Jessica L. Cormier
According to “The New Haven Public Schools Social Studies Curriculum Overview,” the primary mission of the NHPS Social Studies curriculum is to “support the development of active, informed and responsible citizens.”
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To accomplish this, teachers must help students to make the following logical connections:
“Past, present, and future—between historical and contemporary events and issues. Global—between regions, environments, and cultures around the world. Personal—between the curriculum and students' personal interests, concerns, and career aspirations. Interdisciplinary—between various content areas.”
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This curriculum unit specifically guides students to make those connections by exploring the concept of slavery across temporal and global boundaries. While first working as a whole class, this unit scaffolds and guides students to make connections between Spartacus and the Red Scare while considering interdisciplinary content areas of social studies and visual arts (film). However, within the final project, students are encouraged to apply what they have learned from the curriculum unit to make personal connections with their final film/history analysis by integrating their own art-related interests into the visual presentation.