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SOCIAL
STUDIES:
A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES
Teaching With the Internet:
Miguel Robledo's Class
• Miguel Robeldo had started simply that first
year; each week he set up a single Internet Workshop 
for students to complete based on the many
resources available at History/Social
Studies Web Site for K-12 Teachers.
• Each workshop activity required students to
think critically and evaluate
the information at a site related to their current unit. During one
week of the colonial
period, for example, he set a bookmark to a wonderful site, Benjamin
Franklin. He then directed students to explore this site and
write a short essay about what they thought was the most important
accomplishment
in Franklin’s life, explaining why they had selected this
accomplishment.
• He posted a project to compare perceptions
of World War II (WW II)
by students from several different countries at The
Global SchoolNet Projects Registry and The Global School House.
• As part of the project, participating
classrooms read stories from people
who lived during the 1940's. They found all of this wonderful
information at the home page for Memories. They also subscribed to the mailing
list (listserv) located there, also called MEMORIES
(listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu).
• Miguel's Internet Project
was a tremendous success. One of the extra benefits that came out of
this project was the discovery of a wonderful site which contributes to
ending world hunger. The class in England
shared the location for The Hunger Site with all of the other
classes.
• Miguel looked up to observe
the group at the Internet computers. He had set the home page location
on all three computers to open to American
Memory as soon as his students connected to
the Internet.
• Miguel knew that students
often taught one another about the Internet faster than he could teach
them. Sarah and her partner Vanita had just found a site at
American Memory someone had described on the bulletin board. The site
was called "Votes for Women" 1850 - 1920, a collection
of
photographs and documents about the suffrage movement in the U.S.
They started reading One
Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview,
developing a greater appreciation for the struggles women have faced.
• Jonathan and his Internet
partner, Josh, were working together.
Jonathan had found a great source: Jackie
Robinson and other Baseball Highlights, 1860's - 1960's.
• Mircalla and Jessica had
found the movie section. They found a fantastic movie site about the
San Francisco earthquake, located at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/sfhome.html.
Central
Sites for Social Studies Education
General Social Studies
Resources
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• The Library of Congress Home Page
There probably is no better location for multimedia access to primary
source documents about the United States. Your students can view items
ranging from the original draft of Declaration of Independence in
Thomas Jefferson's handwriting to the Vietnam War POW/MIA database. It
is a most impressive resource for your social studies program. Included
in separate sections are:
Thomas,
the official source of legislative information for the U.S. Congress;
Exhibitions,
a collection of recent exhibitions at the Library of Congress;
Using
the Library, providing you with access to the extensive
catalogs of the Library of Congress and many others, and
The
Library Today, containing information about the most recent
information and events at our nation's library.
•
Learning Resources
A central site of Canadian resources that is part of SchoolNet. See,
especially, the link to social studies. A wonderful collection of all
things Canadian!
• The
History/Social Studies Web Site for K-12 Teachers
This is one of the best single locations we know for social studies
resources. The home page for this location only hints at the many
resources it contains. Pay a visit to this site and explore some of the
many topics. You will find an amazingly exhaustive set of resources
organized in an easy to understand hierarchical structure.
• Nebraska
Department of Education Social Science Resources Home Page
This location, developed by the state of Nebraska, contains an
extensive set of resources for social studies education organized area
(history, civics/government, economics, and geography) and themes. The
server
tends to run a bit slowly sometimes. Be patient. Your wait will be
rewarded.
• The
Cornell Theory Center Arts and Social Science Gateway
A nice collection of excellent resources can be found at the Social
Studies section of this location developed at Cornell.
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General Sites for Teaching
Social Studies
Using
Internet Workshop
• If you are studying the
Civil War, for example, you may wish to set a bookmark for The Civil War Letters of Galutia York and
invite
students to read the letters of this Union soldier, and take notes in a
journal about this soldier's view of himself and his country. For the
same workshop session, you might also set a bookmark for The
Timeline of the Civil War in the
Selected Civil War Photograph Collection.
• For younger students
studying Abraham Lincoln, set a bookmark for the wonderful resource
developed by Tammy Payton, a first grade teacher in Loogoottee,
Indiana: Abraham Lincoln Classroom Activities.
 E-MAIL FOR YOU
From: Linda Shearin
She located Canadiana, a treasure trove of information on
Canada. |
Using
Internet Project
• Previous chapters have
described the important role that Internet Project may play in your
classroom. The chapters also identified locations such as Global SchoolNet's
Internet Project Registry, SchoolNet's Grassroots Project Gallery
where you may
search for Internet projects others have developed.
• Previous chapters have also
identified mailing lists such as those found at Intercultural
E-mail classroom Connections where you
can receive announcements about projects others are planning or post
your own project description to invite participants.
E-MAIL FOR YOU
From: Gary Cressman
Gary listed an Internet project with I*EARN, which stands for International Education
and Resource Network. |
Student-to-Student
• During a student-to-student
activity, students first identify a useful web location related to
their studies. Then they develop a learning experience using the web
site for other students to complete. Here are several examples:
E-MAIL FOR YOU
From: Linda Swanson
Linda helped the 5/6 grades develop their
web page which to date comprises some fifteen different projects and
can be found at Amsterdam
Social Studies Projects. |
Using
WebQuests
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Here are some examples of the better
WebQuests we have discovered for use in social studies. Others may be
found at most of the central sites for teaching social studies that we
listed earlier in this chapter.
• Battle
of the Battlefields
Which of the many revolutionary battlefields should receive money for a
museum to commemorate its historical significance? Your team must
decide which of several battles was the most important in the
Revolutionary War and receive this museum.
• Searching for China
What actions should the U.S. take in its policy towards China? Your
team develops a Group Report that contains a Three Point Action Plan.
Each person on the team takes the part of an expert in one of these
areas, contributing their special perspective to the question:
business, cultural, religious, human rights, environmental, or
political.
•
The Little Rock Nine
Using historical resources, information about previous solutions, and
an exploration of the situation in their own community, students work
in a group in order to answer the question, "What, if anything, should
be done to racially desegregate U.S. schools?"
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E-MAIL FOR YOU
From: Marjorie Duby
Marjorie has been developing collaborative Internet simulations with
other classrooms. Though it's a social studies activity, it
incorporates writing, reading, mathematics, geography, and science. It
deals with students assuming the roles of 1700s colonial characters.
Living in Boston with access to the Freedom Trail sites and a National
Park Service site, Marjorie and other collaborating teachers use many
resources for their simulations. Students begin their study by reading
"If You Lived in Colonial Times" and complete an interview challenge.
After
that introduction, she uses many children's literature and primary
source document resources available in her classroom. Students write a
biographical sketch of
Paul Revere.
Majorie has an overall site for the Revolutionary Period at with an
overview of
activities. She has broken that down to English Language Arts
activities and Mathematics activities.
Exploits she has attempted through the years are available for sharing
at the homepage located at her homepage or linked to that page. Her
school's webpage can be found at
http://boston.k12.ma.us/Lee |
Search
Strategies in Social Studies
• The easiest strategy is to
visit one of the comprehensive social studies sites listed earlier in
the chapter and begin to explore the many resources located there. The
best of these are probably Blue Web'n Applications: Social Studies and
the
History/Social Studies Web Site for K-12 Teachers.
E-MAIL FOR YOU
From: Jeanette Kenyon
Every March Jeanette's 3rd grade class follows the Iditarod Sled Dog
Race using the Internet as their main source of information. There are
wonderful sites on the World Wide Web which post daily race updates as
well as a wealth of background information about the race, the mushers,
history of the Iditarod, and life in Alaska. This year, the sites that
Jeanette found most useful included:
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Developing
Critical Thinking about Web Resources
• There are a growing number
of locations on the Internet to assist you and your students in
developing your critical analysis skills about information at Web
sites. For a general online set of references you should visit Bibliography on Evaluating Web Resources at
the
library of Virginia Tech or
Critical Evaluation Information. You might also wish
to develop an Internet Workshop for your students around the location
we mentioned earlier in this book
ICYouSEE:T is for Thinking. Additionally, you might
have students in grades 6 and above complete one, or both, of these
WebQuests:
Instructional
Resources on the Internet
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• Adbusters:
Culturejammers Headquarters
A location to help your middle school and high school students develop
critical media literacy insights about the commercial world around
them.
• America Dreams through the Decades
This is an extensive interdisciplinary project for upper elementary,
middle school, and high school classes that takes them through an
extended WebQuest using primary source documents available at the
Library of Congress American memory site.
• Black
History: Exploring African-American Issues on the Web
This exceptional site contains six separate resources for the study of
African-American issues: a hotlist of links to important resources on
the Internet, an interactive treasure hunt, a subject sampler, a
WebQuest on the Little Rock 9, a WebQuest on the Tuskegee Tragedy, and
a videoconference.
• Contacting
the Congress
Use this location to quickly send any of the members of the US Congress
an e-mail message about your concerns. It may also be used to request
information for your class about units you are planning.
• Cybrary of the Holocaust
This is an incredibly extensive cyber-library of resources for
individuals wishing to study the Holocaust. Audio interviews from
survivors, written recollections by survivors, works of literature,
images, and a wide array of resources depict this dark period in our
history to ensure that we do not forget.
• Exploring
Ancient World Cultures
This location consists of, "an introductory, on-line, college-level
'text-book' of ancient world cultures, constructed around a series of
cultural pages consisting of: The Ancient Near East, Ancient India,
Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Early
Islam, and Medieval Europe." The site contains an anthology,
chronology, essays, maps, and an interactive quiz for each of the
cultures. This site links to a search engine that brings you Internet
resources.
•
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
Designed by students in Mrs. Taverna's second grade class, this site
includes a timeline, a quiz, character sketches, and crossword puzzles
about Harriet Tubman. Also included are activity ideas for
incorporating the content into the classroom as part of an interactive
lesson plan.
• Journey Back in Time to Ancient Rome
A WebQuest intended for upper elementary and middle school students
using a jigsaw approach. Students use teamwork and the Internet to
explore ancient Rome and learn about daily life, myths, and
governments. Each person on the team learns one piece of the puzzle and
then comes together to get a better understanding of the topic.
• Letters
Home From an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War
These letters home bring to life the struggles of a country and the
experiences of an individual. Nice primary source documents for the
study of US History. Lesson ideas are included.
• MapQuest
This is one of the better interactive map services on the WWW. Your
students can explore maps of nearly any region, right down to locating
their own home on a map of your city. This is a wonderful location to
develop map reading skills with your students as you study different
regions. Set a bookmark!
• My Hero
This site for elementary and middle school students allows you to read
about heroes, many of whom come from history, as well as submit their
own stories. Those heroes can be famous individuals or parents.
Step-by-step instructions are listed at the site.
• National Council for the Social Studies
This home page for the major professional organization devoted to
social studies education contains a nice set of links organized around
the ten themes for the Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.
• National
Geographic Society Home Page
The home page of the National Geographic Society provides a wealth of
information for students related to the programming and books of this
organization.
• Nova
Online/Pyramids: The Inside Story
Take a guided tour inside the great pyramids of Giza, read about the
history of these magnificent wonders, share the recent discoveries of
archeologists, and come away with a new appreciation for the
accomplishments of this ancient civilization. A great site for any
class studying ancient Egypt.
• The Early
American Review
An online journal on the people, issues, and events of 18th century
America. A wonderful scholarly resource for high school students in an
American history course.
• The Role of American Women in World War
II
This is an Internet WebQuest where students, working in groups, examine
the various roles of women during the war, research the Internet,
interview a World War II survivor, then create and publish an oral
history.
• The Smithsonian Home Page
The Smithsonian Institution calls itself "The nation’s treasure house
for learning." This site certainly does it justice. Many outstanding
links to the wonderful resources of this fine institution.
• The White
House for Kids
Have your students take a tour of the White House and visit the
president and his family. Students may also leave a message for the
President, read a newsletter for students, and experience several
important historical moments that have recently taken place. A great
location for Internet Activity in the elementary grades.
• Do You Know Your State Capitals?
Set a bookmark for this interactive game for younger students studying
geography.
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Listservs/Mailing
Lists for Social Studies
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• H-HIGH-S -
LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU
A mailing list for high school teachers of social studies.
• H-Net
Discussion Networks
This web page contains links to the home pages for many mailing lists
in social studies.
• MEMORIES -
listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
This listserv allows students to talk with survivors of World War II.
• NCSS-L
The Instructional Technology Committee of National Council for the
Social Studies has established this listserv for interested Internet
users to share information and ideas about social studies education in
grades K-12 and in teacher education.
• TAMHA -
LISTSERV@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU
Conversations about teaching American history.
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