Kirsten 0:09

This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm Kirsten, the southern teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things, social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Hi, there, welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast, I wanted to grab a presentation from one of my video library in my Smart and Simple Social Studies membership. So this is from the video vault. This is from a conference I presented at last year. And it's related to using novel studies in social studies. So this is a really great juicy topic. And I hope you enjoy the audio version of this presentation.

Hi, there. My name is Kirsten Hammond. And I am so excited to present to you the session using novel studies to teach social studies. My passion is social studies. And I also love being able to incorporate it in my ELA block. That's something I've always loved to do. So novel studies are something that I love as well, combining the two even better. So I hope you'll get some great information from this session of novel studies and implementing it in your ELA block.

All right, so just first a little bit about who I am and what I do. I am Kiresten. I live in Texas. I love coffee. I love running TexMex Of course, charcuterie boards, and I am a mom to three, I've got two boys and a girl. I taught in the classroom for eight years. I started with kindergarten and then I taught third and fifth grade. So I love kindergarten. But I love upper elementary even more. And so as soon as I had the opportunity to move up to third grade, I did and I haven't looked back since. So my main niche, my main thing that I love to teach the students I love our upper elementary students with ELA and social studies. So a little bit about my background. As a teacher, I got my Bachelors of Science degree in psychology at a&m. And it wasn't until like maybe the last year of college, when I realized I didn't really want to do psychology, I want to do education. So I switched gears, I just went ahead and finished my bachelor's degree. And then right after I started the master's program in elementary education at Texas State, you can see a photo of me as I was in my mentor class over a decade ago. And after going through the program and getting my teaching certificate, I graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2014. Got certified in ESL English as a second language as well as gifted and talented. And for most of that time, right after graduation, I taught at an elementary school. Most of the time, that was upper elementary ELA social studies. This picture on the right is the last day at the school that I was working at when I decided to leave the classroom, I was putting my stuff getting them all home. And I had decided after my second child was born, that I would stay home with him. And that was in late 2021. It was probably one of the hardest and scariest decisions I have made. As far as like I did not plan on leaving, you know, mid year, but a lot of circumstances with FMLA and all of that. It just seemed to be the best decision for our family. So I am currently not in the classroom, but I miss it so much. Right now what I do is I work in my business, the southern teach. I support upper elementary teachers with ideas and resources for teaching upper elementary ELA and social studies. The resources that I create are low prep, easy to implement engaging and fun. And then I also work with other teacher sellers on TPT with their branding and product listings and all of that stuff. So that is what I currently do. And I am going to go ahead and switch into what we're talking about today. In this topic. We're gonna first start with this question. What do you think of when you hear novel study? I asked my husband this question not too long ago. And he said book report? Well, let's just leave it at that he was not a teacher. So I want you to just kind of brainstorm, jot something down. What do you think of when you hear the words, novel study? What does that mean to you?

I'm going to go ahead and share this picture of Charlotte's Web. This was the very first novel study that I can recall. I was in first grade, and we all had our little Charlotte's Web books. And we went through reading the book together. So I vividly remember doing that, you know, talking about different parts of the plot and certain vocabulary words and all of that stuff. So I wanted to kind of add that in there as like a background into my first novel study that I remember, there have been, of course, many novels as a student. And of course, as a teacher, a few of them would be in elementary school, we did the Lion, the Witch in the wardrobe. And I also remember who's in sixth grade. And in high school, one of my favorite novel studies that we did was Rebecca by Daphne du Marais. And I still love reading that book from time to time. So novel studies, there's a lot of things about like how you can define it, and what it might mean to you. But for the purposes of this session, here's what I have for you. And novel study is an interactive experience. Students learn to engage with the novel through guided prompts and teacher and student led discussions, students learn comprehension and critical thinking skills throughout the process. So hopefully, what you were probably thinking a novel study is back a few slides is about like, we're kind of on the same page, you're like, Okay, this is pretty much what I was thinking a novel study is. So it can be either teacher led or student led, there's so many different avenues of how you can go about a novel study, there's not a like set. Okay, this is exactly the process of a novel study. So that's something to think about it is something that's interactive, that's the main characteristic. It's an interactive experience, that would not be the same as somebody just reading a book of their choice by themselves. So today, we're going to cover several things, we're going to cover why novel studies in the first place, creating a novel study plan, choosing a novel conducting the novel study, and my favorite novel studies, books for social studies. So we're gonna go through the process of what I recommend as far as novel studies, and then I'll give you some of my favorite social studies, novel studies that you can incorporate in your classrooms. All right, so let's talk about why novel studies. One reason is that it gives students the opportunity to explore elements of a story in depth, it's a great way for students to engage with the book on a deeper level. And it might be a book that they may never have heard of, or would have never expect to pick up on a regular bookshelf in the library or anything like that. It's a great way to explore elements like themes or guided questions, or key vocabulary words that are important. And it also can kind of go into especially historical time periods and setting. Another reason why novel studies are great in the classroom is that it helps students develop critical thinking and analytical skills. With the guidance of you as the teacher, students are really learning some important critical thinking skills, making connections, kind of analyzing, making predictions, all that good comprehension, skill, response skills, things that they need to really be thinking. Beyond the text of the book is something that students can develop with novel studies, it's a great way to practice that together as a whole group or as a small group or independently. And also, it just helps teach students about different cultures and events and perspectives. There could be novels where the characters are a different culture or a different ethnicity as they are different events. back in time, it can be eye opening for students to kind of see how their lives are in comparison to what they're reading in the novel, and that can kind of open up their minds a little bit more, which is kind of the point of social studies in general. So it makes a really great social studies connection in that aspect. Let's talk about the different elements of a novel study. One important element is key vocabulary. When reading a text, there might be words that students may not know the definition for. So having key vocabulary already prepped ahead of time or as you come to it can help provide clarity and understand So for those unknown words, you can always create a list of words that appear multiple times throughout the novel. And you can review that with your classes or have students define it using the dictionary or as they come across it. guided questions from each chapter is another important element. It can range from multiple choice comprehension questions to open ended questions that encourage higher level thinking such as evaluation or analysis. Providing these guiding questions, especially at the upper elementary level, can help students think deeply about what they've read, and it'll help them understand the text a little bit better. Guiding Questions can also help teachers formally assess student learning without needing any additional resources or materials. The only requirement is that you would read the texts in advance so you know which questions to ask. That's always important. All right. Another element of a novel study is a comprehension quiz. So this is great for engaging students, you can quiz them on key points after each chapter to check if you understood what they're read, can reinforce any important details within the text that you want them to remember. And of course, Quizzes can be formatted in different ways. It could be multiple choice, true false, open ended, essay questions, just giving them some room to express their thoughts on a variety of levels. And then we have the culminating projects. This is a great way for students to demonstrate their understanding, and apply their creativity in presenting it, there are a ton of ways students can create these products, it could be your standard essay book report, could be a podcast, it could be where students are acting out skits from the book or scenes from the book. So it really depends on the needs of your students, and what they like and what they don't like. All right, let's talk about how we can create a novel studies plan. There are four things to think about as you do that, as you start to plan and novel study, you're thinking and you're like, Okay, I think I could, I think I could do a novel study. Let's see how this can go. So I will take you from the very beginning. First, you want to think about the overall goals and standards. Think about any important questions that you want your students to answer by the end of the novel study, it could be something connected to a big unit that you're teaching in either ELA or in social studies. It can also be something that is a literature base, like, you know, maybe you guys are talking about nonfiction. Maybe you're talking about fiction, certain elements of fiction, poetry, whatever the overarching goal is or standards, you need to think about what those would be. So this is a really great way to combine social studies. If let's say you have a poetry unit, you can have a novel study a chapter book that is in the form of a poem, which I can share with you. There's actually an example that I really love. And you utilize that novel study and kind of compare, okay, what standards are we learning? How can I incorporate that in social studies as far as like, maybe they're learning about the Great Depression, maybe they're learning about the American Revolution, whatever it is, you can always combine that. Another thing to consider is deciding on if you want to do a whole group, novel study, small group or individual novel study, I recommend whole group in especially like third or fourth grade, or if students have never done a novel study before at all, the best way to go about it is just to do a whole group novel study where everybody has the same book, they are expected to read the chapters on their own, but they can still meet back together as you discuss as a whole group. Another thing that could be good is with small groups, those can also be used as literature circles, that's another name for it. But it's where students might either have self selected books that they decide as a group, or it might be that you select the books, and it could be based on their reading level, you can pair them up based on interest, however, you want to do that as far as a small group. And then there's the individual novel study where students pick a book of their own. It would probably be helpful if students have had experience with novel studies if they do an individual novel study, and it would help to have similar types of books. That's another thing I'll explain to you later. As far as examples that you can utilize in social studies. The next thing is to create discussion questions designed to promote critical thinking. So thinking about important vocabulary words that they may or may not know. Word that are important to the actual context of the story and understanding the novel. And also comprehension, you can think of certain comprehension skills, students are required to learn different, you know, connections, like what is actually happening as far as the plot? What's happening in this setting? What, how are the interactions of the characters going, like? How are putting that all together? Those can easily be tied into standards. I know in Texas, there are specific standards, teak standards, on characters on plot on theme, then the last thing is to consider how students will showcase their learning and how often are you going to have a quick exit ticket after every every chapter? Are you going to have some type of you know, just response writing response after every chapter and you go over it? Or are you going to have like a big culminating test at the end? Or are you just kind of mainly going, you know, guided discussion questions, after every couple chapters with a project at the end, there's no right or wrong way to create how you want to plan. It's just really based on the needs of your students, and your learning goals and what you want students to get out of the novel study. All right, let's look into choosing a novel. This is one of my favorite parts, of course. But one consideration is to think of the age and interests in addition to the social studies topic to be discussed. So maybe this time of year, you guys are discussing the Civil War, you can find a really great age appropriate book that you would definitely want to read in advance before assigning it and giving students you know, the go ahead to read. So you're really thinking about, you know, the time of year, what type of social studies topic could be taught around this time, and what they're interested in age group, what's appropriate, what may not be appropriate, you want to keep that all into consideration. That's why I'm a big proponent of like, you need to read the novel. First. Don't you don't want any surprises. So definitely read the novel. First, if you're considering that next would be looking for resources to help enrich the novel study. There's plenty of sources out there, maybe you want to find some supplemental resources on Teachers Pay Teachers or blogs or, you know, encyclopedias online, something to help enrich the experience, especially if it's a popular novel, that there might be a lot of content for, that's always something. But if you're not really, really confident in teaching about the Reconstruction period, definitely find those resources to help make the novel study even more interesting. And then create a timeframe to conduct the novel study, do you want to get it done in three weeks, six weeks, maybe you're doing it over the nine week period, definitely don't go through it in a week. And like we're done, take some time to go over it so that you have a lot of wiggle room. And you can really discuss the novel study, and not just the novel itself. But discuss the actual setting of novel study the historical time period of a novel study, any other social studies concepts that you want to highlight, you can go way in depth and, you know, pull in some resources as far as the actual culture of that time period and the type of food they ate, the customs, all of that kind of stuff, there's so much you can do in that timeframe. So that's why I would recommend at least four to six weeks when you're doing a novel study so that they can have a true immersive, interactive experience. I wanted to go into an example of how you can plan out your novel study. This is a template that I will share the link to in the presentation after this is over. But I just am not like an Excel or sheets guru. But it's just something simple that I put together that I thought might be useful in helping planning a novel study. So you can always edit the name of this Google Sheet. So let's say I have the book Esperanza Rising, and it is one of my favorite novel studies books to implement. But Esperanza Rising with an E. Then as I plan it, I want to think of maybe some certain standards. I know that this book takes place in the Great Depression era. So it will be something that I would be having as a novel study in the spring, but going into school certain goals, you can type this like overall, certain themes, all the standards and all of that you can add that in this column. So maybe I kind of since it's in the spring, it's kind of like a review as state testing is going on. Just going into like, just going to add some random TEKS. They're not random, but going into 5.8, a theme 5.8

B characters. And then going in by chapter, if, you know, there's no chapter names, like this book, you can always just kind of write what it is as far as what they have, but or even the page numbers if you want to do that. So this one is 1924. Aguascalientes, Mexico, that's kind of the prologue. Then there's last Ooba. And on and on. Then for each of the chapters, you can plan out like as you're reading beforehand, planning out key vocabulary words, but I'm gonna just add a few can also even add the pages that it's on. And then this next column is certain guided questions that you might want to ask. This is also, you know, really great to plan that out type of assessment, this can be edited. So all you have to do is just click on one of these. And there's three options with the three different colors, you just click the Edit button. And you can always have like some type of short answer, exit ticket can have multiple choice. Can also maybe like some type of project can change up however you want, you can do type of activity, and maybe you might plan out an activity and have certain categories here, then you just click Done. And it'll ask you to apply to all and you just click Apply to All and all the options will be easily able to be selected. So I can just say like for this, we'll just do a quick short answer, exit ticket, maybe making a prediction, and having multiple choice. And then you can always add in the notes like certain multiple choice questions, you don't have to have everything laid out yet, like all laid out. If you don't want to, you can kind of this is just like a starting point just to get started. And then date read would be like when you plan on reading it however you want to do that can always decide when that will work for you. And then continue on.

But yeah, this is just a bare bones, planning template user lose as one of my teacher friends used to say, this is something that you do not have to utilize, but it's there if you're interested in it. It's a really great starting point, if you cannot find a book or novel that has all of this laid out for you already, or you just would rather do it yourself. So that's what this example is for. If you're interested in this novel study planning template, you can type in the URL, BIT dot L y forward slash novel study plan template, all lowercase. All you have to do is make a copy and it'll make a copy to your Google Drive. So that's there if you are interested in it at all. It's just some way to kind of help plan out your novel study and you can always edit it around however you see fit. All right, now let's talk about conducting the novel study what happens after you plan it you decide the novel you're planning out? Okay, I have what we're going to talk about the questions. When you conduct the novel study, I have a few tips for you. One tip is to make connections with the text and how students current lives are. How is this relevant to students lives? How is it relevant to modern society as a whole can always do a really great comparison if the setting of the novel takes place in another time period. Have students find some parallels to the past in the presence maybe connecting with other subjects? Novel studies are great and that you can incorporate reading comprehension you can have students practice writing responses, really hone in on their writing skills, their critical thinking skills and as well as like learning about the actual social studies content, it can be inter woven very easily. So the topic itself is the social studies, but the actual skill practice and what they're learning, as far as you know, it, that's all ELA. So it goes hand in hand, in my opinion. Another thing is to think about any themes and patterns, what themes overall themes are they finding? How do they fit in the overall goal of the novel study, and the you know, the overall goal, like what you want students to really get out of it. So have students kind of, you know, guiding them into like, what patterns do you notice? What themes do you notice, discussing what themes are? So maybe like, Happiness isn't always solved with money. That's a really great theme that's always common that you might see in books, and patterns, as far as you know, making it just at the edge, and then something bad happens. And they have to just keep it so persistence determination, when everything continues just to be going bad for somebody, you can always kind of can make that pattern in the novel study. So whatever the themes are, the patterns are make it known with your students throughout the novel study time period. Another important thing to think about or tip is to highlight important vocabulary and literary elements. What literary elements do you want to teach? Maybe you might think about the plot structure or characters or foreshadowing is a big one, maybe some static characters, so characters that don't change throughout the book, or maybe there are some characters who have a different perspective or a different way of thinking. So those dynamic characters or round characters, thinking about how that kind of drives the novel, discussing that with them, and then also the vocabulary and important vocabulary words you want them to know. And then the last tip is to use a variety of assessments and activities don't always do the same. Okay, here's a quiz after the end of this chapter, make sure you answer these three questions. At the end of this chapter, mix it up. There was one time we were reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind as a novel study. And that was a connection with what we were learning in science. And we combined it with ELA. But this was also before COVID. So I made in Sema, which is a staple food in Malawi, in Africa. And I had we like talked about the recipe and all of that stuff. And I just passed it out. And we tried in Sema, so that that thing that was mentioned throughout the book, and what they thrived on and how they survived, we tried it and some people liked it, some people didn't. So making it interactive, whether it's, you know, the different activities, whether it's some type of food activity, or some simulation, adding in some quizzes, or some responses, or, you know, writing in the point of view of a character. And then of course, making sure students give an opportunity to showcase what they've learned from the novel. With a culminating project. That could be where students are creating a slideshow, something simple, or maybe a whole web site, they bring in food from that time period, make sure to incorporate a variety of assessments and activities that hit on the different learning styles in your classroom. So something can aesthetic, something visual, something auditory, something even musical, maybe making a song, there's so many things you can do as far as and even letting students choose that activity. So think about how you can make it as enriching as possible, so that it's truly interactive for your students. All right, I'm going to share with you a few of my favorite novels, cities, books for social studies. Alright, so these are a few here, blood on the river I've done with my fifth graders. This is great, too. You know, when you're talking about English settlements, American colonies and how the Virginia Company came through in the 1600s. It's a really great novel to pair with, right before you talk about the American Revolution. Out of the dust is a personal favorite of mine that I did in middle school. I read this book in middle school. This is the poem I talked about. It's actually a chapter book in the form of a poem. It takes place during the Great Depression in the Dust Bowl era. So I think there in Oklahoma and all of that stuff. It is a there's some elements in it that may not be suitable for third or fourth grade. So you really have to read the book and see if that's something your students would be able to read but I read it in sixth grade and I loved it. Number the Stars is Another really great book, this is around the world war two era. And this could be a really great book to pair has really great themes of courage and bravery. And, you know, selflessness, it is taking place during the Holocaust, which is a really important topic students need to know about. So this is a really great book that any grade level could benefit from, just read it in advance to see if it's something that's a good fit for your class. And, of course, Esperanza Rising, I know, I did that little demo in the spreadsheet. But this is another great one, this is also taking place during the Great Depression, it takes place in Mexico, and when they travel into California and the United States, and it has a lot of great things there. I love the chapters how they're named after fruits and vegetables. And it's kind of cool how they kind of how it progresses, there's some there's some meaning in and symbolism in that. So it's a really great thing to explore with your students. And then the lemonade war doesn't have to do with any history, it's actually more economics, there are some lessons that students actually learn like, it actually kind of lays out a few concepts of economics. So this is really great. If that's something you're talking about during that a certain time of year, you can always do some type of culminating project where students come up with their own stand, maybe it's not lemonade that they're selling, but it's some other type of business that they want to open up. So it can be really great. As far as you know, going into entrepreneurs, you can have students look up or research famous entrepreneurs in the past and present. So this is another really great novel study as well. All right, here are some others. So these are some suggestions as far as if you want to do a small group novel study or an individual novel study. But you don't want to like have to track 2530 different books, you can always do it in a series format, where you have a collection like if you because they have a ton of these who was what was I survived books. It's a whole series of historical events. And it's easy to read really great for third grade, even in fourth grade, and fifth grade. So really, any grade level in upper elementary, this would be great for each book in the series is pretty much formatted in a similar way. So it's a really great, easy way to kind of discuss and if you get similar books have a similar time period or era, maybe you get a lot of Texas Revolution books from this series or something, you know, maybe something in the 20th century, that's the theme 20th century, you can have a really cool culminating project where students are teaching others with their projects, they have some type of diorama or poster that they're sharing about their time period or their event in the 20th century or their event in the Texas Revolution. So this is kind of a great way to make it kind of cohesive as far as they have similar books with the same amount of chapters, all you just have to do is change out certain vocabulary words or certain questions, I would recommend doing more like open ended responses with this if you're going to implement a individual or small group novel study, but the theme at least the overall theme or goals or standards can be similar. If you enjoyed this presentation, and you want to learn more about other videos and workshops and presentations I have in my membership, you can always go to smart and simple social studies.com. If it is not open at the time this is recorded, you can always get in the waitlist by clicking on join the waitlist. But if you join the membership, you'll get access to video presentations like this. So you'll be able to see the visuals and hear it and also download the certificates that come with the workshop and any other handouts I have. So this is really great if you're a visual learner and you want to kind of learn a little bit more related to teaching social studies in upper elementary. All right, well, that's the end of this episode. Hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks for listening

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