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Classroom Q&A

With Larry Ferlazzo

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to lferlazzo@epe.org. Read more from this blog.

Education Opinion

Q&A Collections: Teaching Social Studies

By Larry Ferlazzo — July 27, 2017 3 min read
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I’ll begin posting new questions and answers in early September, and during the summer will be sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past six years. You can see all those collections from the first five years here.

Here are the ones I’ve posted so far:

This Year’s Most Popular Q&A Posts

Classroom Management Advice

Race & Gender Challenges

Implementing The Common Core

Best Ways To Begin The School Year

Best Ways To End The School Year

Student Motivation & Social Emotional Learning

Today’s theme is on Teaching Social Studies. You can see the list following this excerpt from one of them:

* Common Core Moves Social Studies From ‘Memorization’ to a ‘Meaningful Place’

Sarah Cooper, Michael Fisher, Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, Jody Passanisi, and Eugenia Mora-Flores share their thoughts on the impact of the Common Core Standards on Social Studies classrooms.

* Common Core in Social Studies Looks Like ‘the Work of Historians’

Jennifer Hesseltine, Kenny McKee, Erik M. Francis, Wayne Journell, and Dave Stuart Jr. contribute their ideas about the Social Studies connection to the Common Core Standards.

* Teachers Lose ‘Credibility’ If We Don’t Address ‘Controversial’ Topics

Lorena Germán, Adeyemi Stembridge, Stephen Lazar, Jen Schwanke, and Aubrie Rojee share their ideas on how to handle so-called “controversial” topics in the classroom.

* ‘Fear’ Should Not Stop Us From Exploring ‘Controversial’ Topics in School

Gabriella Corales, Tom Rademacher, Martha Caldwell, Oman Frame, Danny Woo, Paul Barnwell, and Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski share their responses to the question: “How do you handle controversial issues in the classroom?”

* Teachers Should Examine ‘Biases’ When Discussing ‘Sensitive’ Topics

Dominique Williams, Matthew Homrich-Knieling, Meg White, Kristina J. Doubet, Jessica A. Hockett, Vance Austin, and Stephanie Smith contribute to Part Three in a series on handling “controversial” issues in the classroom.

* ‘Don’t Avoid Controversial Topics’ in School

Today’s answers on dealing with controversial issues in the classroom are provided by Sara Ahmed, Jennifer Borgioli, Kevin Scott, Erik M. Francis, Phil Hunsberger, Jackie Walsh, Beth Sattes, and Dave Stuart Jr.

* It’s ‘Vital’ for Teachers to ‘Integrate Controversial Topics Into Lessons’

A five-part series on handling “controversial” topics in the classroom series is “wrapped-up” with commentaries by Meg Riordan, Lymaris Santana, Sarah Thomas, and Thomas Armstrong, along with many comments from readers.

* Ways Principals Can Assist Social Studies Teachers

Troy Hicks, Kristina J. Doubet, David Sherrin, Kirke Olson, and Barbara Blackburn share their thoughts. I’ve also included comments from many readers.

* ‘Doing’ Geography Instead of ‘Studying’ It

Today’s guest responses come from Kelly Young, from whom I’ve learned more about teaching than from anyone else; Elisabeth Johnson, who is the best social studies teacher I’ve ever seen; middle school educator Lisa Butler; and Matt Podbury, who teaches Geography at an International School in France.

* Engaging With Race and Class in the Classroom

Three educators—Ashanti Foster, Melissa Bollow Tempel, and P. L. Thomas—and a number of readers share their thoughts on this challenge.

* Ways to Teach Globalization

Four educators—John T. Spencer, Diana Laufenberg, Jennifer D. Klein, and Jason Flom—respond to this issue.

* Teaching History by Encouraging Curiosity

Educators Diana Laufenberg, Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez, and Peter Pappas contributed their responses to this piece.

* Teaching History by Not Giving ‘the Answers’

Bruce Lesh, PJ Caposey, and Dave Orphal share their thoughts in this post, and I’ve also included comments from readers.

* Ways to Deal With ‘History Myths’ in the Classroom

Three talented and experienced educators share their thoughts on the topic—Stephen Lazar, ReLeah Cossett Lent, and Bill Bigelow.

* Ed Week Readers’ Ideas on How We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively

Many readers and I contribute our suggestions.

* Additional Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively—Part Two

Social Studies teachers Eric Langhorst, Beth Sanders, and Russel Tarr all write about what they’ve learned from experience.

* Several Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively—Part One

This post includes guest responses from three talented and experienced educators: Stephen Lazar, Bill Bigelow, and Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez.

I hope you’ve found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!

Image credit: Pablo

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.