Meaningful, Well-Planned Social Studies Lesson

What are the attributes of a meaningful, well-planned social studies lesson?

Should this be a relatively easy question?  Or am I assuming I am making this harder than it needs to be? Or am I oversimplifying it at all?

To me a meaningful, well-planned social studies lesson should look the same as ANY meaningful, well-planned lesson.  Yes, the subject matter will be different, so that makes objectives and assessments different.  BUT, from what I can tell meaningful, well-planned lessons are needed across all of the disciplines.

In Social Studies, I think a meaningful, well-planned lesson means the students are engaged in the subject matter, that they are thinking deeply about the material in front of them and that they students are not just recalling facts but instead asking deep questions.  

To me those deep questions can be any questions... but I am thinking of questions like:

• why did this event happen?
• how did this decision affect how we function as a society today?
• how is this society like mine?  how is it different?
• why did early civilizations spring up here?
• did the isolation of the North American continent affect the American Indian civilizations?

and so on and one and on... I could ask questions all day.  I think this comes from my college years when for the first time history became asking questions and not just recalling facts.  One of my favorite college professors loved to talk about the winners and losers of history -- and how we only know one side of the story.  What is that other side?  And I think that idea can be applied to all of  social studies in some manner.


Ok... that was a small tangent... maybe we will call it my own mini-soap box.


Back to question at hand.  What other characteristics are necessary for a meaningful, well-planned lesson in social studies?


Well, it means the students are not just reading textbooks and answering questions.  Straight recall is not what dynamic social studies is all about.  I want my students thinking! and discussing! and constructing their knowledge to form their own beliefs.


I guess this leads me to my last idea.  The lesson needs to relate to a students life.  It needs to have context.  Even history can have context.  I think to make the social studies relevant it has to be integrate with other subjects.  That also makes those subjects more relevant.  Life is full of overlapping qualities, links to new ideas, etc.  I think learning should involve those links.  Integrating is important, not only because of the obvious it-helps-us-cover-more-material, but because it puts learning in real life.  When we are adults we continue to learn, but the learning happens as we make connects and see how things overlap.  Let's helps students to see those connections.


I hope all of this made sense.  I am excited to learn more about how to plan meaningful lessons in Social Studies -- and all subjects!