Powerful Social Studies

1. Challenging

1.1. At the end of the lesson, the teacher asks the class what the holidays and celebrations have in common and the class knows it is "light"... the students are expected to continually connect prior knowledge and they comment thoughfully on what they have learned. (Source:Celebrations of Light).

1.2. The students are expected to work cooperatively, they are engaging in thoughtful dialogue as they explain to each other what is they are drawing about in the one of the centers. (Source:Celebrations of Light)

2. Active

2.1. Hands on activity with the globe to show how the earth rotates aroung the sun (Source:Celebrations of Light).

2.2. Uses a variety of teaching strategies and resources such as the book she reads, learning centers, and the globe (Source:Celebrations of Light)

2.3. The teacher helps the students relate classroom learning to their lives outside the school when she asks the students if "other countries celebrate the same holidays that they do in the United States" (Source:Celebrations of Light).

3. Meaningful

3.1. students make connections between prior knowledge (Book:Madeleinka), previosly studied content (celebrations/holidays in different cultures) and new material (Book: Winter Solstice).(Source:Celebrations of Light)

3.2. Content selects is worth learning; promotes social understanding about other cultures. The teacher asks the students if everyone in a community celebrates the same way and the students say "no". (Source:Celebrations of Light).

4. Integrative

4.1. The teacher links the past to the present when she "tells the students that the book they are about to read comes from the "Cherokee Indians"... then she asks them if they "remember who they are and one students says describes the Cherokee Indians as the people who were here first" (Source:Celebrations of Light).

4.2. She links other subjects to her social studies class such art in the centers (cutting and paste), and science when she uses the globe to show the students how the earth rotates around the sun (Source:Celebrations of Light).

5. Value Based

5.1. The teachers goal is to "teach her students how to think" and the questions she asks involves critical thinking... an example of this is when she tells the class that their job is to find out what is the same in all the holidays they have been learning about (Source:Celebrations of Light).

5.2. Her other goal is that "everything she does in the classroom is applicable to the outside world" and an example of this is when she reads the story "Winter Solstice", and afterward, she discusses "how the earth and sun" are the reasons for the "Winter Solstice" (Source:Celebrations of Light)