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:
–Abraham
Lincoln
• 2. Call out
anything you
know about
Abraham
Lincoln.
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
Abraham Lincoln– 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!
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 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
certain places, groups of people etc:
– This might work great with the different members
of Lincoln’s cabinet – Famous abolitionists,
proponents of slavery, the different states
involved in Western Expansion.
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
Cheese – Cultural
Sausage – Social
Garlic – Geographic
Pepperoni – Political
Chicken – Cultural
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
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!!!
What are we going to examine today?
What we will cover today.
• That’s Right!
• We’re going to have a
Pizza Party that engages
our SPECial toppings!
What goes on your Pizza
Cultural
Social
Economic
Political
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 topic?
And now it’s ready for delivery!
• A balanced look at an
element central to the
content that has been
examines through the
SPECtacles of history to
be served at the
doorstep of your
students!
Thank You
• Questions, comments,
modifications?
• afitzpatrick@aihe.info