What makes a great social studies lesson?

One of the classes that I am taking right now is about integrating social studies and the arts. Those of you who know me know that I LOVE SOCIAL STUDIES! If I was able to have my choice, I would love to team teach and teach social studies and language arts all day long and share the math and science with someone else. Even though I love the topics in social studies, I am learning that that is not enough. I need to create GREAT social studies lessons. It is early on in my theories course, but I am learning a lot about what is needed for an engaging lesson.
One very important thing is to understand that the diversity in your classroom will determine the various viewpoints within your lesson. Knowing and understanding the various backgrounds of your students will help you create engaging lessons that will bring together the various cultural, religious and family backgrounds and connect each student to the lesson as well as expose students to various ideas and experiences that create a true community. In a great lesson, various viewpoints and ideas are expressed so each student feels part of the lesson.
Another important thing to do in a social studies lesson is to help students feel connected to what they are learning. If you are able to take a social studies lesson and find a way to directly link your students to what is happening in their life they will have an easier time understanding and appreciating what they are learning. An example of this would be teaching students about how children lived during a specific time period. By showing students that children still played and did chores and went to school during the colonial ear will help them connect to what they are studying and hopefully help them appreciate the overall unit about that time.
Another very important part of one of these lessons is to use as many resources as possible. Social studies text books can be overwhelmingly boring. They are large, heavy and typically do not deliver information in a creative way. Just like with so many other subjects, the text book should really just be a supplemental resource intertwined with other books, dramas, art work, videos, letters, diaries and the list could go on. During this time when we have so many resources at our disposal, there is not reason not to utilize as many engaging and unique resources to help every student find something that makes them excited to learn.
This list is in no way encompasses everything that makes a great social studies lesson, but it does have some of the large ideas that can help teachers make social studies a topic that other students love as much as I do.