Comprehension Strategies
Social Studies—6th grade
v 
Letters—Have the children choose a
historical figure from the time period that you are studying; for example if
studying WWII, Winston Churchill or Nazi soldier. The students will write a series of letters (# dependant on
how much time you have) written by the historical figure to a member of his
family or a friend. The letters
are to describe events he is going through, conditions of his environment,
opinions and thoughts about the goings on and the future, and/or any other
information you as the teacher ask them to include, to show that they have
learned the information.
v 
Battle Scene—Block out a Battle that you
are learning about. Split the
class into the opposing sides each with a position as a general, navy officer,
scout, etc. that relates to the historical situation. Move the “troops” through the same strategies and positions
that the real armies did. If
desired, costumes can be added into the scene along with set materials and
other props. This can also be done on a smaller scale by splitting the class
into several groups. Then instead
of acting the battle out themselves, they would use little plastic army men or
chessmen to portray the movements of the historical armies.
v Game Day—For whatever time period you are working with, find games that were played by children during that time period and play them as a class. As another option or a follow up to that activity, have the students invent a game that they think children would/could have played during that time.
Examples
include:
§ KING TUT'S GAME. [game] 1 game (1 gameboard, 2 cubes, 10 playing pieces) Ages 10 and up. For 2 players. Senet, the game that King Tut played is a game of strategy and luck. CADACO, c1977.
§ Chess was a popular pastime in medieval Europe.
§ Games of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age
v 
Status—This is a game to help the
students comprehend social status systems. It is played with face cards. Each child is given a card. The child does not look at their own card but holds it too
their forehead for all to see.
Aces and Kings are the high end of the social scale and twos and threes
are at the low end. After everyone
has been handed a card the game begins.
The object of the game is to surround yourself with high cards and rid
yourself of the low cards. After a
couple minutes the teacher asks the students to line themselves up in order of
high to low cards. Then asks a few
students why they feel they are in that part of the line. It is best to play this several times,
passing out new cards to the students each time.
