Week 9

Introduction

In the United States education system, social studies is the integrated study of multiple fields of social science and the humanities, including history, geography, and political science. The term was first coined by American educators around the turn of the twentieth century as a catch-all for these subjects, as well as others which did not fit into the traditional models of lower education in the United States, such as philosophy and psychology.^{[1] [Wikipedia]}

A Renewed Mission: Education for Civic Life in a Democracy

The primary purpose of a history and social science education is to prepare students to have the knowledge and skills to become thoughtful and active participants in a democratic society and a complex world.

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people” is not just a historical phrase from Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” but an ideal that must be renewed and reinvigorated by each succeeding generation. The future of democracy depends on our students’ development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that will enable them to embrace democracy’s potential, while recognizing its challenges and inherent dilemmas. [MA Frameworks]

How the Frameworks are Structured

Guide to Frameworks.pdf

1) Overarching Theme:

Examples:

• Grade 4 North American Geography, History, and Peoples

• Grade 2 Global Geography: Places and Peoples, Cultures and Resources

• Grade 8: United States and Massachusetts Government and Civic Life

2) Content Standards- Topics and Supporting Questions

Example:

Grade 4 Topic 1. North America: geography and map skills [4.T1] Supporting Question: What are the physical features and nations of North America?

Grade 4 Topic 3. Early European exploration and conquest [4.T3] Supporting Question: What were the reasons for European voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?

Geography

Geographic reasoning requires using spatial and environmental perspectives,skills in asking and answering questions, and being able to apply geographic representations including maps, imagery, and geospatial technologies.

A spatial perspective is about whereness. Where are people and things located? Why there? What are the consequences?

An environmental perspective views people as living in interdependent relationships within diverse environments.

Thinking geographically requires knowing that the world is a set of complex ecosystems interacting at multiple scales that structure the spatial patterns and processes that influence our daily lives.

Geographic reasoning brings societies and nature under the lens of spatial analysis, and aids in personal and societal decision making and problem solving.

National Geographic- Map Skillshttps://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/map-skills-elementary-students/

The Opportunity Atlashttps://www.opportunityatlas.org/

Google Mapshttps://www.google.com/maps

Google Earthhttps://www.google.com/earth/

Geography by Grade

Kindergarten: Local geography- a sense of place; classroom map; neighborhood maps

Grade 1: Types of Maps

Grade 2: Global geography; Reasons why people settle in particular places

Grade 3: Massachusetts and New England, beginning with their own city or town

Grade 4:

• North America (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) and its peoples from a geographic perspective.

• Expand map reading, mapmaking, and geographic reasoning skills introduced in grades 2 and 3.

• They apply concepts of how geography affects human settlement and resource use, and how the westward expansion of the United States created a modern nation of 50 states and 16 territories

Grade 5:

Building on their knowledge of North American geography and peoples, students learn more about the history of the colonies, and the geography of American Revolution,

• Construct maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places.

• Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.

• Use maps of different scales to describe the locations of cultural and environmental characteristics.

C3-Geography.pdf

Economics

Economics is grounded in knowledge about how people choose to use resources.

Economic understanding helps individuals, businesses, governments, and societies choose what resources to devote to work, to school, and to leisure; how many dollars to spend, and how many to save; and how to make informed decisions in a wide variety of contexts.

Economic reasoning and skillful use of economic tools draw upona strong base of knowledge about human capital, land, investments, money, income and production, taxes, and government expenditures.

• Wants and needs

• What is money?

• Goods and services-Who makes what?

• Scarcity

• Inflation

• Economic Inequality

Economics for Kids Lesson Plans

https://www.moneyinstructor.com/elementary.asp

Civics and Government

In a constitutional democracy, productive civic engagement requires knowledge of the history, principles, and foundations of our American democracy, and the ability to participate in civic and democratic processes. People demonstrate civic engagement when they address public problems individually and collaboratively and when they maintain, strengthen, and improve communities and societies.

Thus, civics is, in part, the study of how people participate in governing society- NCSS

iCivics

https://www.icivics.org/

Civics Game Odyssey

https://www.icivics.org/game-odyssey

Civics Teaching Resources-Always Discovering.org

http://alwaysdiscovering.org/civics-lesson-plans/

C3-5th Grade Lesson- Why Vote?

https://youtu.be/tbWapv3m6y8

History

HISTORICAL THINKING REQUIRES understanding and evaluating change and continuity over time, and making appropriate useof historical evidence in answering questions and developing arguments about the past.

It involves going beyond simply asking, “What happened when?” to evaluating why and how events occurred and developments unfolded.

It involves locating and assessing historical sources of many different types to understand the contexts of given historical eras and the perspectives of different individuals and groups within geographic units that range from the local to the global.

Historical thinking is a process of chronological reasoning, which means wrestling with issues of causality,connections, significance, and context with the goal of developing credible explanations of historical events and developments based on reasoned interpretation of evidence.

Teaching History.orghttps://teachinghistory.org/quick-links-elementary