Discusses issues and implication underlying the graduation competency testing movement in the social studies. Presents advantages and disadvantages of commercially and locally developed tests and outlines steps in selecting competencies and preparing tests. (KC)

Describes field oriented teacher internship program for elementary education majors and discusses results of a questionnaire answered by cooperating teachers in this program. Results of the study provide direction for planning in-service courses for social studies teachers. (KC)

Describes program for preservice teacher education which resolves teachers' concerns about communication. Three categories must be dealt with: self-concerns, or effectiveness of one's ability to communicate; task concerns, or knowledge of communication techniques; and impact concerns, or the effect of one's communication on others. (KC)

Describes a social studies teaching methods course which emphasizes laboratory work in local public elementary schools. Lists five activities preservice teachers are expected to fulfill in the course. (KC)

Describes a test designed to measure outcomes of "inquiry" social studies programs in elementary schools. Results indicate that inquiry students, or those whose teachers use inductive methods to encourage active participation in learning, perform better than noninquiry students on tasks requiring higher cognitive processes. (Author/KC)

Discusses increase in mental health activities such as peer counseling, transactional analysis, and Magic Circle. Describes law which requires parental consent before students become involved in such activities. (KC)

Contends that the role of a teacher extends beyond teaching subjects to include aiding students in dealing with their psychological and social growth. Teachers should be prepared to recognize student problems and either respond personally or recommend counseling. (KC)

Contends that a student gains knowledge through the act of writing as she joins bits of information into a whole. Presents a model for scanning students' written material to determine the way ideas are related. Notes that the value of a piece of information depends on how the writer joins it with other information. (KC)

Presents guidelines for social studies teachers and a sample writing assignment to encourage student's developmental writing. Suggests that students emphasize the significance of the writer's ideas and information rather than the information itself. Establishes the relationship between thinking processes and writing and the need to break these…

Describes principles which achieve good writing assignments in the social studies: (1) define the content and skills teachers want students to learn, (2) devise assignments in which level of difficulty of task fits the level of the goal, (3) let students speculate on the topic, and (4) present the topic so that students know how and what to do.…

Describes pre-and post-writing activities designed to aid students in submitting a polished social studies paper rather than merely a first draft. Data analysis, questioning strategies, games, simulations, and values education strategies provide sources for focusing on the topic. Rewriting involves evaluation, revision, and editing.

Outlines a procedure for teaching writing which helps students learn the content and thinking skills necessary for the reasoning and learning tasks required in the social studies. Sample lessons in a secondary American History course involve students in discussing, reading, problem solving, and synthesizing information. (KC)

Suggests methods to help social studies teachers integrate writing into courses along with and in place of verbal activities. Also suggests ways to decrease teacher's time in the evaluation of student writing. One method is to focus on a few primary features of writing as they are defined in the goals of the assignments.

Secondary students examine a letter of appeal written during the Depression to President Franklin Roosevelt. The letter is from an attorney concerned with his unemployed father and his ill mother. Suggested exercises include discussion of the letter as an historical document and writing a similar letter. (KC)

Discusses American society's shift from cultural assimilation, or the "melting pot," to cultural pluralism, or ethnic identity. Notes dangers inherent in an overemphasis on pluralism and presents recommendations for social studies teachers to achieve a balance between the common core values of our society and those of cultural pluralism. (KC)