Teaching Social Studies for Understanding

Schell and Fisher, in Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy-Based Approach, state that we naturally organize information into categories.  Similarly, social studies information is organized in topical, conceptual, or thematic categories.  Last night after my group decided on a topic, we began categorizing our information in a standards cluster.  By doing so, our thoughts became clearly visible and easy to expand on.  Our next step will be to find some common themes and concepts that exist in our research.  We will have to examine the many aspects of railroad life to piece the information together for our unit.  Essential questions may be used in our unit to help assist students in uncovering the big idea.  Figure 4.4 on page 85 provides some examples of essential questions that can be used in geography, history, economics, and government.  Overall, I feel that chapter 4 has provided some helpful information that will assist in the social studies section of our integrated unit.