Above: A few pictures of the Inquiry PLC this year
This year, the focus of CSRA RESA Social Studies has been INQUIRY. Our Social Studies Consultant, Crystal Parten, has led an Inquiry-Based Learning PLC here at RESA and in several school systems: Warren County, Lincoln County, Glascock County, Emanuel County and Columbia County. In the Inquiry sessions, Crystal teaches instructional strategies that help teachers fuse more inquiry into their classes daily. Participants learn and practice the strategies in the sessions and then try them in their classrooms. Each session, teachers bring back student work and feedback on the strategies. By the end of the Inquiry PLC, teachers write their own full-length inquiry lessons. While there are many approaches to planning an inquiry lesson, we used the 5E format. This gradual approach helps teachers learn what works for them and allows for some trial and error before jumping into a full inquiry lesson or unit. Teachers and students have given some excellent feedback on the strategies we used this year. To learn more about the strategies or find inquiry lesson plans, please visit the CSRA RESA Social Studies Website: https://cparten6.wixsite.com/csrasocialstudies
Social Studies Events
July 26, 2018: CSRA RESA will host two professional development trainings with Studies Weekly. These trainings will teach teachers who already subscribe to Studies Weekly how to access and use the online component of the resource as well as how to interact with the consumable resource more effectively. These sessions will be from 8-11 AM and 12-3 PM. You can sign up on the CSRA RESA website.
Social Studies Leaders PLC: Next year, CSRA RESA will host a K-12 Social Studies Leaders PLC. We will meet 5 times during the year at different historical venues in the CSRA. During each session, a teacher will be recognized, we will hear from a speaker regarding a current topic in Social Studies education, and we will learn and practice new ways to incorporate inquiry and hands-on learning into the Social Studies and History classrooms. If you are interested in being a part of this new opportunity or if you are an administrator who would like for a teacher to be involved, please e-mail Crystal Parten with “SS Leaders PLC” as the subject line: cparten@csraresa.org. Please include your name, school district, school name, grades taught, and subject taught. Thank you!
Writing in Social Studies: Check out CSRA RESA’s new Writing Center for strategies and lessons on writing in Social Studies! If you have any highly effective resources for writing in Social Studies/History please send them to us (cparten@csraresa.org). We will credit you for the resource and we will post it to help other teachers! Link: http://www.writingcenter-csraresa.net/social-studies/