Standards CT Social Studies Framework:
CIV 6–7.1 Explain specific roles played by citizens (such as voters, jurors, taxpayers, members of the armed forces, petitioners, protesters, and officeholders).
INQ 6–8.10 Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources, while acknowledging the strengths and limitations of the arguments
HIST 6–8.1 Use questions about historically significant people or events to explain the impact on a region.
HIST 8.4 Explain how and why perspectives of people have changed over time (e.g., American Revolution, slavery, labor, the role of women).
HIST 8.5 Analyze how people’s perspectives influenced what information is available in the historical sources they created.
Standards, Skills, and Areas of Knowledge
During this unit students will have lessons, discussions and activities that touch the following areas:
Historical Knowledge and Understanding; Historical Thinking: The study of the contributions of all people to the development of our heritage. There is particular attention to cultivation of key inquiry skills through the historical skills strand, with focus on critical thinking, the analysis of primary resources, historical interpretation, and contestability.
Government/Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities: The study of foundational constitutional principles, the concepts of rights and responsibilities, and the importance of civic participation in the democratic process.
Geography: The study of cultures and interactions of peoples with each other and the environment. The well-informed student will be able to apply an understanding of the meaning of the arrangement of things in space as it relates life situations.
Economics: The study of how economic systems provide for the needs of people and how these systems interact with each other, the environment, and changing political and historical thought.
Diversity: The study of individuals and groups to enhance understanding of differences. There is particular attention to how individuals develop an identity responsive to diverse human and group behavior.
NCSS – The 10 Themes of Social Studies
- Culture.
- Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture.
- Cultures are dynamic and change over time.
- Through experience, observation, and reflection, students will identify elements of culture as well as similarities and differences among cultural groups across time and place.
- In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with geography, history, sociology, and anthropology, as well as multicultural topics across the curriculum.
- Time, Continuity, and Change
- Studying the past makes it possible for us to understand the human story across time.
- Knowledge and understanding of the past enable us to analyze the causes and consequences of events and developments, and to place these in the context of the institutions, values and beliefs of the periods in which they took place.
- Knowing how to read, reconstruct and interpret the past allows us to answer questions
- Through a more formal study of history, students in the middle grades continue to expand their understanding of the past and are increasingly able to apply the research methods associated with historical inquiry.
- People, Places, and Environments
- The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world.
- During their studies, learners develop an understanding of spatial perspectives, and examine changes in the relationship between peoples, places and environments.
- Today’s social, cultural, economic and civic issues demand that students apply knowledge, skills, and understandings as they address questions
- In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with geography, regional studies, and world cultures.
- Individual Development and Identity
- Personal identity is shaped by an individual’s culture, by groups, by institutional influences, and by lived experiences shared with people inside and outside the individual’s own culture throughout her or his development.
- The study of individual development and identity will help students to describe factors important to the development of personal identity.
- Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
- Institutions are the formal and informal political, economic, and social organizations that help us carry out, organize, and manage our daily affairs.
- It is important that students know how institutions are formed, what controls and influences them, how they control and influence individuals and culture, and how institutions can be maintained or changed.
- Power, Authority, and Governance
- The development of civic competence requires an understanding of the foundations of political thought, and the historical development of various structures of power, authority, and governance. It also requires knowledge of the evolving functions of these structures in contemporary U.S. society, as well as in other parts of the world.
- In exploring this theme, students confront questions such as:
- Under what circumstances is the exercise of political power legitimate?
- What are the proper scope and limits of authority?
- How are individual rights protected and challenged within the context of majority rule?
- What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a constitutional democracy?
- Through study of the dynamic relationships between individual rights and responsibilities, the needs of social groups, and concepts of a just society, learners become more effective problem-solvers and decision-makers when addressing the persistent issues and social problems encountered in public life.
- In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with government, politics, political science, civics, history, law, and other social sciences.
- Production, Distribution, and Consumption
- In exploring this theme, students confront such questions as:
- How does interdependence, brought on by globalization, impact local economies and social systems?
- In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with concepts, principles, and issues drawn from the discipline of economics.
- Global Connections
- Global connections have intensified and accelerated the changes faced at the local, national, and international levels.
- In exploring this theme, students confront questions such as:
- What are the different types of global connections?
- What global connections have existed in the past, exist currently, and are likely in the future?
- How do ideas spread between societies in today’s interconnected world? How does this result in change in those societies?
- What are the other consequences of global connections? What are the benefits and problems associated with global interdependence?
- How might people in different parts of the world have different perspectives on these benefits and problems?
- How should people and societies balance global connectedness with local needs?
- What is needed for life to thrive on an ever changing and increasingly interdependent planet?
- This theme typically appears in units or courses dealing with geography, culture, economics, history, political science, government, and technology but may also draw upon the natural and physical sciences and the humanities, including literature, the arts, and languages.
