A Behind the Scenes Look at the Smart and Simple Social Studies Guided Curriculum

Kirsten 0:09

This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm Kirsten of the Southern teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies. I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Kirsten 0:47

Hi there, and welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. Today is going to be a little bit different, because I'm going to give you a behind the scenes look at my Smart and Simple Social Studies guided curriculum. This is the all in one - 36 week curriculum that I have for each grade level, for grades three, four, and five, and it is mostly and primarily TEKS aligned. But if you teach US history, and you are an upper elementary teacher, you can totally use this. But I always, of course, suggest this for Texas Teachers, but really, any teacher can use it. Third grade communities aligns with a lot of general social studies. The only grade level, if you're not in Texas it wouldn't be beneficial would be the fourth grade Texas history, because it's pretty self explanatory in the name. But either way, today I'm going to go into a little bit about each of the different curricula and the differences between the three, and then I'm going to go into the components and what makes the guided curriculum really easy - low prep for teachers and engaging for students at the same time. The great news that I have, that I'm excited to share, is that I am working on the sixth grade guided curriculum for world cultures or contemporary societies. And I'm also, later in the year, going to be working on a second grade curriculum. So this is great for if you are a TEkS Texas teacher who teaches second grade and also sixth grade, but again, you'll be able to look into the units and go in more depth in the preview, just to see which units work for you, and also for all of these guided curricula resources, you can pick and choose which units you want. So maybe you specifically know you need to teach about the Civil War and Reconstruction. There's a unit for that, and you can just buy that in isolation. You do not have to buy the bundle, but I'm just going to be going kind of like a overview of each of them. So we are going to start with third grade, move on to fourth grade, and then more into about what's included for the fifth grade. And I will be sharing with you at the end of this episode the various components that you'll see in each of the guided curriculum.

Kirsten 3:04

So up first, I will be talking about third grade communities. This is best suited for third grade students if following along with the TEKS. However, this can be used with any state and in any order. To take a look at what students are going to be exploring throughout the year, they're going to be looking at historical figures and events that have shaped communities in the past and the present. They're also going to be looking into community characteristics, geography, economics, government, citizenship, and the impact of science and technology on society. This is mainly understanding how individuals, events, and ideas have influenced the history of a variety of communities around the world. So there is going to be a start, mainly in geography, with map and globe skills, the physical environment, then moving into government, historical documents, the structure and function of government, good citizenship, cultural celebrations in the culture and society domain. Then moving into history, with community characteristics, shaping communities and heroes in communities, and writers, artists, science and technology is a unit that also involves culture and the impact on society. And the end of the curriculum will focus on economics with ways to use money and the free enterprise system.

Kirsten 4:37

All right, next up, I'm going to be talking about the fourth grade Texas history guided curriculum. This is best suited for fourth grade students who follow along with the TEKS standards. However, this can be used in any order. The Smart and Simple Social Studies Texas history guided curriculum provides fourth grade teachers with a structured framework to teach students about the origins, development, and significant events in Texas history. There's going to be topics such as indigenous groups in Texas, early Texas settlements, government, the Texas Revolution, citizenship and cultural contributions to Texas. Throughout the year, students will engage in lessons, activities, discussions and research projects to deepen their understanding of Texas history. So starting with the first three units of this curriculum, there's going to be a lot of geography, thinking about the regions of Texas, patterns of settlement in Texas, and adapting and modifying the environment in Texas. Next we move to the bulk of Texas history, which is indigenous groups in Texas, early Texas settlements with missions and presidios, the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas, as well as annexation into the United States, and information about the current Texas government. We also are going to be covering Texas in the late 19th century with the Civil War and Reconstruction, the economic boom, with the railroad industry and cattle industry, and also Texas in the 20th century, with information of certain events, such as the Dust Bowl in World War Two, the civil rights movement, and how it affected life in Texas. Unit 10 goes into economics and how Texas regions have changed, or maybe not changed in the economy's past and present. And the last three units mainly focus on citizenship in Texas, customs, symbols, and celebrations in Texas, such as the Texas state flag in a variety of patriotic Texan holidays. And lastly, we end with contributions to Texas in art, music, and science and technology.

Kirsten 7:06

Kirsten 9:39

All right, now that we've talked about third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade and the differences between each of the guided curriculum I'm going to be sharing with you the structure of the guided curriculum - doesn't matter which grade level you pick, it's going to be consistently the same. So we're going to dive into each of the major components that you will see in the bundle. Let's go into the lesson slide shows. There are non editable slideshow lessons that have information about a specific topic in student friendly language. There's highlighted keywords for students to write it down. And at the very end of that slideshow, there's going to be a let's discuss question. You'll see it in the PDF version that there is a digital access page for each unit, and when you go on that page, or a couple of pages, you're going to see all of the Google Slides links. But if you choose not to use Google Slides, if you prefer PowerPoint, there is also a link to download all the slide shows as a PowerPoint file. The guided notes, there's two versions of them for select lessons, not every single lesson in each unit are going to have guided notes. It just really depends on the topic. But for the lessons that do include guided notes, there's going to be a fill in the blank version or a highlighted version that will look just like the slideshow. And the guided notes are already sized to fit both in spiral and composition notebooks. I've also included a full page version of the guided notes, so if you decide not to use composition notebooks or spiral notebooks, you will also see that there's that full page option for both the fill in the blank and highlighted versions that you can utilize. Maybe you might have folders that you use with brads, or you might have a binder that you use for your social studies classroom. That would be a good way to utilize the full page version. These guided notes are designed to easily refer back to so that they can review what they've learned. Maybe there's some type of cumulative test where they might need to go back and study their notes. That's a really great way to utilize these guided notes. If you find that either the highlighted version or the fill in the blank version is a little bit too easy for your students, and they could take a little bit more notes, what I would recommend is getting some white out and just whiting out a set of words, or even full on sentences to give them the autonomy to take their own notes if you feel that they're ready to do that. You can do this for a master copy, and then you can make copies for your students. We also have practice activities for each of the select lessons, and it's included for every unit. There's a variety of practice activities. It really ranges depending on the topic and depending on the lesson. These can be completed in a small group or in pairs or independently, or as homework or right after the slideshow lesson with the guided notes. And then there's also the exit tickets. These are short and simple. Includes two questions, and they can be a combination of two multiple choice questions, two short answer questions, maybe one of each. This is a great way to check for understanding, and you can use it as a quick formative assessment or as a grade to see what they have learned. Each of the units includes one editable review game that can be played as a whole group or individually. There's two versions that you'll see on the digital access page. You'll see the teacher version and the slideshow game mode student version. If you want to edit the questions and delete questions or add questions, I recommend you use the teacher link for that review game, and then you can share it with your students digitally, or you can put it on the board and just kind of play as a whole group. Then there's also the student mode. This is great if you're happy with the questions and answer choices and you don't want to change anything, you can give your students that link, and they can play it asynchronously or independently on their own devices. Or you could also use this as your whole group version. There's different ways to play the review games. You can do it again as a whole group, and you have your students in teams, or you can have your students play the game independently. Unit projects are included in each unit, you're going to see that each unit includes some type of student handout with the project prompt and overview and criteria. You'll see project page options as needed, and you'll also see a rubric based on criteria. This rubric is a great way to assess student understanding and how they did on the project itself. This is two to a page, so you can make multiple copies, and you could also additionally give students a version of the rubric so they know what to expect and what you will be looking for as you're grading the projects if you choose to do. So lastly, we've got the unit assessments. There's three sections to each of the assessments for each unit. The format is always the same. There's the first part which is vocabulary matching. The second part is multiple choice questions, and the third part is the short answer questions based on the information from the unit lessons. Everything on the assessment is going to be previously taught in each of the slide shows and mini lessons and practice activities. To help you, there are answer keys included for the guided notes, practice activities, exit tickets, and assessments for easy grading, and as I mentioned previously, there's going to be that digital access page with the links to all of the lesson slide shows for teachers, as well as the digital version of all student activities. There is also a page with instructions for using the digital resources if you're choosing to use Google Classroom, but you could easily download the slideshows and upload them to Schoology or canvas or any other platform you might be using. To help you plan each day, I have teacher tools and resources. The first one I wanted to talk about is the unit overview. This page will give an overview and skills that students should learn by the end of each unit. It also includes a brief pacing guide for each day of the unit. All of the units will range from two to four weeks, and there's a suggested pacing guide for each individual unit. I always front load the units with lessons, and the very last lesson is going to be the unit review game that you can include. Then the following few days is going to be the unit project. And there's a flex day built in, so you can either extend that project day, or you can do something else in place of the Flex Day, and then the very last day of each unit is going to be the assessment. This is suggested, but you can always mix and match based on your student needs. There are two scope and sequences that are included. The first one does have the TEKS included and social studies skills as well as the topic, learning objectives, and vocabulary. And if you're not in Texas or you prefer to focus on the lesson objectives themselves, there's just one without TEKS. It's the page that includes just the topic, the learning objectives and the vocabulary words associated with that lesson. There are also Teacher Guides included for each of the lessons in a unit. The guide includes learning objectives, essential questions, the materials needed for each lesson, a link to the digital slideshow for the lesson. So that's one other way to access the slideshow and directions for the mini lesson, practice activity, and check for understanding. There are also scripted sentences to say during these lessons that are highlighted in bold. You can go off of the script, or you can ad lib it, or just use it as a reference guide before you teach your lesson. There is a suggested answer for the let's discuss question that's featured in the lesson slide shows. So for each teacher guide, you're going to see that question that aligns with the very last slide. And I highly encourage you to discuss with your students as a whole group the variety of answers or opinions or thoughts that they might have related to that question, and use the answer that's suggested in the teacher guide as a stepping off point of how students might respond. And from there, you're going to see that in their guided notes, the let's discuss question that aligns with the slideshow and is also featured in the teacher guide. There's a space right under at the very bottom of the guided notes where students can write their own individual response. So I highly recommend that you discuss as a whole group, and then give students a few minutes to write down the answer to their let's discuss question on their own.

Now that you have some background as to what the components are and the structure of the guided curriculum, and maybe even what sets it apart from other similar curricula or resources that you might see out there, if there's any at all, for social studies in upper elementary I wanted to share that my third, fourth and fifth grade guided curriculum bundles are 20% off the regular price, so you can always get it at a discount, and then anytime there's a TPT sale, there's always a deeper discount. So you can either purchase the resources individually, or you can save 20% and get the bundle. The other thing is, when I do create the second and sixth grade guided curricula, it is going to be a growing bundle, and the prices will be increasing incrementally. So really, when it is first published, and not all units are added, you will be getting it at the lowest possible price. So it is truly a steal. You can trust me, because I have done the same thing for the three other grade levels, and the other two are no exception. I make good on my promises and ensure that the units are added to the bundle in a timely manner. But again, if you want to purchase each unit individually, just based off of what you might have for your district pacing guide, you can always do that.

And I wanted to end this episode with a couple of reviews of teachers who have actually used my resources and loved it. One story I have in particular was really meaningful to me because I met this individual in person. Shout out if you're listening to this. We were recently at a Texas social studies conference, and I was able to talk to her. She uses my fourth grade Texas history guided curriculum, and she bought it back when it was a growing bundle. She loves using it with her students, and her students love using it. And she was actually, at the conference, awarded a special award for elementary teachers, elementary social studies teacher. She was awarded a special award. And something that when I was listening to it at this banquet, I thought it was really cool, because the person who wrote the nomination for her, her principal or administrator was talking, I believe, about my guided curriculum. And some things that this person was saying was that students were engaged in a lesson on Stephen F Austin. They were engaged in hands on activities. And not only was there evidence of the lesson in their social studies journals, but there was evidence of past learning from the previous lessons. And this is exactly what I do, or what my guiding curriculum does, is it's like a growing library of lessons for the students that they can refer back to throughout the year, because usually it'll be stored in interactive notebooks or binders. I thought that was a really cool thing to see and hear, and it's really cool to hear that your resources are helping teachers and also are really great in the eyes of administrators as well. I also wanted to share another couple of reviews. So this review is from Alexandra. She uses the third grade community's guided curriculum. She says, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We were struggling so much with putting social studies into our day because we didn't have a curriculum we liked, and the resources we had pieced together were not engaging and above the students heads. I love the simple slide shows with the fill in the blank notes. Students stay engaged throughout the mini lesson, and then they are able to use their notes to complete the assignment for the day. The unit games are so fun and thank you for the unit assessments. It makes getting grades so easy. I love that this person has been able to make it super easy to consistently teach social studies. Janelle uses the fourth grade Texas history guided curriculum, and this is what she had to say. I am new to fourth grade and Texas. This resource has saved me tons of research, and my students are very interested in the slideshows. I love how easy this resource is to prepare and use with my students. And lastly, I wanted to highlight a couple of reviews for the fifth grade US History curriculum. Michelle says there are no words to express my gratitude for this product. It is absolutely incredible. I was worried about the price at first, but it really has everything homeschooling my fifth grader, who now says Social Studies is his favorite subject. I love number one, that he's saying this, and also the fact that parents can utilize this with their children as well. So I am so for it. If you're a parent and you're interested in it, definitely grab it. And then the other review I wanted to highlight was from Ashley. She says this resource is a game changer for my classroom. The engaging activities and clear instructions made it incredibly easy for my students to grasp the concept. My students were not only enthusiastic, but also demonstrated a clear understanding of the material. It's evident that a lot went through into the design, making it both educational and enjoyable. So I love and appreciate and read these reviews that you submit. And so I truly, truly am so grateful that you guys are loving the guided curricula. And if you're interested or want to learn even more about it, see exactly what you're gonna get, you can always check the link in the show notes, and I have linked all three. And as the time comes when I start releasing the growing bundles, you'll see the second grade and sixth grade links there as well. All right, that is a wrap for the episode. That is pretty long, I'm sure right now, but hey, I'm totally cool with it. Hopefully you are too. I will talk to you again next week, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week.

Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.