{"id":496,"date":"2015-05-12T13:17:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T17:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/?p=496"},"modified":"2015-05-12T13:42:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T17:42:22","slug":"fifth-graders-congressional-testimony-is-social-studies-capstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/fifth-graders-congressional-testimony-is-social-studies-capstone\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Classroom: Fifth Graders\u2019 \u2018Congressional Testimony\u2019 is Social Studies Capstone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/05\/Melissa-Azzarello.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-497\" src=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/05\/Melissa-Azzarello.jpg\" alt=\"Melissa Azzarello\" width=\"169\" height=\"241\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nMelissa Azzarello, Fifth Grade Teacher, Forest Ridge Elementary, Howard County<\/p>\n<p>Today my fifth grade students are doing something that would intimidate many adults: They are presenting oral testimony in front of a panel of expert judges, as part of Howard County\u2019s Simulated Congressional Hearings program (SCH).<\/p>\n<p>Students assume the roles of Constitutional experts and testify in front of a mock congressional committee made up of local community members, including legislators, government workers, and police officers. The SCH program brings social studies out of the classroom and shows students a real-world application for what they have been learning over the course of the school year.<\/p>\n<p>For teachers, this is really an event where we see students grow and mature.\u00a0 I am often surprised when students who have been shy and quiet all year, speak loudly and confidently in front of a crowded classroom.\u00a0 Not only does this event allow students to become Constitutional experts, but also it prepares them for the next steps in their academic careers.\u00a0 By researching, reading the newspaper, and watching the news, students learn about current events and how they connect to their testimony.\u00a0 Students must also learn how to effectively work as a team.<\/p>\n<p>SCH culminates our fifth-graders&#8217; year of social studies instruction.\u00a0 We begin with Colonial America and the American Revolution.\u00a0 Students use the ideas of our Founding Fathers to understand why our Constitution was needed.\u00a0 Students receive an education in civics as well, tackling issues such as freedoms of expression, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.\u00a0 As teachers, we hope to prepare our students to be active participants in our government and the SCH program provides them with a strong foundation for future civic engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2015\/05\/Melissa-Azzarello.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nMelissa Azzarello, Fifth Grade Teacher, Forest Ridge Elementary, Howard County<br \/>\nToday my fifth grade students are doing something that would intimidate many adults: They are <a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/fifth-graders-congressional-testimony-is-social-studies-capstone\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8230;Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-mdclassroom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":504,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}