Liam Jin
Social Studies
Course Overview​​
Social Studies is the combined study of history, geography, civics, economics, and their interactions across time and place. They learn historical events and how it affects us today. By studying past events, they will get an idea of the people, places, issues, and events that made the world what it is on the present. They think about cause and consequence. They study the physical environment and how it changes human activities. They learn Canadian society, our democratic institutions, and the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizens. The course encourages students to examine human experience through asking questions, collect and analyse evidence, and explore multiple perspectives. Students develop historical thinking and research skills and understand the relationship between people and the land. The main purpose of social studies is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and competencies to be active, informed members of society who can think critically, understand and explain the perspective of others, make decisions, and effectively communicate ideas.
Social Studies classroom
Big Ideas
Contacts and conflicts between peoples stimulated significant cultural, social, political change.
Human and environmental factors shape changes in population and living standards.
Exploration, expansion, and colonization had varying consequences for different groups.
Changing ideas about the world created tension between people wanting to adopt new ideas and those wanting to preserve established traditions.
Emerging ideas and ideologies profoundly influence societies and events.
The physical environment influences the nature of political, social, and economic change.
Contacts and conflicts between peoples stimulated significant cultural, social, political change.
Human and environmental factors shape changes in population and living standards.
Exploration, expansion, and colonization had varying consequences for different groups.
Changing ideas about the world created tension between people wanting to adopt new ideas and those wanting to preserve established traditions.
Emerging ideas and ideologies profoundly influence societies and events.
The physical environment influences the nature of political, social, and economic change.
Content
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Grade 8
Students learn history from the 7th century to 1750. ​This includes empires, and civilisations, Crusades, conflicts between empires, European Age of Exploration, Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, Reformation, and colonisation. For geography, they learn where empires were and how land and trade shaped them.​
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Grade 9
Students learn history from 1750 to 1919. This includes revolutions, rise of Napoleon Bonarte, Industrial Revolution, imperialism and expansion, Canadian events, and World War I. For geography, they learn Canada's physical regions, cities, resources, and industries.
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Grade 10
Students learn history from 1919 to the present. This includes world wars, Cold War, Canada today, Indigenous rights and reconciliation, and global issues. For geography, they learn the modern environment, population, and globalisation.​​
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Grades 11 and 12
There are different types of social studies courses.
Social Studies textbooks
History timeline project
Teacher Interview (Mr Pablico)
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How do you help students that are struggling in your class?
I tend to see what kind of learner they are first, so there's not one approach for all of them. I gauge who the student is , how they learn, and then I sort of help them from there. If they're visual learners, I'll show them some pictures. If they're more about using words, I'll show them key terms.
How do you know if a student is understanding and not memorising?
It depends how they are explaining their work. If they can actually teach it back to me, then I know they actually understood it. I ask them some key questions to see if they actually understood the material. When they repeat it back to me, I can get a sense from there, I guess.
How can you help students stay motivated?
I always tap to their interests. Like before, even class starts or even when we're doing an interview, when to a particular topic, I get an idea of what people like. I have students express their interests and have options to choose topics. I also try to make it relevant to what they know and understand in terms of like pop culture, in terms of like references to, even just like music. I try to bring in some relevancy that they understand.
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What are students currently learning about in your class?
My students are currently learning about World War I. I have another class that is learning about geography.
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What problems do students have in your class?
Usually I would say literacy in some cases. I find that in my socials classes, kids find it hard to paraphrase certain things. And I think critical thinking is the big one, so I try to have sessions where they can exercise that.
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What skills does a student learn in your class?
Research skills, which is important. Also how to communicate information, break down structure. And presentation skills, being able to communicate that information well, to audience or people. Verifying sources and fact-checking as well. These skills are useful in the outside world.
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What's one misconception that students have about socials?
A huge one is that you have to remember dates. Kids try to memorise every single day, every single year. But really it's about understanding why that event happened and what it caused.
What's fun about teaching socials?
It's story time basically. I like stories. I like hearing about them and looking into people's experiences and events that pretty much changed the world.
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How does socials impact the world?
People have to be aware of what's going on. Today, information is so easily accessible, but there's bad information out there. There's information that may not even have a good source. So I think the way socials influences the world is how people are having an awareness of what really is going on and having to see through all the bias and fake news and not be afraid to share their perspective and opinion. Socials allows us to have those complicated, maybe even controversial conversations in a safer environment. It allows us to not make the same mistakes that we made in the past.
Conclusion
Social studies is the total study of history, geography, civics, economics, and their connections. The course covers a big range of history topics from the 7th century to the present, including empires, wars, exploration, revolutions, Indigenous rights, Reconciliation, and how they impact the world. Students think about cause and consequence. They develop research, communication, presentation, critical thinking, and historical thinking skills. They are useful in the outside world. Socials is important to understand our world and our place in it. Studying it helps us become responsible citizens who can think critically, understand and explain the perspective of others, make judgements, and communicate ideas. It prepares us to participate effectively in a diverse society.