Social Studies
In 5th grade, we begin learning about North American history, specifically the United States. In this class, we do not use a social studies textbook, but instead use social studies newspapers. The newspapers are divided into "weeks", but it takes us longer than a week to complete a newspaper. We read through the newspapers together as a class and complete guided notes that correlate with the questions on their test.The newspaper also includes various activities that we complete for grades. At the end of the newspaper, the students complete a review for the newspaper and I give a completion grade for their notes.
When we reach the end of the unit, we play a review game that includes the social studies questions straight from the test. This review game gives the students an opportunity to see what information they will be tested over. During this game, I divide the class into two teams to compete to answer the questions. Whichever team wins the review game earns an extra credit. I offer this extra credit opportunity with the hope that students will want to be prepared for the review game and start studying a couple nights before the test. After the review game, I give the students the short answer questions straight from the test, so they know what to prepare for.
At the beginning of the school year, I had the class using "New World" newspapers. After completing the first couple units, I felt that the concepts were organized in a way that made it difficult to make connections from unit to unit. Therefore, I decided to switch back to the newspapers that we used last year, "United States" newspapers, because I felt the content was organized in a more logical order.
When we reach the end of the unit, we play a review game that includes the social studies questions straight from the test. This review game gives the students an opportunity to see what information they will be tested over. During this game, I divide the class into two teams to compete to answer the questions. Whichever team wins the review game earns an extra credit. I offer this extra credit opportunity with the hope that students will want to be prepared for the review game and start studying a couple nights before the test. After the review game, I give the students the short answer questions straight from the test, so they know what to prepare for.
At the beginning of the school year, I had the class using "New World" newspapers. After completing the first couple units, I felt that the concepts were organized in a way that made it difficult to make connections from unit to unit. Therefore, I decided to switch back to the newspapers that we used last year, "United States" newspapers, because I felt the content was organized in a more logical order.