Stars, Stripes, and Social Studies: Designing Powerful Learning for America 250
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States, this session equips grades 4–8 educators with practical, ready-to-use strategies to bring social studies to life across texts and grade levels. Using America 250 as our lens, we will explore approaches that can easily transfer to content beyond U.S. history. The morning focuses on literacy, rethinking “text” to include primary sources, visuals, and media, and designing engaging student experiences that deepen thinking.
In the afternoon, we will explore how to use AI as a tool for creating meaningful, high-quality instruction by crafting strong prompts and refining outputs to avoid “AI slop.” The session concludes with dedicated time to begin building or refining a unit, leaving you with a purposeful, classroom-ready plan.
8:30 AM-3:30 PM CT
GRREC Event Center
230 Technology Way
Bowling Green, KY
Social Studies Educations (grades 4-8)
- Participants will apply literacy strategies to analyze and teach social studies texts in ways that increase student engagement and understanding.
- Participants will design an engaging social studies learning experience that incorporates multiple types of texts (primary sources, visuals, and media) to promote deeper student thinking.
- Participants will develop and refine AI-generated instructional materials by crafting effective prompts and evaluating outputs for rigor, accuracy, and student engagement.
