Social Studies for Secondary Schools: Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

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Summary: Determining Why We Teach
Review: As a former high school social studies teacher, and a current college professor who teaches "Methods" classes for future social studies teachers, I found this book helpful in a number of ways. First of all, Singer knows his subject, and writes in an interesting and engaging way. The plain fact is that "Methods" textbooks in social studies are either dry as toast or are segments of more general Methods books whose authors do not really know social studies. Second, the most important advice Singer provides is that teachers have to plan in advance why a certain lesson, or unit, or approach is worthwhile -- in short, that they have to be engaged in their subject matter. While many students today (certainly in my university) will not be engaged in the same way as Singer (who came to social studies teaching from a radical political perspective, expecting to change the world via the classroom), students do have to develop a perspective on why they are teaching, and Singer's open-ended activities and thought experiments are very useful here. Finally, Singer does have good nuts and bolts suggestions on how to put together lessons, units, and even curricula, though the last usually depends on district policy so his advice may not be able to be implemented by many teachers, let alone student teachers. I would be the first to agree that some of Singer's suggestions are impractical or dated, and that the resources section of any textbook get dated very quickly in the internet age, but I wish my student teachers would consult this book more frequently once they begin their assignments in the classroom. While Singer would probably deny it, my assessment is that the book is geared overly much to U.S. History, and does not treat in as much detail as would be warranted World History, U.S. Government, and other standard social studies topics.

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Summary: Has this man been in a real classroom?
Review: Save your money!! If this book is required for a college class do not waste the money on it. There is not a single useful piece of advice. The author apparantly has never been in a real classroom or spoken to a real high school student.

His advice is condescending and just plain wrong. The sample lesson plans are not practical for real life! The author gives instruction that are simply contradictory to the real world.

This is one of the worst books that I have ever read. If I could give it zero stars I would!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book for Teachers and Parents
Review: This is an outstanding book, filled with terrific teaching ideas and concepts. I especially enjoyed reading the background information that was included about the contributors.
Teachers and parents will all enjoy ths book, and learn a great deal from reading it.
Many thanks to the contributors and editors.