A good teacher in the state of Texas: knows that the basic purpose of social

studies is to PRODUCE GOOD CITIZENS. Incorporates CRITICAL THINKING in

social studies by having students ask questions.

Uses videos ONLY to introduce a subject or help clarify instructional content.

Knows that social studies should NOT be taught by MEMORIZING dates, facts, and names.

Knows that DEBATE is a good activity to develop an attitude of TOLERANCE toward differing opinions.

A good teacher in the state of Texas: Teaches students that historical events

impact lives today. Knows developing the concept of POINT

OF VIEW helps students to become tolerant of others. Point of view means examining events through another set of eyes.

Knows that LAWS help establish socially acceptable ways to resolve disputes.

A good teacher in the state of Texas knows the basic concepts of social science: INTERDISCIPLINARY means between

disciplines – For example social studies and reading.

INTRADISCIPLINARY means disciplines within a single content area. The disciplines within social studies include: economics, history, geography, government, culture, and citizenship.

Strategies to teach social studies include: Role playing Debate Cooperative Learning Simulations Resource Persons Authentic Experiences

Expanding Communities Approach is based o the idea that students will be introduced each year to an increasingly expanding social environment

Citizens in a community have been debating whether a large wooded area in the community should be used to build a new shopping center or be kept in its natural state. When a local fourth grade teacher begins discussing the controversy with her class, most students immediately express strong support for one view or the other. In response, the teacher has each student write a brief paper listing one or more positive features of the viewpoint with which they disagree. This activity is most likely to help students:

This activity is most likely to help students:

A. Develop skills for drawing valid conclusions and inferences from evidence.

B. Gain an understanding of individual and group rights in a democracy.

C. Develop an attitude of tolerance toward differing opinions.

D. Recognize the importance of individual participation in a democratic system.

Correct Answer

A kindergarten teacher has had children in the class participate in discussions about good citizenship. The discussions focus on ways that people can be good citizens in school, at home , and in the community. The teacher wishes to reinforce these ideas by helping children acquire a sense of personal responsibility for the condition of the natural environment. Which of the following strategies would be developmentally appropriate for achieving this goal?

Which of the following strategies would be developmentally appropriate for achieving this goal?

A. Discussing different kinds of environmental pollution and asking for suggestions for solving pollution problems.

B. Asking the children to create posters showing examples of pollution they have observed in their communities.

C. Making children aware of the different kinds of trash they create and teaching them how to dispose of it properly.

D. Posting photographs of landfills and telling the children that we all contribute to this problem whenever we create trash.

Correct answer

Knows that a teacher’s role in social studies is to provide students opportunities to apply CRITICAL THINKING to organize and use information.

Gives students opportunities to use: PRIMARY SOURCES – First-hand witness. SECONDARY SOURCE – Use primary sources to inform at

a later date. Examples: biographies, texts, trade books. TIMELINES – Graphic representations of a succession of

historical events, helps students put events into perspective.

ATLAS – Book of maps. ALMANAC – Book, published annually, containing

statistical information.

That the CADDO NATION was once the largest and most powerful Native American tribe that lived in the Piney Woods region. Grew crops: Agriculture Villages made up of large timbered

houses. Friendly to white man. Plains Indians: Centered lives around the

buffalo.

MISSIONS: Built by the SPANISH to teach Native Americans Catholicism and the Spanish way of life.

Battle of San Jacinto: In 1836, resluted in Texa’s Independence from Mexico.

Join the Union in 1845.

In a history unit on the Texas Revolution a teacher wishes to promote students understanding of the idea that different groups often have very different views and perspectives regarding historical events. Which of the following discussion questions would best promote this understanding?

A. What were the major contributions made by Texas colonist of British, Irish, German, Swedish and Italian ancestry during the Texas Revolution.

B. Why were Texas colonists so unhappy with the Mexican government just before the Texas Revolution began?

C. How did the fall of the Alamo affect the relationship between Texas and the United States?

D. Why do you think Mexican troops were willing to fight and die in the struggle against the settlers during the Texas Revolution?

Correct answer

A third grade class is starting an oral history project in which students will choose one adult member of their family to interview about his or her life. Students will gather information about where the person grew up, what the person’s life was like as a child, who the person’s family members were, what was going on in the country and the world when the person was growing up, and how the person came to be where he or she is now. Students will write and illustrate a report on what they learn.

A. Appreciate how the social studies differ from other academic disciplines.

B. Recognize that events of the past have directly and indirectly affected their own lives.

C. Understanding different points of view concerning specific historical persons and events.

D. Attempt to generalize larger principles form specific historical events.

Understands key concepts related to geography: MAPS – Visual means of representing location,

distances boundaries, features resources. Move from three dimensional shapes (concrete) to abstract symbols and maps.

RELATIVE LOCATION – Where something is located in relation to something else. Example: What is closer to Texas, Oklahoma or Florida?

ABSOLUTE LOCATION – Precise location on a map or a grid.

Example: 50 N Latitude and 50 W Longitude.

LINES OF LATITUDE – Imaginary lines that run east-west direction and divide the earth into northern/southern hemispheres. 00 Latitude is the Equator and is located in Ecuador.

LINES OF LONGITUDE – Imaginary lines that run north-south direction and divide the earth into eastern/western hemisphere. 00 longitude is the Prime Meridian and is located in Greenwich, England.

RENEWABLE RESOURCES – Those resources that can be replaced in the foreseeable future. Examples: Forest, water, and air.

NONRENEWABLE RESOURCE – Those resources that are not readily replace. Examples: fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas;

minerals like diamonds.

A hunter-gatherer population in a tropical forest in Southeast Asia exhibits various subsistence strategies and social practices that resemble those of a hunter-gatherer population in a tropical forest in Africa. This observation best illustrates which of the following generalizations about the nature of the culture?

A. Cultures are composed of many components that function as an interrelated whole.

B. Cultural traits are learned and shared within groups and may spread from one group to other groups.

C. Widely separated cultures may adapt in similar ways to similar environmental challenges.

D. Material components of a culture are often easier to change than values and other nonmaterial components.

Correct Answer

How the U.S. government is structure. Legislative Branch: makes the law Executive Branch: carries out the laws Judicial Branch: Interprets the laws. Operates by “checks and balances”

Knows some of the terms related to economics: ECONOMICS– the study of the ways in which goods and

services are created, distributed, and exchanged. FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM – Individuals control production

of goods based on supply and demand. SUPPLY – The amount of available goods and services. Demand – The number of people who want to buy the

product or service. INTERDEPENDANCE – How one industry depends on the

work of another. Cities and countries are also interdependent.

Some basic information about the Texas ECONOMY: Early Texas economy was based on

COTTON. Cotton production declined because of the

BOLL WEEVIL. CATTLE replaced cotton by the mid 1800’s. 1900’s – Oil was the basis of Texas

economy. Now – Computers and Electronics are the

largest exporters.

Which of the following questions would best promote second graders’ understanding of the need to

support and follow society’s rules and laws?

A. What would probably happen if people in our society decided to leave all the decisions about rules and laws up to a few people?

B. What examples can you think of to show that people working cooperatively can accomplish more than people working alone?

C. What do you think would happen if everyone in our town did exactly as they pleased for one month?

D. What are some good ways to try and change a rule at home or at school that you feel is unfair.

Correct Answer

As part of a unit on the U.S. economic system, an elementary class has been discussing the concept of production and the kinds of resources needed for production. Students’ understanding in this area would best be reinforced by having them:

A. Role-play the steps and procedures required to make and sell hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant, including steps and procedures involving farmers, middlemen, and other related parties.

B. Prepare budgets in cooperative learning groups with each group representing a family of a different size and with different needs.

C. Investigate was in which the U.S. and Chinese governments influence production, and then participate in a class discussion comparing the different government roles.

D. Draw graphs comparing average price increases for goods and services in the United States and other countries during the last 15 years.

Mrs. Scott is teaching her third-grade students about the Underground Railroad. She wants to make sure the lesson is meaningful, so she plans to bring in a primary source. Which of the following would be considered a primary source.

A. A biography of Harriet Tubman.B. A wanted poster of Harriet Tubman from those

times.C. Follow the Drinking Gourd, a book by Jeanette

Winter.D. The textbook chapter on the Underground

Railroad.

Mr. McCarthy assigned his fourth-grade class a research project on the earliest immigrants of Texas. Which of the following groups were first?

A. SpanishB. EnglishC. FrenchD. Amerinds

Ms. Arcain is teaching her first grade class about the environment. An important concept in this lesson is understanding resources. She wants to make sure that the students understand the difference between natural (renewable) and nonrenewable resources. For review, she asks students:

Which of the following is Not a renewable resource?

A. Water.B. Trees.C. Copper.D. Wind.

Mr. Chancellor’s fourth-grade class was studying the geographic regions of Texas. Students first investigated the different regions then, in small groups, designed travel brochures for their region. For the group assigned the Valley region, what characteristic of the region should they emphasize?

A. Orange and grapefruit production.B. Mountains.C. Pine forests.D. Cattle, sheep, and goat ranching.

Mountains in the Trans-Pecos region. Pine forest are found in the Piney

woods region. Sheep, cattle, and goat is predominant

in the Great plains.

Ms. Thompson wants her kindergarten class to understand the importance of rules. How can she best communicates this idea to her students?

A. Require that students memorize her list of five posted classroom rules.

B. Bring a newspaper to class and have students talk about what the president does.

C. Ask students to help develop a set of classroom rules.

D. Ask the principal to explain the school’s rules to the children.

Ms. Laine “created” two chocolate factories in her fourth-grade room. In one, she place four “employee volunteers”: a mixer (a person whose job it was to take the chocolate out of the container), a pourer (to put the chocolate into the mold), a remover to “take the chocolate out,” a wrapper “to wrap the chocolate in a special foil.” The other “factory” was a sole proprietorship, where a lone owner did all the jobs. Mrs. Laine provided mixing bowls, forms, and aluminum foil as wraps so students could pretend to be doing their jobs. When Ms. Laine designated length of time. The assembly line won. In the next round, however, she had the mixer in the assembly line “go home sick.” The assembly line stalled because no one else knew this job and the sole proprietorship won. Mrs. Laine was teaching that:

A. Blue-collar workers are often in an assembly line position.

B. Specialization of an assembly line also requires cross-training.

C. The demand of a product increases the price.

D. It would be better to have a corporation.

Ms. Henning’s fourth-grade class is ending their unit on the different economies of Texas. To ensure their understanding, Ms. Henning asks them the following question: Which of these is not one of the major economies of Texas?

A. Tourism.B. Oil.C. Cattle.D. Cotton.

B D C A C B A