Socratic seminars are a great assessment in social studies classes! They encourage students to think critically and discuss big ideas!

Rethink the way you teach American History with this America at War unit. Teach wars simultaneously while focusing on big picture concepts.

Get students engaged in learning about history by having them write and illustrate major events and put them in chronological order.

Rethink the way that you teach world history by teaching different civilizations simultaneously using the 5 themes of social studies.

Have you ever assigned your Middle School students a research project and realized they didn’t have the knowledge or skills to find the information they needed?  This happened to me a lot my first few years teaching, so I often just defaulted to lecturing about topics instead of having students do their own research. It can be easy to just tell your students what you want them to know.  Doing this can fill your student’s brains with knowledge, but it doesn’t really teach them

Looking for a way to help your students really understand why the U.S. Constitution matters? Try teaching U.S. Government thematically!

Every history teacher deals with the dilemma of how to fit centuries of history into a single school year. Before I made the shift to teaching United States history thematically, my students barely ever learned anything more recent than the Korean War. By shifting my strategy from moving through history chronologically to viewing social studies through broader themes, my students are now able to make big-picture connections between events.   Before I made the switch, my 8th g

When I first started teaching history, I quickly became overwhelmed by the curriculum that I was “supposed” to cover in a 180 day school year.  In my 7th grade United States history course, which was supposed to cover Pre-Columbian America to Reconstruction, I spent so much time on the American Revolution and the creation of the Constitution in the fall that my units about the Civil War and Reconstruction in the spring were unceremoniously rushed.  My 8th grade U.S. history c

One of the best ways to get students to buy-in to a new unit is to get them engaged right away with a “hook” activity.  A hook activity is designed to get students curious about a topic and get them to want to learn more.  Below, I’ve listed three of my favorite ways to get students interested in a new area of study and get them asking burning questions that they can’t wait to find out the answer to. Hook idea #1: The KQO Activity Gallery Walks are one of my favorite ways to

Several years ago, I noticed that my 6th grade history class was getting stale.  It was my 7th year of teaching the exact same Ancient Civilizations curriculum to the same age group. My classroom followed the same format for each ancient civilization unit.  We trudged through the book in chronological order.  Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Greece, and Rome.  While students enjoyed learning about mummies and pyramids in Egypt, the Olympics in Greece, and the gladiators in R