I have a problem with social studies…it is a subject that is very text and content laden. In the three years that I have taught this subject I have really struggled with what the appropriate way is to disseminate the content to my students in a manner that does not include daily use of PowerPoint presentations. I have tried many different strategies in the past in an effort to find the ultimate alternative to lecture day in and day out…and I’ve still not find the answer.

One method that I have used for quite some time now is the pair share method. In this method students are given the content in the form of text, then asked to study their given piece of information. After they have mastered their content, they are then responsible for reporting back to a small group of peers and “teaching” them said content…and the others do the same in return. The whole idea of this method is to have the kids in small groups and learning from each other. Again, I don’t know that this is the most effective manner to teach content, but it does seem to have success despite the drawbacks that come along with it.

I often find myself incorporating a wide variety of different strategies and blend them into one approach. To be quite honest though, this is not also the best approach. It’s kinda like the old saying, if you make everything a priority then nothing is a priority. I feel like I’m dabbling into a lot of different learning strategies and not coming away with what I want, therefore I try to blend and mix them together…often times leaving me with a jumbled mess. I guess the purpose of this post isn’t to necessarily to convey much of a meaningful message, proclaim that I have found the holy grail of instruction, or to solicit help to find it. But rather it is to simply reflect a little bit and voice some of the frustrations I feel sometimes and how I want to become a better teacher.

Mr. McClung