Tips for Using Contemporary's GED Social Studies in the Classroom

To teach social studies is to interweave information and skills, since knowledge in isolation is never a useful commodity. This is especially true in a GED social studies class because the fifty questions on the GED Social Studies Test mainly evaluate a test-taker’s comprehension, application, analysis, and evaluation skills. While prior knowledge is useful for answering some test items, the ability to understand and use this knowledge is even more essential.

Contemporary's GED Social Studies reflects this needed blend of content and skills. While the first half of the book covers critical thinking skills in the context of social studies, the second half is not organized by major content areas. Instead, it is organized thematically according to standards defined by the National Council for the Social Studies. Each theme is developed and explained in terms of several major content areas—history, economics, civics, and geography

What's in Contemporary's GED Social Studies?

The book begins with an introduction called "To the Student" that contains general information about the GED Test and instructions on how to use the book. You may use this introduction and the test tips it includes to ease students into your class. If you intend for students to study or even just read sections of lessons independently, you'll want to go over the section "How to Use This Book" with the class.

The Pretest on pages 1–20 is a full-length multiple-choice test in GED format. The Pretest can be self-administered and self-checked by the student. However, if at all possible try to discuss each student's answers with the student. Ask why the student answered the way he or she did. Use the Evaluation Chart at the end of the Pretest to create a lesson plan based on each student's needs.

The ten instructional chapters in this book are divided into two parts:

Part I: Critical Thinking Skills in Social Studies

• Chapter 1: Comprehending Social Studies Materials
• Chapter 2: Applying Social Studies Concepts
• Chapter 3: Analyzing Social Studies Materials
• Chapter 4: Evaluating Social Studies Materials

Part II: Themes in Social Studies

• Chapter 5: Time, Continuity, and Change
• Chapter 6: Places and People
• Chapter 7: Power, Authority, and Governance
• Chapter 8: Production, Distribution, and Consumption
• Chapter 9 : Science, Technology, and Society
• Chapter 10: Global Connections

The chapters in Part I reflect the cognitive skills that are tested on the GED Social Studies Test. The chapters in Part II cover themes in social studies as defined by the National Council for the Social Studies. Each chapter introduces a theme, which is then developed and explained with a broad range of readings and graphics from U.S. history, world history, economics, civics, and geography.

• A variety of passages and graphics is used in each chapter, including traditional selections as well as more modern materials that offer different points of view. Passages are often presented with graphics or another passage to offer revealing comparisons between periods or events in history.
• Icons appear next to reading passages throughout the chapters to indicate which major content area is being presented.
• A Historical Time Line appears on pages 327–330 to put major events in perspective. Each event on the time line is labeled according to the chapter in which it appears in the book.

The Chapter Review at the end of each chapter may be used for reinforcement as each chapter is completed, as a warm-up for the Posttest, or as a review between the Posttest and the Practice Test. The Evaluation Chart at the end of each test will help you determine which content areas the student needs to review. The Posttest and Practice Test are similar in format and content to the actual GED Social Studies Test.

Suggested Teaching/Learning Activities

Following are ideas you can use for developing specific skills:

GRAPHIC INFORMATION

• Give students sets of relevant data—cost of living increases, population counts, and so on—and have them make line graphs, bar graphs, and pie graphs from them.
• Give pairs of students social studies graphs. The students can make up their own questions, exchange them, and answer each other’s questions.
• Give pairs of students maps. The students can make up their own questions, exchange them, and answer each other’s questions.
• Assign the reproducible exercise sheets in Contemporary's GED Instructor Resource Binder to give students practice with creating and interpreting graphic information.

CRITICAL THINKING

• As a class or in small groups, discuss some of the social issues talked about in the instructional content or in passages in practice exercises. Emphasize that students should try to give facts to support their opinions.
• Ask students to bring in newspaper and magazine articles about social studies topics that interest them. Discuss as a class or in small groups.
• Recognizing cause-and-effect relationships is always a key skill. As students read instructional content and passages, have them make charts listing causes on one side and their effects on the other.
• Extensive knowledge of social studies terminology is not necessary on the GED Social Studies Test, but for students who need practice with basic and essential terms, such as democracy and population, you may want to create a crossword or word search puzzle. Clues should be definitions, and students must fill in or find each term being defined. (Be aware, though, that some students dislike such vocabulary exercises. For those students, a fill-in-the-blank context exercise would be more appropriate.)
• Whenever a student answers a question orally or in writing, encourage paraphrasing rather than repeating words directly from the text. Ask, “Could you say that in your own words?”
• Whenever appropriate, ask students to explain why they answered a question in a particular way. This tactic is especially helpful with inference questions. Ask, “How do you know that?” so students will need to pinpoint the clues they used to infer the necessary information.
• Analyze some of the questions found in the GED Practice exercises and Chapter Reviews with the class, especially those that require step-by-step thinking.
• Read and discuss excerpts from key U.S. documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution. the Federalist Papers, and important Supreme Court decisions.
• Assign the reproducible activity sheets in Contemporary's GED Instructor Resource Binder if students are having problems in these particular areas:



• applying information
• cause-and-effect relationships
• point of view
• drawing conclusions
• distinguishing facts and opinions

CONTENT AREAS

• GED students often lack a sense of geography. Exhibit maps of the United States and the world at all times during your social studies class. Whenever any reference is made to a state, country, or region in any of the content areas—for example, to a Latin American dictatorship in civics and government or to the Confederacy in U.S. history—have a student locate that place on the map. Mark your own location on both maps so that it can be clearly seen. (You may also want to include a globe in this activity.)
• Compile newspaper editorials on social and economic issues of the day. (You might search for yourself as well as asking students to bring in their own.) Discuss which statements are opinions and which are facts used to support those opinions.
• As a class, compile on the blackboard or an overhead transparency a list of problems your students see (for example, garbage pickup, the budget deficit, poor roads). For each problem or issue, have students figure whom they would write or talk to at which level of government—local, state, or federal—to help get the problem solved.
• Have students watch the news on the economy and bring in economic articles and graphs. Discuss how the current state of the economy relates to the general concepts students are learning with regard to the business cycle, economic growth, recession, and so forth.
• As you begin each history lesson, ask students to tell or write what they already know about that particular period of history. Also have them list any questions they would like to ask about the period. This activity will help you determine where to start in your presentations and clear up any misconceptions about historical events students might have. Once a lesson is finished, you might also want students to write summaries of what they have learned.