There seems to be very little resources out there for middle school social studies. I am trying to help out a friend who teaches it (7th grade) and there are no books or specific lessons to tie to the areas taught. I was wondering if anyone had websites, books, lessons, etc., that they know of to help with it? BTW, we have no textbooks, probably like most others, for that subject or any other subject. Thanks!!
First, direct your friend to the friend's state's content standards for social studies: it should be on the Web site of the state's board of education, probably downloadable for free, and it will spell out what each grade is supposed to be learning. The board of ed Web site should also have some lists of or links to recommended curricular materials. Second, have your friend look up the local, state, and national associations of teachers of social studies, history, and related fields: the Web sites themselves can have useful resources, and getting together with people locally who've been doing this for a while might be helpful. Third, once she's got a sense of what the curriculum might look like, she can start looking up lesson plans on specific topics. A good resource for everybody is Richard Byrne's blog Free Technology for Teachers, www.freetech4teachers.com: there's lots of help with social studies content.
She has the State standards and the County pacing guides. There are just some links to websites to use. She's been teaching for over 15 year and 10 years before that as an assistant, she knows how to put lessons together and has the specific topics but there seems to be a shortage of resources specifically tied to Middle School standards.
(Well, this COULD have been a question on behalf of a newbie...) Hm. Then she might want to try looking specifically for an organization of MIDDLE-SCHOOL social studies teachers (use local, county, and state designations as appropriate, and plan on more than one search). In addition, in searching for lesson plans, include "grade 7" in the search string: if grade 7 covers modern world history in your friend's state, a plausible search string to find resources on, say, the bombing at Pearl Harbor would be "lesson plan grade 7 social studies ___ pearl harbor", where the blank is filled by the state (and, if the search with the state name doesn't do well, the state name can be deleted, or "common core" substituted, and so on). One could also search for "curriculum resources grade 7 social studies ___ pearl harbor".
http://sheg.stanford.edu/ - great starting point with plenty of sources www.mrroughton.com - my own site for my middle school class with everything I do. www.sharemylesson.com - a whole bunch of teachers sharing stuff searchable by grade level.
I love www.ducksters.com . I use it all the time for information that is broken down and formatted in a way that is easy for middle schoolers to grasp. I just used it this afternoon to help a student research and analyze Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations to do a compare and contrast essay. I've used it for many other history topics, as well.
She's a "newbie" in the since that this is the first time she's taught 7th grade social studies and our State lacks in resources and the other veteran social studies teacher does not share her stuff for whatever reason...
7th Grade in NC focuses on: Renaissance & Reformation, Age of Exploration & Global Exchange, Enlightenment & Revolution, Industrial Revolution & Society's Response, Age of Imperialism & WWI, WWII, Cold War, New World Order
Changing grade levels or content can be difficult and leave even a veteran teacher stressful. Hugs to your friend! You are a great friend and colleague to be helping her!
