Social Studies Standards Support
Inspired by the National Council for the Social Studies1, the reference points that are bolded below can enhance your social studies instruction.
Reflect on culture and cultural diversity when listening to Meet-the-Author Recordings.
- Examine the controversy of America's concentration camps with author Matt Faulkner sharing his inspiration in writing Gaijin: American Prisoner of War.
Study the past and its impact on ideas, values, and how people live today through in-depth author interviews.
- Consider Andrea Davis Pinkney's interview as she discusses Sit-in: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down.
- Discuss Duncan Tonatiuh sharing the relevance of Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation.
Experience the relationships between people, places, and environments with thought provoking points for discussion.
- Explore the complexity of the world's total population by imagining it as a village of just 100 people in If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World's People with David J. Smith's Meet-the-Author Recording.
Reflect on the development of personal identity.
- Experience Guadalupe Garcia McCall's struggle to define herself in dual cultures in her Meet-the-Author Recording of Under the Mesquite.
- Find more examples for Grades 6-12 from the CCBC booklist on Race & Identity.
1. Referenced from "National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2 - The Themes of Social Studies." National Council for the Social Studies, http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/strands.