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Study Guide

Field 141: Social Studies (5–9)
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Subarea 1—Professional Dispositions and Responsibilities in Social Studies

Objective 001—Practicing Continuous Improvement

1. In an eighth-grade social studies class, students write multiple drafts of an essay about the causes and consequences of urbanization in the late nineteenth century. The teacher notices that one student's essay includes significant information but demonstrates limited analysis. Which of the following comments from the teacher would best help the student use metacognitive processes to improve the next draft of their essay?

  1. "I can see how much information you have added since last week's draft. What further topics are you thinking of adding in the remaining days of this project?"
  2. "I see a lot of information about the causes of urbanization. How are you thinking of including more about the effects on cities and the broader society?"
  3. "Our rubric calls for you to include information about the Great Migration. Do you think that will fit better with the causes or effects of urbanization?"
  4. "Your essay contains a wealth of information. Have you thought about how you are using the evidence you have gathered to support your claims?"
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 002—Exploring Cultural Frames and Diverse Perspectives

2. At the beginning of the school year, a middle school social studies teacher prepares instruction for a culturally diverse group of students. The teacher prioritizes learning about students' backgrounds to inform instructional planning. Which of the following activities best supports this goal?

  1. researching the demographic makeup of the community to identify trends
  2. surveying students about their experiences and interests to inform text selection
  3. discussing reasons why everyone is required to respect other cultures while in school
  4. assigning students personal essays about their cultural identities to establish small groups
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 003—Taking Informed Action

3. A middle school social studies teacher engages students in a public policy research project. For the project, students choose a local issue they are interested in addressing and use evidence from their research to advocate for a solution. The students are excited to share their findings with the local city council at a public meeting. Students will need to develop which of the following skills to take informed action on this issue?

  1. explaining issues with confidence
  2. communicating ideas effectively
  3. considering ethical implications
  4. using creative ways of thinking
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 004—Ways of Knowing

4. The teacher of a fifth-grade social studies class presents the following passage to the class.

1The Treaty of Paris in  17 83  formally ended the American Revolution and secured the independence of the new United States. 2By showing that Great Britain, the superpower of that time, could be defeated, the agreement made it much harder for any nation to colonize faraway lands. 3The vast territory awarded to the United States opened doors for westward expansion and led eventually to future conflicts with Indigenous Peoples. 4The Treaty of Paris was a very important development for the history of the United States.

The teacher should ensure that students recognize that which statement in the passage takes the form of an unsubstantiated opinion rather than of a reasoned claim?

  1. statement 1
  2. statement 2
  3. statement 3
  4. statement 4
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Subarea 2—Social Studies Learners and Learning

Objective 005—Understanding Social Studies Learners

5. Students in a sixth-grade social studies class who come from varied backgrounds consider how changes in technology affect communities during a unit on human characteristics of places. The teacher overhears the following student discussion.

Student A: I know people think some technologies like social media are a problem, but computers and robots and stuff are making our lives better all the time.

Student B: Yeah, but too many people who work in grocery store checkout lines, factories, and lots of other jobs have been replaced by that technology.

Which of the following teacher questions to the whole class would best prompt students to explore the difference of perspective between the students?

  1. "Can you think of any new job categories that have been created by recent technological advances?"
  2. "How could you rephrase what these students have said about both the pros and cons of technology?"
  3. "What kinds of job skills do you think workers will need in the future to keep up with new technologies?"
  4. "Which regions and communities in the United States have been affected the most by deindustrialization and loss of factory jobs?"
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 006—Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment

6. An eighth-grade teacher in a social studies classroom prioritizes using culturally responsive practices to support the ideals of democracy in the classroom. They begin the year with a culturally diverse group of students. The teacher can best use which of the following classroom activities to support democratic ideals?

  1. presenting student-generated lessons to the class
  2. asking everyone in the class to contribute to discussion equally
  3. electing student officers with classroom management responsibilities
  4. working as a group to build consensus on classroom rules and procedures
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Subarea 3—Planning and Implementing Instruction and Assessment in Social Studies

Objective 008—Planning for Instruction and Assessment

7. The teacher of an eighth-grade social studies class plans instruction on the Iroquois Confederation's impact on the origins of the U.S. Constitution in which students gather and share information with their classmates as part of a jigsaw activity. Including which of the following educational resources in the jigsaw would best support this goal?

  1. charts from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
  2. a secondary source article from the Library of Congress
  3. examples of compelling questions from the C3 Framework
  4. a webinar from the Teaching Comprehensive History series
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 009—Implementing Instruction

8. The teacher of an eighth-grade social studies class introduces a unit about the creation of the Articles of Confederation. Which of the following open-ended teacher questions would be most effective for eliciting students' thinking about the distribution of powers among the states and the national government chosen by the country's leaders at that time?

  1. "What developments in the first two years of the American Revolution affected the prospects of the new nation?"
  2. "How did the economic bases of different regions influence the development of the colonies' social structures?"
  3. "How did the French and Indian War change the relationship between Great Britain and the colonies?"
  4. "What complaints inspired the colonists to declare independence from Great Britain?"
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 010—Inquiry-based Instruction in Social Studies

9. The teacher of a fifth-grade social studies class begins an inquiry-based history project about the American Revolution with their students. The class reviews the distinction between compelling questions and supporting questions. Which of the following prompts best represents a compelling question about the American Revolution?

  1. What regulations were imposed on the colonists under the Townshend Acts?
  2. Was there a way the British army could have won the American Revolution?
  3. What living conditions did patriot soldiers experience at Valley Forge?
  4. Does the American Revolution fit the definition of being a revolution?
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 011—Assessing Student Learning

10. The teacher of an eighth-grade social studies class begins a unit of study about the changing nature of the U.S. Constitution with a group of students. First, the teacher reviews each article of the Constitution at a broad level with the class, paying special attention to language related to enslavement that was later negated by the Thirteenth Amendment. Then, students create an amendment of their own that expands upon or revises the original language of the Constitution. After discussing each of the proposed amendments, including their potential desired effects and unintended consequences, the teacher assigns an authentic assessment in which students take informed action in the broader community. Which of the following assessments best supports students taking informed action?

  1. researching state ratifying convention speeches in support of amendments
  2. announcing the likelihood of one of the proposed amendments being ratified
  3. planning a public awareness campaign to increase support for their amendments
  4. creating timelines of the ratification process for recent constitutional amendments
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Subarea 4—Civics Content Knowledge

Objective 012—Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools in Civics

11. An eighth-grade social studies class studies the principles of the U.S. Constitution. The teacher can best use which of the following excerpts from the Constitution to support student understanding of the principle of popular sovereignty?

  1. "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
  2. "The president shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states."
  3. "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States … shall be the supreme law of the land."
  4. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Subarea 5—Economics Content Knowledge

Objective 013—Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools in Economics

12. A sixth-grade social studies teacher begins an economics unit with a lesson on wants and needs and ways of allocating goods and services. The teacher presents a scenario in which extreme weather has resulted in a loss of electrical power that is expected to last for two weeks. A limited amount of ice exists, and no more can be made without electricity. Students brainstorm a very long list of needs for ice, which are summarized in several categories, including the following.

The teacher asks students to work in groups to decide which need or needs for ice will be satisfied while other needs for ice go unmet. A student interrupts to ask, "Why are we talking about ice shortages instead of something more relevant like choosing which flavor ice cream to buy?" Which of the following teacher responses would best connect the student's question to the concepts explored in the lesson?

  1. "Ice cream is only one example; my point is that we need healthy markets, especially in times of emergency."
  2. "We use this scenario, rather than ice cream choice, because it is a great way to distinguish goods from services in the economy."
  3. "The ice example is a good way to show that when ice cream factories lose power, there are fewer ice cream flavors produced, which leads to a loss of economic activity."
  4. "Ice cream choice is a good example as well, but ice cream is a want, not a need. In these extreme cases of scarcity, we can more easily see the opportunity costs of decisions."
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Subarea 7—History Content Knowledge

Objective 015—Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools in History

13. A seventh-grade social studies class studies the core tenets of major world religions. The teacher could best support students' analysis of continuity over time by engaging the class in which of the following activities?

  1. examining case studies of indigenous belief systems
  2. simulating a conversation between famous religious reformers
  3. comparing the spread of Buddhism and maritime trade routes during the first century
  4. selecting sources for a research paper on the effects of the Crusades on transcontinental trade
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Multiple-Subarea Passage

Use the information below to answer the two questions that follow.

An eighth-grade social studies teacher shares the following teacher-produced passage with their class as part of a lesson on westward expansion.

Errors in drawing eighteenth-century maps of the interior of North America led to a dispute exaggeratedly called the "Toledo War" in the 1830s. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had specified a border between Ohio and Michigan that was to extend eastward from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to the shore of Lake Erie. Land surveys over the next 30 years all differed about the exact latitude of the Lake Michigan / Northwest Ordinance line. Ohio became a state in 1803, claiming that its northern border extended far enough to include the mouth of the Maumee River, where the city of Toledo would later grow. People could see that the swampland surrounding the river could be drained to create a navigable river reaching all the way to Indiana, surrounded by some of the most fertile farmland in the new nation.

As Michigan Territory became more heavily settled to the north of the uncertain border and as the entire region became more economically valuable due to the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, political leaders in Michigan Territory and the state of Ohio pressed the issue. Both sides raised militias to assert control over a 468-square-mile "strip" of land including Toledo. In 1835 Michiganders arrested Ohio-based surveyors and threatened violence. One Michigan sheriff received a minor wound in another skirmish. An open conflict between the militias was narrowly avoided as the U.S. Congress in 1836 imposed a settlement agreeable to both sides. The Toledo Strip was confirmed as part of Ohio while the Upper Peninsula was added to Michigan as it prepared for statehood, which was granted the next year.

The teacher plans for students to use the excerpt to examine the impact of westward expansion on the geographic and cultural landscape of the United States.

Objective 007—Preparing Learners to Be Informed Participants

14. The teacher uses the information in the passage to engage students' interest over the course of instruction, which covers the following topics.

To foster a more inclusive learning environment for social studies learners, the teacher should incorporate which of the following elements into their instruction?

  1. a consideration of the ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of force to resolve territorial disagreements
  2. the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples who inhabited the disputed land about the historical and geographic developments
  3. an accounting and comparison of the environmental costs and the economic benefits of converting swampland to farmland
  4. the ways in which issues of social class complicated the internal migration of non-Indigenous Peoples to the western territories
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 014—Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools in Geography

15. The teacher can use information from this unit of instruction to demonstrate for students which of the following generalizations about geography?

  1. The distribution and potential uses of resources are major factors that contribute to conflict among groups.
  2. The cultural differences that characterize groups can be a source of conflict between and among the groups.
  3. People make decisions about migration and settlement patterns based on a complex mix of push and pull factors.
  4. Groups of people with differing levels of economic power might choose to live or be restricted to living in different locations.
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.