Teaching Elementary Social Studies for Scholarship, Civic Engagement, and Mental Health

The virtual community approach described in this book offers over fifty detailed lesson plans that cover the entire social studies curriculum, while also empowering the emotional intelligence of elementary students. Based on the standards, concepts, information and skills established by the National Council for the Social Studies, the virtual community program accommodates all grade levels and learning styles, providing a template that allows teachers to plug in vocabulary, concepts and skills from local 1st through 5th grade classroom texts. Students collaborate to locate and create municipalities, fictitious cities and towns, in which they build, live, debate, vote, legislate, start up businesses, celebrate histories, brainstorm ideas, engineer innovations, and navigate encounters of everyday life in roles of their choosing.

With over a decade of facilitating the program with elementary school students, Lee Chasen presents a theoretical and practical recipe for integrating full spectrum learning with therapeutic agency, a child's natural, inherent ability for seeking emotional balance, to create a rich, meaningful, personalized approach to development that restores the neurological dynamic in which the brain best functions and children love to learn. Part cheerleader, Chasen encourages teachers to take on the program and re-imagine what our schools are capable of.