1. Instructional Planning for Social Studies
Chapter 3
Instructional Planning for Social Studies

2. Looking Ahead
What problems do teachers have when planning for instruction?
What are your strengths and weaknesses as a planner?
What do you need to be able to do in order to plan a teaching unit?
Are you likely to need to rely heavily on a textbook?
What purposes do other teaching plans serve?
Are you planning to meet the needs of all of your students, including those with special learning needs and those whose cultural background is different from your own?

3. Can You? Plan an instructional social studies unit?
Identify and describe different types of units?
Write instructional objectives?
Establish a “set” in a lesson?
Identify the steps in a case study?

4. Do You? Have experience in collaborative planning?
Know how to go about choosing a unit topic?
Know how much freedom teachers have about what they teach?
Know what is meant by the term webbing when referring to planning?
Have an understanding of instructional objectives?

5. Focus Activity
What was the most memorable lesson/unit you experienced as a student?
Why makes the lesson/unit memorable?
Discuss the details of experiences and compare with classmates.
Do your educational experiences share common attributes with others? If so, what attributes?
Do you think these experiences will have an impact on how you plan for instruction? If so, how?

6. Why is Planning Important?
Helps narrow down the large breadth of information or knowledge.
Planning utilizes various resources to create an environment where learning can be maximized.
Teachers can have a greater sense of accomplishment when their planning comes to life.

7. Setting the Stage: Creating the Environment
What are the predictable hallmarks for creating a success classroom environment?
Sense of Anticipation
Feeling of Purpose/Direction
Awareness Continuity
Atmosphere of Involvement
Awareness of Leadership

8. Why Don’t Teachers Plan?
Not Enough Time
Failure to set Time Priorities
Depending on Previous Material
Procrastination
Failure to Communicate
Experience
Lack of Interest in Content/Subject
Lack of Energy
Inability to deal with Peer Pressure

9. Textbook Centered Units
What are the instructional advantages to using textbook-centered units?
Common Reading Material
Unify Instructions
Peace of Mind for Teachers

10. Types of Planning for Social Studies Units
Expanded Textbook Units
Collaborative Units
Teacher Developed Units

11. Deciding on Unit Topics
What are the four stages for deciding on a unit topic?
coming up with a menu of possible topics,
narrowing the field and finding a broad focus,
identifying a particular topic and refining that selection into a title that adds zest and uniqueness (takes it out of the boring and mundane class), and
deciding on the direction and structure that studying that topic ought to take.

12. Developing the Unit Plan
What are the three types of unit plans?
Resource Unit
Sketch Units
Teaching Units
What are the pros and cons to each type of unit plan?

13. Instructional Objectives
What are objectives?
Why is language so important when writing behavioral objectives?

14. Content Outlines and Flowcharts
How do content outlines help teachers?
Help teachers and students discover the structure of the topic being studied.
Suggest the order of the teaching itself.

15. Concept Webs Why should a teacher utilize a concept web when planning?
Frames the big picture of a unit
Shows how the various concepts covered in a unit are linked or interrelated
Near the center of the web are the broad topics and most important ideas
Peripheral layers show the subordinate and less important ideas

16. Moving Toward the Development of Activities
What is the importance of activities?
Why do you think this phase is often referred to as the developmental phase of the unit?
What is the culminating phase?

17. Finding and Using Prepared Units
Where can you find prepared units?
Commercial Magazines:
Instructor, Teacher, Learning, or Mailbox.
Professional Journals
Social Education, Social Studies and the Young Learner, The Social Studies, The History Teacher, The Clearing House, Childhood Education, and Social Studies Research and Practice
University Libraries
Other Methods Textbooks
Conferences

18. Finding and Using Prepared Units
What are the key concerns when using prepared units?
Adaptation
Vitality and Motivational Appeal
Availability of Resources

19. Planning for Shorter Instructional Sequences
What are the similarities and differences between a unit plan and a lesson plan?
What are some necessary components of a lesson plan?

20. Looking Back
Time is a major problem teachers face when planning for instruction
Unit is the term most often used to describe the long-term planning a teacher does to teach a topic
There are three kinds of teacher-made units
Collaborative or Team units
Teaching units
Sketch units
Short-term planning most often takes the form of lesson plans

21. Extension
Your principal charged you with a task of forming a social studies committee.
What are the advantages/disadvantages to having a committee like this in a school?
Do you think having teacher input on curriculum planning/reform would produce better curriculum for the students? Why or why not?
What are the qualities a teacher should possess to be on this committee? Of these qualities, which are the most important? How should these teachers be selected?

22. Extension
Once the committee has been formed and organized, the teachers get to work.
Imagine your group is the committee. Create a scope (what will be taught) and sequence (when) for your grade level’s social studies curriculum.
Be sure that you meet all required state standards.
The scope & sequence should be detailed and be for the entire school year.

23. Self-Test
What are some reasons that teachers cannot always plan as effectively as they should?
What are some of the characteristics of a classroom where good planning is going on?
How do the varying types of units discussed in this chapter differ?
What is a collaborative unit?
What are the elements necessary in a unit plan?

24. Resources
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence –
The Gateway to 21st Century Skills –
PBS Teachers: Resources for the Classroom -
Roberts, P. & Kellough, R. (2006). A guide for developing interdisciplinary thematic units (4th Edition). New York: Prentice Hall.