SOCIAL STUDIES

A good teacher in the state of Texas:
knows that the basic purpose of social studies
is to PRODUCE GOOD CITIZENS.
 Incorporates CRITICAL THINKING in social
studies by having students ask questions.
 Uses videos ONLY to introduce a subject or help
clarify instructional content.
 Knows that social studies should NOT be taught
by MEMORIZING dates, facts, and names.
 Knows that DEBATE is a good activity to develop
an attitude of TOLERANCE toward differing
opinions.


A good teacher in the state of Texas:
 Teaches
students that historical events impact
lives today.
 Knows developing the concept of POINT OF VIEW
helps students to become tolerant of others.
Point of view means examining events through
another set of eyes.
 Knows that LAWS help establish socially
acceptable ways to resolve disputes.

A good teacher in the state of Texas knows
the basic concepts of social science:
 INTERDISCIPLINARY
means between disciplines
– For example social studies and reading.
 INTRADISCIPLINARY means disciplines within a
single content area. The disciplines within social
studies include: economics, history, geography,
government, culture, and citizenship.

Strategies to teach social studies include:
 Role
playing
 Debate
 Cooperative Learning
 Simulations
 Resource Persons
 Authentic Experiences
 Expanding
Communities Approach is based o
the idea that students will be introduced each
year to an increasingly expanding social
environment
QUESTION

Citizens in a community have been debating
whether a large wooded area in the community
should be used to build a new shopping center or
be kept in its natural state. When a local fourth
grade teacher begins discussing the controversy
with her class, most students immediately express
strong support for one view or the other. In
response, the teacher has each student write a
brief paper listing one or more positive features of
the viewpoint with which they disagree. This
activity is most likely to help students:
QUESTION
This activity is most likely to help students:
 A. Develop skills for drawing valid
conclusions and inferences from evidence.
 B. Gain an understanding of individual and
group rights in a democracy.
 C. Develop an attitude of tolerance toward
differing opinions.
 D. Recognize the importance of individual
participation in a democratic system.


Correct Answer
QUSTION

A kindergarten teacher has had children in
the class participate in discussions about
good citizenship. The discussions focus on
ways that people can be good citizens in
school, at home , and in the community. The
teacher wishes to reinforce these ideas by
helping children acquire a sense of personal
responsibility for the condition of the natural
environment. Which of the following
strategies would be developmentally
appropriate for achieving this goal?

Which of the following strategies would be developmentally
appropriate for achieving this goal?
A. Discussing different kinds of environmental pollution and
asking for suggestions for solving pollution problems.
B. Asking the children to create posters showing examples of
pollution they have observed in their communities.
C. Making children aware of the different kinds of trash they
create and teaching them how to dispose of it properly.
D. Posting photographs of landfills and telling the children
that we all contribute to this problem whenever we create
trash.

Correct answer
A GOOD TEACHER IN THE STATE OF TEXAS:


Knows that a teacher’s role in social studies is to provide students
opportunities to apply CRITICAL THINKING to organize and use
information.
Gives students opportunities to use:
 PRIMARY SOURCES – First-hand witness.
 SECONDARY SOURCE – Use primary sources to inform at a later
date. Examples: biographies, texts, trade books.
 TIMELINES – Graphic representations of a succession of historical
events, helps students put events into perspective.
 ATLAS – Book of maps.
 ALMANAC – Book, published annually, containing statistical
information.
A GOOD TEACHER IN THE STATE OF TEXAS:

That the CADDO NATION was once the
largest and most powerful Native American
tribe that lived in the Piney Woods region.
 Grew
crops: Agriculture
 Villages made up of large timbered houses.
 Friendly to white man.
 Plains Indians: Centered lives around the
buffalo.
MISSIONS: Built by the SPANISH to teach
Native Americans Catholicism and the
Spanish way of life.
 Battle of San Jacinto: In 1836, resluted in
Texa’s Independence from Mexico.
 Join the Union in 1845.


In a history unit on the Texas Revolution a
teacher wishes to promote students
understanding of the idea that different
groups often have very different views and
perspectives regarding historical events.
Which of the following discussion questions
would best promote this understanding?
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS WOULD BEST PROMOTE THIS
UNDERSTANDING?
A. What were the major contributions made by Texas colonist of
British, Irish, German, Swedish and Italian ancestry during the
Texas Revolution.
B. Why were Texas colonists so unhappy with the Mexican
government just before the Texas Revolution began?
C. How did the fall of the Alamo affect the relationship between
Texas and the United States?
D. Why do you think Mexican troops were willing to fight and die
in the struggle against the settlers during the Texas Revolution?

Correct answer

A third grade class is starting an oral history
project in which students will choose one
adult member of their family to interview
about his or her life. Students will gather
information about where the person grew up,
what the person’s life was like as a child,
who the person’s family members were,
what was going on in the country and the
world when the person was growing up, and
how the person came to be where he or she
is now. Students will write and illustrate a
report on what they learn.
THIS ACTIVITY WILL HELP STUDENTS TO:
A. Appreciate how the social studies differ from other
academic disciplines.
B. Recognize that events of the past have directly and
indirectly affected their own lives.
C. Understanding different points of view concerning
specific historical persons and events.
D. Attempt to generalize larger principles form specific
historical events.
A GOOD TEACHER IN THE STATE OF TEXAS:

Understands key concepts related to geography:
 MAPS – Visual means of representing location,
distances boundaries, features resources. Move from
three dimensional shapes (concrete) to abstract symbols
and maps.
 RELATIVE LOCATION – Where something is located in
relation to something else. Example: What is closer to
Texas, Oklahoma or Florida?
 ABSOLUTE LOCATION – Precise location on a map or a
grid.

Example: 50 N Latitude and 50 W Longitude.
LINES OF LATITUDE – Imaginary lines that
run east-west direction and divide the earth
into northern/southern hemispheres. 00
Latitude is the Equator and is located in
Ecuador.
 LINES OF LONGITUDE – Imaginary lines that
run north-south direction and divide the
earth into eastern/western hemisphere. 00
longitude is the Prime Meridian and is
located in Greenwich, England.


RENEWABLE RESOURCES – Those resources
that can be replaced in the foreseeable
future.
 Examples:

Forest, water, and air.
NONRENEWABLE RESOURCE – Those
resources that are not readily replace.
 Examples:
fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas; minerals
like diamonds.

A hunter-gatherer population in a tropical
forest in Southeast Asia exhibits various
subsistence strategies and social practices
that resemble those of a hunter-gatherer
population in a tropical forest in Africa. This
observation best illustrates which of the
following generalizations about the nature of
the culture?
THIS OBSERVATION BEST ILLUSTRATES WHICH OF THE
FOLLOWING GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT THE NATURE
OF THE CULTURE?




A. Cultures are composed of many components that
function as an interrelated whole.
B. Cultural traits are learned and shared within groups and
may spread from one group to other groups.
C. Widely separated cultures may adapt in similar ways to
similar environmental challenges.
D. Material components of a culture are often easier to
change than values and other nonmaterial components.

Correct Answer
A GOOD TEACHER IN THE STATE OF TEXAS:

How the U.S. government is structure.
 Legislative
Branch: makes the law
 Executive Branch: carries out the laws
 Judicial Branch: Interprets the laws.
 Operates by “checks and balances”
A GOOD TEACHER IN THE STATE OF TEXAS:

Knows some of the terms related to economics:





ECONOMICS– the study of the ways in which goods and services are
created, distributed, and exchanged.
FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM – Individuals control production of goods
based on supply and demand.
SUPPLY – The amount of available goods and services.
Demand – The number of people who want to buy the product or
service.
INTERDEPENDANCE – How one industry depends on the work of
another. Cities and countries are also interdependent.
A GOOD TEACHER IN THE STATE OF TEXAS:

Some basic information about the Texas
ECONOMY:
 Early
Texas economy was based on COTTON.
 Cotton production declined because of the BOLL
WEEVIL.
 CATTLE replaced cotton by the mid 1800’s.
 1900’s – Oil was the basis of Texas economy.
 Now – Computers and Electronics are the
largest exporters.
Which of the following questions would best
promote second graders’ understanding of
the need to support and follow society’s
rules and laws?
A.
B.
C.
D.
What would probably happen if people in our society
decided to leave all the decisions about rules and laws up
to a few people?
What examples can you think of to show that people
working cooperatively can accomplish more than people
working alone?
What do you think would happen if everyone in our town
did exactly as they pleased for one month?
What are some good ways to try and change a rule at
home or at school that you feel is unfair.

Correct Answer

As part of a unit on the U.S. economic system,
an elementary class has been discussing the
concept of production and the kinds of
resources needed for production. Students’
understanding in this area would best be
reinforced by having them:
STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING IN THIS AREA WOULD
BEST BE REINFORCED BY HAVING THEM:
A.
B.
C.
D.
Role-play the steps and procedures required to make and sell
hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant, including steps and
procedures involving farmers, middlemen, and other related
parties.
Prepare budgets in cooperative learning groups with each
group representing a family of a different size and with
different needs.
Investigate was in which the U.S. and Chinese governments
influence production, and then participate in a class
discussion comparing the different government roles.
Draw graphs comparing average price increases for goods
and services in the United States and other countries during
the last 15 years.
Mrs. Scott is teaching her third-grade students about the
Underground Railroad. She wants to make sure the
lesson is meaningful, so she plans to bring in a primary
source. Which of the following would be considered a
primary source.
A.
A biography of Harriet Tubman.
B.
A wanted poster of Harriet Tubman from those times.
C.
Follow the Drinking Gourd, a book by Jeanette Winter.
D.
The textbook chapter on the Underground Railroad.
Mr. McCarthy assigned his fourth-grade class a
research project on the earliest immigrants
of Texas. Which of the following groups
were first?
A. Spanish
B. English
C. French
D. Amerinds
Ms. Arcain is teaching her first grade class about the
environment. An important concept in this lesson is
understanding resources. She wants to make sure that
the students understand the difference between natural
(renewable) and nonrenewable resources. For review,
she asks students:

Which of the following is Not a renewable resource?
A.
Water.
B.
Trees.
C.
Copper.
D.
Wind.
Mr. Chancellor’s fourth-grade class was studying the
geographic regions of Texas. Students first investigated
the different regions then, in small groups, designed
travel brochures for their region. For the group assigned
the Valley region, what characteristic of the region should
they emphasize?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Orange and grapefruit production.
Mountains.
Pine forests.
Cattle, sheep, and goat ranching.
Mountains in the Trans-Pecos region.
 Pine forest are found in the Piney woods region.
 Sheep, cattle, and goat is predominant in the
Great plains.

Ms. Thompson wants her kindergarten class to
understand the importance of rules. How can
she best communicates this idea to her
students?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Require that students memorize her list of five
posted classroom rules.
Bring a newspaper to class and have students
talk about what the president does.
Ask students to help develop a set of classroom
rules.
Ask the principal to explain the school’s rules to
the children.
Ms. Laine “created” two chocolate factories in her fourthgrade room. In one, she place four “employee volunteers”:
a mixer (a person whose job it was to take the chocolate out
of the container), a pourer (to put the chocolate into the
mold), a remover to “take the chocolate out,” a wrapper “to
wrap the chocolate in a special foil.” The other “factory”
was a sole proprietorship, where a lone owner did all the
jobs. Mrs. Laine provided mixing bowls, forms, and
aluminum foil as wraps so students could pretend to be
doing their jobs. When Ms. Laine designated length of
time. The assembly line won. In the next round, however,
she had the mixer in the assembly line “go home sick.” The
assembly line stalled because no one else knew this job
and the sole proprietorship won. Mrs. Laine was teaching
that:
MRS. LAINE WAS TEACHING THAT:
A.
B.
C.
D.
Blue-collar workers are often in an assembly
line position.
Specialization of an assembly line also
requires cross-training.
The demand of a product increases the price.
It would be better to have a corporation.
Ms. Henning’s fourth-grade class is ending
their unit on the different economies of
Texas. To ensure their understanding, Ms.
Henning asks them the following question:
Which of these is not one of the major
economies of Texas?
A. Tourism.
B. Oil.
C. Cattle.
D. Cotton.
RESPUESTAS
B
D
C
A
C
B
A
