Elisabeth Johnson has taught social studies to both mainstream and English language learners at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California for the past 13 years. She is a National Board Certified teacher with a master's degree in education.

She has contributed a chapter on social studies in Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners written by Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski, as well as an article for the weekly teacher advice column Education Week Teacher, “‘Doing' Geography Instead of ‘Studying’ It.”

She is a teacher consultant with the Area 3 Writing Project through the University of California, Davis, and has led teacher development training through the San Joaquin County Office of Education.

Elisabeth lives in Sacramento with her husband and their twin daughters.

Evelyn Ramos LaMarr has taught at the secondary level for 12 years at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. She is currently teaching social studies to mainstream and International Baccalaureate students. She has taken an active role in creating curriculum and piloting the Ethnic Studies course newly adopted in the Sacramento City Unified School District. She has contributed to Larry Ferlazzo's weekly teacher advice column Education Week Teacher, “Response: ‘Education Suffers Without More Teachers of Color.’”

She is a teacher consultant with the Area 3 Writing Project at the University of California, Davis, and has a master's degree in education. Evelyn is a proud daughter of immigrant parents who worked in the River Delta as farmworkers. Currently, she resides in Sacramento with her husband Todd and their young daughter, Belen.

Larry Ferlazzo teaches English, social studies, and International Baccalaureate classes to English language learners and others at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California.

He's written nine books: The ELL Teacher's Toolbox (with coauthor Katie Hull Sypnieski); Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners (with coauthor Katie Hull Sypnieski); The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide (with coauthor Katie Hull Sypnieski); Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies to Help Students Thrive in School and Beyond; Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching; Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies for Student Motivation; Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges; English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work; and Building Parent Engagement in Schools (with coauthor Lorie Hammond).

He has won several awards, including the Leadership for a Changing World Award from the Ford Foundation, and was the Grand Prize Winner of the International Reading Association Award for Technology and Reading.

He writes a popular education blog at http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org, a weekly teacher advice column for Education Week Teacher, and posts for the New York Times and the Washington Post. He also hosts a weekly radio show on BAM! Education Radio.

He was a community organizer for 19 years prior to becoming a public school teacher.

Larry is married and has three children and two grandchildren.

A basketball team he played for came in last place every year from 2012 to 2017. He retired from league play after that year, and the team then played for the championship. These results might indicate that Larry made a wise career choice in not pursuing a basketball career.

Katie Hull Sypnieski has taught English language learners and others at the secondary level for over 20 years. She currently teaches middle school English language arts and social studies at Fern Bacon Middle School in Sacramento, California.

She leads professional development for educators as a teaching consultant with the Area 3 Writing Project at the University of California, Davis.

She is coauthor (with Larry Ferlazzo) of The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide, Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners, and The ELL Teacher's Toolbox. She has written articles for the Washington Post, ASCD Educational Leadership, and Edutopia. She and Larry have developed two video series with Education Week on differentiation and student motivation.

Katie lives in Sacramento with her husband and their three children.

Elisabeth Johnson: I would like to thank my family – especially Ella, Grace, and my husband, Jeff – for their constant support. Thank you to my coauthor, Evelyn Ramos LaMarr, for being an amazing partner on this incredible journey with me. I would also like to thank Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski for inviting us to be a part of the Teachers' Toolbox series and for their editing and guidance with writing this book. I'd like to thank the staff and administrative team at Luther Burbank High School, including former principal and mentor Ted Appel, current principal Jim Peterson, and our department leadership – especially Victoria Stolinski. Finally, to the students who I have been so lucky to work with through the years, thank you for all that you have taught me.

Evelyn Ramos LaMarr: I would like to thank my familia, especialmente mi Mami, for always supporting my professional endeavors. To my husband, Todd, thank you, for being the most unselfish support system for me and our daughter, Belen. Thank you, Elisabeth Johnson, my coauthor, for giving me the best professional compliment by asking me to write this book with you. A very special thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski for not only your crucial editorial expertise, but for sharing your skills and passion for teaching with so many of us (teachers and students). To Luther Burbank High School staff, especially my first principal, Ted Appel, Jim Peterson, Victoria Stolinski, Richard Godnick, and all of the students I have had the honor to teach: thank you for challenging and guiding me to create a career full of purpose.

We would like to thank Amy Fandrei and Pete Gaughan at Jossey-Bass for their guidance in preparing this book. A big thank-you to David Powell for his patience in formatting the manuscript. We also want to thank all the educators we have learned from and whose ideas have influenced our practice and this book.

We have known Elisabeth and Evelyn for a very long time.

In fact, they were both student teachers in Larry's class when the two of us taught in adjoining classrooms many years ago, and they subsequently joined our school's faculty.

We have seen their teaching “magic” blossom, and feel lucky to be able to help bring some of it to the world through this book.

English language learners, students from diverse backgrounds, International Baccalaureate Diploma candidates, students who learn differently — it doesn't matter. Elisabeth and Evelyn are able to reach, connect, and teach them all.

The Social Studies Teacher's Toolbox does an excellent job of sharing some of their exceptional lessons, methodology, and instructional strategies. Their work combining social studies instruction with literacy development, social-emotional learning, and culturally responsive pedagogy stands above the crowd.

We've all been part of the same teaching family for years.

We're happy to now welcome them to the Teacher's Toolbox family!

Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski

When series editors Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski approached us about putting together a collection of our best social studies teaching strategies, we jumped at the chance. Considering we have found their books and mentorship to have been so impactful to our own teaching, we were honored to have the opportunity. We were excited to share what we have accumulated from so many great educators (and students!) throughout our careers.

In building this collection of hundreds of practical ideas, two questions stayed consistent in our minds: “How is this strategy helping students improve their knowledge and skills?” and “Why should students care about this social studies topic?” The best thing we have ever done in our career is to never stray far from these questions.

As social studies teachers, we know firsthand that the love of the subject can overshadow the experience students are actually having in our classrooms. When we were new teachers, we struggled with this: our passion did not automatically translate into effective facilitation of social studies learning. In other words, we needed strategies that developed lifelong social studies learners.

For these reasons, we put this book together with a focus on relevance and skill building to create lifelong social studies learners. This type of learner is someone who is curious about the world around them, seeks information, and – most importantly – is actively developing the skills needed to process information. Furthermore, lifelong social studies learners recognize injustice and see their role as an agent of change. To this end, as the strategies in this book promote, our students should be engaged, inquiring, and competent.

The book is divided into four sections. The first focuses on strategies to support reading and writing in social studies, followed by a section on analysis tools. Then, in our third section, we share strategies for speaking and listening. The fourth and final section of the book shares additional key strategies and serves as a catchall for those chapters that didn't easily fit into the first three sections.

We begin each chapter by describing each strategy, followed by an explanation of why we like it – simply put, how we have found the strategy useful in our social studies classrooms.

Next, we provide supporting research for the effectiveness of the strategy followed by an explanation of how both Common Core and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) standards and themes are addressed. When appropriate, we refer to the NCSS Curriculum Standards, which are organized by 10 themes. We also refer to the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework created by the NCSS. This framework was added in 2010 to better align social studies with Common Core standards and is focused on inquiry, also an important theme in our book.

From there, each chapter moves into the Application section, which describes how to implement each strategy in detail, as well as ideas about how to apply the strategy in different ways within a variety of social studies classes.

Next, we provide ideas to differentiate each strategy. We share suggestions for both English language learners and students who learn differently. Having said that, we are acutely aware that these two groups of students are not the same. However, the scaffolds we share in this section exemplify good teaching that can help make social studies more accessible for a variety of students.

Following this section, we share Advanced Extensions, which include ways to provide extra challenges for students. Then, we share what could go wrong – some of our most common mistakes – in order to help readers avoid them.

We conclude each chapter with a variety of technology connections, frequently from Larry Ferlazzo's blog, due to its overall comprehensiveness. Seriously, we're not kidding! The blog has almost everything. Lastly, we share related figures. You can also access portions of this book online! All the Technology Connection URLs are collected in a hyperlinked PDF for easy clicking. Many of the figures from the book are provided as PDF files for copying and handouts. They can be found at www.wiley.com/go/socialstudiesteacherstoolbox.

Though we put this book together with secondary students in mind, the strategies are applicable to social studies learners of all grades. We hope you will find these strategies as effective as we have in our own practice.