District Approved
Social Studies Resources
As a district we value, embrace, and lift up our amazing multi-cultural voices located right here in Rochester. We seek to change what is broken, create systems that not only work but in which our children excel. We build upon our student's natural curiosity in order to reignite their passion to learn. We will continue to vet resources that reflect our community and furthers our learning of the past, present and future. Please share curriculum, events, and resources you would love our students to be a part of. We are always looking for feedback around what is working, what you love, and opportunities for growth and change.
K-6 (Pilot)
What is Inquiry Journeys?
Inquiry Journeys is inquirED’s inquiry-based social studies curriculum for elementary school.
What is a module?
Units in Inquiry Journeys are built from instructional modules, each of which contains a connected series of lessons. Modules fall into three main categories.
Launch Modules:
A Launch Module is made up of lessons that hook students into the inquiry, introduce the Inquiry Question, and help students generate questions to guide their exploration. A Launch Module is used only once, at the beginning of each unit.
Investigation Modules:
An Investigation Module is framed by a unique Essential Question. It contains lessons that guide students through the investigation of a specific topic related to the inquiry. Typically, there are four Investigation Modules per unit.
Action Modules:
During an Action Module, students take Informed Action, shifting the focus of their work to planning and implementing an action that impacts their world. As part of this process, they create an Inquiry Product that supports their action, then share their efforts with a public audience.
Black Lives Matter Curriculum
A group of twenty-five Buffalo Public School teachers created a series of lessons for K-12 to incorporate the principals of the Black Lives Matter movement into classrooms.
Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Curriculum FAQ
Untaught History:
Structural Racism & Resistance Curriculum
The Antiracist Curriculum Project team is committed to empowering students, teachers, and educational leaders with instructional resources on the local history of structural racism and civil rights in Monroe County. They support students and educators in the co-creation, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum that will allow students to explore and interpret our local history through rich primary sources. They want students to be critical consumers of information, share their unique perspectives, and work with others collaboratively to make claims supported by evidence. Ultimately, they want students to be informed and engaged citizens in our community.
Vision
Every high school graduate in Monroe County will learn about our local history as well as the contemporary realities of structural racism AND have an opportunity to build a more just and equitable community through their education.
Instructional Design
Case Studies: This curriculum has been designed as a series of Case Studies to fit into local districts’ existing curriculum. The resources can be used as part of a Social Studies unit, in an interdisciplinary unit of instruction, or adapted to be a stand-alone unit.
Standards Aligned: Every case study is aligned to the New York State Social Studies Framework. Explicit references to the grade-level content are presented. The foundation of these resources is the Social Studies Practices, which are hard-wired into the instruction. There has also been careful attention to align these materials to the New York State ELA Standards.
Student-centered Instruction: Students read the sources, interpret the sources, and have the opportunity to be critical consumers of information. The Case Studies provide the opportunity for students to connect the past to the present through their own interpretation of sources. Teachers are guides who act as facilitators and encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas in the classroom through restorative practices. They help students negotiate the meaning of the sources in culturally responsive and developmentally appropriate ways. Students have the opportunity to share their own ideas and experiences in the course of the instruction.
Students Interpret the Sources: A goal of these resources is to empower students to learn the history of their community through a thoughtful interpretation of rich primary and secondary sources. Primary sources such as interviews, county records, local housing documents, historical maps, newspaper articles, photographs, and oral history allow students to be historians and work collaboratively with other students to interpret the evidence .Importantly, students also consider the limitations of the evidence as well as what information may be missing in their inquiry. For example, students examine the sources through four separate roles focused on identifying context, reliability, main idea, and purpose in work that has been adapted from Monroe 1 BOCES.
Open Source Materials: These resources are produced as open-source materials because our team believes that local teachers who know their students can make thoughtful and sensitive decisions to introduce this instruction. This project puts valuable sources and instructional guidance in the hands of teachers and school district leaders to adapt and tailor to their local context. Students have different needs, and local communities have unique situations that educators can identify and respond to in a way that honors everyone.
Support for Teachers and Leaders: Teachers participate in a three-hour professional development session where they engage in the same learning activities as their students. Teachers and district leaders can also access further support offered through our team and follow up professional development sessions that can be tailored to specific needs as well as provide more instructional support, assessment guidance, and access to other sources and content knowledge.
About the Antiracist Curriculum Project
Grade 5 Latinx Civil Rights Case Studies (Draft)
4th/7th Grade Enslavement NYS (Español) Rochester Black History Slides
K-6
7-12
4,5,7,8,12
Reading Like a Historian
The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features a set of primary documents designed for groups of students with a range of reading skills.
This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions by employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues and learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence. To learn more about how to use Reading Like a Historian lessons, watch these videos about how teachers use these materials in their classrooms.
Click here for a complete list of Reading Like a Historian lessons, and click here for a complete list of materials available in Spanish.
What is it?
For each unit of study across the 7th and 8th grade social studies curriculum, the Rochester City School District Social Studies Department wrote African and African American History Aligned Essential Understandings and a seminal lesson that is incorporated into our curriculum.
Aligned Essential Understandings: Written to be paired with NYS standards in order to provide a more accurate and authentic view of American history. Essential Understandings serve as lenses through which to investigate history and frame units of instruction.
Seminal Lessons: Lessons that focus on lifting the roles, voices, and histories of people of African descent in the story of our country beginning with an examination of West African Kingdoms and explores topics such as "why did freedom seekers come to Rochester" and "how has our community participated in the fight for Civil Rights."
7-8
7-8
New Visions Social Studies
New Visions Social Studies
New Visions for Public Schools has developed full scope and sequence curricular frameworks designed for the Global History and Geography I and II courses and the U.S. History course. The curriculum integrates rich primary and secondary texts, maps, images, videos, and other reputable online sources into materials that meet the New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework’s objectives and provide students an opportunity to improve literacy skills by focusing on thinking critically while reading, writing, and speaking like historians.
The Elementary Version for Rochester is coming soon...
Project Soapbox is Mikva Challenge’s public speaking program that calls young people to speak out on issues that affect them and their communities. These powerful speeches have lasting, transformative impacts on classrooms, schools, and communities.
Along the way, Mikva supports teachers with curriculum, connects community leaders to listen to speeches and give feedback, and facilitates citywide and regional events. Every year, the program culminates with Soapbox Nation, a showcase of the top speeches from around the country.
Mikva Challenge launched its 14th year of Project Soapbox events on November 17, 2021.
Read more about Project Soapbox 2021-2022
Rochester Students & Their Voices
Elementary curriculum is on it's way... Here are some examples of what it can look like in Rochester.
Issues to Action
Mikva’s Issues to Action (ITA) curriculum is a comprehensive step-by-step guide that puts youth at the helm of leading the change they hope to see, and gaining critical skills along the way:
Examine Identity and Community: Youth reflect on their own identity and asset map their communities
Identify Issues and Envision Change: Youth identify an issue they are passionate about and envision a world without that problem.
Conduct Research and Set Goals: Youth learn various strategies for gathering data on their issue and use that information to set goals.
Analyze Power: Youth map out power around an issue and identify where they can have impact.
Strategize, Plan and Act: Youth assess strategies for change, identify the most effective one, then create and implement an action plan.
Showcase work and reflect: Youth present their work, reflect, and plan next steps.
Financial Literacy for High School
Financial Literacy for High School is a digital education program that teaches students how to make wise financial decisions to promote financial well-being over their lifetime. The interactive lessons in this financial literacy course translate complex financial concepts and help students develop actionable strategies for managing their finances. For select areas, this course also includes an embedded Intuit TurboTax Tax Simulation for students, an interactive taxes activity for students to learn more about how to file taxes.
Immersive digital environments and diverse characters bring modern, relevant financial education objectives to life. Students accelerate their financial understanding through problem-solving, self-reflection and games that provide real-life scenarios for practice.
9-11
8, 12
12th Grade
Economics
