Weaving Children’s Literature into Social Studies K–5

A. Introduction

1. Facilitate introductions by having participants provide their names, grades taught, and school (and district if appropriate).
   
   Provide a summary of the goals for the day:
   1. Become familiar with a broad selection of powerful and useful books.
   2. Work with several key books and develop some strategies for using them in the social studies classroom.
   3. Share ideas, strategies and experiences using children’s literature in the social studies.
2. Conduct a brief overview of the curriculum, focusing particularly on the following aspects, since these, in addition to the content areas, are well addressed or supported by many children’s literature titles.

• Multiple perspectives
• The core concepts of Citizenship and Identity
• The Aboriginal and Francophone threads
• The central skill of Research and Inquiry
• The Strands (which will be addressed in the third section of the day)
• Environment as a recurring thread
• Current events
• Skills emphasized as much as knowledge
• Problem areas as far a resources are concerned (e.g. Acadia, prairie communities, Tunisia, Peru, Ukraine)