[00:00:00] Kirsten: Hi guys, and welcome back to the Social Studies Teacher podcast. I'm so glad you're here Today we are going to be talking all about seven station ideas that you could either incorporate in your ELA block if you teach ELA, or you can do it separately as a dedicated social studies station time.

[00:00:27] If you're like most upper elementary teachers, you likely have about 30 minutes if you're lucky And it may not even happen every day. So how can we make social studies meaningful in the first place? That is where stations comes in.

[00:00:43] We're gonna talk about how you can mix and match these stations to build content knowledge, as well as hitting on those important reading and writing skills for EL. A.

[00:00:52] But before we get started, I just wanted to share that I would appreciate it if you could like, subscribe, share [00:01:00] this episode with other teachers just like you, who teach upper elementary social studies, even ELA. Whatever it might be. If you think that this would help teachers, I would love it if you could share it along, and you can always listen to this particular episode on podcasts, platforms, wherever you love to listen to podcasts.

[00:01:22] You could also read this version on my blog. You can just go to the southern teach.com/blog and find a host of different blog posts and podcast episodes. It's all linked together, hopefully in a nice, neat place.

[00:01:40] So without further ado, let's go ahead and start into this episode.

[00:01:45] When I taught ELA social studies, something I wish I did more of was social studies stations. We did ELA stations and it was great the way I structured it with different groups. They stay in one [00:02:00] station that day and then they rotate to a new station another day. For me personally with upper elementary students.

[00:02:08] I could not handle the switching to two to three stations a day in a long period of time. For me, it was easier and less chaotic with a 45 to 60 minute. Station time and the students stay at the station time and work on a set of tasks that take around that time. So I really am a proponent of stations, but if you like the shorter stations, that's totally fine.

[00:02:41] You can always rotate through two to three stations. Or if you're like me and you need that longer block of time where there's just staying at one station per day, you could always do that too.

[00:02:53]

[00:02:53 It doesn't matter how long you have students at stations, social studies stations can work because it [00:03:00] gives students structure and choice. So even within those different stations, you can give them some options to work on, or you can have them do a must do task and some may do tasks after they finish the must do task.

[00:03:14] It's a way to let you differentiate without running around crazy. I grouped my stations by levels, and so students were in similar reading levels and abilities, and so it was super easy. Not a problem. To know that, okay, on this particular day, this particular group is going to this station, so I need to make sure that they're doing this task instead of a analytical, higher thinking task that the higher students would be able to grasp more easily.

[00:03:47] So it's easy to differentiate whenever you have stations with your students. It's also a great way to reinforce those important comprehension skills and reading skills like main idea [00:04:00] and summarizing and making inferences super easy to do with a variety of social studies topics.

[00:04:07] The best thing about it is it's flexible. You can rotate the stations, like I mentioned, one per day, where they're doing four to five stations a week, or you can have them do two per day, so they're rotating through some of the same stations. They may be doing something a little bit different.

[00:04:26] You could also rotate one or two stations in your ELA reading stations and make those social studies so you can have a specific social study station that is. Within your ELA stations in general, you have a social studies station or maybe two, or you can do something like a Social Studies Friday where they're stations and they're all social studies themed and it's all on Fridays.

[00:04:54] That could be really fun and something that students might be able to look forward to.

[00:04:58] All right, so I'm gonna dive in [00:05:00] one by a one with each station idea.

[00:05:02] We are gonna start with the classic, the daily social studies passages that I have in my membership as well as in my TPT store. These are short nonfiction texts that take around three to five minutes to read, and there's three comprehension questions for each passage. They might cover a historical figure, a geography skill, a celebration or tradition, or some type of civics concept like voting or rights and responsibilities.

[00:05:34] It's quick, it's quiet, and it is high impact, and it also includes a glossary for each topic as well as a check for understanding. Quiz with seven multiple choice questions.

[00:05:48] You can have students do a few passages of that in that one station, or you can just have them do all four, because there's always four per topic with the [00:06:00] quiz. So you could just. Staple it together, have, that's what they're working on for that specific station. If you're doing a longer block, if you're doing a shorter block, I would recommend only doing one or two days.

[00:06:12] So you can decide based on how long your station's rotations are going to last, how many of those. Passages you wanna add in, but I recommend making sure they're about the same topic. So like for example, geography of the us, you wanna make sure they're all the same passages from that specific topic.

[00:06:33] There's also a lot of things you can incorporate with this If you require or would like for your students to look for evidence with a highlighter, you could always have them practice those reading comprehension skills where they have to find evidence in the passage to justify their answer. And you can always incorporate other things like.

[00:06:57] They could write a quick little summary [00:07:00] on each paragraph about what they just read in their own words.

[00:07:05] The second station idea I have for you is task cards. These are amazing for review, early finishers and practicing content vocabulary. Each card can ask a question or some type of scenario or offer some type of visual that they have to analyze. You can do multiple choice task cards, something with an open ended question or even a which one doesn't belong format.

[00:07:34] So I have assigned task cards in my ELA stations, and it was super easy because I would have the set of task cards. I sometimes cut out the task cards. Sometimes I just, you know. There wasn't a lot of time, so I just printed it out and stapled it as it was. But I would make enough copies of the recording sheet so students would each take a recording sheet when they were in that [00:08:00] station, and then they could flip through the task cards, or if you want to cut them up and laminate them and all of that good stuff, you can always do that too, but they.

[00:08:09] Were able to reuse the task cards, and then they each had their own recording sheet, and then they would work on that forestation.

[00:08:18] The next station idea I have for you is a primary source analysis. There are a lot of places you can find primary sources, which could be some type of video. Audio clip, picture document. The Library of Congress has a variety of primary sources as well as Wikimedia comments.

[00:08:40] Just depending on what you need, you're basically pulling in a real photo quote, short document or some type of artifact and have students observe. Analyze, ask questions and make inferences. So this just example that I've been [00:09:00] showing is showing a photo of families at Ellis Island.

[00:09:03] You could ask, what do you notice? What do you think is happening and what questions do you still have? You'll be amazed what students will do when they have a little bit of structure in analyzing different primary sources.

[00:09:18] The next station and one of my favorites is utilizing a WebQuest. with WebQuest, you'll need your students to have some type of device along with recording sheet and a source that you pick out depending on what the topic is. These are basically guided online explorations with student friendly links, and kids might research a famous person, explore a country, investigate a holiday, or compare two forms of government,

[00:09:46] and for each question, it prompts them to have to go into that specific online source and find what they are looking for to complete the question or find the answer to the question. I have a lot of [00:10:00] WebQuests with QR codes. All they have to do is scan that QR code or type in the URL with a short Bitly link, and they will be able to access a kid friendly source and they're going through and answering the questions or the prompts related to a specific topic.

[00:10:16] I've got topics from Tom Brady to the Constitution to regents of the US to the lost colony of Roanoke and. Everybody has seemed to love these A lot of teachers say that their students are engaged and they had a lot of fun, and there are some teachers who even use it for sub plans if they're out for the day.

[00:10:37] There's always a really great way to utilize WebQuest, not just with stations, but just really in any part of the social studies block. So that is a station idea. That would be really fun for students. All you have to do is make copies of them, put them in a bin, and they are set set

[00:10:57] the Number five, we have a [00:11:00] journal or writing reflection for a station. This is pretty self-explanatory. You have some type of prompt or a written piece where students have a notebook or a paper and they are reflecting or journaling. Students are connecting to the content to their own world.

[00:11:19] You can give them a prompt like. If I were a leader in my community, or what does freedom mean to me? Or describe one thing about your culture, you can let them draw it or write it, whatever works. This is great for those creative students who really like to write things down or draw out things. It gives them that creative outlet for them to take whatever they've learned for social studies and apply it in a different way.

[00:11:47] And an ELA bonus for this is you can do a variety of genres. You can do expository narrative, prompt, some type of argumentative prompt, so just go throughout the year, [00:12:00] maybe even as you're discussing a specific ELA genre. We usually started the year with personal narrative, so you can make sure to have some type of related social studies.

[00:12:12] Personal narrative journal or reflection prompt for that specific station and switch it out later on in the year.

[00:12:18] The station that I think would be really fun as well is some type of digital interactive station. This could really vary depending on what resources you might have with your district and what's contracted or utilized through different subscriptions. So this could be maybe Nearpod, which is free for teachers.

[00:12:40] You don't have to have a subscription time for kids BrainPOP, Kahoot, some type of digital interactive activity that is a really fun, engaging way to review. They just need their device and you give them the way to access whatever it is that [00:13:00] they're accessing.

[00:13:00] You can use this as a way to review vocabulary skills or the content that you might have taught, and you could also kind of spiral it in throughout the year, so maybe. Let's say it's October or November, and at the very beginning of the year, you talked about different regions of the United States. You can always pull in a fun activity and put that in a station related to the regions of the United States, and it's a nice way for students to review what they've already learned a few months prior.

[00:13:29] Lastly, station seven is small groups, so this didn't used to be my favorite station. I am going to be honest, because I always felt like I had to meet with every single group every single day, and I was always disappointed because. Sometimes I couldn't get to every group every week, and so I tried with Fidelity to meet with every single group, but things come up and it's not always possible.

[00:13:56] But I did know that through the years [00:14:00] I came to love small groups because I really got a chance. To meet on a smaller level with students and work with them on different specific skills that they needed extra practice on.

[00:14:12] And my favorite part of small group that I remember is having groups with book clubs. That was really fun to do with my fifth grade students. And we all had different chapters to read and we would read it and meet back and discuss. And so the small groups. Came to be something that I didn't really like as much because I felt like it was really just dull and lacking some fun to it being actually really something to look forward to because we had something to discuss with the book clubs.

[00:14:46] So you could do something like that where you have some type of social. Studies related book club. That would be super fun to do. Or you can use it to review and practice a specific social studies skill that they need [00:15:00] to be retaught or review.

[00:15:03] You can do some fun vocabulary games, some task cards together. It's a great way to reteach. Really, the options with small group are endless, and it really depends on the group that you're meeting with. I did meet with more groups more often, depending on how much support they needed. So the ones that were already at a really advanced level, I met with once a week for.

[00:15:27] Book clubs, but I did have some groups that I would meet with. Two to three times a week to work on different things. One day we would work on vocabulary another day, main idea in detail, and another would be some type of fun review game. So it really depended on what it is. They need support with, and I would meet with them.

[00:15:51] Some groups would be meeting more frequently with me. Some groups not as frequently, but you could always make it equal where you [00:16:00] meet with one group once a week. It just really depend on how much flexibility you might have in your classroom.

[00:16:08] So the great news about all of these stations that I mentioned is that you do not have to start off off the get go with all seven stations ready to go. You can pick one or two of your favorite ones that you just heard today and see what you can do to implement them in your social studies block or your ELA station rotation.

[00:16:29] Or you can try the Social Studies Friday idea and start with just four stations. Pick maybe three or four really good stations that you're like, I really wanna do this and I know I can do this. And have them rotate through those three or four stations. In an hour or however long your block is and still hitting on those reading and writing skills, while also incorporating social studies without adding too much extra [00:17:00] on your plate.

[00:17:00] If you're using my smart and simple social studies membership, a lot of these stations are already built in the daily passages, the task cards, the journal prompts. There are so many different activities that you can add in as a station, and it is something that you could easily just click on, download and go.

[00:17:19] It is all organized by domain and topic, and the best news is that this membership is going to be open very soon if it is not already. So if you're listening to this in real time, I recommend going to smart and simple social studies.com so you can get on the wait list because it may be open This week, so I want you to make sure that you are not missing out on this opportunity to have a variety of these station activity ideas at your fingertips.

[00:17:48] Thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. I can't wait to talk to you next time.

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