ABSTRACT
If democracy is a path that we walk together (and we think it is), then we must learn to talk together, listening respectfully to others’ views, oering our own, nding common ground, and hammering out solutions. Unfortunately, we have observed the predominance of “social studies as reading” and “teaching as telling” in many elementary classrooms (Boyle-Baise et al., 2008). ese phrases stand for teaching that is centered on textual modalities, supplemented by teacher explanations. Students “read” their social studies, focusing on ction and non-ction stories in basal readers in primary grades or on textbooks in intermediate grades. Regardless of level, teachers tend to ask, and students tend to answer, short, recall-type questions based on their reading.
