You must be integrating social studies to fit it in, right?
There is no way to fit Social Studies into the school day. I have heard it over and over again. Have you said these words?
There Isn’t Enough Time
It’s not just you, there truly isn’t enough time to cover all the standards. There just isn’t. This means that often, if not most of the time, standards that are not tested at your grade level don’t get taught. Sound familiar.
I remember back when I was told there was no time for social studies by a teammate. I was horrified. This was largely because I had planned social studies for our team and to find out they weren’t bothering to teach it really rubbed me the wrong way.
I set out to make a plan, and I knew that plan had to involve integrating social studies with ELAR.
No More Standardized Tests
Yes, that is the dream. As I sit here writing this I am thinking about when the state of Texas was in the middle of a pandemic and had spent a week without electricity or potable water and still, they said the tests will go on.
This. This is madness. This is also the reason social studies gets thrown off the stove, not even put on the back burner.
Instead of throwing out social studies, why don’t we repackage it? The standards are ripe with opportunities for students to practice critical thinking and comprehension.
Integrating Social Studies with ELAR Through Passages
With all of this in mind, I sat down to create a resource that would sneak social studies into our English Language Arts and Reading block. I mean, integrating social studies is the only way it is going to get taught, so someone had to do it.
Instead of telling the usual facts included in textbooks I took a more nuanced approach to the standards with passages on important people, events, places, and celebrations from throughout history.
Each passage is a one-pager with different genres included as well as questions that cover tested ELAR standards like figurative language, inferences, and summary along with content questions to cover the social studies standards.
These unit packs are available for paper and pencil use as well as digitally. They are ready to be popped right into your Google Classroom or sent through Schoology.
They were created with social studies integration in front of mind.
Try Them Out!
While integrating social studies is not always possible, it just got a little bit easier! Try out this resource today with your own free copy of Weird Texas Passages then snag yourself the bundle here!
