The two books that were used in Methods Social Studies were written Social Studies in Elementary Education

by Parker and the other by Schmidt, Social Studies That Stick. Both books were helpful in giving insight into education in regards to social studies. Parker overviewed the problem which face many teachers across the nation when in regards to social studies. Both book discussed the ten themes which NCSS believes tie in to all of social studies. Parker constructed the book so the themes are included in the sample lesson plans. The book has great emphasis on social studies being taught in a user friendly way which is relevant to students and cultivates curiosity, awareness, and discovery of the world around them. Throughout the book many different examples and strategies are given in order to help spark new ideas for teacher. The lesson plans show how to implement each new strategies which is shown within the book. Having the lesson plans acts as a guide and helps show how the new activities can and could work which makes people more likely to try and implement it in the classroom. The author of Schmidt had interesting ideas to incorporate the themes into even the youngest grades such as making the same government system in a kindergarten class to show democracy and laws. She stressed that the teacher must be the model for what is taught as well as how it is taught. A new way of basing learned material was intriguing for me. It is called the spiral curriculum where ideas such as family are started at a basic level which young students can relate to, then as their knowledge increases the scope of the topic of family increases as well, such as families in different cultures, then as the student masters the ideas of family they are able to apply it to society and law such as custodial disputes. The chapter also talked about something which really resonated with me, the re-segregation of schools between urban and suburban schools and the monetary gap between the two which results in learning gaps.

Both of these books really affirmed my beliefs that there needs to be a way in which, without the dependence on standardized tests, that teachers and the school system can monitor a students success and achievement. There also needs to be an emphasis on early language acquisition for a secondary language, a more global approach to teaching and learning, and the curriculum needs to interconnect with other subjects. With all of these components social studies would be poised to improve the knowledge of the students.