Social Studies Middle School Guide

(Developing Consensus, and Argumentation)

What & How:

Why: ● This activity allows for both individual think time, and group discussion and consensus. This activity is best used with open-ended prompts that allow for multiple possible responses. ● This activity is recommended for eliciting student argument from evidence or experience. Source: New Visions Curriculum Resources

Vocabulary Buzzwords (Constructing Explanations)

What & How: 1. Provide individual think time to respond to an open-ended prompt. Students jot down their thoughts. 2. Each student takes a turn reading/explaining their response to the prompt. As students in the group listen, they tally the buzzwords each time they are spoken. 3. Students may have the opportunity to re-write or add to their initial explanations, after hearing the others.

Why: ●

Typically to be used after reading a text or viewing a multimedia source material, or while attempting to generate explanations. This prompts students’ use of specific key vocabulary terms within their explanations. ● This is a good formative assessment, giving teacher and students an opportunity to see which vocabulary terms may need more review. Source: New Visions Curriculum Resources

This collection has been curated by GUHSD Science. Sources include SDAIE, San Francisco Unified School District’s Multilingua l Pathways Department, STEM Teaching Tools, Ambitious Science Teaching, and New Visions Curriculum Resources.