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Why do we need to teach Social Studies?

We want our students to be:

• knowledgeable and organized
• compassionate and open-minded
• collaborative
• environmentally responsible
• invested in the broader community

How can we make the most of our Social Studies classes?

Create content-rich lessons with literature and vocabulary covering the NCSS themes and utilizing the best-practice lesson strategies.

• "Vocabulary is the foundation of everything else" ~Robert Marzano.  His six steps to teaching vocabulary create the framework necessary for students to connect new information to what they already know.
• The ten NCSS themes "serve as organizing strands for Social Studies curriculum (Schell, p. 57).
• Best-practice lessons are lessons that utilize:
• primary sources
• cooperative learning
• citizen action
• essential questions

The units in this wiki were designed to satisfy the Minnesota Department of Education Social Studies Standards.  Common standards found in the wiki may include:

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the people who settled in North America.

1. Students will understand that large and diverse American Indian nations were the original inhabitants of North America.

2. Students will demonstrate knowledge of European exploration and settlement of the North American continent and the resulting interaction with American Indian nations.

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the colonies and the factors that shaped colonial North America.

1. Students will explain and understand the political, religious, social, and economic events and conditions that led to the colonization of America.

2. Students will compare and contrast life within the colonies and their geographical areas, including New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies, and analyze their impact.

3. Students will identify the differences and tensions between the English colonies and American Indian tribes.

4. Students will understand the significance of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the economic and social life of the colonies.

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the colonies and the factors that shaped colonial North America.

1. Students will compare and contrast life within the colonies and their geographical areas, including New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies, and analyze their impact.

2. Students will identify the growing differences and tensions between the European colonies, England and American Indian Nations.

The student will examine changing forms of cross-cultural contact, conflict and cooperation that resulted from the interconnections between Eurasia, Africa and the Americas.

1. Students will explain the characteristics of the trading system that linked peoples of Africa, Asia, and Europe around 1450.

2. Students will describe early European explorations, settlements, and empires.

3. Students will analyze the strengths and limitations of the Chinese Empire under the Ming Dynasty.

4. Students will understand patterns of change in Africa in the era of the slave trade and the slave plantation system in the Americas.

5. Students will identify the causes and consequences of global migrations of Europeans, Africans, and Asians.

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the rise of colonialism and its effects worldwide.

1. Students will examine the effects of imperialism on the colonial societies of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.

References:

Schell, Emily, and Douglas Fisher. Teaching Social Studies: a Literacy-based Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.

"Academic Vocabulary Games." Jefferson County Schools, TN. Web. 28 Oct. 2010. <http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/strategies.html>.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: a Story of Courage, Community, and War. New York: Viking, 2006. Print.

Anderson, Siri. "Social Studies in Elementary School 3240 Class Notes." Fall 2010.

“Minnesota Academic Standards in History and Social Studies” MN Department of Education, May 15, 2004. Found at http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Academic_Excellence/Academic_Standards/Social_Studies/index.html