Social Studies Content Area Introduction

When teaching social studies it is absolutely vital to contextualize concepts to students and at all costs avoid "text book teaching". This means that students sitting and silently reading a text book and then answering summative questions, or reading aloud as a class out of a text book are not adequate or appropriate manners of teaching social studies. The most important thing is to make history truly come alive for students and to provide them with the backround knowledge and understanding necessary for them to truly grasp and be able to relate to history.