While learning about how to teach Social Studies, I have learned that it is a broad area to teach. Social Studies is broken in five content areas which include Civics, Economics, Geography, US History, and Word History. Within these five areas there are also 10 themes. One theme I would like to discuss is Patterns of Social and Political Interaction.
The Patterns of Social and Political Interaction theme “focuses on the changing patterns of class, ethnicity, race, and gender in social and political relations” (NHCSS, 2006). When looking at the theme through the different strands, different topics arise. Human rights issues would be a Civic example. For Economics, the changing role of women in the economy would be an area to discuss. The Geography strand would examine immigration issues and why people were motivated to leave their county. US History may be examined by teaching about slavery and racism, where World History would discuss migrations and cultural diffusion.
Here are examples of essential questions that relate to this theme:
“Why is it important for all people to be treated equally no matter what their differences are? Is a multicultural society viable? How do changing patterns in social and political relations initiate social movements? How have societies historically limited or encouraged social mobility? Why do humans engage in ethnic cleansing?” (NHCSS, 2006).
Resource:
New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies. (June 2006). K-12 Social Studies New Hampshire Curriculum Framework. Retrieved from https://www.education.nh.gov/instruction/curriculum/social_studies/documents/frameworks.pdf
Amanda's Blog 
I like how you give a description of each stand/theme. I find it very interesting to understand why people leave their own country to come to the Unite States. Whether it is for political reasons or religious, economic reasons or some other personal reason I think it takes a huge amount of courage to move your family from all they know to a land that is free.
I agree social studies is truly a very broad topic which is why in many curriculum it gets lost. There is a lot to teach students about social studies.
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