What social studies content does one need to know to

achieve the citizenship purpose?

I am in a field placement at Anthony Wayne Jr. High every Thursday. With a
seventh grade, social studies teacher named Mr. LaFevre. He is a relatively young
white male teacher. His students are predominately white and the classroom size is
about 25 students. The desks are set up in groups of five and the students get to
choose where they sit. Lately, they have been writing essays about the Greece citystates and, more recently, the Roman empire.
Does writing a paper make you a good citizen?
The first content standard that I believe my cooperating teacher was teaching
was actually an eighth-grade standard, Primary and secondary sources are used to
examine events from multiple perspectives and to present and defend a position
(OLS, SS, 8,1). To do this they were writing a paper a semester they were given
sources to use this time, later in the year they would choose their own, but were
asked to explain why and if these sources were creditable. These sources varied
from firsthand accounts to their textbooks. This is a skills standard, which means it
is not about content but how to apply and access it.
So, the question comes to be about how this paper writing is making students
become good citizens. Besides the obvious answer of if a student wants their ideas
to be heard then they must know how to speak and write properly, there is another
less obvious answer. This answer was purposed by my cooperation teacher himself.
He asked them and us, the people in field placement, if we believed everything that
we heard or saw on television. The students answered with a resounding no and a
laugh. He says the same goes for news articles, or sources. This got me thinking, in

terms of the coming election. To be an informed voter when elections come around
we can not only look at television ads and debates. Informed voters look at peoples
platforms and not only that they look to see what a politician has actually voted for
or sponsored before casting their vote. We are teaching children this when making
them write papers and question sources. This is directly in line with what we are, as
social studies educators, trying to teach our students.
Does teaching about prior civilizations impact todays society?
The second content standard that I believe was being taught in my
cooperating class is The civilizations that developed in Greece and Rome had an
enduring impact on later civilizations. This legacy includes governance and law,
engineering and technology, art and architecture, as well as literature and history.
The Roman Empire also played an instrumental role in the spread of Christianity.
(OLS,SS,7.2) The papers that I previously mentioned were written about the
subjects of Greece and Rome. I think the exact questions were do you think Greece
city states democracy was better than other governments in its time, and Was the
spreading and conquering done by the romans beneficial or harmful. This is a
content standard, so it is based off knowledge gained and deeper understanding.
This lead to the question about if teaching about these prior civilizations
impacts todays society or our students for that matter. My cooperating teacher
made a good point about this when on the topic of Greece. He said that these city
states, particularly Athens and Sparta, were the beginning of our democracy today
and that many of the ways they organized government is mimicked in American
today. This illustrates the impact of the past on us today. If students are aware of

this it does make an impact but like my cooperating teacher, teachers must connect
it to students life now and our government now.
How does this connect?
This leads perfectly back to my previous blog post. In why students hate
social studies, they discuss how educators have not informed students of the
importance of social studies to students. (Schug, alt., 53) This connects because, as
previously stated, if students do not see or be told of the connections between
previous civilizations and their own, they will not care about it and all meaning will
be lost. Like I have said over and over again in previous blog post, it is not just the
content we are teaching it is how we are teaching and relating it with our students.
Of course, content is important and these standards help outline this but they are
not the only thing. In the article five standards of authentic instructions, it also
discusses a students need to make connections between content and the real
world. (Newmman, 1)

Cite Page
Newmann, F. M., & Wehlage, G. G. (1933, April). Five Standards of Authentic
Instruction. Retrieved October 26, 2016, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/apr93/vol50/num07/ FiveStandards-of-Authentic-Instruction.aspx
Ohio Department of Education. (2010). Ohio's new learning standards: Social
studies standards. Retrieved from
http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Ohio-s-New-LearningStandards/Social-Studies/SS-Standards.pdf.aspx.
Schug, M., Todd, R., & Beery. R. (1984). Why kids dont like social studies. Social
Studies Education, 48(5), 382-287.