It's chapters like this one that make me long for a gen ed classroom! :) I've been in my classroom now for 5 years and have never once done a social studies lesson or anything that resembled social studies. It wasn't until the last two years that we really started focusing on reading, writing, and math with EVERY student. Cognitively my students are so low that we really focus on functionality and safety. It would be WONDERFUL if they had the ability to comprehend even simple stories.
Writing is also a great thing in a classroom. My students are learning to form their letters correctly. My highest cognitive student is learning to write a sentence from dictation. We've been working on the same sentences for a couple of weeks now; "The dog is big." "The dog is little." This is a VERY difficult task for her.
Although I would LOVE to incorporate these into my classroom, realistically, letters, numbers, counting, sight words, and functional tasks are more appropriate for my students at this time.
Although most of the students I work with are not as cognitively low as yours are Kari, some of these same thoughts popped into my head when reading this chapter. It would sure be nice to focus more on social studies type curriculum or current events; however, during my 20 minute sessions, there is minimal time to delve into this type of content.
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