Katie Elvidge – Social Science Content Specialist

Using the signs around the room please place yourself in the area that best describes how you’d rate your current knowledge of and comfort with the new social science standards.

Share with your neighbors, why did you place yourself there?

• Background and Overview

• Modifying Existing Resources

• Available Resources

I know how much new has been thrown at you recently!

The goal is to make the Social Science transition as seamless as possible.

Social Science Standards Implementation is to occur during the 2017-2018 school year

Many of these things are simply shifts to emphasize things great teachers already do in their classrooms!

Did your district use these to align curriculum or choose curriculum? Does everyone have to throw out their previous content/curriculum choices and start from scratch? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The new standards DO NOT require you to throw out existing curriculum! The content and curriculum selected by your district for each grade level can still be utilized with the new standards with some key changes made in how students access information.

When thinking about the social sciences what are some of the most important factors/characteristics? Fill in the following:

The social sciences…

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

The most important thing about the social sciences is ____________________.

"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the

society but the people themselves; and if we think them

not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a

wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from

them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is

the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820.

Thomas Jefferson on Politics and Government: Memorial Edition 15:278

Providing students the skills they need to be functional citizens

Students take ownership of learning to truly understand material

Engaging them in the curriculum

Intensified focus on understanding the why things happened and the impact of those events

Less focus on memorization of dates/names

Focus on key skills and concepts

Standards-writing task force, made up primarily of educators, began by solidifying a vision for our students for the future:

“The Illinois Social Science Standards are designed to ensure that students across Illinois focus on a common set of standards and have the opportunity to develop the knowledge, dispositions, and skills necessary for success in college, career, and civic life in the 21st century.”

“The vision supporting this design is to produce Illinois graduates who are civically engaged, socially responsible, culturally aware, and financially literate.”

College, Career, and Civic Life Framework (C3 Framework) was used as a guide in developing the IL Social Science Standards

National framework for social sciences based on use of inquiry

Keeping in mind the vision for our students, the standards were developed to be skill based, rather than simply a list of content to cover. Districts have control to determine curriculum locally that incorporates

state mandates

Allow for the diversity of each district or community to be honored and integrated into the curriculum while still ensuring all students in IL have the foundational skills needed to think critically about the social sciences.

What do you know about difference in grade level formatting of the standards?

Elementary Standards are based on themes and aligned to the disciplinary concepts.

The themes are:

Kindergarten: My Social World

First Grade: Living, Learning, and Working Together

Second Grade: Families, Neighborhoods, and Communities

Third Grade: Communities Near and Far

Fourth Grade: Our State, Our Nation

Fifth Grade: Our Nation, Our World

Standards are divided into two portions that work in tandem – Inquiry Skills and Disciplinary Concepts

Inquiry skills are the method in which you can accomplish your disciplinary concepts

Disciplinary concepts are divided into 4 categories:

Civics, Geography, Economics, and History

These emphasize the way each discipline provides foundational knowledge and skills essential to inquiry and action.

Specific content should be determined locally and reflect the state mandates

Inquiry skills are the vehicle that drives the learning of the disciplinary concepts

These are

the skills

students

should use...

…to understand

these concepts

Disciplinary concepts do

not focus on

memorization of facts or

dates but rather work

towards an

understanding of more

complex concepts.

The Inquiry Skills Standards emphasize the importance that all of the grades be engaged in inquiry (individually and collaboratively)

Inquiry skills…

…emphasize importance of inquiry and action (thinking and doing)

…are methods and dispositions that students need to develop in order to be equipped to meet the challenges of college, career, and civic life in the 21st century.

Divided into 3 main areas that mirror the dimensions of the C3 Framework (dimensions 1, 3, and 4)

Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries

Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence

Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action

The components of the inquiry skills, when used together, form an inquiry arc that guides learning in the classroom. The Inquiry Skills should guide how students learn about the disciplinary concepts.

Students are not only being exposed to the inquiry process and critical thinking skills in the social sciences

Science, with NGSS, has a large focus on students taking an active role in the inquiry process

Social Emotional Learning connections in the social sciences: Goal 1 – Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life

success

Goal 2 – Use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships

Goal 3 – Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.

English/Language Arts, with their Illinois Learning Standards also focus on critical skills that strongly correlate with the Inquiry Skills portion of the Social Science Standards. Correlation document has been created for all grade levels/bands that details the connection

between the social science and literacy standards

The top of each

document lists possible

connections that could

occur depending on the

tasks planned by the

teacher.

Social Science Standard

Literacy standard(s) that

directly connect to the

Social Science Standard

Since the New Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science were based upon the C3 Framework the five instructional shifts found in C3 are applicable to the standards.

Those shifts are:

Craft questions that spark and sustain an inquiry.

Cultivate and nurture collaborative and civic spaces.

Integrate content and skills purposefully.

Promote literacy practices and outcomes.

Provide tangible opportunities for taking informed action.

The shifts and Inquiry Skills are asking us to adjust our thinking on the method students use when interacting with content.

Gives us an overall picture of changes that need to occur in our classrooms

Makes us aware of the changes administrators will be looking for when they enter our classrooms Great knowledge for evaluations!

Great starting points to make change in our room Ex: You’re starting a new unit next week that you have all planned out, no time redo

things. However, you could use the key shifts and try to incorporate 1 or 2 (or more!) into this unit as possible.

Look at what you’re already doing and see where these standards fit (ex: units themed around stories in your ELA block)

Ex: The Economic and Financial Literacy standard for Kindergarten references scarcity.

SS.EC.1.K: Explain that choices are made because of scarcity (i.e. because we cannot have everything that we want).

Use a story with a scarcity theme that could touch on the scarcity part of the economics standard

For example– Bringing Rain to the Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema; The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins; Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn

Incorporate the word scarcity into your discussion of the story

Encourage kids to continue using the word scarcity

Word wall? Other stories? Real-world situations?

Take the standards for your grade level and highlight key words/themes – use that as a starting point to see where these topics fit with what you’re already doing in your classroom

K-2 Inquiry Skills

Let’s say you have a unit about school roles

(teachers, principal, secretaries, cafeteria workers,

custodians, etc.) which would coincide with the

first Kindergarten civics standard.

Kindergarten Civics Standards

The components of the inquiry skills, when used

together, form an inquiry arc that guides learning in

the classroom. Use the Inquiry Skills to guide how

students learn about the roles of the various school

personnel.

Could you:

- have students brainstorm their questions about roles of adults in school?

- use books, meet or interview school personnel, watch video clips to gather information?

- help your students come to conclusions about their questions, based on the activities completed, about

the roles and responsibilities of people in

authority?

K-2 Inquiry Skills

Let’s say you have a unit about community

government and community members

(police officers, fire fighters, mayor, etc.)

which would coincide with the 2nd grade

civics standard.

The components of the inquiry skills, when used

together, form an inquiry arc that guides learning in

the classroom. Use the Inquiry Skills to guide how

students learn about community government.

Could you:

- have students brainstorm their questions about their community’s government?

- use books, meet community members, read community government reports, watch videos to

gather information?

- help your students come to conclusions about their questions, based on the activities completed, about

what is government and what are some of its

functions?

2nd Grade Civics

Standards

For example, a 5th grade classroom with…

30 minute social studies block daily

access to a textbook about US History to support district-chosen curriculum

Now what??

Instead providing students with essential questions have students take a more active role in the process

guided discussions – students can help form essential questions with guidance and support!

brainstorming session of questions students have about next topic of study; provide guidance as you narrow down the list to a few focused questions for your unit

As students get more proficient at creating questions gradually transfer this responsibility to them

You can absolutely keep using your textbook as a resource and pull in other resources to help support your students’ inquiry

Articles, images (photographs, paintings, images of artifacts), videos, non-fiction books, and reference books are all great options

What kind of things do I need to have my students do to “Take Informed Action”? We don’t have resources to take trips to the capitol and lobby!

Taking informed action can be big or small depending on the availability of resources such as time or money. You can take trips if it is applicable and you have the resources however it’s not necessitated by the standards.

Students need to have opportunities to effectively communicate their learning conclusions and take action to inform others or champion for a cause

This can be in many different formats in classrooms

This portion of the standards focuses on being informedwhen taking action

Why do we do this? Think about our goals for our students for the future...

Think about Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action in terms of our hopes and dreams for all of our students in the future. What do we ultimately hope for them?

For example, Colleen Altman Informed, well-spoken

student able to advocate for a cause she is passionate about

Full Video Link: http://goo.gl/VWxiA5

http://goo.gl/VWxiA5

What questions about the standards do you have that we haven’t answered yet?

Illinois Social Science Learning Standards by grade level

https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Social-Science.aspx

Illinois Classrooms in Action Social Science Resources http://www.ilclassroomsinaction.org/social-science.html

Social Science Standards with Literacy Connections documents (by grade level)

Lists of outside vetted resources sorted by category

Inquiry Resource Links – includes sample inquiries

Resources targeted to each of the core disciplines

Sign up for the Social Science Listserv (link at bottom of webpage) to keep up-to-date on available resources and professional development

Check back often for more resources, they will be posted as they are developed!

https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Social-Science.aspxhttp://www.ilclassroomsinaction.org/social-science.html

Check out these external inquiry resources on the Classrooms In Action website:

(Disclaimer: the site contains external vetted resources that may support your implementation, they are not an endorsement of curricular materials by the state)

General Resources: ARCH – Assessment Resource Center for History has samples and models of 3 different types of history/social science assessments.

Traditional Multiple Choices, Weighted Multiple Choice, and Performance Tasks (projects).

Beyond the Bubble – Stanford History Education Group has partnered with the Library of Congress to create items that could be used as assessments, to preview new source analysis skills, or as models to create your own source based questions.

Inquiry Resources: C3 Teachers – C3’s official website with an inquiry design model, generator, and sample inquiries.

EngageNY – NY state’s resources, they adopted C3 as it was written. They have more prescribed curriculum for grade levels so some modification may be needed.

Right Question Institute – They have developed a teaching strategy that provides a simple, yet powerful way to get students asking their own questions and building off their peers’ questions.

Content-specific resources – look for resources that can be modified if needed to fit inquiry structure but support your content

Primary source resources –Library of Congress, World Digital Library, American Archive of Public Broadcasting

Government/Civics – iCivics, Civics Renewal Network

US/World History – Teaching History, History Channel

Geography – Illinois Geographic Alliance, Global Awareness Map

Economics – Federal Reserve, MyMoney.gov

http://www.ilclassroomsinaction.org/social-science.htmlhttp://www.umbc.edu/che/arch/http://beyondthebubble.stanford.edu/http://www.c3teachers.org/https://www.engageny.org/new-york-state-k-12-social-studieshttp://rightquestion.org/education/https://www.loc.gov/https://www.wdl.org/en/http://americanarchive.org/https://www.icivics.org/teachershttp://civicsrenewalnetwork.org/http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materialshttp://www.history.com/classroomhttp://iga.illinoisstate.edu/plans/http://v-nep.org/global-awareness-map/https://www.federalreserveeducation.org/http://www.mymoney.gov/Pages/default.aspx

In order to see and understand any potential adjustments that need to be made we first need to figure out where you’re at so… …you need to read the standards instead of just talking about them!

Let’s look at the standards in terms of what you’re currently doing in the classroom In order to find areas for potential growth we need a baseline

Be honest! Don’t be embarrassed if there are gaps – standards aren’t supposed to be implemented yet!

Use the “Keep It, Tweak It, Delete It” tool to help analyze what you’re currently doing in the classroom.

List units/lessons/projects on far left side

Put an “X” in boxes where current activities fully address the standard

Use a symbol such as “” to note where an increase in rigor would address the standard

The symbol “+” could be used to indicate where an additional standard could be addressed with some tweaking of current activities

Use space at end for any additional notes

Now let’s look at your notes… Are there any areas you notice that are really

lacking in what you currently do?

Inquiry Skills? A particular Disciplinary Concept?

How could you adjust your current lessons/projects/activities/discussions to incorporate the areas you’re lacking?

Any common gaps across classrooms/grade levels? Areas the whole department could focus on?