Middle School Social Studies endorsement (Praxis, curriculum, university, class)

[smellen]

Hello all,

I've recently landed a teaching job, teaching Language Arts in a 5th and 6th grade school. I'm one of the only teachers not certified to teach Social Studies as well. I'd like to obtain an endorsement so that I can teach Social Studies on the middle school level, and I'm finding the NJDOE website a bit confusing. I currently hold a B.A. in Teaching English and am certified to teach K-12, HQ in 6-12 English. What I'm wondering is this: Can I still simply accumulate 30 credits in the content area and take the Praxis? Also, any ideas on what types of classes (aside from History, which I do know must comprise 15 of those 30 credits - if that is still the requirement) are considered Social Studies? Because I'm not enrolled at any specific college yet, I don't have an academic advisor, so I'm trying to figure this all out on my own. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

[Oldhag1]

Not sure how it works in New Jersey, but when I extended my certification in Kentucky I had to do it through a university. (This was back in the Dark Ages) Just having hours in the subject was not enough, it had to be in a specific set of classes. I would be shocked if geography and political science were not required. Other possibilities are economics, sociology, or psychology.

[Futuremauian]

I'm surprised your district cares whether you are credentialed in SS or not. In much of California, SS is pretty much in name only. With the arrival of Common Core, SS teachers are expected to teach Language Arts with Social Science used as "examples". So far, standards for SS are still under development so I can focus on teaching SS and skip most of the L/A lessons. Next year, I will be retired so it will become someone else's problem. Meanwhile many areas of the curriculum has been gutted so we can focus on raising test scores in L/A and math. Sounds like NCLB all over again?

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by Futuremauian

I'm surprised your district cares whether you are credentialed in SS or not. In much of California, SS is pretty much in name only. With the arrival of Common Core, SS teachers are expected to teach Language Arts with Social Science used as "examples". So far, standards for SS are still under development so I can focus on teaching SS and skip most of the L/A lessons. Next year, I will be retired so it will become someone else's problem. Meanwhile many areas of the curriculum has been gutted so we can focus on raising test scores in L/A and math. Sounds like NCLB all over again?

I know. It seems that we as a nation have decided that Social Studies is expendable. Testing has lead to subjects other than Language Arts and Math being basically done away with. In Kentucky, as I was leaving they came out with a bunch of science standards that were really Language Arts. I received the draft copy the day after Obama gave a speech about the need to emphasize and increase STEM education. I found it very ironic that I was receiving "new, improved" curriculum, that was being pushed by his Department of Education, that was taking at least the science part of it in the opposite direction. Science has some protection because of all that STEM jobs meme, but we will see less and less history in the future, and that is bad. It is even worse for subjects like Art, Music, PE, and the sort. Our school was adding extra Math and Language Arts classes for struggling students and taking away one if their special area/elective classes.

[LLN]

SS is the LAST endorsement one should seek. In NC, there is no End of Year or End of Grade SS test. We now have some new acronym for some sort of test, but SS is by far the least equal of the four core middle school courses. It makes sense, a little sense to English and social studies to be together for ease of PBL, but .....