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An exploration of fourth and fifth grade students' learning activities in social studies using children's nonfiction trade books /

This study explored the use of children’s nonfiction trade books in social studies instruction. A split classroom of fourth and fifth grade students that applied informal education participated in this descriptive study. Three research questions guided this study to determine; (1) how the teacher organized instruction; (2) what learning activities the students engaged in; and (3) what social studies perspectives were learned when children’s nonfiction trade books were used. Three major social studies units were observed during the study. Students learned about the Colonial Time, the Revolutionary War, and the Native American Tribe units by using children’s nonfiction trade books provided by the teacher. For about six months, data were gathered through observations, interviews, and document collections. From the three methods, data were compiled in the form o f field notes, interview transcripts, documents and artifacts, and learning activity transcripts. All data, then, were analyzed using the start list codes developed by Miles and Huberman (1994). Based on research questions, coding categories were derived to code data from field notes, interviews, and learning activity transcripts. The findings indicated that when children’s nonfiction trade books were used for learning social studies, the teacher organized the instruction into five stages: planning the units, selecting the books, introducing the units, monitoring students’ activities, and assessing students’ learning. Students learned in various activities such as reviewing books, reading, note taking, writing, discussing, note reviewing, conferencing, creating artifacts, and presenting the topics they learned. The findings also showed that the use of children’s nonfiction trade books allowed students to leam six social studies perspectives written in the social studies course of study. Implications for instruction in the U.S. and Indonesia and recommendations for further research were discussed.