Graphic Organizers for Social Studies
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Graphic Organizers can be a great way to organize student thinking and understanding. Check out these links for some ideas of how they can be incorporated into a lesson and/or homework assignment. |
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Graphic Organizers
From Education Oasis
"Here you will find 58 graphic organizers. They are PDFs. You will need an Adobe Reader to view and print them. Note: Some of the graphic organizers may be filled out (and then printed)." |
Engaging Students with Foldables for U.S. History to 1877
From Fairfax County Public Schools
"Engaging Students with Foldables was created by Susie Orr, an elementary social studies specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools. It contains instructional activities using foldable templates that were modeled after the folding techniques of Dinah Zike. These models correlate to specific Virginia SOL objectives and essential knowledge for U.S. History to 1877." Here you can find a wealth of examples! |
Social Studies Foldables
From Hanover County Public Schools in Virginia
General Tips for Foldables:
Use bright colorful paper, such as Wausau Paper Astrobrights, available at office supply stores such as Office Depot, or Staples. Costco also offers a pack of brightly colored paper at a reasonable price.
Glue sticks make for less mess and less wrinkles. Wet glue makes for longer lasting strength. Choose what works best for you and your students.
Store Foldables in a zipper lock bag. Write names, objective numbers, or other information with a Sharpie, then place clear packing tape over the writing to preserve. Clip corners to let air out and keep flat.
Make models for yourself and store them by unit/objective #. Glue the objective and objective number on the back of the teacher models. Some teachers like to glue the direction sheet to the back. |
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Effectiveness of Foldables Versus Lecture/Worksheet In Teaching Social Studies In Third Grade Classrooms
From the Forum on Public Policy
Here's the research! |
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Strategies for Reading Comprehension
From Reading Quest
"ReadingQuest: Making Sense in Social Studies is a website designed for social studies teachers who wish to more effectively engage their students with the content in their classes. ReadingQuest is designed to provide you with the philosophical bases for sound comprehension strategy instruction, directions for a range of comprehension and content reading strategies, and printable handouts and masters for transparencies." |
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PERSIA
An Outstanding Graphic Organizer!
PERSIA is a graphic organizer breaks down general knowledge into six broad human concerns and over-arching questions:
Political: Who is in charge?
Economic: How do we make a living?
Religion: What do we believe?
Social: How do we relate to one another?
Intellectual / Arts: How do we learn? How do we express ourselves?
Area / Geography: How does where we live impact how we live?
When students are asked to study a time period in history, they sometimes have difficulty organizing all the seemingly unconnected facts about different people, dates, events, and issues related to that time period. The PERSIA approach is one way to organize how the people lived in a society at a certain time in history and so help students to understand that culture.
By considering in turn different dimensions of a historical period or event, students probe deeply into the many facets and implications of the past..
You can also help students break each broad category down by providing the following specifics:
Political
Structure
War
Treaties
Courts/Laws
Leaders
Popular participation
Loyalty to leader
Economic
State control on trade/industry
Agriculture/Industry importance
Labor systems
Levels of Technology
Levels of International Trade
Gender and Slaves
Money System
Religion
Importance on societal interaction
Holy Books
Beliefs/Teachings
Conversion - role of missionaries
Sin/Salvation
Deities
Social
Family order - patriarchal, matriarchal
Gender Relations - role of women, children
Social Classes - slavery
Entertainment
Life Styles
Intellectual / Arts
Art and Music
Writing/Literature
Philosophy
Math/Science
Education
Inventions
Area / Geography
Location
Physical
Movement
Human/Environment
Need something simpler for younger kids? Go with just the PEGS - Political, Economic, Geographic, Social - and back off a bit on your expectations for specific information.
This graphic organizer comes from this address: http://historytech.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/persia-organizer.pdf |
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Opinion/Proof
A Strategy for Students
This strategy is great for getting students to support their opinions. It would also work well for an Interactive Student Notebook! |
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