7 Social Studies Stations That Work in ELA or 30-Minute Blocks

[00:00:27] If you're like most upper elementary teachers, you likely have about 30 minutes if you're lucky And it may not even happen every day. So how can we make social studies meaningful in the first place? That is where stations comes in.

[00:00:52] But before we get started, I just wanted to share that I would appreciate it if you could like, subscribe, share [00:01:00] this episode with other teachers just like you, who teach upper elementary social studies, even ELA. Whatever it might be. If you think that this would help teachers, I would love it if you could share it along, and you can always listen to this particular episode on podcasts, platforms, wherever you love to listen to podcasts.

[00:01:40] So without further ado, let's go ahead and start into this episode.

[00:02:08] I could not handle the switching to two to three stations a day in a long period of time. For me, it was easier and less chaotic with a 45 to 60 minute. Station time and the students stay at the station time and work on a set of tasks that take around that time. So I really am a proponent of stations, but if you like the shorter stations, that's totally fine.

[00:02:53]

[00:03:14] It's a way to let you differentiate without running around crazy. I grouped my stations by levels, and so students were in similar reading levels and abilities, and so it was super easy. Not a problem. To know that, okay, on this particular day, this particular group is going to this station, so I need to make sure that they're doing this task instead of a analytical, higher thinking task that the higher students would be able to grasp more easily.

[00:04:07] The best thing about it is it's flexible. You can rotate the stations, like I mentioned, one per day, where they're doing four to five stations a week, or you can have them do two per day, so they're rotating through some of the same stations. They may be doing something a little bit different.

[00:04:54] That could be really fun and something that students might be able to look forward to.

[00:05:02] We are gonna start with the classic, the daily social studies passages that I have in my membership as well as in my TPT store. These are short nonfiction texts that take around three to five minutes to read, and there's three comprehension questions for each passage. They might cover a historical figure, a geography skill, a celebration or tradition, or some type of civics concept like voting or rights and responsibilities.

[00:05:48] You can have students do a few passages of that in that one station, or you can just have them do all four, because there's always four per topic with the [00:06:00] quiz. So you could just. Staple it together, have, that's what they're working on for that specific station. If you're doing a longer block, if you're doing a shorter block, I would recommend only doing one or two days.

[00:06:33] There's also a lot of things you can incorporate with this If you require or would like for your students to look for evidence with a highlighter, you could always have them practice those reading comprehension skills where they have to find evidence in the passage to justify their answer. And you can always incorporate other things like.

[00:07:05] The second station idea I have for you is task cards. These are amazing for review, early finishers and practicing content vocabulary. Each card can ask a question or some type of scenario or offer some type of visual that they have to analyze. You can do multiple choice task cards, something with an open ended question or even a which one doesn't belong format.

[00:08:09] Were able to reuse the task cards, and then they each had their own recording sheet, and then they would work on that forestation.

[00:08:40] Just depending on what you need, you're basically pulling in a real photo quote, short document or some type of artifact and have students observe. Analyze, ask questions and make inferences. So this just example that I've been [00:09:00] showing is showing a photo of families at Ellis Island.

[00:09:18] The next station and one of my favorites is utilizing a WebQuest. with WebQuest, you'll need your students to have some type of device along with recording sheet and a source that you pick out depending on what the topic is. These are basically guided online explorations with student friendly links, and kids might research a famous person, explore a country, investigate a holiday, or compare two forms of government,

[00:10:16] I've got topics from Tom Brady to the Constitution to regents of the US to the lost colony of Roanoke and. Everybody has seemed to love these A lot of teachers say that their students are engaged and they had a lot of fun, and there are some teachers who even use it for sub plans if they're out for the day.

[00:10:57] the Number five, we have a [00:11:00] journal or writing reflection for a station. This is pretty self-explanatory. You have some type of prompt or a written piece where students have a notebook or a paper and they are reflecting or journaling. Students are connecting to the content to their own world.

[00:11:47] And an ELA bonus for this is you can do a variety of genres. You can do expository narrative, prompt, some type of argumentative prompt, so just go throughout the year, [00:12:00] maybe even as you're discussing a specific ELA genre. We usually started the year with personal narrative, so you can make sure to have some type of related social studies.

[00:12:18] The station that I think would be really fun as well is some type of digital interactive station. This could really vary depending on what resources you might have with your district and what's contracted or utilized through different subscriptions. So this could be maybe Nearpod, which is free for teachers.

[00:13:00] You can use this as a way to review vocabulary skills or the content that you might have taught, and you could also kind of spiral it in throughout the year, so maybe. Let's say it's October or November, and at the very beginning of the year, you talked about different regions of the United States. You can always pull in a fun activity and put that in a station related to the regions of the United States, and it's a nice way for students to review what they've already learned a few months prior.

[00:13:56] But I did know that through the years [00:14:00] I came to love small groups because I really got a chance. To meet on a smaller level with students and work with them on different specific skills that they needed extra practice on.

[00:14:46] So you could do something like that where you have some type of social. Studies related book club. That would be super fun to do. Or you can use it to review and practice a specific social studies skill that they need [00:15:00] to be retaught or review.

[00:15:27] Book clubs, but I did have some groups that I would meet with. Two to three times a week to work on different things. One day we would work on vocabulary another day, main idea in detail, and another would be some type of fun review game. So it really depended on what it is. They need support with, and I would meet with them.

[00:16:08] So the great news about all of these stations that I mentioned is that you do not have to start off off the get go with all seven stations ready to go. You can pick one or two of your favorite ones that you just heard today and see what you can do to implement them in your social studies block or your ELA station rotation.

[00:17:00] If you're using my smart and simple social studies membership, a lot of these stations are already built in the daily passages, the task cards, the journal prompts. There are so many different activities that you can add in as a station, and it is something that you could easily just click on, download and go.

[00:17:48] Thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. I can't wait to talk to you next time.