Social studies skills are vital to a student’s success. The ability to read maps, categorize information, analyze artifacts and primary resources, compare and contrast ideas, summarize main ideas, and interpret historical documents are all skills they need to master more difficult content in secondary school. Yet, these skill-based worksheets are oftentimes boring and non-engaging. TCI’s Social Studies Skills Builders strategy turns these traditional, rote “worksheet” tasks into more dynamic, interactive activities. With this strategy, you can begin teaching important social studies skills as soon as students enter kindergarten.
To guide a successful Social Studies Skills Builders activity in your classroom, keep these steps in mind:
- Use Social Studies Skill Builders to engage and inspire your students.
- Teach the skill through modeling and guided practice.
- Prepare students to work in pairs.
- Set clear expectations, allow students to practice the skill repeatedly, and give immediate feedback.
- Debrief the lesson to help students make connections to key social studies concepts.
See this short video tutorial on the Social Studies Skill Builder. If you have a TCI subscription for your class, thumb through the table of contents to see which upcoming lessons use this strategy. If you are new to TCI or our programs, learn more about our award-winning K-12 curriculum here.
