Social Studies Toolbox

Do you use bell work (sometimes called bell-ringers, start-nows, or warm-ups) in your History or Social Studies classroom? If not, you might want to consider incorporating this simple yet effective practice into your daily routine. Bell work offers a range of benefits that can enhance your student's learning experience and overall engagement. As a middle school teacher myself, I have found bell work to be an invaluable tool in my classroom, and I'd like to share my insights with you. First and foremost, bell work provides a structured activity to keep students occupied while you deal with attendance and other tasks. By establishing the expectation that students will start their bell work soon after settling into class, you can efficiently manage these administrative duties without disruptions. Creating a weekly agenda, using tools like Google Slides with hyperlinks projected on a smartboard, allows students to access the bell work soon after entering the classroom. It's imp...

Political cartoons can be a powerful tool for teaching critical thinking and analysis skills . Making inferences is an important skill that students can use in all subject areas. I've been working with my Social Studies students this year is how to make inferences by employing close observation and prior knowledge through political cartoon analysis . My students really struggled with this at the beginning of the year. With consistent practice, my students are getting results. How I did it: I scaffold the skill with think-alouds and clear guidance to help students develop their ability to make inferences. By working through the process together and discussing different elements of the cartoons, students are able to build their understanding and confidence in the skill. I project a political cartoon on my smartboard and together we "take it apart," bit by bit. For example, I ask students to share what they see (people, objects, symbols, labels, captions, etc.) We look fo...