studies of society and environment: activities used in teaching sose

The material on these pages has been prepared to supplement lectures, workshops and text for students enrolled at James Cook University in ED3001 Early childhood curriculum and teaching studies 1 and ED3101 Primary curriculum and teaching studies 1

 

Activities for teaching in studies of society and environment. Teachers of studies of society and environment have a wide range of activities that they can use with children as they investigate their society and environment. Many of these activities will be introduced to students in your SOSE workshops. Activities introduced in workshops will be recorded cumulatively on this web page

 

Strategy	Description			Teaching points
Think, pair, share	Students are given a topic or a question and are given time to individually reflect on the topic or question and write down their responses. Students are then asked to share their responses with a partner. This could also involve putting their response together to form a shared response. Students could then form groups of fours in which pairs share their responses, or pairs can report their responses to the whole class			Students have time to think before having to share their ideas, all students have the opportunity to speak, students can rehearse in pairs before talking to the whole group.
Forced ranking	Students are given a list of statements, ideas or opinions and are asked to rank them in order of importance. (Having each statement written on a separate card or piece of paper makes this easier.) This can be done individually or in small groups. The teacher then asks the students how they ranked the statements and the reasons for their ranking. Students compare the different ways in which their fellow students ranked the statements. Rankings can be done in different patterns: * *** ***** *** *** *** * ** *** ****			The value of forced ranking comes from the way it engages students with a list of items. The discussion around reasons for the ranking is more important than the actual rankings
Talking pictures	Students are asked to draw or paint a picture to illustrate their ideas about a concept or idea in sose, e.g., families, the future, my special place. Students talk about the thinking behind their picture with a small group or the class. Students then discuss similarities and differences between their pictures and decide how the pictures can be grouped together to make generalizations about the classes views on the concept or idea.			Students can group their pictures in one way, then make generalizations about them, then be asked to regroup then using a different criteria. This encourages them to be more flexible in their work.
Graphic organisers	A graphic organiser is a means by which students can organise ideas and information and show the links between them visually. Graphic organisers include: concept maps, where a concept is written in the centre of a page and the related concepts and ideas are grouped around the concept. Lines and arrows are drawn to show links between the concept and its related concepts and ideas. (Writing related concepts and ideas on cards or "post-it" labels, allows to students to arrange and rearrange their ideas. structured hierarchy, where a feature, idea, or system is introduced and then its component parts are arranged in a hierarchy			Graphic organisers can be based on words and phrases or on drawing or pictures
Information retrieval charts	Information retrieval charts help students organise and analyse the information that they have collected through their investigations. Examples of information retrieval charts: tools we use where we use them what we use them for			Information retrieval charts should be designed to scaffold the students as they make sense of information
Observing and interpreting pictures	Students can be encouraged to distinguish between observations and interpretations of pictures using the following framework: We see: We think because children playing with a ball the children are at school they are all wearing the same coloured clothes and shoes like uniforms it is a cold climate the children have on jumpers This framework can be used in conjunction with the following observation points: time continuity and change when was the picture made/ photo taken what time period has it been made to represent what event is represented what is happening in the picture now what might have happened before, what might happen next place and space what natural features are in the picture - land forms, climate what built features are in the picture: types, age and condition of buildings, transport, how has the natural environment been changed by humans culture and identity describe the people in the picture: what are they doing - how are they meeting their needs what relationships are suggested what evidence is there of the people's identities systems resources and power what institutions in our society are represented in the photo what are the various positions of people in the picture how are people using resources in this picture technical how has the technical skills used by the maker of this picture influenced our interpretation of it.			Introduce students to terms, foreground, mid ground, background to allow them to segment pictures for close observation
"Human" systems	Students are allocated cards representing elements of a system they are studying, e.g., production of a newspaper. The elements can be represented by the roles people play in the system. Students then have to organise themselves according to their place in the system The "system" amy form a straight line, a branched line or 'T' or a circle. Students can indicate where there are gaps in the system and add more students to represent appropriate elements. They could then see if all elements are necessary and discuss what would happen if one element was removed from the system.			The teacher can use "think aloud" strategies to support students' thinking is this activity With younger children, give children tools (actual or pictures) to represent the different roles or elements within the system.
Personal artifact timeline	This is appropriate for introducing the concept of time lines to young children. For each child, make a timeline by cutting a piece or cord and making a knot in the cord every 250m to represent every year of the child's life. Ask children to bring in photos, clothes or objects to represent each year of their life. Children can do drawings where the original item is not available. Arrange on their timeline The teacher can prepare a similar time line based on his/ her own life and other familiar adults as a comparison.			Make sure that there are pictures, drawing material, class photos common objects such as feeding bottle, toothbrush etc., to cater for any children whose personal circumstances have separated them from evidence of their past e.g., child living in a women's shelter.

Helen McDonald 1998

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