What does a student-centered social studies classroom really look like? Renowned educator Bil Johnson reveals how to teach social studies so that your students become engaged, active, and responsible learners. This book demonstrates how student-centered strategies can be applied in your classroom. It shows you how to make students' work the focus of what occurs in your classroom, prepare lesson plans based on what students should know and be able to do, and create a classroom environment revolving around rigorous and creative student activity. Also included are classroom examples of socratic seminars and other forms of group work such as simulations and role playing, performances and exhibitions, projects and portfolios, and other demonstrations of student learning.

Bil Johnson, a former public school social studies and English teacher, is currently Clinical Professor in Brown University's Education Department. The author of the highly successful Performance Assessment Handbook series, he won the William McLaughlin Award for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences at Brown. Bil has been an active member of the Coalition of Essential Schools for over 15 years.

Chapter 1 Why Do We Do What We Do the Way We Do It?; Chapter 2 Basic Strategies Across the Disciplines; Chapter 3 Kids before Content: The Social Studies/History Curriculum Conundrum; Chapter 4 In the Face of Standards and Testing: Strategies and Methods; Chapter 5 Where Do We Go from Here?: Implementing the Student-Centered Secondary Classroom;