Unpacking the Luggage of Social Studies: My Reflection of My Fieldwork Experience

Recently, my class has gone into a local elementary school to teach 3 lesson plans (direct, inquiry, and collaborative) on a Social Studies topic. The lessons central focus was on the idea of immigration and people moving from place to place. After completing and executing all 3 lessons within a 3rd grade classroom, I have found my favorite to be inquiry and collaborative.

Even though a direct lesson plan does not allow for much creativity, teaching the information in this style is essential for the success of the other two lessons. For the direct instruction, we found it best to have the students only fill in one word from each power point slide into a premade packet that exactly follows the power point. Since they are only in third grade, most of their writing was done slowly and meticulously, with the children having to continuously go back and forth between the screen and their papers in order to spell the words correctly.

I had the most fun implementing the inquiry and collaborative lesson plans, which allowed the students to express themselves creatively and learn while completing or exploring fun projects. I believe that having the students actively interacting with the material and with each other is the best way to teach social studies. At the end of the unit, I found that the students remembered the information that was included in the inquiry and collaborative lesson plans the best. They enjoy having fun, exploring, and being able to be creative.

I usually dislike working in a group of partners, but this experience showed me how much fun it can be when you are working with competent peers. The other two people within my group were creative and we were able to all equally contribute to the creation of the three lesson plans.


As a teacher, I have learned that I work best when I do not try to script myself. Usually, if I try to heavily script myself in what I am going to say, I become flustered and forgetful. By just knowing the power point slides and the information I wanted to teach, I was able to speak naturally and with confidence.

How to teach a Direct Instruction in Social Studies

What is direct instruction?

Direct instruction is a teacher-directed teaching method, in which the teacher is presenting information and the students are learning. The teacher will stand in front of the classroom and present the information, usually in a form of a power point or google slides presentation. The teacher gives explicit, guided instructions to the students. The students are usually taking notes while the teacher is teaching.

The two core principles behind a direct instruction lesson is:

1. All students can learn when taught correctly, regardless of history and background.

2. All teachers can be successful, given effective materials and presentation techniques.

The 6 Components of a Direct Instruction Lesson:

1. Introduction/Review: Students need to know what they will be learning for the day. The best way to introduce new information is to try to connect it to something that the children would have heard of or will have knowledge/an opinion on. It is also important to review any information that was learned in the last class, especially if it important to understanding the concept for that days lesson.

2. Present the new material: Students need a lesson that is carefully organized so that the progression of information makes sense. New material should be presented either through a lecture, a demonstration, or both. The students should be given some kind of notes packet if they are young so that they can fill out their information quickly and efficiently.

3. Checks for Understanding: It is important to stop a few times while presenting new material in order to gauge what the students have learned so far and what needs to be covered again. 

4. Guided Practice: The teacher and the student are able to practice newly learned information together. The student attempts the skills or remembering the knowledge with the assistance of the teacher and other students. It is conducted and controlled by the teacher. The purpose of this step is to guide initial practice, correct mistakes, and reteach and provide sufficient practice so that the students can work independently.

5. Independent Practice: Students are now ready to apply the new learning material on their own. Independent practice gives students the repetition needed to remember new information or skills. Students have to now apply the learned information without assistance from the teacher or other students.

6. Evaluation/review: Teacher checks whether your students know everything before moving on to a new concept that builds upon what they have just learned. Student data should be collected, possibly through an exit ticket, so that it can be reviewed and decided on whether or not the lesson needs to be retaught.