Social Studies That Sticks: How to Bring Content and Concepts to Life

by Laurel Schmidt

The announcement that Its social studies time often elicits dread from students who mistakenly view the subject as a near-death experience. And who can blame them when this fascinating subject has been stripped of the heartbreak, adventure, conflict, treachery, strategic brilliance, and spectacular foiblesin short, the humanitythat its supposed to explain? Student apathy and rock-bottom test scores scream that its time for a changefor unforgettable, not regrettable, social studies. Its time for Social Studies That Sticks . In Social Studies That Sticks Laurel Schmidt introduces a brain-compatible approach to integrated, standards-based instruction, using the four elements of the human learning awareness, exploration, inquiry, and action. This dynamic approach brings content and concepts to life, while sharpening skills in questioning, thinking, reading, writing, and the visual and performing arts. It promotes academic achievement, models the habits of active citizenship, tunes students ethical antennae to social problems, and teaches tools students can use to advocate for change. Social Studies That Sticks is a comprehensive, passionate, and user-friendly guide Whether you use Laurel Schmidts ideas to supplement your existing curriculum or youre ready to make your current textbook ancient history, Social Studies That Sticks will transform social studies time into lessons about history and humanity that last a lifetime.

Genres: Education

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2007

Reviews

[Sarah Nisly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schmidt does a good job of giving lots of practical ideas for teaching social studies. She seems a little overly optimistic about what can fit into class time. She encourages teachers to often take their kids out to the community to snoop around to find its undiscovered history, or becoming community 'warriors' (she tells a story of when her class petitioned the city to classify an old building as historic so it wouldn't be demolished). It seems a little tough to do all that and teach enough content, but overall she does a good job of giving good ideas to help students become engaged in history and see its real world applications.

[Bea Elwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rounded up for this one just because on the one hand this is exactly the kind of teacher I want to be even if it wasn't the most exciting or easy to read. Very repetitive and she's got her own formula (Awareness, Inquiry, Exploration, Action) that is like beating a social-justice horse to death but otherwise I liked it. Tons of relevant resources and inspiring stories.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good foundations and activities that cover what and why social studies is important. I would have liked to see a caution for the chapters around social action & justice to watch out for the idea of doing things FOR others rather than WITH others.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a Master’s Class. It has lots of great ideas to get the students diving into social studies and not just focusing on what the textbooks provide. I am excited to use Schmidt’s ideas with my curriculum!

[Rachel DeWeese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource for creating a social studies classroom that encourages critical thinking and global citizenship! Some of the activities seem a little too grand to actually be practical in classrooms that are restricted by state standards and standardized testing, but a good book nonetheless. I'll definitely be implementing some of Schmidt's ideas and activities into my own classroom.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly a good book, but with a few problems.

First, the writing style, which interrupts perfectly good prose with inanities such as "In just under the amount of time it takes to wash and dry five jumbo loads of laundry, I was expected to take my graduate education students from apathy to 'I can't wait to teach this!'" (p.25) and "For a start, it looks like the author was intent on hoarding punctuation marks, particularly periods, as if they were primetime cell phone minutes." (p.32) and "Conscientious students spend most of their time memorizing meaningless facts, like reluctant College Bowl contestants. The others are AWOL." (p.33) So much of this kind of thing is just padding and could be easily eliminated without any loss of meaning.

Second, there is an extremely strong slant toward the idea that the only way to teach social studies is by creating little activists. So many of the examples are from the leftist side of things. It doesn't need to be that way.

Lastly, there is no recognition of the fact that there are kids who will NOT like dress-up and role-playing when studying historical figures. Some will, but the non-dramatic introvert types will dread such activities. Shouldn't they get some consideration?

Overall, the second section is the best, covering primary sources, informants, and drawing information out of artifacts. Really great stuff in there.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic. The author is also
Very approachable as I had a few things I wanted to get some clarification on and she got right back to me.

With C3 Framework finally here, this is the book that shows you what the inquiry arc can be. Parts at least.