborative initiative for Lutheran Schools in Indiana and Kentucky.
Should your thinking align with the lofty vision of the NCSS, then I heartily encourage you to speak with your principal NOW and apply to join the Content Area Leader (CAL) teams forming NOW. Beginning in March, these teams will roll out guidelines in June, slated for implementation for pilot schools in September, 2019. If your aims are to instill faith, critical thinking, pro-social skills, interpersonal interactions, cultural sensitivity, and information literacy in your classroom, help us develop these critical 21st century skills in a more meaningful and useful design of civics, economics, geography, and history. Catalyzed by the infusion of technology into elementary social studies, you can help the 10,000+ students in the Indiana District grow to become responsible, informed Christian citizens.
I encourage your participation in this District initiative! Are you equipped and ready for this challenge?
If so, then open the attached docs to begin! Deadline to sign up as been extended to February 1!
https://goo.gl/forms/7WEyZZgGfwdhfzaR2
National Council for the Social Studies Task Force on Standards for Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies, A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy (1992/2008), www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful.