Deck 8: How Are Powerful and Meaningful Social Studies Unites Constructed

Question 1

During the construction process all of the following criteria should be used in evaluating a unit EXCEPT:

A) is the content taught important social studies content?
B) are the students carrying out investigations all across the unit?
C) is there coherence with students' attitudes so they are not confronting alternative thoughts?
D) does the unit reflect students' experiences in life?

Answer 1

C

Question 2

A strategy to help students as they study an issue or problem solving unit is class meetings where students discuss problems in their research and presentations and offer each other ideas on how to proceed.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Teaching based on using integrated units may also be called:

A) interdisciplinary teaching.
B) thematic teaching.
C) multidisciplinary teaching.
D) all of the above.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Reflection on a completed unit:

A) is optional since teachers are taking notes and using student assessments throughout a unit.
B) uses feedback from students to determine effectiveness.
C) focuses on what students remembered from day to day.
D) examines the overall flow of the unit rather than how well each lesson flowed.

Question 5

In a unit, lessons are organized to encourage students to link ideas and experiences.

Question 6

When teachers plan an integrated unit, which question is NOT used?

A) What important key concepts are to be included from each subject to be integrated?
B) How will students be taught to identify and separate the subject areas and their concept?
C) What are the natural and significant connections between the integrated unit's key concepts?
D) What are the guiding questions that will lead students thinking during this unit?

Question 7

Issues and problem-solving units:

A) help students easily resolve an issue or problem.
B) tend to include marginally significant social studies ideas.
C) do not always have a clear answer to the problem.
D) present a powerful argument for one solution to the problem.

Question 8

Integration of school subjects is an increasingly important goal for education.

Question 9

Which of the following questions is NOT a question important to selecting a topic for a unit?

A) What will be the important key concepts central to each of the subject's areas?
B) What will be the guiding questions that lead students to think about the content?
C) What will be the activities that engage the students in reflective thinking?
D) To what degree are the students already interested in this topic?
E) What will be the natural and significant connections between key concepts?

Question 10

Evaluation criteria useful when constructing social studies units include:

A) importance, inquiry, and involvement.
B) significance, coherence, and relevance.
C) involvement, interest, and significance.
D) coherence, inquiry, and importance.

Question 11

Descriptive units:

A) should be taught most of the time.
B) have lots of application of the content taught.
C) make clear connections with other topics.
D) emphasize students' acquisition of content knowledge.

Question 12

Textbooks often design social studies lessons as separate stand-alone concept lessons.

Question 13

Characteristics that contribute to making unit planning a critical professional skill include all BUT:

A) key ideas are interrelated with each other.
B) links are made to prior student experiences and knowledge.
C) random activities are the natural way of learning for children.
D) it provides for reviewing a variety of skills in real-world situations.
E) the topic is approached from different viewpoints.

Question 14

In planning a unit, teachers consider whether important examples that students can understand exist.

Question 15

The content of a social studies unit could be improved if the teacher examines how the topic might be taught in each of the social studies standards.

Question 16

Which type of objective tells what actions the teacher hopes the students will take as a result of studying a unit?

A) Attitudinal objectives
B) Knowledge objectives
C) Skill objectives
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 17

A rationale for a unit answers all of the following questions EXCEPT:

A) how is the unit relevant to both the future and current needs and interests of students?
B) how does the unit examine societal issues and help students deal responsibly with them?
C) how is the unit developmentally appropriate for students?
D) how is the unit going to bring all students up to the same level of learning?

Question 18

When teaching an issue or problem solving unit, all students are expected to arrive at the same conclusions or solutions by the end of the unit.

Question 19

The range of viewpoints found in integrated units provides depth of study and makes it possible to address the needs of diverse students.

Question 20

The learning cycle provides teachers with much flexibility and requires them to make important decisions about the content of the lessons and the teaching strategies to be used in units.

Question 21

For a skill-focused unit social studies content is still learned but the mastering of the skills is a more important objective.

Question 22

Units usually provide for independent research by students or small groups.

Question 23

Since databases can be purchased as software, having students make a database as a group or class project is largely a waste of valuable time.

Question 24

A unit that combines both content and thinking skills with equal emphasis works best with inquiry and investigation instructional strategies.

Question 25

Using a database can help students ask questions that seek to test relationships among ideas.