How to Motivate Students to Love Social Studies

Some students have difficulty finding interest in Social Studies, mostly because they associate it with boring facts about the past and lots of reading and essays. They have a challenge with connecting to the subject and finding it interesting at all grade levels. But, students can easily be swayed into enjoying Social Studies by following the few tips below:

1. Bring A Historical Topic to Life: In this technology driven world where children are ahead of the adults in technology, students will have a great time seeing moments from history in video, audio, or photograph form. Students can assume the role of a critical viewer and comment on the different historical events, people, and opinions.

2. Give Students Control Over What They Learn: Choice is important for students, especially to keep them engaged. The best way to do this is to give the students options to explore on their own time.

3. Act Out Historical Events: Skits, talks, and plays are a great way to engage students and get them working collaboratively. Each student can be assigned a specific role within their groups so that there is shared responsibility.

4. Give Students an Experiential Experience: It is always important to immerse the students in what they are learning, and one way this can be accomplished is to give them experiences that they have to pretend to relive. They will understand the concept on a deeper level and be more motivated to learn.

5. Try a Controversial Topic: Controversial topics will always bring more communication and opinions in the classroom because students are usually knowledgeable in what is going on in the world around them. Creating a debate within the class will get all student's participating!

6. Intrigue Students with Music: Listening to music is always a fun way to liven up the classroom, so why not include music from the era in the background while you teach? Or do a close study of a song that gives the students insight on an important event happening during that time period.