Elementary Social Studies ─ A Practical Guide

Elementary Social Studies: A Practical Guide, Eighth Edition, clearly presents, in a friendly tone, the essential content and methods for teaching social studies in the K-8 classroom, while reflecting on the recent trends in technology, teaching English Language Learners, and meeting the needs of diverse students. This brief, but thorough text deals with the various social studies disciplines in a way that reflects the field’s greater focus on teaching history, geography, economics, and civic education. The content focuses on central concerns in teaching social studies in a standards-based environment, and prepares new teachers to successfully implement a social studies curriculum with concepts, strategies, and values relevant to elementary and middle grades.

This edition has been thoroughly updated to include new content on technology (podcasts, blogs, e-books), a focus on teaching English Learners, and meeting the needs of diverse students. The text also features full chapters in history, civic education, geography, and economics with multiple activities to show how these subjects can be taught in a creative and engaging way to help all students to think and act as democratic citizens.

June R. Chapin is Professor of Education at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California. A former public school teacher, including teaching in the Chicago Public Schools, she is the author or co-author of over a dozen textbooks ranging from the fourth grade to the university-level. Citizenship education is her greatest interest including, including research on voting and community participation of social studies students from the eighth grade to young adults.