Teachers today must find multiple ways to reach out to students using a variety of teaching strategies.  Fortunately, social studies classes are the perfect setting for differentiating instruction. Social studies teachers have so much information to convey and yet so many options for teaching it.

Specific ideas  for helping each student reach his or her full potential, while learning the state or district mandated curriculum, include the following:

Incorporate Graphic Organizers
All students benefit from organizing material. Graphic organizers are very effective learning tools because they allow students to visualize and categorize information. There are several techniques to use:

• The teacher creates the graphic organizer and gives it to the students with specific instructions of how to find the material to complete it. To assist the lower achieving students, it may be partially completed. Go to the Teaching Today Download Depot to find a variety of downloadable graphic organizers.
• The teacher provides the student with the information and the students create their own graphic organizer.
• To cover one chapter in a short amount of time:
  1. Divide the class into groups of three or four.
  2. Assign each student in each group a section of the chapter to read.
  3. Provide each group with a large piece of construction paper and divide it into three or four sections.
  4. After reading, students should create a graphic organizer describing their assigned text.
  5. Once complete, they should use it to teach to the other students in their group.

This idea works well with social studies survey classes when the textbooks have a considerable amount information on each topic.

Develop a Gallery Walk
This activity allows students to learn at their own pace while physically moving around the room. The teacher posts pictures, art prints, or teacher- or student-created posters around the room. The students should be given an assignment to complete as they walk around the room looking at each object. Using art from different periods of history to demonstrate learning points works well.

Analyze Political Cartoons
Most topics in social studies can be discussed using political cartoons. The use of political humor or satire to explain perspectives on history or current events can leave a lasting impression on students. There are Web sites where copies of international newspapers are online. Students can use these to critique and analyze current political cartoons from foreign countries. As an alternative to using existing cartoons, teachers can assign a topic such as the stock market crash of 1929, and have students draw their own cartoons to illustrate a perspective.

Use Time Lines
For students to understand the present, they must learn what has happened in the past. Time lines are an effective method for teaching cause and effect in history. Several different techniques can be used:

• A simple list of dates and events
• Foldables, as seen in the Glencoe social studies textbooks
• Lines that are drawn with marks to indicate different periods of time
• Illustrated time lines to depict different events in history

Student-Centered Instruction
To have a successful differentiated social studies classroom, it must be student centered. The teacher coordinates time, space, materials, and activities as he or she helps the class achieve their group and individual goals.