This text frames and develops a coherent, practical, and engaging approach to teaching and learning elementary social studies. The authors combine the latest research on learning patterns, curriculum structure and presentation, and assessment with practical issues like classroom management, goal establishment, and creative lesson planning. Elementary Social Studies is organized according to four commonplaces of education--learners and learning, subject matter, teachers and teaching, and classroom environment--to help teachers create a powerful learning environment for their students. The Second Edition includes additional emphasis on issues of multiculturalism and diversity, and teaching in the lower primary grades. New! More Theory-to-Practice examples are included throughout the text. Now identifiable by marginal icons, the examples in Chapter 2 concentrate on incorporating constructivist principles into the teaching/learning process, while those in Chapter 5 focus on choosing teaching strategies, curriculum materials, and classroom assessments. New! More references to social studies standards and standardized assessments are presented throughout the text to help teaching students understand how their lessons relate to the certification process and the assessment of schools, teachers, and students. New! More explicit connections between social studies and language arts instruction (Chapter 4) are drawn to provide guidance on teaching in schools that have marginalized social studies instruction in order to concentrate on reading and math in preparation for standardized testing. New! Expanded content allows the author to provide the most comprehensive updates and information on all topics presented. New! Marginal icons have been reduced from six categories to four--diversity, standards, theory-to-practice examples, and relevant research--for purposes of clarity. These icons help call out where relevant information is presented in the text. In Your Classroom boxes offer practical teaching suggestions such as the use jigsaw puzzles, book talks, and mini-lessons. An appendix of Children's Literature provides approximately 100 specific titles that correspond to the various unit ideas throughout the text.