Social Studies for Educators

  • "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically...Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education."

                                                            ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Leader

     
    Christina School District Social Studies Educators provide quality instruction that aims toward a vision of authentic student achievement. The framework for teaching social studies  rely on five standards of authentic instruction: higher-order thinking, depth of knowledge, connectedness to the world beyond the classroom, substantive conversation,and social support for student achievement.
     
    High-Order Thinking requires students to manipulate information and ideas in ways that transform their meaning and implications, such as when students combine  facts and ideas in order to synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesize, or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation.
     
    Depth of Knowledge is the substantive character of the ideas in a lesson and to the level of understanding  that students demonstrate as they consider these ideas. This knowledge and understanding ranges from "shallow" to "deep" depending upon the instructional strategies, connectedness to the topic(s), and systemic approach to teaching.
     
    Connectedness to the World is the extent to which the class has value and meaning beyond the instructional context. A lesson gains in authenticity the more there is a connection to the larger social context within which students live.
     
    Substantive Conversation is considerable discourse about ideas of a topic that includes indicators of higher-order thinking and sharing of ideas. The dialogue builds coherently on participants' ideas to promote improved collective understanding of a theme or topic.
     
    Social Support for Student Achievement involves the teacher conveying high expectations for all students, including taking risks and mastering challenging academic work. All members of the class contributes to achievement by all. "Mutual respect" means that students with less skill or proficiency in a subject are treated in ways that encourage their efforts and value their contributions.
     
                                                               ~Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools

     
      
    Special Note: All teacher resources for social studies are accessible on the Christina School District SharePoint.  Please contact your building content chair for more information on how to access curriculum resources for the grade level and/or course that you are currently teaching.

Secondary Social Studies

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  • 6th Grade

  • Grade 7

  • Grade 8

  • Grades 9-12