JCPS Social Studies Newsletter

Issue #54 4.30.24

Social Studies Colleagues,

Good morning

I hope spring break was restful! As the curriculum continues to be refined new student-facing middle and high school resources are available. More resources will continue to come! Please take special note of the yearly planning resources for next year and updated curriculum resources. Thanks!

Newsletter Highlights:

-- Vincent Tinker

Updates: Living Democracy CURRICULUM & Instruction

Yearly Planning Tool

Use the provided Yearly Planning Resources to support planning your units and lessons for the year. Choose your preferred planning tool. 

Note: The Google Sheet provides grade-level completed examples. These are examples and not a district-required order of Compelling Questions. Use the arrow keys on the tabs at the bottom of the Google Sheets to find each grade-level example. This document will continue to be updated regularly. Additional links to resources (i.e. Student Slides, Student Workbook) will be included as they are created over time. See elementary examples for a complete demonstration of hyperlinks and resources.

Curriculum Updates 

Middle and High School: New Student-Ready

Student Ready means that all of the resources from the Teacher Guide are still present and now include Student Slides for each inquiry with instructional components, Student Slides for Engaging the Supporting Question, Student Slides with the Summative Performance Task, and a Student Workbook.

Note: Providing district curriculum and instruction resources is the beginning. Teachers may modify the inquiries to meet the needs of their students.

Middle and High School: New Teacher-Ready Inquiries

Teacher Ready means that for each inquiry sources have been selected, excepted to comparablible KSA length, and provide a Formative Performance Task. Student Slides are also provided with these new inquiries with sources only. Instructional steps for each Student Slide will come and then be made "Student Ready"

Note: Providing district curriculum and instruction resources is the beginning. Teachers may modify the inquiries to meet the needs of their students.

Middle and High School: New Teacher-Ready Google Slides for Already Existing Teacher-Ready Inquiries

Teacher Ready means that for each inquiry sources have been selected, excepted to comparablible KSA length, and provide a Formative Performance Task. Student Slides are also provided with these new inquiries with sources only. Instructional steps for each Student Slide will come and then be made "Student Ready"

Note: Providing district curriculum and instruction resources is the beginning. Teachers may modify the inquiries to meet the needs of their students.

New Professional Learning Announcements

All professional learning detail may be found on the UPCOMING PL page.

JCPS Summer Boot Camp

When: July 18 & 19 (UPDATED) - 9 a.m. - 1 p.m

Where: Doss High School

How: Sign up on Vector - Search for Social Studies Boot Camp. There are two different sessions in Vector: Day 1 and Day 2

JCPS Social Studies will be hosting our annual Social Studies Bootcamp for middle and high school teachers on July 17-18. The Bootcamp is a great way to begin the year learning new skills to support instruction of Social Studies.

Congressman McGarvey's Youth Advisory Council (YAC) is comprised of high school seniors with an interest in public service and government. Students selected for the council will have the opportunity to meet with Rep. McGarvey throughout the year to share their insights on current events, debate policy and engage in community service. 

The YAC is non-partisan and will reflect the amazing diversity of District 3, representing a broad spectrum of backgrounds, experiences, cultures and viewpoints. Students will develop leadership and critical thinking skills, practice public speaking and debate, learn about the importance of participating in their democracy, and gain a better understand of how government works. 

When: June 12-14

Where: Nashville, TN

Teachers looking to build skills in teaching the Holocaust and related content are invited to register for spring 2023 workshops. In 2018, the Kentucky state legislature passed the Ann Klein and Fred Gross Holocaust Education Act, which mandates Holocaust education in all public middle and high schools. Our workshops are designed to support Kentucky teachers in meeting that mandate.

Workshops are interactive and include ten total hours of content through both live workshop sessions (at least six hours) and asynchronous activities (no more than four hours). Workshops are available both in-person and virtually via Zoom. Please note that some workshops occur over the course of multiple days while others are one-day events.

Teachers, para-educators, librarians, and other instructional staff serving grades 6-12 (of both public and private schools) can opt to participate in these workshops for a stipend of $250 dollars ($25/hour) or for professional development hours. Stipends are limited by the amount of grant money available and will be awarded based on order of registration. If you hope to receive a stipend for your participation, please register as soon as possible. Teachers and instructional staff serving grades that fall outside the mandate can still register for workshops and receive professional development for their participation. Previous experience teaching the Holocaust is not required to attend these workshops.

Workshops will be facilitated by experienced teachers from across the Commonwealth trained as UK-JHF Initiative teacher leaders as well as University of Kentucky professors from the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Education. Each workshop will vary slightly in featured sessions but will generally explore a range of topics such as Jewish history in Kentucky; strategies for dealing with antisemitism; active learning and inquiry; attention to thoughtful language; trauma-informed teaching; using the arts to teach the Holocaust; and more.

Not So New, News

Includes observer "look fors" and possible examples to prepare the observer before the walkthrough. The walkthrough tool is standards and instructional framework aligned. The tool now also comes with a Google Form version for data collection, a detailed version with examples, a single-page version.

This project was requested and created by partnering with elementary teachers. Standards-aligned feedback comments were created to support the standards-aligned rubric criteria. Feedback is written in student-friendly terms and written as next steps suggestions for future writing. The rubric comments may be changed over time from the provided comment bank (not exhaustive)  depending on need and always provide space for writing specialized, individual feedback.

The Kentucky Historical Society is seeking input from active Kentucky teachers that are currently teaching social studies in grades K-12. Please complete this brief questionnaire to share feedback on student programming and professional development needs in the social studies fields. KHS values Kentucky teachers and is grateful to those that take just a few minutes to help us remain an integral education resource and partner. Any questions about the questionnaire or KHS programming can be submitted to Katie.Turer@ky.gov  Teacher Resource Manager for the Kentucky Historical Society.

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DIrect District Support Options 2023-24

Direct district support options with the JCPS Social Studies team: