Social Studies curriculum at the middle school addresses National Social Studies Standards and the Connecticut Social Studies Curriculum Framework. Curriculum writing is an ongoing process and while our department is due for a complete rewrite, we have begun addressing the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies.
Our current Social Studies disciplines of study at the middle school consist of Grade 6 Ancient Civilization, Grade 7 World Geography and Grade 8 U.S. History. As a department we strongly believe that students should know where we came from, how governments developed and study our own American government. Our goal is to have students understand what it means to be a citizen in their town as well as in the United States. They will also explore their role as a citizen in the global community.
Social Studies goals are 21st century skills as referenced by the Common Core Standards that include interactive learning, higher-level thinking skills and student engagement. Students are asked to think critically to set up and solve real world problems across all three grade levels. Students learn to communicate their ideas in a variety of modes: speaking, written and use of technology.
Content knowledge plays a critical role in the Social Studies disciplines. It gives students background knowledge to draw upon when new ideas are presented, such as current events. Map skills and learning to read, create and analyze graphs along with content knowledge, enable our students to address Common Core expectations such as citing evidence from text as well as other ancillaries to support their arguments.
Social Studies curriculum naturally aligns itself with the Common Core expectations as we want all to students to be able to:
Lastly, our Grades 6-8 curriculum is built on a continuum. Skills are introduced in grade 6 and are expanded over the three year period, taking into consideration the children’s development. Skills are integrated over the different content areas and become more rigorous over time.
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