Social Studies
can be
SPECtacular
Anthony J Fitzpatrick
Vice President for Professional Development Services
The American Institute for History Education
Looking for SPECs in your classroom:
• State standards,
textbook objectives,
and writing outlines
are almost always
written in a form of
SPEC or other
helpful anagrams.
• So what is it?
SPEC
• Social
– Having to do with people in groups, their living together, includes
issues such as gender, economic status, and ethnicity.
• Political
– Having to do with gaining, seeking, and organizing power, events
related to the function of government: making laws, enforcing laws,
and interpreting laws.
• Economic
– Having to do with how people meet their basic material needs; the
production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services;
includes such issues as domestic and international trade, monetary
policies, and taxation.
• Cultural
– Having to do with the technology, arts, and institutions of a given
group of people at a given time. It is a tangible representation of
interactions.
You don’t have to capitalize the C
• Often the most
confusing theme is
Culture as students may
confuse it with Social.
• It’s quite acceptable to
use SPE first until they
get the SPEcial nuance
that separates social
and cultural.
Disclaimer 2
• Are you limited to SPEC?
– ABSOLUTELY NOT!
• There are other themes appropriate to bring into your
classroom (Geography, Religion as example)
• SPEC is just a wonderful starting point, and very
versatile.
• There are ways to introduce the other themes while
keeping SPEC as the foundation.
Grade Levels
• Students of ALL ages
and grade levels can
begin to investigate
SPEC in thoughtful and
meaningful ways.
• The key is to engage the
standards in different
ways, scaffold the skill
and then spiral it so
keeps unlock deeper
meaning.
We need a formula!
• Other subject areas
have formulas to help
students “show their
work” and have a path
to figure our problems.
• History and Social
Studies can be
considered in the same
way . . .
Let’s try it out: Generate ideas and find the
SPECs
• 1. Name a
figure or event
central to the
content:
–George
Washington
will be our
example.
• 2. Call out
anything you
know about
George
Washington.
Now:
• Let’s take the list
and use SPEC to
categorize and
organize our
answers.
The result:
• Absent of an initial clear vision of considering
George Washington – armed with SPEC –
students will be able to approach content with
a plan in order to use what they know to
formulate a response.
Get out your SPECtacles.
• Let’s examine
some primary
source
documents
for some
SPECifics.
Let’s move it past just the generation of
ideas . . .
• Graphic Organizers.
• Scavenger Hunts.
• Extension into an
interactive notebook.
• Make generalizations
that will lead to . . .
• THE WRITING PROCESS!
From SPECifics to Generalizations
• Step 1: Generate the
SPECific facts.
• Step 2: Categorize the
facts into SPEC
categories
• Step 3: Rank the
categories in the order
of the ones you gather
the most facts for.
Continued
• Make generalization
statements from each
category (Must show the
connectivity of the facts).
Teacher then grades the
generalization
statements.
• Create a thesis statement
based on their
generalizations and the
connectivity between
them.
WRITE SPECtacular essays!
• Use the letters to help
construct a parallel
structure thesis
statement.
• Prioritize which 3
elements provided the
most information.
• Use the top 3 to
construct the body
paragraphs.
TOPIC
S
P
E
C
Information Information Information Information
The Table Top:
SPECulate
• In need of a conclusion
that doesn’t “tell me
what you told me” –
have the students take
a calculated risk!
What is the goal?
• Have students providing
a broad SPECtrum of
thesis statements and
conclusions that show
their content mastery
and their historical
thinking capabilities.
You Wanna Pizza Me?
Teaching Biography with SPECial
toppings!
Anthony Fitzpatrick
The American Institute for History Education
What on Earth?
• Our Objectives:
– Generate a TON of content concerning various
persons, events, and/or institutions.
– Categorize this information in a fun and create
way.
– Use the things we learned today!
– Create a foundation for a project or extended
writing assignment.
Supplies:
• Pizza box for each student or group of
students.
• Plastic ziplock bag to hold the ingredients.
• Crayons or markers (colored Pencils work too)
• Tape of Glue stick
• Blank White Paper
• Scissors
• Oak tag shapes for tracing.
Content Instructions:
• Let’s generate a list of facts pertaining to a
certain person:
– Benjamin Franklin
Now lets begin to categorize these
facts with some shapes!
• We’re going to use the ingredients that
we encounter in our lives:
–The pizza and toppings!
• Each fact will get a shape that
represents a different category!
Using white paper; draw an empty
pizza crust (a circle really )
Crust ( draw or glue a pic of face)
Sample Categories:
Eggplant- Economic
– Political
Cheese – Cultural
Cultural
Sausage – Social
Garlic – Geographic
Pepperoni
Chicken –
That’s right . . .
• Don’t be afraid to fish in
the “C” of cultural
contributions . . . Are
there any writings,
songs, movies, videos or
other tangible products
that this person has
contributed?
Write the facts on the pieces
• This is a great place for learning as students
will be discussing content and relating them to
themes that they’ve encountered in their class
(using the notebook, SPECs-SPEECH, Read and
Seed – What’s Your Address, etc.
Once we’re done categorizing out
facts:
• Place them on the pizza.
Shut the lid of the Pizza Box:
Use the label to mark which themes
you’ve hit.
Then draw or place a picture on the
top of the box with the corresponding
dates.
What you’ll have . . .
• A wonderful and fun organizational tool for
students to be able to refer back to if you’d
like to extend the assignment into something
more formal.
Let’s try this in groups!!!
Who are we going to examine today?
What we will cover today.
• That’s Right!
• We’re going to have a
Declaration of
Independence Pizza
Party
What goes on your Pizza
Cultural
Social
Economic
Political
Slice of Life
The Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Massachusetts
John Hancock
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Matthew Thornton
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas M' Kean
Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carrol
Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward
Thomas Lynch
Arthur Middleton
Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Be sure to label your Pizza
SPECial toppings on your Pizza!
• Is there anything
interesting or unique
that you could add on
to your pizza to
complicate or highlight
the personality?
And now it’s ready for delivery!
• A balanced biographical
look at a personality
central to the content
that has been examined
through the SPECtacles
of history to be served
at the doorstep of your
students!
How could we do this with the
Native American tribes?
• Let’s discuss . . .
Reference Section
• Images and clip
art you may
want for your
own use.
Eggplant
Sausage
Pepperoni
Cheese
Garlic
Chicken
You Wanna Pizza Me?
afitzpatrick@aihe.info
AIHE Teaching Methods
S.P.E.E.C.H.
How to Use this
PowerPoint
• This PowerPoint explains the
S.P.E.E.C.H. methodology and is to
be used in conjunction with the
Method Review Sheet available in
the Methods section of CICERO.
• For maximum, effectiveness, please
review the Method Review Sheet in
conjunction with the method.
Freedom of
S.P.E.E.C.H.
• In writing about history, historians often take
into account a number of factors in shaping
narratives. These commonly include social
factors, economic factors, and political factors,
along with geographic or other environmental
factors and cultural considerations.
• Teachers can help students to imitate this
method of analysis by using S.P.E.E.C.H.
Make a S.P.E.E.C.H.
• The American Institute for
History Education staff
designed S.P.E.E.C.H. to
highlight five key factors
historians and social
scientists often use to write
about the past.
• These factors are …
The Parts of S.P.E.E.C.H.
Social
• Of or relating to human
society, the interaction
of the individual and
the group, or the
welfare of human
beings as members of
society.
The Parts of S.P.E.E.C.H.
Political
• Political
– Having to do with
gaining, seeking,
and organizing
power, events
related to the
function of
government:
making laws,
enforcing laws, and
interpreting laws.
The Parts of S.P.E.E.C.H.
Economic
• Economic
– Having to do with how
people meet their basic
material needs; the
production,
distribution, and
consumption of goods
and services; includes
such issues as domestic
and international trade,
monetary policies, and
taxation.
The Parts of
S.P.E.E.C.H.
Environmental
• The geographic cause or contribution
of an historical event or issue. Or,
another type of environmental cause
or contribution, such as attitude or
fear, etc.
The Parts of S.P.E.E.C.H.
Cultural
• Cultural
– Having to do with the technology, arts, and
institutions of a given group of people at a given
time. It is a tangible representation of interactions.
= Aspects of (or impact on) History
• a branch of knowledge that records and
explains past events.
The “History” component is the key to SPEECH.
It enables students to determine multiple
causation of historical events and issues.
SPEECH Worksheet (on CICERO)
Thank You
• Questions, comments,
modifications?
• afitzpatrick@aihe.info