S2.E6 - What is High Quality Social Studies Instruction?

Jason Siko: Welcome to another episode of Getting to the Core, Wayne RESA’s podcast for educators and Community Members. Today we have David Hales, a social studies consultant here at Wayne RESA. David, welcome!

David Hales: Thank you very much, glad to be here.

Jason Siko: Alright. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

David Hales: Well, as you mentioned I’m the K-12 social studies consultant here at Wayne RESA, so my responsibilities include supporting districts, schools, and really anything K-12 pertaining to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. I also have the opportunity in Wayne County, where we are fortunate to have many cultural institutions. I work with a number of them on their educational materials and their alignment to educational standards.

Jason Siko: Excellent. So, probably for a lot of listeners out here, social studies can bring back a wide variety of memories, in terms of, you know, their experiences, both in elementary and secondary and the various classes: civics, government, and so on, and world history and the like. So, today, though, things are a little bit different. So, when you think about high quality social studies instruction, what comes to mind? What is your take on what is high quality social studies instruction today?

David Hales: Well, you know before I get into that I want to make the case that it's important to start with the purpose of social studies: why we're, why is it a core subject? What's the ultimate end for social studies? And then, how do we get there? What is quality instruction look like to actually take us to that end? I know if you grab the average person on the street and ask them about social studies you're going to get a wide range of answers. It's sometimes called in the trade, the smorgasbord of subjects. And oftentimes the people's answers are framed around, you know, facts, dates, locations on a map, lists of historical figures. And that's oftentimes when people recall when the, you know, you see those man-on-the-street kind of interviews.

For our purposes, though, and where we are really right now, it's good to take a step back and look as to why do students need to even have social studies. And we have a defined purpose for social studies, which is responsible citizenship. And while that can certainly be defined a number of ways, the definition that we're going to use, our working definition, is responsible citizenship, is really someone who is both informed and engaged, okay, in the world that's around them.

So, I’d like to take an opportunity, just to kind of build that out a little bit, what that kind of looks like, it sounds like, and what are the implications for instruction on this. So again, we mentioned about you grab the person on the street would say it's memorizing a list of dates right; it's being able to identify something on the map. Well, the case I want to build is that one for responsible citizenship to getting us there, content knowledge, or what we've called disciplinary knowledge, is crucial, right? It is important, you have to have content information to move forward.

But what people oftentimes don't understand is really there are four pillars that really support the development of responsible citizenship. One, of course, just said, is the disciplinary knowledge. The second piece or the thinking skills that go with that. In other words, is the ability to process that content knowledge just summarize it to be able to evaluate it, to be able to talk about it, to be able to develop an informed opinion. It's not just a matter of having the content knowledge, but being able to really utilize that. That's the thinking skills portion that's the second pillar.

And again, by no means is there a hierarchy of needs all of these are really important to get us where we want to go. So the first two disciplinary thinking skills. The third one, is what we refer to really is democratic values. And while sometimes the list of what those are can be contentious, they are, I think, definitely important regardless. So what I mean by that, when you say democratic values, is a commitment to things like the rule of law, to justice, to diversity popular sovereignty, that ultimately the power rests in the hands of people…of the citizens.

Those are important because, you know, people don't… we often take those for granted; we're not just born with that understanding, that something has to be taught to kids.

And so, democratic values should be very much infused in social studies if our ultimate end is responsible citizenship. And the fourth piece, which supports responsible citizenship, is the engagement itself. It's the practice; that means if the whole idea is to be both informed and engaged, you need to practice engagement at levels that are relevant, that are important to you, and that and granted that's going to look different if you have a kindergartener or a first grader as compared to a middle or a high schooler. But it's just as important, because it's all ultimately about being able to understand and really think through, manage the world that's around you to be engaged.

So, those are really four elements that really support. Again they are not in a hierarchy. They all have mutually supportive but they're all crucially important, and I always try to come back to this. All of us can think of people who have content knowledge, they have disciplinary knowledge, they know how the system works, but they choose not to be civically engaged; they're not engaged at all. And on the flip side of that, to be quite honest, we can also think of people who are sometimes quite actively involved, but don't always have content knowledge, their knowledge is incorrect or incomplete on how this works. So, for real responsible citizenship it's very much the those four pieces.

If it's okay with you, I’d like to talk a little bit about: okay, so that's where we want to go, how do we get there? Does that makes sense.  

Jason Siko: mm hmm

David Hales: Yeah. So, in social studies, knowing that where we're trying to get is responsible citizenship, our work in particularly lately, or meaning really over the last few years, has really been driven around a document a national document, called the C3 Framework, which will be made available for people. It's the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework. Now, this document was created within the social studies community nationally, amongst all of the organizations, representative bodies in social studies, which, remember includes economics, geography, history, and government. We had representation from across those bodies, and then we also have representation from the states as well. So, we had two teachers from the State of Michigan. I’m very proud to say one of them was a teacher from Wayne County. And what was generated, the C3 framework, which has very much guided social studies instruction over the last really few years. High quality instruction is an element to it, which is called really the arc of inquiry.

And I’d like to take you through that a little bit. There are what are called dimensions in the C3 framework that saying that if we're trying to get to responsible citizenship, good instruction, regardless of the age or of the grade really includes four elements, okay; should have four elements. Again, not a hierarchy to these; they are all mutually supportive.

The first is that a good social studies instruction is really based on questioning or on inquiry. And I realize that this is not specific to social studies in any discipline. Building on the natural curiosity of kids for the world that's around them, is very important, very true in social studies. Notice how this sort of counters a little bit that argument which is, “Well isn't social studies just memorizing a lot of dates and facts and locations on a map?” This is saying yes, there is that content piece of it, but it's very much about looking at what has happened in the past, what is happening currently; let's look at why things really have happened. So, very much questioning, okay, that's one element of it. A second element is there's the, well, really the the thinking skills components, the disciplinary knowledge piece that is centered in Michigan and for the most part the US around the four disciplines that I mentioned: that civics, economics, geography, and history. So, there is there is that content knowledge but not just the content knowledge but also includes the thinking skills as well in that. It's not enough just to know the location on a map, the date of something, but to be able to really analyze why it occurred, where it occurred, what has been the impact since then, how does that affect the world today, how does that affect me? Now that's important; that's very important that's the heart of social studies.

The third dimension on here is evaluating resources. So, everything we just described, if you are an informed citizen, that means you are have a really an immense responsibility of looking at a world in which there is so much information that's available, and in so many variety of sources, right? So many modalities for kids. Part of good social studies instruction is not just a matter of gathering information from a text, that's another thing that people oftentimes think of, the infamous reading a chapter and answering questions. And while there is some validity to that, I’m going to make the case that there is not a lot of validity to that in student learning.

What there is, though, is students being able to look at, listen to podcasts, being able to look at video, being able to look at political cartoons infographics, information and all the many sources that it comes through. Because, ultimately, you want students to be able, as a responsible and informed citizen, right, you want them to be able to express an opinion on something, an informed opinion that means having to identify what was relevant information that supports your point. What's fake news; what's not fake news? Where do I get sources of information? That is a crucial piece, and an often overlooked piece in social studies, the information itself.

And then the fourth piece is going to sound pretty familiar, which is taking informed action. It's the practice part; that it's one thing to say, you know, it's important to be engaged in the world around you, you know, and to talk about that, but you know what? Whether you're six or 16, you need to be practicing that, and that, as part of the social studies instruction and, you know, maybe that's something, you know, that occurs within the context of just the classroom. That could be very relevant, very appropriate or the school building, or the neighborhood or the  community. So, you can kind of see what I’m doing; it's all a matter on what's the relevant level, right, that you really, really find with that good social studies instruction. Again, regardless of the level, elementary, middle, or high school, really includes a combination of those elements in there, okay? And over time, because let's face it, this is a very much, that issue of responsible citizenship is very much a lifelong pursuit, right? It's something you begin practicing at a very early age and continues well past your years as a high school student, but the skills that are embedded, the thinking that's embedded, the dispositions that are embedded, I think in that C3 framework really has had, will continue to have a powerful impact, and helping students really prepare to be responsible citizens. And that's really sort of the movement, the last few years, somewhat sidetracked a little because of COVID, but I think coming back around.

In the case of Michigan because our standards, very much aligned to the C three framework, came about…were passed by our state board in June of 2019. So, not too far off from when everything began with COVID. But work is all being grounded in this area; curriculum support, I said I work with curriculum, instruction, and assessment; so very much being based around this.

Jason Siko: That was great, David. So, as an educator, what are some things we can do as we emerge from the last two years and start getting back to - I’ll say normal - but get back into the swing of things, and how do we rededicate to social studies education with this new set of standards and philosophies?

David Hales: Well, one of the things that immediately comes to mind, for me, is, you know, you heard me mentioned in the C3 framework that the fourth dimension is the civic engagement, the civic involvement, right, the practice. I think we need to be doing a little bit of that ourselves as educators. So, what I mean is I guarantee you that you could go to any district, and you will find as a core discipline social studies listed, which means dedicated time and materials, but, you know, what we all know, let's be honest; that social studies does not get that same level of attention or resource allocation and oftentimes just, quite frankly, let's again let's be honest, it is not taught.

And I think that there needs to be a recognition of the importance, a reconnection to the importance of social studies and what its intent is for developing responsible citizenship. You know, we only, we don't have to look too far to see the real need for that. And that means social studies needs to be taught, and it needs to be taught in a systemic way K-12; not just as what oftentimes happens, because the subject that, you know, picks up around third or fourth grade or you know even as late as fifth grade.

That is making a much tougher job if our goal is to have an informed and engaged citizen starting at that late point. So, that's one piece I think right there, that means talking to your administrator, your principal; it means talking to colleagues and just raising the level of awareness around social studies. I think it's just important.

Second piece, if you're curious on, “What does the lesson look like based on the C3 Framework or the arc of inquiry?” There is a an accompanying website to the C3 Framework, you know project or work; it's C3teacher.org. So, c3teacher.org will actually have vetted… one of the things that has many things on it, very helpful things, but one of them is a collection of vetted units and lessons done by teachers from around the country, again vetted, that you can search by topic, by grade level, by really a variety of ways, which is very helpful, right? Again, being a national document, that allows you to say, “Okay!”. So, if you have somebody that's being driven by a compelling question, right, based on solid content, includes resources, you know, literary pieces in your content information from a variety of sources and actually has a component of having kids apply this to the world around them…“My gosh what is this literally look like?” It's a great place to start. So, whether you are lower elementary, middle, high school, all the way through you can find a component that is really relevant here in Michigan. Or what I tell people, at the very least, it is nice to find a list of resources that have already been put together for you to be able to cherry pick; there's a certain value in that as well. So at any point that is relevant for you as a starting point, I think, c3teachers.org is definitely one of them.   

Jason Siko: Excellent. And so, to kind of bring it back to the local sphere, Wayne County educators, kind of the source of where, you know, we serve for both organizations, as well as probably the majority listeners of this podcast…what are some things that they can do to connect either with you, or with the social studies community in Wayne County?

David Hales: I think one of the best ways that has proven to be quite successful is I have what are now Google Groups, used to be listservs, but really Google Groups across the disciplines K-12. So, instead of, what I mean by that is, instead of having a single K-12 Google Group to push out information, I very much sort of customized it. So, in high school where there are four distinct social studies courses, there are four lists there. And in terms of elementary or K-8, there are some that are divided by grade level, some which are divided by grade span. The reason why there's so many groups, I believe there are nine groups, is because recognizing that Wayne County is a large county and building a sense of community right around like interests in social studies if you are K-2, for example, that's not an easy thing to do, given our size. And being on one of these lists, I think, really helps in that regard.

All total I have just under 4,000 teachers K-12 on the list. And what that allows me to do is a couple things. So, by getting on these lists one is, of course relevant resources to your particular grade level or grade span, I can push out to you and that's proven to be very helpful. Workshops that are coming up; you can, of course, not only always look at Wayne RESA’s website, but if it's social studies I’ll actually be sending it out to you for your particular grade level. Resources, grant opportunities, field trip money, sometimes, which are made available to me, through various funders I can push out to people.

And the second reason why I really want to advocate that people would be on these lists, in these groups, is again, it sort of forms really sort of a micro-community for us in social studies. So, what will happen often is someone in the group will say you know I’m struggling a little bit out of resource for X or y let's say in US History, and they will ask the infamous question, which is a very legitimate question; they'll say, “What's the rest of the county doing?” Well, you know, we have a very large county and a very diverse county, and that is a much trickier question that it sounds. However, for me and social studies those groups give me the opportunity to push out that question to say 300 US History teachers in the high schools and I tell you, if you have met a high school US History teacher they're going to they're going to reply back with, “Here's what I do,” or, “I’m looking for that information, too.”

So, in order to get on these, really, all I need to have from someone it's very simple is I really just need their email, and I need to know the grade level; unless you're high school, and then high school I need to know what's the course you're teaching. So, I just need an email if it's K-8, I just need to be just need the grade level. And then, if you’re high school I do need to know the course, are you an economics teacher or your world history teacher; which ones would you be on? You can be on multiple ones, there's no cost. And we’ll enroll you.

So, then I’ll give you my email address I’m sure that can also be out available in other places as well, so nice short, nice simple email. It's Hales…my last name: H..A..L..E..S; D, as in David..@resa.net. So halesd@resa.net.

That's, I think the best way for us to stay in in touch, both in a big picture sort of view as to what's going on in the world of social studies, but also, more specifically with them sort of our communities. By communities, I mean our grade levels, grade spans, things along those lines.

Jason Siko: Excellent. Well, I don't know about everyone in the audience, but I did learn a lot today about the changes from when, at least, I was in high school on social studies. Again I…one of those classes that, you know, some I remember a lot of memorable teachers, but I probably forgotten a lot of the facts. So David Hales we want to thank you for coming in today.

David Hales: Thank you for the opportunity I really appreciate it.