The purpose of this thesis is to explore how curriculum-related songs provide an engaging atmosphere for elementary students learning social studies concepts. The investigation done for this thesis examines the resources available to teachers in terms of songs to be used for pedagogical engagement of social studies lessons. Through research and video analyzations it can be concluded that students are overall intrigued by the usage of songs in their social studies lessons. During the social studies lessons observed in the video analyzations, the elementary students are focused, exhibit positive body language, participate, and have fun. Since engagement is documented within the analyzed videos and supported through others' research to be beneficial for students, this thesis researched and found a place for songs in elementary social studies lessons. Since there are a lack of current social studies resources that contain a musical element, eight social studies lesson plans were produced specifically for this thesis to demonstrate how songs can be implemented into the elementary curriculum to engage students.

Syftet med studien är att jämföra tidigare forskning med praktiska erfarenheter som verksamma lärare i årskurs 4-6 har av att anpassa sin undervisning inom SO-ämnena för elever med autism, för att tillföra kunskap till studenter, verksamma lärare och andra pedagoger. Studien är en kvalitativ intervjustudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer. I studien intervjuas fyra lärare, varav tre arbetar på samma skola. Studiens resultat visar att lärarna utgår från relationen med eleverna när de väljer undervisningsmetod eftersom alla elever är olika, och man behöver utgå från varje individs behov och intressen. Metoder som används av lärarna är bland annat bildstöd, kooperativt lärande, teknologibaserad undervisning genom ipad eller dator, repetitioner och rutiner. Dessutom diskuteras läroplanen och kunskapskraven i relation till elever med autism, och resultatet visar att deltagarna i studien anser att kraven är alldeles för höga och att elever med autism inte kan nå upp till dem.

During the fall 2017 and spring 2018 semesters, I investigated what 3 6th grade social studies teachers knew and believed about disciplinary literacy and how that knowledge and belief shaped their instructional practice. Descriptive case study design allowed me to investigate the 3 participants in order to develop a descriptive understanding and interpretation of the group. I collected the following data sources from each participant: a concept map illustrating ideas of literacy and social studies, 3 interviews, 4 observations, and teacher lesson plans and texts. I chose descriptive coding for the within-case analysis and pattern coding for the cross-case analysis. Through cross-case analysis, five interconnecting themes arose. All 3 teachers 1) believed social studies teachers should be well-versed in the content of social studies and should be passionate about teaching social studies content, 2) believed the role of civics was the main reason for social studies instruction, 3) believed social studies instruction should require students to engage, read, and comprehend varying types of text, 4) believed social studies teachers should be teachers of reading because literacy and social studies were strongly connected within an intertwined relationship, and 5) believed vocabulary development in social studies was necessary. 3 differences emerged among the participants. All 3 teachers 1) gained varying educational experiences which influenced their pedagogical choices in the social studies classroom, 2) demonstrated varying instructional routines when structuring the instruction of social studies, and 3) demonstrated varying levels of efficacy in teaching writing in social studies. Recommendations for teacher education are 1) preservice teachers need exposure to the term disciplinary literacy and practice in using disciplinary literacy; 2) leaders, curriculum specialists, and reading coaches should receive professional development on the incorporation of both content-area literacy pedagogy and disciplinary literacy pedagogy; 3) teachers need to refine disciplinary literacy pedagogy through supportive work in a professional learning community. Recommendations for future research are to 1) describe how teachers implicitly and explicitly teach literacy strategies within the different disciplines, 2) describe how teachers instruct using literacy skills and what specific literacy strategies are used, and 3) explore how teachers teach students to transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”

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