NATURE & AIMS OF TEACHING SOCIAL

STUDIES

For proper teaching of a subject it is essential to have a knowledge of

aims and objectives of that subject. This is also true for the teaching of
social studies.
Various method of teaching are then evolved according to these aim
and objectives.
For determining the aims to teaching any subject we have to take into
consideration the utility and usefulness of that subject.
NATURE OF SOCIAL STUDIES
Social studies is a multidisciplinary school subject aimed at the
preparation of students so that they possess the knowledge, skills, and
values necessary for active participation in society.
AIMS OF TEACHING OF SOCIAL
STUDIES
1. Enrich and develop the lives of pupil within their environment
2. Acquisition of knowledge and understanding of society
3. Training in desirable patterns of conduct
4. Development of right attitudes
5. Strengthening national and international integration
6. Socialization of pupils
7. Inculcation in the ways of becoming a “good citizen”
8. The transmission and continuation of core, usually national identities
9. An ability to co-exist or even empathize with others
IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING
SOCIAL STUDIES
1. SOCIAL EXPERIENCE
Social studies provides social experience to our pupils. Though child
has varied social experience with his parents, relation, neighbors,
relatives, friends etc. Before he joins the school but in the school he
gains new and varied experience as he interact with his classmates,
teachers and others.
2. SOCIAL SKILLS
To make his social experience meaningful, he is also provided with the
skills and technique to apply his experience into practical life. Social
skills are as important as the skills of reading, writing etc.
3. SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE
in addition to providing social experience and social skills a study of
social studies also provides a lot of information regarding man
relationships this knowledge helps the child to know the correct facts
and helps in to make correct interpretation, judgments and
generalization.
4. SOCIAL STANDARDS
Every society has a certain code of social standards for its members.
These generally include that the individual member of the society.
Should speak truth,
obey the low,
perform his duties
and maintain a desirable behavior.
CONCLUSION
The aims and objectives of teaching various subjects are normally very
similar and they are generally guided by economic and social
consideration.
The aims and objectives of teaching social studies include all the aims
and objectives of education.
Different individuals list these aims and objectives in different ways.
In case of social studies, it is said that “ the outstanding purpose of
instructions in social studies is to produce citizens and to aid pupils in
the formation of a higher type of social character”.
NATURE OF SOCIAL STUDIES

What is Social Studies?

1. Students’ perspectives on the “content” of Social Studies
2. Students’ perspectives on the “Teaching” of Social Studies

3. Teacher’s perspective on the “content” of Social Studies

4. Teacher’s perspectives on the “Teaching” of Social Studies
RELATIONS OF SOCIAL STUDIES WITH
OTHER SUBJECTS

Islamic Sociology
Studies

Geography Political
Science

History
Social Law
Studies
DEFINITIONS OF TEACHING
Teaching Strategies are used for achieving specific teaching objectives.
Teaching strategy involves educational philosophy to be followed,
objectives that to achieved, learning principles on which learning is
based, constructing desired activities needed for achieving teaching
objectives, and tactics for providing motivation and feedback for
learners. Hence teaching strategy has broad scope than teaching
method or teaching technique.
Teaching Method involves only presentation of learning content.
Teaching Techniques are teaching tactics used by teacher during any
teaching methods. (technique and procedure are synonymous and signify
a series of steps that one takes to employ any general model being used
in the classroom).
TEACHING METHODS USED IN SOCIAL
STUDIES CLASSROOM—A BRAINSTORMING
SESSION
1. Lecture
2. Discussion
3. Inquiry
4. Cooperative learning
……………………………………………….?
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES FOR Dr Yaar Muhammad
TEACHING SOCIAL STUDIES
DEFINITION & EXAMPLES
“What teachers want their students to accomplish”
BENEFITS:
1. Better instruction occurs.
2. More efficient learning results.
3. Better evaluation occurs.
4. The students become better self-evaluators.
THREE STEPS FOR WRITING INSTRUCTIONAL
OBJECTIVES

1.Specify the General Goals

2. Break Down the General Goals into More Specific, Observable Objectives
Specific objectives
Specify content + behaviour
Can include conditions
Level of performance
THREE STEPS FOR WRITING
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES(CONTINUED)
3. Check Objectives for Clarity and Appropriateness
 General goal
 More specific objective
 Prerequisite objectives
SOURCES OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
Textbooks and syllabi
Internet
State and national standards
 CRITERIA FOR USEFUL INSTRUCTIONAL
OBJECTIVES
1. Student-Oriented
2. Descriptive of Appropriate Learning Outcomes
 Sequentially appropriate
 Developmentally appropriate
 Can be mental, emotional, or movement-oriented
 Cognitive objectives refer to outcomes that focus on what the mind is able to
accomplish (including memorizing knowledge, forming concepts, solving
problems, and analyzing and/or synthesizing information).
CRITERIA FOR USEFUL INSTRUCTIONAL
OBJECTIVES (CONTINUED)
Affective objectives refer to outcomes that focus on emotional
reactions to people, places, things, ideas, and so forth. Many of
the affective objectives that are part of an educational
curriculum have to do with the attitudes that students exhibit.
Psychomotor objectives refer to outcomes that focus on physical
movement and the control of muscles and muscle groups.
3. Clear and Understandable
 Only one possible meaning;
 Not too general or too specific
4. Observable
INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING FOR
TEACHING SOCIAL STUDIES
Lesson Planning
Model Lesson Plan Format
Developing Social Studies Model Lessons
FIVE PARTS OF A LESSON PLAN (COOPER ET AL. 2011, 66)

1. Goal or Purpose (Objective)

2. Statement of Content (Content)
3. List of Materials (Materials)
4. Set of Procedures (Beginning (set). Independent work.
Ending (closure).
5. Plans for Evaluating (Evaluation)
REFERENCES
Cooper, J. M., Irizarry, J. G., Leighton, M. S., Morine-Dershimer, G. G.,
Sadker, D., Sadker, M., . . . Zittleman, K. R. (2011). Classroom teaching
skills. Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
 DIFFERENTIATING
INSTRUCTION FOR Chapter 6
ACADEMIC DIVERSITY
1. WHAT IS “DIFFERENTIATED
INSTRUCTION”?

Proactively planning “varied approaches to what students need to

learn, how they will learn it, and/or how they can express what
they have learned in order to increase the likelihood that each
student will learn as much as he or she can as efficiently as
possible” (p. 155)
2. WHY DIFFERENTIATE
INSTRUCTION?

To address classroom diversity

To challenge each student
To address gender differences in learning
To consider cultural issues
To draw on student’s interests and learning modalities
3. THE CLASSROOM ORIGINS OF
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
Differentiation is actually a way of thinking about teaching and learning
that, over time, pervades everything a teacher does. The reason for the
pervasiveness is that differentiation stems from increasing awareness of
a key classroom element—students.
A helpful way of thinking about the origins and impacts of differentiation
is to examine the approach in regard to four classroom elements:
who we teach,
where we teach,
what we teach,
and how we teach.
A) WHO WE TEACH
One of the greatest mistakes we make in teaching is to assume
that all learners in a given classroom are essentially the same.
Each student is uniquely shaped by a combination of culture,
race, gender, experience, and biology.
Each student is someone the teacher must come to know and
understand in order to show respect, recognize individuality,
develop strengths, address weaknesses, and discover potential.
 B) WHERE WE TEACH (CLASSROOM)
Safety (Student must feel safe)
Acknowledgment (opportunities for each student to be known by and
know the other students)
Expectations (regularity, meeting deadlines, commitment to learning)
Hard work and support (a place where an ethic of hard work—
propelled by purpose, joy, and pride—is engendered. Efficient support
to classroom routines)
Everyone is a learner and a teacher (classroom must support shared
teaching and learning)
C) WHAT WE TEACH
Curriculum should be clear and focused.
Curriculum should spotlight high-quality knowledge, ideas, and
skills.
Curriculum should be invitational.
Curriculum should play a role in developing a hunger for learning.
D) HOW WE TEACH
Differentiated instruction really has to do with how we teach.
instruction must
 Be a good fit for the readiness levels, interests, and modes of learning of
individual learners.
 Employ varied modes of presentation, varied approaches to learning, and
varied routes for expressing learning.
 involve a range of student groupings.
 Build student–teacher partnerships—for determining approaches that work
best, for goal-setting, for monitoring growth, and for building scaffolding
for success.
4. SOME APPROACHES TO
RESPONSIVE TEACHING
There is no formula for differentiation—no single way to respond
to student variance.
it’s useful to think in terms of differentiation in response to three
student traits (readiness, interest, and learning profile) in regard to
three elements of curriculum (content, process, and product) and in
terms of two instructional roles (teacher role and student role).
4.1. IN RESPONSE TO LEARNER
READINESS
Readiness has to do with a student’s current understandings and skills
relative to a particular learning goal.
The goals of Readiness differentiation is to make sure that a learner
(1) has enough background to understand the assigned material or task,
(2) has to work to link what he or she already knows to something
unfamiliar introduced in the material or task,
(3) has a support system in the classroom to help bridge the known and the
new, and
(4) generally finds that success follows effort.
4.1.1 STRATEGIES FOR RESPONDING TO
LEARNER READINESS
Assess often and use findings to adjust plans
Provide highlighted texts.
Use tape recordings of text and supplementary materials.
Provide reading partners or reading buddies.
Allow students to express what they have learned in multiple ways.
Provide tasks and products at different degrees of difficulty or different levels
of complexity.
STRATEGIES FOR RESPONDING TO
LEARNER REDINESS
Use rubrics with clear indicators of quality at varied levels of
sophistication.
Vary the pacing of student work.
Provide homework options.
Vary test questions.
Coach for success.
Use instructional strategies such as learning centers and learning
contracts to enable students to work with key content at their level
of development.
4.2 IN RESPONSE TO LEARNER
INTEREST
Interest has to do with a student’s proclivity for a topic.
Interests can be influenced by cultures, experiences, and a
learner’s particular strengths.
The goal of differentiation based on learner interest is to
help a student connect his or her particular talents,
experiences, and preferences to required content. Given the
interrelatedness of all knowledge, capturing student interest
and relating it to what students “have to learn” is really not
so difficult.
 4.2.1 STRATEGIES FOR RESPONDING
TO LEARNER INTEREST
Link required subject matter and interests of students.
Find out what is appealing to students about their areas of interest, and show
them those elements in what you teach about.
Show students how what you teach connects with and furthers your own interests.
Show students how the content you teach shapes people’s lives.
Teach with joy in mind.
Use student interest surveys and poll parents to understand student interests.
Use interest centers and interest groups.
Allow students to specialize in subtopics of a larger topic.
4.3 IN RESPONSE TO LEARNER
PROFILE
Learning profile relates to preferences for how to learn.
The goal of learning profile differentiation is to tap into a
learner’s best ways of learning, while perhaps also helping
learners expand the number of avenues to learning that work
for them. Learning profile is influenced by at least four
factors: learning style, intelligence preference, gender, and
culture.
4.3.1 STRATEGIES FOR RESPONDING
TO LEARNER PROFILE
Highlight past and contemporary contributions to the discipline by people from
varied cultures and both genders.
Present multiple perspectives on topics and issues.
Present in oral, visual, and tactile modes.
Design presentations to move through a cycle of intelligence or other learning
preferences.
Use wait time and other approaches to reflection and student participation.
Use whole-to-part and part-to whole approaches.
Use concrete examples of abstract ideas.
Use contemporary technologies to expand options for student exploration and
expression of content.
 4.5 KEY PRINCIPLES OF
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
There is no formula or template for developing a differentiated or
academically responsive classroom
The core of the differentiation is proactive rather than reactive.
The teacher is clear about what constitutes essential knowledge, understanding,
and skills for any segment of the curriculum.
The teacher provides “respectful tasks” for all learners.
The teacher continually assesses student understanding and adjusts instructional
plans based on what the assessment reveals.
4.5 KEY PRINCIPLES OF
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
The teacher works hard to establish a sense of community.
Flexibility is a hallmark.
There are clear operational routines.
The teacher and students share responsibility for the classroom, for teaching,
and for learning.
teacher is looking for ways to push each student a bit beyond his or her
comfort level and trying to avoid student opportunities to “coast.”
There is a focus on growth. This means at least two things. First, each student
is accountable for progressing or growing in important knowledge,
understanding, and skills, and the teacher is accountable for guiding and
supporting that growth.
APPLYING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
TEACHING IN PAKISTAN STUDIES
CLASSROOMS
WHAT IS CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
TEACHING?
Culturally responsive teaching is an approach to teaching and learning
that builds on the “cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of
reference and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to
make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them.”
Also referred to as culturally relevant, culturally congruent, and
culturally compatible.
This approach to working with students of diverse backgrounds affirms
the identities of students and builds upon who students are and what
they bring with them to school.
WHAT IS CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
TEACHING?

Culturally Responsive Teaching Is Validating

Culturally Responsive Teaching Is Comprehensive.
Culturally Responsive Teaching Is Multidimensional.
Culturally Responsive Teaching Is Empowering.
Culturally Responsive Teaching Is Transformative
CULTURE: A CLOSER LOOK
Moving beyond narrowing student identities to fit into a checklist of
cultural characteristics and practices that members of a particular
group are believed to employ, these more nuanced treatments of
culturally responsive teaching respond to the various sites, or
places, from which individuals draw to create their identities.
EXPLORING THE ROLE OF TEACHER
IDENTITIES

To be culturally responsive and transform curricula and teaching

practices, teachers need to be familiar with the histories of various
groups, know literature written by and about members of these
groups, and be skilled in using this “new” content to transform the
curriculum. But culturally responsive teaching is also about who
teachers are and who they need to become.
EXPLORING THE ROLE OF TEACHER
IDENTITIES
Many teachers believe they shouldn’t acknowledge
differences within the classroom, or that acknowledging
difference can be construed as discrimination.
Example of color-blindness
Most teachers have life stories and experiences that are
drastically different from those of students of color. A lack of
knowledge about cultural differences or ignoring those
differences completely can result in cultural discontinuities in
the classroom that impact student learning. (p. 197)
WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW TO
BECOME A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
EDUCATOR?
The socio-political context of schooling
1. teachers must become familiar with those histories and the
current policies and practices that continue to marginalize
some students while supporting others)
2. Teachers must also transform schools from sites of
oppression to spaces that facilitate learning and liberation.
Critical Pedagogy)
Promising practices among culturally responsive teachers,
(consumers of knowledge to creators of knowledge)
The role of language in culturally responsive teaching (1.
Standard English can definitely be a hindrance) (2. Learning
students’ language helps)
CREATING A CULTURALLY
RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM

exhibit students’ work on the walls to celebrate their

accomplishments.
find ways to take the [national curriculum], which often are not in
and of themselves culturally responsive, and create learning
experiences that affirm, engage, and educate students.
soften the rigid dichotomy that can exist between the roles of
teacher and student.
REFERENCE
Cooper, J. M., Irizarry, J. G., Leighton, M. S., Morine-Dershimer, G. G.,
Sadker, D., Sadker, M., . . . Zittleman, K. R. (2011). Classroom teaching
skills. Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
 APPLYING INQUIRY TEACHING AND
HIGHER-LEVEL THINKING IN PAKISTAN
STUDIES CLASSROOMS
WHAT IS THINKING?
Thinking is a complex act comprising attitudes, knowledge, and skills
that allows the individual to shape his or her environment more
effectively
than by intuition alone.

Teaching students how to think is a journey, not an event.

WHAT ATTITUDES ARE REQUIRED TO
PROMOTE EFFECTIVE THINKING?

1. Willingness to suspend judgment until sufficient evidence is

presented
2. Tolerance for ambiguity
3. A tendency to question rather than simply accept authority
4. Willingness to believe credible evidence
WHAT ARE THE CORE SKILLS OF
THINKING?

Perception of a problem or issue

Ability to gather relevant information
Competence in organizing data
Analysis of data patterns, inferences, sources of errors
Communication of the results
INQUIRY TEACHING
INQUIRY TEACHING
Guided Inductive Inquiry
Inquiry teaching—which requires a high degree of interaction among
the learners, the teacher, the materials, the content, and the
environment.

Unguided Inductive Inquiry

Once the class has mastered the techniques of guided inductive inquiry,
teacher can introduce or allow for student-initiated situations that
enable the students to take more responsibility for examining data,
objects, and events. Because the teacher’s role is minimized, the students’
activity increases.
METHODS FOR DEVELOPING HIGHER-
LEVEL THINKING SKILLS

 Problem Solving
 Discovery Learning
 Techniques for Developing Critical Thinking Skills
 Assessing Higher-Level Thinking Activities
PROBLEM SOLVING
Problem-solving models of instruction are based on the ideas
of John Dewey.
Problem—anything that gives rise to doubt and uncertainty.
Problem to be studied should meet two rigorous criteria:
 It had to be important to the culture,
 and it had to be important and relevant to the student.
Students set up the problem, clarify the issues, propose ways to obtain
needed information, and then test or evaluate their conclusions. In most
cases, learners will establish written hypotheses for testing. Students
need your continual monitoring. In a problem-solving model, you must
continually receive progress reports from students engaged in the
investigative process.
Problem solving technique requires careful planning and systematic skill
building.
Implicit within the problem-solving framework is the concept of
experience, or the idea that the totality of events and activities that
students carry out under the school’s direction as part of the planned
learning processes will produce certain desirable traits or behaviors
that will better enable them to function in our culture.
DISCOVERY LEARNING

Absolute discovery--refers to those classic “firsts” in which

something is discovered for all humankind.
Relative discovery means that although a concept or fact is
already known by others, an individual has learned it or found it
out for him- or herself for the first time.
Strike (1975) also presents four modes of discovery:
1. Knowing that
2. Knowing how
3. Discovering that
4. Discovering how
Environmental education is a rich arena for discovery learning and
problem
solving.
Challenge your students to explore selected themes from history
Techniques for Developing Critical Thinking Skills
 TEN TEACHER BEHAVIORS THAT
ENCOURAGE THINKING SKILLS
1. Plan for thinking. Develop units and lessons based on concepts and
generalizations.
2. Teach for meaning. Connect each lesson to students’ experience.
3. Ask thought-provoking questions. “How do you know?” “What is the
main idea?” “What alternatives can we think of?”
4. Make students aware of their mental processes. “From your
observations about prices in this chart, what might we infer about
supply and demand?”
5. Explain your thought processes frequently. “On this tape, I recorded my
thoughts as I planned today’s lesson. As you listen to it, identify examples
of the following thinking skills.”
6. Keep data before students. Summarize and record student answers on
the board or a transparency.
7. Call on students to explain. Give students frequent opportunities to
explain what they do or don’t understand.
8. Encourage credibility as a criterion. “Does this make sense?” “Why not?”
9. Be consistent. Thinking instruction should be part of each lesson, every
day.
10. Be patient. Significant change requires at least a semester.
THREE SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES

1. Integrated Approach
2. Think-Aloud Modeling
3. Student Summaries
1. INTEGRATED APPROACH

To combine content and thinking skills coverage is to have students

prepare a large wall chart on the content.
Depending on the instructional emphasis, students could be involved in
virtually all thinking processes, from lower-order skills (observing and
classifying) to higher-level skills (distinguishing relevant from irrelevant
statements). Proponents of this integrated approach assert that such
flexibility—the applicability of virtually any subject matter to teach a
full range of thought processes—is its primary strength.
2. THINK-ALOUD MODELING
To use your thought processes as examples. This will help make students
aware of their own thought processes.

A useful exercise is for pairs of students to explain to each other their

understanding of an assignment and the steps they will follow in
completing it.

The process of thinking is more important than the product of thinking—

the objective is to identify effective thinking steps, not necessarily to
find a particular solution. This technique is ideal for open-ended
activities.
3. STUDENT SUMMARIES
Have students summarize.
The summary can be made in writing or presented orally.
Writing summaries is particularly effective because it forces the student
to develop criteria—characteristics used to organize or evaluate ideas
or products—for identifying some ideas as more important than others.
Oral summaries are also effective in helping students develop speaking
skills—and critical thinking.
ASSESSING HIGHER-LEVEL THINKING
ACTIVITIES
The challenge of using any higher-level strategy—inquiry, problem
solving, critical thinking—is that in most learning episodes there
may be NO one right answer.
Use rubrics to evaluate student work. In using rubrics, you establish
a set of criteria by which to assess a product, paper, argument,
conclusion, or methodology.
APPLYING COOPERATIVE
LEARNING IN SOCIAL
STUDIES CLASSROOMS
1. The General Context of Cooperative Learning
2. Essential Features of Cooperative Learning
3. Three Popular Families of Models
4. When is Group Work Not Cooperative Learning?
5. Simple Cooperative Learning Structures
6. Complex Cooperative Learning Structures
7. Developing Students’ Social Skills
8. Managing Effectively to Support Cooperative Learning
9. Schoolwide Dimensions of Using Cooperative Learning
1. THE GENERAL CONTEXT OF
COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Learning activity that promotes development on multiple levels and
takes advantage of students’ diverse resources to meet their
diverse needs.
In the long run, this activity can help them become valued and
productive members of their community.
2. ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF
COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Cooperative learning is an instructional task design that
engages students actively in achieving a lesson objective
through their own efforts and the efforts of the members of
their small learning team. What distinguishes cooperative
learning from other activities that involve working in small
groups is a combination of features that weave through an
academic task.
2.1 FOUR FEATURES CENTRAL TO THE
SUCCESS
OF ANY COOPERATIVE LEARNING
LESSON.
Positive interdependence
Individual progress
Promoting peer learning
Mastering process skills (interpersonal skills)
Using multiple intelligences
3. THREE POPULAR FAMILIES OF
MODELS
Student Team Learning (task structure, team composition, and
reward systems. Task structure ensures that every team member
participates. Teachers compose learning groups that are
microcosms of the class with respect to diversity. Reward systems for
teamwork recognize progress of individual members)
Learning Together (concerned with group process and interpersonal
skills. While group skills are taught in the context of learning
activities, social coherence is viewed as an important goal in itself.)
Structural Approach (lessons as compositions of interlocking parts,
some of which may demand cooperation while others do not. The
cooperative structures he uses serve different purposes, which he
classifies as team building, class building, mastery, thinking skills,
information sharing, and communication skills.)
4. WHEN IS GROUP WORK NOT
COOPERATIVE LEARNING?
Informal small-group tasks (no structures in place to focus and
enhance their exchanges)
Socializing during a lesson
Low structure = low learning (If a group’s product earns a grade
awarded to all students without regard to individual growth or
participation, the group work is not cooperative learning.)
5. SIMPLE COOPERATIVE
LEARNING STRUCTURES
Think–Pair–Share (TPS)
1. Plan TPS breaks.
2. Explain strategy to students.
3. Form pairs.
4. Pose question and signal “think.”
5. Signal “share.”
6. (Optional) Have two pairs share.
7. Have pairs report to class.
8. Continue lesson.
3 by 3 by 3
1. Present. Present a lesson segment—for instance, the first ten
or fifteen minutes of a lecture or film—and then pause.
2. Assign task to trios. Have students form groups of three with
those sitting nearby and brainstorm at least three ideas, facts,
or issues that have been raised during the previous segment
of the lesson. Ask them to write down questions they wish the
teacher to answer. Give them three minutes to complete this
activity.
3. Ask for questions or continue. After three minutes, ask for
questions or simply continue the lesson.
Numbered Heads Together
1. Plan.
2. Form teams.
3. Assign numbers to students.
4. Pose the question.
5. Call for “heads together.”
6. Call the number of respondents.
COMPLEX COOPERATIVE
LEARNING STRUCTURES
Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD)
1. Form heterogeneous learning teams.
2. Present content.
3. Have teams discuss and practice.
4. Assess individual mastery.
5. Calculate improvement scores and recognize team
accomplishments.
Jigsaw
1. Form learning teams.
2. Form expert teams with representatives from each learning team.
3. Develop expertise.
4. Share expertise in learning teams.
5. Assess individual achievement.
6. Calculate improvement scores and recognize teams.
Academic Controversy--involves students in (1) constructing a well-
reasoned defense of a position about which thoughtful people may
disagree, (2) presenting their case to others who argue the other side,
and (3) developing sensible common ground.
This strategy also provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary
instruction that weaves language arts and critical thinking into the
study of other core subjects.
 Planning a Project.
1. Design the content and structure of the task.
2. Prepare materials.
3. Form teams and assign positions.
4. Teach/review cooperative skills and procedures.
Implementing a Project.
1. Pairs develop positions.
2. Pairs present positions.
3. Pairs compare and contrast positions.
4. Pairs reverse sides and teams build new position.
5. Teams present synthesis positions to the class.
After the team presentations, the teacher administers a final test, which is taken individually.
Students’ grades are based on performance on this test.
DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ SOCIAL
SKILLS
1. Work quietly together on team assignments.
2. Ask for and give explanations, not answers.
3. Listen carefully to teammates’ questions.
4. Ask teammates for help if you need it.
5. Work at the pace that is right for your team.
6. Help each other stay on-task; don’t talk about or work on other things.
7. Remember that the team’s work is finished only when every member knows the
material.
8. Ask the teacher for help only if you have asked everyone on your own team and
discovered they cannot help.
Use rubrics to evaluate student work. In using rubrics, you establish
a set of criteria by which to assess a product, paper, argument,
conclusion, or methodology.