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

by Alan J. Singer

Book Overview

Now in its 4th edition, this popular text for secondary social studies methods courses integrates discussions of educational goals and the nature of history and social studies with ideas for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080584208X
• ISBN13: 9780805842081
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.5" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Book for Teachers and Parents

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.

Determining Why We Teach

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.