Executive Summary for Social Studies

Purpose Statement

The K-12 Curriculum is Easton, Redding and Region #9’s (ER9) plan for instruction. It provides the framework for how students apply their understandings of the social sciences and humanities as responsible citizens.

Guiding Principles

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to live the life of a child forever."

-Cicero

Through an integrated treatment of history, geography, economics, political science and anthropology/sociology, the social studies discipline will encourage students to become informed, humane, rational and participating citizens. The primary goal of the social studies is to supply historical perspective to a student’s world-view. In addition, the discipline will show the interrelationship between the sub-disciplines of geography, economics, political science and anthropology/sociology and thereby broaden that perspective. We have coordinated a K-12 curriculum that recognizes the developmental needs of the students. The curriculum will lead to an understanding of the western tradition, our national culture, and comparisons between western and non-western cultures. All of this will be done to create an atmosphere of global awareness. Emphasis will be placed on the continuing development of the student’s social studies skills.

The social studies curriculum is framed by a set of guiding principles taken directly from the Connecticut Core of Learning and the Connecticut Social Studies Curriculum Framework. (Please note that the committee made minor revisions to the Connecticut Social Studies Curriculum Framework to reflect the curriculum of ER9.)

Standards

The 5-12 Social Studies Committee has adapted the content standards from the Connecticut Social Studies Framework (Scroll down for Social Studies) that are developmentally sequenced for K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. The curriculum is presented at each grade level using the content and skills that are developmentally appropriate. The skills are laid out in the Social Studies Skill Grid (grades 5-12). Each grade level curriculum contains key lessons and common assessments that are directly aligned to the Connecticut Social Studies Framework. Another source for standards in the social studies is the National Council for the Social Studies.

The Curriculum

The Social Studies Committee designed the curriculum around the concept of a Learning Spiral. Within the framework of the K-12 structure, the concepts and skills of the social studies are introduced and reinforced at specific grade levels. Students have many opportunities to demonstrate mastery of these concepts and skills within increasingly complex learning environments.

The K-12 curriculum is designed to use grades K-4 as the developmental phase where a number of concepts and skills are introduced and reinforced, but are not yet mastered by students. All students are expected to have developed mastery in the basic fourteen standards by the end of grade 4. In this developmental stage, students use a variety of sources to interpret history, recognize reliable sources and information, develop proper research techniques, and respond to information using more complex skills of writing, listening and speaking. Students complete common, locally developed assessments aligned closely to the social studies standards designated for these years.  Although K-4 social studies is currently taught, the committee has not formally developed the curriculum.  This will begin in the summer of 2002.

Instruction in grades 5-8 is designed to have students demonstrate mastery of appropriate social studies skills and concepts through specific common assessments closely aligned with an agreed to set of standards for the middle grades. These learning experiences are structured around a common core of topics and units of study. Fifth grade students study American History through the development of the nation, sixth graders concentrate on selected topics in world history, seventh graders focus on selected topics in world geography, and eighth graders investigate selected themes in American History covering the 19^th Century to the present.

Students complete the high school social studies requirement by successfully completing six credits in the areas listed below. Students must successfully complete courses in western civilizations (2 credits), non-western civilizations (1 credit) American Government (1 credit) and United States History (2 credits). Several elective courses are available to assist students in meeting the non-western requirement or to extend the social studies experience beyond the six-credit requirement. Instruction reinforces previous concepts and skills, but requires the student to demonstrate competency in reading comprehension, historical thinking, writing, speaking at increasingly more sophisticated levels.

Types of Instruction

Teachers use a variety of instructional strategies to deliver and build social studies concepts and skills with students. These include directed instruction with the teacher working with the whole class to introduce a concept or skill. The teacher will also use structured questioning to lead productive discussions about the material. In addition, the teacher will employ a variety of grouping strategies designed to have students’ construct meaning from primary and secondary sources. Students will do independent work by completing homework or by completing performance-based tasks applying the appropriate concepts and skills to authentic situations. Teachers have developed common lessons aligned to the standards. By linking to your daughter or son’s school and the appropriate grade level or course, you can examine sample lessons or find descriptions of learning activities that are generally used by social studies teachers. You can link there by clicking on one of the hyperlinks below. At the school’s Web page, click on the curriculum and follow the path to the appropriate grade level or course. If you choose to link to a school now, remember you can return to this page by using your browser back button.

 SSES, RES, HKMS, JRMS, JBHS

Types of Assessment Directly Aligned to the Social Studies Curriculum

Common Assessments

Teachers use traditional assessments including quizzes, unit tests, summative exams, and projects to assess student growth. In addition, teachers in ER9 have developed common assessments for each grade level to evaluate each student’s progress with respect to the specific social studies standards listed for the grade level or in the course of study. These assessments are performance tasks that require the student to use social studies content and skills to address a topic or issue. In the future, we intend to include samples of social studies performance assessments on the site. A variety of scoring tools are used to assess student performance on a task:

• Task specific assessment criteria- where the task or assessment is broken down into several elements and the students are assessed on each element.  The teachers will often weight these elements based on the particular purpose of the task and the needs of the students.

• Analytic rubrics-where student progress is measured over time against multiple criteria using a numerical evaluation system of descriptors that indicate the level of quality for each content or skill area.

• Holistic rubrics- where the students are measured against a series of descriptive statements that indicate the student’s overall improvement in social studies.

Connecticut Assessment

In addition to these common assessments, the State of Connecticut assesses students on the language arts skills through the administration of the CMT at grades 4, 6, and 8.  These skills are important to the social studies.  Students take the CAPT in the spring of grade 10 and may repeat it in grades 11 and 12 should they not meet the goal standards that are set at a high level of mastery. The Integrated Test on the CAPT is reflective of the desired thinking and persuasive writing promoted by the social studies in ER9.

Recording Student Performance

The curriculum activities and assessments are closely aligned to specific social studies concepts and standards, the teachers use a variety of recording devices to track each student’s progress as measured against the standards. These devices include:

• Report Cards

• Evaluation of Common Assessments

• CMT and CAPT Scores

• Other Standardized Testing

Summary

The ER9 Social Studies Curriculum is consistently delivered in grades 5-12.

Grades K-4 will be added in the fall . Teachers have developed common approaches to instruction that are represented in sample lessons closely aligned to state and national standards. Sample lessons are located at the school level of the Web site. Students are assessed using an agreed upon set of assessments directly aligned to the content and skill standards appropriate to the grade level. As you explore different facets of the social studies curriculum, you may generate questions or feedback. Please click on the form below to communicate with us.

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Revised: October 17, 2005