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The Transformative Power of a Diverse Social Studies Education for Middle-Level Learners

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The Transformative Power of a Diverse Social Studies Education for Middle-Level Learners

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NCSS Position Statement

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The Transformative Power of a Diverse Social Studies Education for Middle-Level Learners

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NCSS Position StatementApproved by the NCSS Board of Directors

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I feel confident in the new Playbooks because they align with what we already naturally do in the classroom.

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Civics Education by American Public Square at Jewell

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Civics Education by American Public Square at Jewell

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Civics Education by American Public Square at Jewell

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Preparing Social Studies Students to Think Critically in the Modern World

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Preparing Social Studies Students to Think Critically in the Modern World

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Preparing Social Studies Students to Think Critically in the Modern World

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Vetting primary resources isn’t easy—but doing it well is crucial for fostering engagement and deeper learning in a rapidly changing world.

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2—The Themes of Social Studies

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2—The Themes of Social Studies

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Standards Main Page
Executive Summary
Preface
Introduction
Thematic Strands

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.

Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. The study of culture examines the socially transmitted beliefs, values, institutions, behaviors, traditions and way of life of a group of people; it also encompasses other cultural attributes and products, such as language, literature, music, arts and artifacts, and foods. Students come to understand that human cultures exhibit both similarities and differences, and they learn to see themselves both as individuals and as members of a particular culture that shares similarities with other cultural groups, but is also distinctive. In a multicultural, democratic society and globally connected world, students need to understand the multiple perspectives that derive from different cultural vantage points.

Cultures are dynamic and change over time. The study of culture prepares students to ask and answer questions such as: What is culture? What roles does culture play in human and societal development? What are the common characteristics across cultures? How is unity developed within and among cultures? What is the role of diversity and how is it maintained within a culture? How do various aspects of culture such as belief systems, religious faith, or political ideals, influence other parts of a culture such as its institutions or literature, music, and art? How does culture change over time to accommodate different ideas, and beliefs? How does cultural diffusion occur within and across communities, regions, and nations?

Through experience, observation, and reflection, students will identify elements of culture as well as similarities and differences among cultural groups across time and place. They will acquire knowledge and understanding of culture through multiple modes, including fiction and non-fiction, data analysis, meeting and conversing with peoples of divergent backgrounds, and completing research into the complexity of various cultural systems.

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. Young learners can explore concepts of likenesses and differences among cultural groups through school subjects such as language arts, mathematics, science, music, and art. In social studies, learners interact with class members and discover culturally-based likenesses and differences. They begin to identify the cultural basis for some celebrations and ways of life in their community and in examples from across the world. In the middle grades, students begin to explore and ask questions about the nature of various cultures, and the development of cultures across time and place. They learn to analyze specific aspects of culture, such as language and beliefs, and the influence of culture on human behavior. As students progress through high school, they can understand and use complex cultural concepts such as adaptation, assimilation, acculturation, diffusion, and dissonance that are drawn from anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines to explain how culture and cultural systems function.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the past and its legacy.

Studying the past makes it possible for us to understand the human story across time. The historical experiences of societies, peoples and nations reveal patterns of continuity and change. Historical analysis enables us to identify continuities over time in core institutions, values, ideals, and traditions, as well as processes that lead to change within societies and institutions, and that result in innovation and the development of new ideas, values and ways of life.

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. Study of the past makes us aware of the ways in which human beings have viewed themselves, their societies and the wider world at different periods of time.

Knowing how to read, reconstruct and interpret the past allows us to answer questions such as: How do we learn about the past? How can we evaluate the usefulness and degree of reliability of different historical sources? What are the roots of our social, political and economic systems? What are our personal roots and how can they be viewed as part of human history? Why is the past important to us today? How has the world changed and how might it change in future? How do perspectives about the past differ, and to what extent do these differences inform contemporary ideas and actions?

Children in early grades learn to locate themselves in time and space. They gain experience with sequencing to establish a sense of order and time, and begin to understand the historical concepts that give meaning to the events that they study. The use of stories about the past can help children develop their understanding of ethical and moral issues as they learn about important events and developments. Children begin to recognize that stories can be told in different ways, and that individuals may hold divergent views about events in the past. They learn to offer explanations for why views differ, and thus develop the ability to defend interpretations based on evidence from multiple sources. They begin to understand the linkages between human decisions and consequences. The foundation is laid for the further development of historical knowledge, skills, and values in the middle grades.

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. They develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for differences in perspectives on historical events and developments, recognizing that interpretations are influenced by individual experiences, sources selected, societal values, and cultural traditions. They are increasingly able to use multiple sources to build interpretations of past events and eras. High school students use historical methods of inquiry to engage in the examination of more sophisticated sources. They develop the skills needed to locate and analyze multiple sources, and to evaluate the historical accounts made by others. They build and defend interpretations that reconstruct the past, and draw on their knowledge of history to make informed choices and decisions in the present.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.

The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world. Students learn where people and places are located and why they are there. They examine the influence of physical systems, such as climate, weather and seasons, and natural resources, such as land and water, on human populations. They study the causes, patterns and effects of human settlement and migration, learn of the roles of different kinds of population centers in a society, and investigate the impact of human activities on the environment. This enables them to acquire a useful basis of knowledge for informed decision-making on issues arising from human-environmental relationships.

During their studies, learners develop an understanding of spatial perspectives, and examine changes in the relationship between peoples, places and environments. They study the communications and transportation networks that link different population centers, the reasons for these networks, and their impact. They identify the key social, economic and cultural characteristics of populations in different locations as they expand their knowledge of diverse peoples and places. Learners develop an understanding of the growth of national and global regions, as well as the technological advances that connect students to the world beyond their personal locations.

Today's social, cultural, economic and civic issues demand that students apply knowledge, skills, and understandings as they address questions such as: Why do people decide to live where they do or move to other places? Why is location important? How do people interact with the environment and what are some of the consequences of those interactions? What physical and other characteristics lead to the creation of regions? How do maps, globes, geographic tools and geospatial technologies contribute to the understanding of people, places, and environments?

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with geography, regional studies, and world cultures. Student experiences will encourage increasingly abstract thought as they use data and apply skills in analyzing human behavior in relation to its physical and cultural environment. In the early grades, young learners draw upon immediate personal experiences in their neighborhoods, towns and cities, and states, as well as peoples and places distant and unfamiliar, to explore geographic concepts and skills. They learn to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools. They also express interest in and concern for the use and misuse of the physical environment. During the middle grades, students explore people, places, and environments in this country and in different regions of the world. They learn to evaluate issues such as population growth and its impact, "push and pull" factors related to migration, and the causes and implications of national and global environmental change. Students in high school are able to apply an understanding of geospatial technologies and other geographic tools and systems to a broad range of themes and topics. As they analyze complex processes of change in the relationship between people, places, and environments, and the resulting issues and challenges, they develop their skills at evaluating and recommending public policies.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of 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. Given the nature of individual development in a social and cultural context, students need to be aware of the processes of learning, growth, and interaction at every level of their own school experiences. The examination of various forms of human behavior enhances an understanding of the relationships between social norms and emerging personal identities, the social processes that influence identity formation, and the ethical principles underlying individual action.

Questions related to identity and development, which are important in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, are central to the understanding of who we are. Such questions include: How do individuals grow and change physically, emotionally and intellectually? Why do individuals behave as they do? What influences how people learn, perceive, and grow? How do people meet their basic needs in a variety of contexts? How do individuals develop over time? How do social, political, and cultural interactions support the development of identity? How are development and identity defined at other times and in other places?

The study of individual development and identity will help students to describe factors important to the development of personal identity. They will explore the influence of peoples, places, and environments on personal development. Students will hone personal skills such as demonstrating self-direction when working towards and accomplishing personal goals, and making an effort to understand others and their beliefs, feelings, and convictions.

In the early grades, young learners develop their personal identities in the context of families, peers, schools, and communities. Central to this development are the exploration, identification, and analysis of how individuals and groups are alike and how they are unique, as well as how they relate to each other in supportive and collaborative ways. In the middle grades, issues of personal identity are refocused as the individual begins to explain his or her unique qualities in relation to others, collaborates with peers and with others, and studies how individuals develop in different societies and cultures. At the high school level, students need to encounter multiple opportunities to examine contemporary patterns of human behavior, using methods from the behavioral sciences to apply core concepts drawn from psychology, sociology, and anthropology as they apply to individuals, societies, and cultures.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among 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. Schools, religious institutions, families, government agencies, and the courts all play an integral role in our lives. They are organizational embodiments of the core social values of those who comprise them, and play a variety of important roles in socializing individuals and meeting their needs, as well as in the promotion of societal continuity, the mediation of conflict, and the consideration of public issues.

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. The study of individuals, groups, and institutions, drawing upon sociology, anthropology, and other disciplines, prepares students to ask and answer questions such as: What is the role of institutions in this and other societies? How am I influenced by institutions? How do institutions change? What is my role in institutional change?

Students identify those institutions that they encounter. They analyze how the institutions operate and find ways that will help them participate more effectively in their relationships with these institutions. Finally, students examine the foundations of the institutions that affect their lives, and determine how they can contribute to the shared goals and desires of society.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, and history. Young children should be given the opportunity to examine various institutions that affect their lives and influence their thinking. They should be assisted in recognizing the tensions that occur when the goals, values, and principles of two or more institutions or groups conflict-for example, the school board removing playground equipment for safety reasons vs. the same equipment being used in a city park playground (i.e., swings, monkey bars, or sliding boards). They should also have opportunities to explore ways in which institutions (such as voluntary associations, or organizations like health care networks) are created to respond to changing individual and group needs. Middle school learners will benefit from varied experiences through which they examine the ways in which institutions change over time, promote social conformity, and influence culture. They should be encouraged to use this understanding to suggest ways to work through institutional change for the common good. High school students must understand the paradigms and traditions that undergird social and political institutions. They should be provided opportunities to examine, use, and add to the body of knowledge offered by the behavioral sciences and social theory in relation to the ways people and groups organize themselves around common needs, beliefs, and interests.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create, interact with, and change structures of 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. Learning the basic ideals and values of a constitutional democracy is crucial to understanding our system of government. By examining the purposes and characteristics of various governance systems, learners develop an understanding of how different groups and nations attempt to resolve conflicts and seek to establish order and security.

In exploring this theme, students confront questions such as: What are the purposes and functions of government? 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 conflicts exist among fundamental principles and values of constitutional democracy? 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. By applying concepts and methods of political science and law, students learn how people work to promote positive societal change.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with government, politics, political science, civics, history, law, and other social sciences. Learners in the early grades explore their natural and developing sense of fairness and order as they experience relationships with others. They develop an increasingly comprehensive awareness of rights and responsibilities in specific contexts. During the middle school years, these rights and responsibilities are applied in more complex contexts with emphasis on new applications. Learners study the various systems that have been developed over the centuries to allocate and employ power and authority in the governing process. High school students develop their abilities to understand and apply abstract principles. At every level, learners should have opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills to participate in the workings of the various levels of power, authority, and governance.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

People have wants that often exceed the limited resources available to them. The unequal distribution of resources necessitates systems of exchange, including trade, to improve the well-being of the economy, while the role of government in economic policy-making varies over time and from place to place. Increasingly, economic decisions are global in scope and require systematic study of an interdependent world economy and the role of technology in economic growth. As a result, a variety of ways have been invented to decide upon answers to four fundamental questions: What is to be produced? How is production to be organized? How are goods and services to be distributed and to whom? What is the most effective allocation of the factors of production (land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship)?

In exploring this theme, students confront such questions as: What factors influence decision-making on issues of the production, distribution and consumption of goods? What are the best ways to deal with market failures? How does interdependence brought on by globalization impact local economies and social systems?

Students will gather and analyze data, as well as use critical thinking skills to determine how best to deal with scarcity of resources. The economic way of thinking will also be an important tool for students as they analyze complex aspects of the economy.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with concepts, principles, and issues drawn from the discipline of economics. Young learners begin by prioritizing their economic wants vs. needs. They explore economic decision-making as they compare their own economic experiences with those of others and consider the wider consequences of those decisions on groups, communities, the nation, and beyond. In the middle grades, learners expand their knowledge of economic concepts and principles, and use economic reasoning processes in addressing issues related to fundamental economic questions. High school students develop economic perspectives and deeper understanding of key economic concepts and processes through systematic study of a range of economic and sociopolitical systems, with particular emphasis on the examination of domestic and global economic policy options related to matters such as trade, resource use, unemployment, and health care.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of relationships among science, technology, and society.

Science, and its practical application, technology, have had a major influence on social and cultural change, and on the ways people interact with the world. Scientific advances and technology have influenced life over the centuries, and modern life, as we know it, would be impossible without technology and the science that supports it.

There are many questions about the role that science and technology play in our lives and in our cultures. What can we learn from the past about how new technologies result in broader social change, some of which is unanticipated? Is new technology always better than that which it replaces? How can we cope with the ever-increasing pace of change, perhaps even the concern that technology might get out of control? How can we manage technology so that the greatest numbers of people benefit? How can we preserve fundamental values and beliefs in a world that is rapidly becoming one technology-linked village? How do science and technology affect our sense of self and morality? How are disparate cultures, geographically separated but impacted by global events, brought together by the technology that informs us about events, and offered hope by the science that may alleviate global problems (e.g., the spread of AIDS)? How can gaps in access to benefits of science and technology be bridged?

This theme appears in units or courses dealing with history, geography, economics, and civics and government. It draws upon several scholarly fields from the natural and physical sciences, social sciences, and the humanities for specific examples of issues as well as the knowledge base for considering responses to the societal issues related to science and technology.

Young children learn how science and technologies influence beliefs, knowledge, and their daily lives. They study how basic technologies such as telephones, ships, automobiles, and airplanes have evolved and how we have employed technology such as air conditioning, dams, and irrigation to modify our physical environment and contribute to changes in global health and economics. From history (their own and others'), they can construct examples of the effects of technologies such as the wheel, the stirrup, an understanding of DNA, and the Internet. In the middle grades, students begin to explore the complex influence of scientific findings and technology on human values, the growth of knowledge, and behavior. Students examine scientific ideas and technological changes that have surprised people and even challenged their beliefs, as in the case of discoveries about our universe and their technological applications, as well as the genetic basis of life, atomic physics, and other subjects. As they move from the middle grades to high school, students continue to think analytically about the consequences of change and how we can manage science and technology to increase benefits to all. Students gain the knowledge to analyze issues such as the protection of privacy in the age of the Internet; electronic surveillance; the opportunities and challenges of genetic engineering; test-tube life; and other findings and technologies with implications for beliefs, longevity, and the quality of life and the environment.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of global connections and interdependence.

Global connections have intensified and accelerated the changes faced at the local, national, and international levels. The effects are evident in rapidly changing social, economic, and political institutions and systems. World trade has expanded and technology has removed or lowered many barriers, bringing far-flung cultures, institutions, and systems together. Connections among nations and regions of the world provide opportunities as well as uncertainties. The realities of global interdependence require deeper understanding of the increasing and diverse global connections among world societies and regions.

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 from and problems associated with global interdependence? How might people in different parts of the world have different perspectives on these benefits and problems? What influence has increasing global interdependence had on patterns of international migration? 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?

Analyses of the costs and benefits of increased global connections, and evaluations of the tensions between national interests and global priorities, contribute to the development of possible solutions to persistent and emerging global issues. By interpreting the patterns and relationships of increased global interdependence, and its implications for different societies, cultures and institutions, students learn to examine policy alternatives that have both national and global implications.

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. Through exposure to various media and first-hand experiences, young learners become aware of how things that happen in one part of the world impact other parts of the world. Within this context, students in early grades examine and explore various types of global connections as well as basic issues and concerns. They develop responsive action plans, such as becoming e-pals with a class in another part of the world. In the middle years, learners can initiate analyses of the consequences of interactions among states, nations, and world regions as they respond to global events and changes. At the high school level, students are able to think systematically about personal, national, and global decisions, and to analyze policies and actions, and their consequences. They also develop skills in addressing and evaluating critical issues such as peace, conflict, poverty, disease, human rights, trade, and global ecology.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic.

An understanding of civic ideals and practices is critical to full participation in society and is an essential component of education for citizenship, which is the central purpose of social studies. All people have a stake in examining civic ideals and practices across time and in different societies. Through an understanding of both ideals and practices, it becomes possible to identify gaps between them, and study efforts to close the gaps in our democratic republic and worldwide.

Learning how to apply civic ideals as part of citizen action is essential to the exercise of democratic freedoms and the pursuit of the common good. Through social studies programs, students acquire a historical and contemporary understanding of the basic freedoms and rights of citizens in a democracy, and learn about the institutions and practices that support and protect these freedoms and rights, as well as the important historical documents that articulate them. Students also need to become familiar with civic ideals and practices in countries other than our democratic republic.

Questions faced by students studying this theme might be: What are the democratic ideals and practices of a constitutional democracy? What is the balance between rights and responsibilities? What is civic participation? How do citizens become involved? What is the role of the citizen in the community and the nation, and as a member of the world community? Students will explore how individuals and institutions interact. They will also recognize and respect different points of view. Students learn by experience how to participate in community service and political activities and how to use democratic processes to influence public policy.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units or courses dealing with civics, history, political science, cultural anthropology, and fields such as global studies and law-related education, while also drawing upon content from the humanities. In the early grades, students are introduced to civic ideals and practices through activities such as helping to set classroom expectations, examining experiences in relation to ideals, participating in mock elections, and determining how to balance the needs of individuals and the group. During these years, children also experience views of citizenship in other times and places through stories and drama. By the middle grades, students expand their knowledge of democratic ideals and practices, along with their ability to analyze and evaluate the relationships between these ideals and practices. They are able to see themselves taking civic roles in their communities. High school students increasingly recognize the rights and responsibilities of citizens in identifying societal needs, setting directions for public policies, and working to support both individual dignity and the common good. They become familiar with methods of analyzing important public issues and evaluating different recommendations for dealing with these issues.

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2-The Themes of Social Studies

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Standards Main Page Executive Summary Preface Introduction

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A Position Statement of National Council for the Social Studies
Approved November 30, 2022

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), as the organized voice of the social studies, overseeing and supporting the preparation of social studies professionals in the United States, maintains an obligation to provide appropriate leadership and guidance for efforts seeking the establishment and maintenance of requisite principles and guidelines necessary to encourage and support social studies professionals who are faithfully discharging their educational responsibilities.

In support of that mission, NCSS has identified six principles and supporting statements to develop and evolve the decision-making process of ethical social studies professionals who are endeavoring to provide socially just, inquiry-based, culturally competent democratic education for every student. These principles provide a frame of reference for all levels of social studies professionals to grow their practice, engage with content, and develop relationships with all educational stakeholders while working to provide an equitable and just education of democratic intent.

Aligned with the NCSS standards for the preparation of social studies professionals, each of the following principles elaborates and specifically states guidance for social studies professionals' thought and action toward the goal of meaningful, authentic, inquiry-based, and active learning for the continuation of the United States democratic society. Eschewing mandated action, these principal statements are instead written to act as guiderails for social studies professionals who, as curriculum instructional gatekeepers, act within ethical boundaries-for themselves, their peers, their students, their community, and democratic society overall.

The following principles are established as considerations for use by all levels of social studies professionals in making the critical decisions about social studies education in development of ethical dispositions.

For methods professors and academics, these are a tool of course inquiry, the foundation for discussion or case studies, developed to prepare social studies professionals for modern classroom experiences.

For administrators and curriculum directors, they are supporting statements for the selection and use of curriculum, content, and course development.

For social studies teaching professionals, they are the considerations needed to make the critical choices in the development of curricular plans, implementation of daily lessons, and establishment of rapport with students and other educational stakeholders.

Principle 1: Integrity

Integrity is essential in a functioning democratic society, permeating all aspects of this ethical code. Holding mutual respect for others in all interactions and communications and being trustworthy and accountable for our actions are core values for life in a democracy. Social studies professionals should act with integrity, being honest and truthful about knowledge claims in their schools, curricula, and classrooms while working to model and demonstrate respect for the dignity and integrity of every student, the content, and the community overall.
Social Studies Professionals:

1. Develop and use authentic voices and materials that do not oversimplify, distort, or manipulate the truth-except as examples that illustrate how these have been used throughout history-to foster honest dialogue, using materials that meet accepted standards of scholarship.

2. Are aware of their own personal bias in both content and pedagogy, working to model the core civic values of mutual respect and honesty with oneself and others in relation to pedagogy, content, and materials.

3. Defend the rights of students and colleagues to access robust and authentic materials, striving to make available a balanced variety of educationally significant materials from which students of all ages and backgrounds can learn.

4. Respect and adhere to traditions and laws governing the reproduction and use of learning materials, always providing honest attribution of sources.

5. Engage with all educational stakeholders to share their instructional priorities and expectations through respectful dialogue on issues affecting their teaching and their students' participation in school with parents, administration, and community, seeking appropriate input in balance with their academic freedom and professional responsibilities.

6. Assess student learning through means that are valid, open, and fair and that reflect course objectives, welcoming appropriate dialogue on their teaching with students, peers, and administrators and accepting constructive criticism.

7. Refuse to utilize their professional position and relationships with students, colleagues, and administration for personal gain or private advantage.

Principle 2: Justice

Justice also sits at the core of social studies as a professional career, acting to develop citizens and other members of society who understand how to contribute positively within the school, community, state, nation, and world. Through an examination of human and political rights, the distribution of goods and resources, and a consideration of various aspects of humanity, social studies professionals work to enable students' opportunities to participate in building the world they will live in, analyzing the principle of justice throughout their lives. From teaching about the rights and responsibilities that members of a community have to one another, to justice-based content and pedagogical selection of curriculum and associated resources, social studies professionals have a responsibility to be aware of how they cultivate a just space for learning.
Social Studies Professionals:

1. Acknowledge and accept the identities of all students, colleagues, and other educational stakeholders as members of our modern pluralistic democratic society and as deserving of equitable education.

2. Teach and advocate the rights and responsibilities held by and among all members of a community, with a goal of developing habits of mind to consider ideas of right and wrong in their societal participation and life experience.

3. Create just classroom communities that provide opportunities for all students to participate in open discourse with each other by encouraging students' rights to learn, inquire, critique, and express respectfully across and around similar and opposing positions in preparation for participation in the wider community.

4. Provide all students access to materials that directly engage questions of justice and injustice, encouraging students to assess appropriate measures of justice in various times and places.

5. Organize content and teaching to model a just society, promoting empathy, tolerance, care, and understanding of others, specifically providing multiple perspectives and voices from different dimensions of society.

Principle 3: Authenticity

Authenticity is important within social studies education, as professional educators should be honest and genuine in their positions and academic relationships with students, content, and community. Authentic social studies professionals enact democratic pedagogy, maintain the dignity of knowledge, and model civic responsibility in the classroom, always acting with the public good in mind while engaging in dialogue with others. They provide real opportunities for students to engage in deliberation that relates to the world beyond the school and to their own future society.
Social Studies Professionals:

1. Genuinely respect the shared dignity of all students in their classrooms, ensuring that each has self-determination to achieve success within our democratic society.

2. Select materials and resources that are held to an academic standard of truth, ensuring that the dignity of knowledge is upheld and never compromised for bias or propaganda.

3. Maintain an open and democratic classroom where students are free to study, investigate, present, and discuss relevant facts and ideas toward the pursuit of membership in our society.

4. Uphold the importance of honest and open student dialogue while being sensitive to the integrity of knowledge, allowing students opportunities to speak from their lived experiences to develop understandings of other members of society while also adhering to the use of inquiry and evidence.

5. Acknowledge when they do not have an answer and embark on the journey of knowledge development with their students in conversation with content, community, and self.

6. Are mindful of the humanity of the classroom, maintaining a focus on genuine acts of learning that are reflective of the real world.

Principle 4: Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is required for a healthy constitutional democracy, requiring social studies professionals to work continuously in developing knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors within their students to participate effectively in their own governance. Social studies professionals should represent these civic behavior skills in their classrooms, including teaching for the development of democratic citizenship, civil liberties, civil rights, and human rights, while holding true to the importance of active citizens to ensure the continuation of democracy. Social studies professionals demonstrate the characteristics of good citizens, upholding the dignity and rights of all in their classroom.
Social Studies Professionals:

1. Cultivate and maintain a classroom environment of inquiry where respect is modeled, power and authority are shared, discipline is negotiated, and students are free to contest ideas, think critically, and interpret and openly express their knowledge based on academically supported evidence.

2. Model appropriate civic behavior for all students and provide opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills, experiences, and attitude development necessary to function as an effective member of society.

3. Develop active and meaningful learning opportunities for students to practice being members of a democratic society, addressing the values of democracy including human rights and responsibilities, personal liberties and duties, and the dignity and worth of all persons.

4. Engage students in the broader school and local community to experience and participate in democracy in action including school board meetings, local elections, meetings of local governing bodies such as city or town councils, and local community organizations and interests.

5. Identify and allow students to be involved in issues relevant to them and their community for inquiry-based learning focused on critical thinking, communicating, collaborating, and taking informed action for an inclusive and equitable society.

Principle 5: Responsibility

Responsibility in the social studies profession relates to both the educational decisions made as well as those to whom social studies professionals are responsible. This ethical consideration occurs as social studies professionals adhere to a high level of professional conduct in selecting content and interpreting curriculum and pedagogical choices while educating for democracy. These decisions are made in relation to a consideration of students, families, colleagues, community, and other educational stakeholders to whom social studies professionals are responsible, ensuring that the decisions are democratic and just. Social studies professionals engage in due deliberation to ensure that the decisions made are in accordance with how best to prepare students for engaging as members of our democratic society while continuing the pursuit of their own professional career development.
Social Studies Professionals:

1. Develop and model empathy for all people, standing in solidarity with their students in the pursuit of authentic learning to be active and responsible members of a democratic society.

2. Cultivate positive working relationships with all stakeholders in practicing a democratic commitment to open inquiry.

3. Identify and participate in professional development, academic learning, and other opportunities to stay current and relevant with modern social studies content and pedagogy.

4. Engage in meaningful conversations with their peers about the impact of curricular and instructional decisions, being accountable for consequences while understanding their shared professional responsibility.

5. Prepare to address potentially divisive concepts in the classroom, providing opportunities to deconstruct and facilitate learning through inquiry to develop responsible, critically thinking members of our democratic society.

6. Advocate for the teaching of social studies at all levels of education, working to assure it is addressed appropriately and meaningfully.

Principle 6: Democratic Values

United States schools and students today represent many threads of a diverse societal fabric which exists within an interconnected local and global community. Guiding students to develop skills for effective and respectful participation in these pluralistic environments is an essential goal of social studies education, developing respect for persons, communities, and ways of life through culturally competent pedagogy. Social studies teachers work to decenter the dominant narrative and provide an inclusive and robust educational experience for all students that is both culturally relevant and responsive in its pedagogy, recruiting new perspectives and members to the field of social studies and always advocating for a culturally pluralist look at the content.
Social Studies Professionals:

1. Engage in personal reflection and self-inquiry to decenter their own lived experiences to better understand their students and to provide relevant educational opportunities in their classrooms that are equitable and accessible for all students.

2. Consider the cultural diversity and assets of their students' backgrounds and identities to develop culturally competent educational experiences focused on bringing equitable learning opportunities for the whole classroom.

3. Ensure their classroom, content, and curriculum are appropriately inclusive and are analyzed with students to be reflective of the diversity of cultural identities, perspectives, and experiences.

4. Develop awareness of issues in the school system related to access, equity, power, and social justice, working toward an unrestricted educational experience as advocates for all students in their classrooms.

5. Model and use cooperative pedagogy appropriate to participation in an inclusive society within our social studies classrooms and in community settings, nurturing students' membership in democratic society.

6. Consider students' backgrounds and identities as part of the learning environment of their classroom, ensuring that their dignity as human beings is upheld and that their civil and human rights are protected.

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A Position Statement of National Council for the Social Studies

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How Should Teachers Teach Controversial History?

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How Should Teachers Teach Controversial History?

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How Should Teachers Teach Controversial History

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Teaching About Controversial Issues: A Resource Guide

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Teaching About Controversial Issues: A Resource Guide

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Teaching About Controversial Issues: A Resource Guide - Choices Program

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This resource guide provides teachers with resources and pedagogical tools to feel more prepared to address controversial issues in the classroom.

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How Can Educators Prepare for Teaching Controversial Issues? Cross-National Lessons

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How Can Educators Prepare for Teaching Controversial Issues? Cross-National Lessons

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How Can Educators Prepare for Teaching Controversial Issues? Cross-National Lessons.pdf

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Social Studies in Action: A Teaching Practices Library, K-12

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Social Studies in Action: A Teaching Practices Library, K-12

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This program examines how social studies teachers in any grade level can encourage open and informed discussions with their students while dealing with controversial issues. Topics range from stereotypes and gender-based discrimination to the conflict in the Middle East. Through clearly identifying issues, listening to multiple perspectives, and formulating personal positions, teachers can explore a variety of strategies that can be used to teach challenging issues such as these in their own classrooms.

What role does social studies play in helping students deal with controversial issues?

How provocative should social studies topics be?

Some educators believe that certain issues are best addressed privately - at home, for example - and that social studies should focus on objective facts. Others argue that public controversy is characteristic of a healthy democracy and that working with others to address multiple perspectives is a skill that students need to develop in a classroom context.

All social studies teachers must inevitably deal with controversial issues, ranging from basic ideas of fairness and equality in a democracy, to immigration, to the distribution of world resources. Controversial issues require students to conduct thorough research, master concepts on both sides of an issue, and develop a perspective of their own.

The most difficult issues often have a profound impact on students, and class discussions about these issues can leave teachers feeling like referees. However, in a democracy it is critical for students to learn how to listen to opposing viewpoints, and the teacher's role must be to create an open forum that allows opposing viewpoints to be fully expressed. The challenge for all teachers is finding the fine line between engaging students' interest and maintaining a sense of objectivity that lets students master the material and develop their own perspectives.

How can teachers help students understand the ideas and values behind historical controversies, competing ideologies, and changing laws? In the video, "Dealing With Controversial Issues," teachers and students explore issues in social studies by:

conducting research using several resources,

discussing the facts linked to the controversy,

determining points of view,

supporting a point of view with evidence gathered from research,

listening to opposing points of view and engaging in a debate, and

proposing solutions.

NCSS Themes in This Lesson

Each video lesson in the library is keyed to standards and performance expectations. Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies defines what students should know and be able to do in social studies at each educational level.

Teaching controversial issues relates specifically to the following NCSS themes:

Culture

Time, Continuity, and Change

People, Places, and Environments

Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

Power, Authority, and Governance

Global Connections

Civic Ideals and Practices

Exploring the Issues

"Students are developing their knowledge base, but too often social studies is taught as a series of facts. But knowledge is more than that; it's understanding the ideas and values that form an ideology."
- Susan Adler, Director of Teacher Education, University of Missouri, Kansas City
Wrestling with the Issue
"These issues will help students develop the skills needed to consider multiple viewpoints, consult multiple sources, articulate ideas, and support opinions with facts. These are the skills that will make them effective citizens."
- Wendy Ewbank, Seventh- and Eighth-Grade History Teacher, Edmonds, Washington
Wrestling with the Issue Supporting One's View
"We want students to approach an issue in a fair-minded way. Critical thinkers consider opposite viewpoints and ask themselves, 'Is that view more coherent than mine? Is it more precise?' and they'll change their perspective if necessary."
- Michael Yell, Seventh-Grade History Teacher, Hudson, Wisconsin
Wrestling with the Issue
Applying What You've Learned
Print Resources

For Teachers
Web Sites

For Teachers

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Issues in Social Studies: Dealing With Controversial Issues - Annenberg Learner

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How provocative should social studies topics be? Some educators believe that certain issues are best addressed privately - at home, for example - and that social studies should focus on objective facts. Others argue that public controversy is characteristic of a healthy democracy and that working with others to address multiple perspectives is a skill that students need to develop in a classroom context.

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What are primary sources?

Primary sources are the raw materials of history - original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place.

Why teach with primary sources?

Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them a sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era. Helping students analyze primary sources can also prompt curiosity and improve critical thinking and analysis skills.

Primary sources expose students to multiple perspectives on significant issues of the past and present. In analyzing primary sources, students move from concrete observations and facts to questioning and making inferences about the materials. Interacting with primary sources engages students in asking questions, evaluating information, making inferences, and developing reasoned explanations and interpretations of events and issues.

Before you begin

Successful student interactions with primary sources require careful primary source selections and lesson planning.

Select one or more primary sources that support the learning objectives and are accessible to students. Consider your students' needs and interests and any logistical factors for using the item, such as legibility or copyright status. The Library of Congress Primary Source Sets for educators are a good place to start and the Free to Use and Reuse sets for more general audiences are another.

Consider whether students will be able to identify point of view, put the items into historical context, and compare these items to other primary and secondary sources.

Plan instruction, including activity types, time required, and whether students will work individually, in small groups, or as a whole class. Use the Primary Source Analysis Tool from the Library of Congress and select guiding questions from the teacher's guide to support students in analyzing the primary sources.

Engage students with primary sources

Primary sources help students relate in a personal way to events of the past and promote a deeper understanding of history as a series of human events. Because primary sources are incomplete snippets of history, each one represents a mystery that students can only explore further by finding new pieces of evidence.

Ask students to observe each primary source.

Where does your eye go first?

What do you see that you didn't expect?

What powerful words and ideas are expressed?

Encourage students to think about their response to the source.

What feelings and thoughts does the primary source trigger in you?

What questions does it raise?

Promote student inquiry

Inquiry into primary sources encourages students to wrestle with contradictions and compare multiple sources that represent differing points of view, confronting the complexity of the past.

Encourage students to speculate about each source, its creator, and its context.

What was happening during this time period?

What was the creator's purpose in making this primary source?

What does the creator do to get his or her point across?

What was this primary source's audience?

What biases or stereotypes do you see?

Ask if this source agrees with other primary sources, or with what the students already know.

Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sources

Primary sources are often incomplete and have little context. Students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple resources to find patterns and construct knowledge.

Questions of creator bias, purpose, and point of view may challenge students' assumptions.

Ask students to test their assumptions about the past.

Ask students to find other primary or secondary sources that offer support or contradiction.

Ask for reasons and specific evidence to support their conclusions.

Help students identify questions for further investigation and develop strategies for how they might answer them.

Offer students opportunities to demonstrate their learning by writing an essay, delivering a speech taking a stand on an issue in the primary sources, or creating a museum display about a historical topic. For more follow-up activity ideas, take a look at the general or format-specific teacher's guides.

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Getting Started with Primary Sources | Teachers | Programs | Library of Congress

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What are primary sources? Primary sources are the raw materials of history - original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place.

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A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies

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A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies

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A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies.pdf

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Introducing Primary and Secondary Sources in the Elementary Classroom

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Introducing Primary and Secondary Sources in the Elementary Classroom

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Introducing Primary and Secondary Sources in the Elementary Classroom - Social Studies

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Social Studies Introducing Primary and Secondary Sources in the Elementary Classroom

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Position Statement on Powerful, Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies

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Position Statement on Powerful, Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies

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Position Statement on Powerful, Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies

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A Position Statement of National Council for the Social Studies

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Teaching civil discourse: A classroom blueprint for all America

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Teaching civil discourse: A classroom blueprint for all America

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Teaching civil discourse: A classroom blueprint for all America | Opinion

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It’s more important than ever to prepare students for the public sphere, and in a non-politicized way.

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3 Steps to Civil Discourse in the Classroom	

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3 Steps to Civil Discourse in the Classroom	

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Becoming Conscious of Different Perspectives.pdf

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Becoming Conscious of Different Perspectives

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Becoming Conscious of Different Perspectives

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Becoming Concsious of Different Perspectives.pdf

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NCSS Recommended Resources for Teaching with Multiple Perspectives 

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NCSS Recommended Resources for Teaching with Multiple Perspectives 

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Exploring Diverse Perspectives in Social Studies With ‘Do Nows’

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Exploring Diverse Perspectives in Social Studies With ‘Do Nows’

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A short task at the beginning of class can capture students' attention and expand their understanding of the topics they're studying.

All too often, teachers feel pressed to meet district- or school-designated benchmarks and effectively prepare students for standardized exams. These benchmarks and exams don't always include the experiences and perspectives of people from a range of cultural backgrounds, but social studies teachers can support student exposure to perspectives from outside the dominant narrative, or what is typically taught, through a series of "do nows."

A "do now" is a brief, seven- to 10-minute activity that serves two purposes: (1) captivate students' attention and get them focused as they walk in from another class or break time, and (2) review a concept already learned or capture their interest in upcoming material. Harvard University describes a " do now" as an activity that is "effective across educational settings, although mostly in primary and secondary classrooms... an excellent technique for classroom management" and facilitates "student motivation and engagement." In the Edutopia article " Engaged Teaching: 'Do Now' Activities for Your Lessons," Maurice Elias describes a multitude of purposes a "do now" can serve.

Before beginning the use of "do nows" as a space for exploration of diverse perspectives, it's ideal for students to have a good idea of the term identity, and the many forms in existence, in society. An initial "do now" could utilize Facing History and Ourselves' Social Identity Wheel activity.

What Kinds of Materials Can You Use?

As a classroom teacher who knows your students, you can find the best material for their "do now." Since the activity takes only a short amount of time, it is important for the source given to students to be modified and excerpted down to the essential concept that you wish for the students to grasp. The sources for a "do now" can and should take multiple forms, including video, audio, and visual arts.

Excerpting and modifying sources does not have to be a complex process. As Wineburg and Martin explain in " Tampering With History: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers," text-based sources should be excerpted to 200-300 words, with difficult language and sentence formation modified and the font enlarged. This strategy can be applied to secondary sources and any other type of text, and the concept can be used to show clips from a video. The site Primary Source Nexus provides useful steps to modify a variety of sources while also maintaining their integrity.

Which Topics Work Best?

Selecting a topic for "do nows" can come naturally from reviewing sources that you already have in place and then determining people, topics, events, regions-basically anything-that are historically relevant but marginally mentioned.

Here are six examples that you could use in a humanities or history class:

Each source referenced above can be excerpted and modified to fit into the "do now" model.

How Many Questions Should be Used?

One to two questions accompanying the source for the "do now" would be best-whether they are focused on reading comprehension or are primarily analytical. These questions support the student's focus and encourage them to connect the material with the class content.

An analytical question could ask students to consider, How does this information complement or complicate your understanding of this part of history? At the end of a unit of study, the "do now" space could be used for students to reflect on a digital or paper sticky note that could be posted in the classroom. For another option, students could draft a text box that could be added into a textbook chapter on the unit's content, to increase its inclusiveness.

Once students get the hang of this type of activity, they can spend the time during selected "do now" sessions generating perspectives and identities that they identify as missing, or they can search and find sources that they feel could provide a needed experience or viewpoint.

All of these examples can contribute to students' awareness of the diversity of perspective, cultural, and life experiences present in society, as well as their ability to spot when one might be in need of representation.

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Exploring Diverse Perspectives in Social Studies With 'Do Nows'

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A short task at the beginning of class can capture students' attention and expand their understanding of the topics they're studying.

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Multiperspectivity: What Is It, and Why Use It?

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Multiperspectivity: What Is It, and Why Use It?

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Question

What is multiperspectivity in history?

Answer

Exploring multiple perspectives (which is known as "multiperspectivity" in parts of Europe) requires incorporating source materials that reflect different views of a historical event. In recent decades scholars and educators have begun to question the validity of singular (one-sided) historical narratives. Instead of just focusing on dominant groups and communities, they recommend employing multiple perspectives. One reason for this stems from increasing diversity and cultural pluralism, since many groups-women, the poor, ethnic minorities, etc.-have been ignored in traditional historical narratives.

. . . many groups-women, the poor, ethnic minorities, etc.-have been ignored in traditional historical narratives.

Another reason is disciplinary. After all, good historians don't just settle for one perspective on a historical issue-they piece together many (sometimes competing) versions of a story to construct an accurate interpretation. As Ann Low-Beer explains, "In history, multiple perspectives are usual and have to be tested against evidence, and accounted for in judgments and conclusions."

Here's an instance of using multiple perspectives: When studying the voyages of discovery, students would not only learn about explorers like Columbus, but about the peoples who had been "discovered." Historian Jon Wiener, writing in American History 101 in Slate magazine, offers the following example:

In the case of Reconstruction. . . I focus [on] the three most significant [perspectives]: the Northern Radicals, who shaped federal policy and who wanted to bring the former slaves into the economy of the free market, as wage earners, and into the political system, as voters; the Southern planter elite, who wanted to preserve as much of the old plantation labor system as possible; and the former slaves themselves. Their understanding of freedom was, as Eric Foner has written, "shaped by their experiences as slaves." Freedom for them meant freedom to work for themselves-economic autonomy and access to land. This argument shows the freedmen defining their own interests, in conflict with the federal government, which claimed to represent them. Thus, instead of giving students a list of facts and dates to memorize, I would ask them to conceive of what's happening as a three-sided conflict over the meaning of freedom.

. . . instead of giving students a list of facts and dates to memorize, I would ask them to conceive of what's happening as a three-sided conflict over the meaning of freedom.

Consequently, for Wiener, "students end up learning not just about what happened during Reconstruction, but about how history itself gets reconstructed."

If not yet universal, this approach is widely accepted. In its most recent Position Statement, the National Council for the Social Studies in the United States recommended students learn to "think critically, and make personal and civic decisions based on information from multiple perspectives."

So what can a classroom teacher do? Try incorporating primary sources that represent a range of views on a historical issue. Then, ask students to spend some time thinking about why different groups may see the same event in different ways. Oftentimes a different story emerges when those multiple perspectives are put together. The result is enriched historical understanding.

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Question What is multiperspectivity in history? Answer Exploring multiple perspectives (which is known as "multiperspectivity" in parts of Europe) requires incorporating source materials that reflect different views of a historical event. In recent decades scholars and educators have begun to question the validity of singular (one-sided) historical narratives.

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The “Other Side” of the Story: Designing Multiple Perspective Inquiries 

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The “Other Side” of the Story: Designing Multiple Perspective Inquiries 

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NCSS Annual Conference 2018 Charlene Cornwell

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Frank Luntz - Word to Use in a Polarized Society

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Frank Luntz - Word to Use in a Polarized Society

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Dialogue skills can develop foundational capacity for civic engagement and collective action to strengthen our democracy. The heart of dialogue is not in speaking to convince but rather in active listening and questioning to understand one another.

Brandon J. Haas

Issue 6, Fall 2024

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Dialogue skills can develop foundational capacity for civic engagement and collective action to strengthen our democracy. The heart of dialogue is not in speaking to convince but rather in active listening and questioning to understand one another.

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What Should Citizenship Education and Assessment Actually Look Like?

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What Should Citizenship Education and Assessment Actually Look Like?

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On a recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show, Vivek Ramaswamy made the argument that all high school students should have to pass a citizenship test, as well as hopeful immigrants to America. He struggled with the assessment styles but said "I think a test is just one example. I think proficiency in English is high on the list. I think the different ways of testing for that are also high on the list. Doesn't mean it's one multiple-choice, Scantron-style scan form that you fill in."

There's more to the story. In a December 2023 poll conducted by Hart Research on behalf of More Perfect found that 43% of participants said that schools failing to teach civics and the value of citizen involvement in our democracy is a major problem. It also states that although both parties use different language and have different specific priorities, leaders in both parties endorse stronger K-12 civic education.

CivXNow, "a national cross-partisan coalition of over 350 organizations focused on improving our nation's K-12 in and out-of-school civic education", argues that we need a bi-partisan commitment to universal student access to high-quality K-12 civic education. Currently "the federal government invests more than $50 per student each year in STEM subjects, it spends less than 50 cents on civics," they shared in a recent newsletter blast. Their proposal for increasing funding and access includes:

A full year of civics course in high school (currently offered in only six states);

A semester-long civics course in middle school (currently offered in only five states);

Dedicated instructional time for civics in grades K-5 (currently offered only in New Hampshire); and

Public funding for high-quality civics curriculum and materials, teacher training, and student programming.

Public funding is essential for civics' prioritization in our nation's K-12 schools.

Politics aside, we agree that civics should be a core part of the education system and have covered initiatives over the last few years that work to embed high-quality, civics-minded learning experiences. When societies fail to prioritize the development of responsible and engaged citizens, they risk a gradual erosion of civic health, leaving communities disconnected and democracy vulnerable. Building civically-minded graduates-prepared to act on democratic principles, consider the public good, and take part in shaping their communities-is essential. When civics is sidelined, the collective vision for an informed, participatory, and resilient society fades, weakening the very foundations that uphold democratic freedoms and the strength of the social fabric.

But first, what does citizenship actually look like? One thing is for sure: it can't be measured on a scantron.

What is a Citizen?

A key part of civics education is understanding how our systems of democracy work and, as highlighted by CivXNow's change initiatives, this is only currently offered in six states in high school, five states in middle school, and only one state in K-5. For example, Ohio has a knowledge-based Citizenship Seal that designates core knowledge in these systems. Additionally, to truly build a society where every individual feels empowered to be an active citizen, we must redefine civic education and engagement to be inclusive with a curriculum that recognizes and values diverse histories, cultures, and experiences. While a great place to start, being a citizen doesn't stop at understanding, being a citizen means action.

By involving leaders and role models from diverse backgrounds, creating spaces for cross-cultural dialogue, and implementing projects that tackle real-world issues relevant to marginalized communities, we can make citizenship feel like a shared right and responsibility and make certain that all students see themselves as vital contributors to society, breaking down the old narrative of 'outsider' and fostering a sense of belonging and agency in every young citizen.

Thanks to former podcast guest Baratunde's wonderful How to Citizen conversation, I became aware of Jon Alexander, founder of the New Citizenship Project and author of the book Citizens. This organization urges people to evaluate their role in society and to move from subjects and consumers to citizens, thereby claiming a more active role in shaping and moving society.

Late in their fantastic conversation, Jon shared that one of the most overlooked parts of the process of citizenship (Difference Making) is "finding a problem big enough that it benefits working with others to solve." He then shares the three steps he would recommend to begin to citizen:

1. Find Home (Place-based education)

2. Find others (Gather)

3. Together, come up with a first step (Difference Making)

What would it look like to embed these principles in a classroom? How might these projects be spotted, framed, and collaborated on by intergenerational groups of students, teachers, and community members?

K-12 Exemplars

Also found in the More Perfect study, there is a dramatic age gap in responding to the question: "Our democracy needs improvement, but it is still the best system of government there is." Fifty-eight percent of those age 65-plus strongly agreed versus 34% of 18-34 year olds. Students are taking on the mantle of delivering civic initiatives and co-authoring civic experiences, as we discussed with Thanasi Dilos of Civics Unplugged. Similarly, I got the chance to chat with Shiva Rajbhandari, a recent high school graduate who sat on his school's board in Idaho as a result of continued climate action. We've continued to see Climate Action Plans as effective entry points into citizenship experiences. (e.g. Denver Public Schools, Sunrise Movement).

Students also can engage with civics through gamification or developing games of their own to communicate their experience. For example, the RunAround, a game designed by a group of system-involved young people from Boston, MA.

Portraits of a Graduate that Feature Citizen

Including civics in the outcome framework for your state, school or district is an effective way to begin. These may manifest as a formal Portrait of a Graduate/Learner, or they may show up as more of a credential to append to a transcript.

Iowa's Universal Constructs: Iowa's Universal Constructs are defined in the Iowa Core as "competencies and habits of mind needed for future successes in careers, college, and citizenry."

Washington State Profile of a Graduate: The vision of a Washington State high school diploma is: "Students are ready for success in postsecondary education, gainful employment, citizenship, and are equipped with the skills to be lifelong learners."

Kettle Moraine Graduate Profile: The Kettle Moraine profile has six core competencies that stretch from K-12: Engaged Citizen, Communicator, Self-Directed & Resilient Individual, Continuous Learner, Collaborator, Creative & Critical Thinker.

Pasadena Graduate Profile: "Students are encouraged to explore academic disciplines while refining their individual talents and interests. Participation in athletics, extra-curricular activities, leadership, and community service is encouraged to foster personal and intellectual independence."

DaVinci Rise Profile: The Da Vinci Rise Profile focuses on communication, collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, and citizenship. "We want kids not only to graduate. That's not our only goal. It's really that they graduate knowing who they want to be, knowing where they're going, and having the support to get there."

In addition to these outcomes frameworks for learners, some states have added graduate seals denoting a competency in civics:

New York City Seal of Civic Readiness is an official acknowledgment that a student has achieved a high level of proficiency in civic knowledge, skills, mindset, and experiences. This distinction on a high school transcript and diploma indicates the student's understanding and commitment to participatory government, civic responsibility, civic values and demonstrates the completion of a civics or social justice action project.

The Kentucky Civil Seal is earned when a student "exhibit[s] their understanding, application, and reflection upon local, state, and national governance; commitment to democratic principles and promoting the common good; informed participation in civic spaces; and reflection upon their role in modern civic life." This Seal can be earned by all grade levels and is fully personalized.

Student Leadership

Increasingly, students must be given the opportunity to demonstrate public leadership on real-world challenges effecting their community. This combination of civic knowledge, design thinking and agreement crafting will help set these students up for success in community-connected design and leading. One example of this is empowering students to serve on the school board.

Every school board should have present and prospective students sitting on the board.

California: The state education code allows for a student board member on every district board. Many districts, including the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), have student board members.

Maryland: Every school board in the state has a student board member. The state board also has a student member.

Massachusetts: Some school districts, like Boston Public Schools, have a student representative on their school committees.

Minnesota: The state encourages student representation on district boards, but it's up to individual districts to decide.

Oregon: The state board of education has a student representative, and individual districts can choose to have student representatives.

Additionally, giving learners agency in the classroom is a great start. Democratic School around are places where "young people have the freedom to organize their daily activities, and in which there is equality and democratic decision-making among young people and adults."

In Conclusion

A recent piece by Kent McGuire & Matt Wilka in the Stanford Social Innovation Review makes two claims about renewing the democratic purpose of school:

"Prepare young people to thrive in a diverse, changing democracy." Focus on media literacy, critical thinking and emphasizing key dispositions of civic engagement.

"Renew the public purpose of schools for our broader society." We must identify an answer to the question: "What, then, is the purpose of public schools to our changing and diverse democracy?"

This need is coupled with the fact that it's never been easier, or more important, for young (all) people to make a difference. Getting Smart's Difference Making campaign spent a few years highlighting "schools alive with possibility," places where young people are encouraged to contribute to their communities and the world. Understanding and responsibly implementing emerging technology like AI while building skills in media literacy has been added to the list of civic imperatives.

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What Should Citizenship Education and Assessment Actually Look Like?

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Explore the importance of robust, inclusive civics education to foster engaged, informed citizens and strengthen democratic society.

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How Can Educators Prepare for Teaching Controversial Issues? Cross-National Lessons

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How Can Educators Prepare for Teaching Controversial Issues? Cross-National Lessons

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for Teaching Controversial

Issues? Cross-National

Lessons

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Teaching About Controversial Issues: A Resource Guide

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Teaching About Controversial Issues: A Resource Guide

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Teaching About Controversial Issues: A Resource Guide - Choices Program

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This resource guide provides teachers with resources and pedagogical tools to feel more prepared to address controversial issues in the classroom.

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7 Tips for Tackling Controversial Topics in Social Studies

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7 Tips for Tackling Controversial Topics in Social Studies

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A few years ago, I got caught up in a controversy that changed the way I teach.

I had decided I would require a "standing assignment" for my AP Government classes. It seemed simple enough...each week, students would be required to watch one of the Sunday news shows (i.e. Face the Nation, Meet the Press, etc.), and write a one-page summary about the topics covered on that week's show.

During my explanation of the assignment, I noted that I wanted students to only use network news shows, and not use Fox News (or MSNBC). I felt that content on cable news shows might be less objective than network shows. I did tell students that if they wanted, they could use cable news, but I wanted them to talk to me about this first.

A day or two later, I received a somewhat concerning e-mail from my principal. Apparently one of the elementary school principals had seen posts on Facebook that a high school teacher (me) had made some critical remarks about Fox News, and that this was unfair. A student told her father that I was unreasonable about this, and he decided to post critical comments on social media. He also later called my principal to complain. The "compromise" we reached was that the student would use Fox News after consulting with me (which is what I stated from the start).

Teaching civics with objectivity

While this issue was easily resolved, it does highlight a problem many social studies teachers face. We face controversial issues frequently, from issues surrounding the 2016 presidential campaign, to various scandals on the national level. How do we teach about these issues in an objective manner? Here are some suggestions on how to handle controversial topics in the classroom.

1. Communicate with parents

Keep parents informed about lessons or activities that may have a controversial aspect. For example, I recently "field tested" some lessons for the upcoming series The Vietnam War (2017) from PBS. While there's definitely a value for using this series in the classroom, it does contain adult language as well as violent scenes.

Before I showed any content to my students, I gave each of them a note to take home informing parents about the content. I included the school phone number as well as my e-mail address in case they wanted to contact me. No one did. I felt that I had covered my bases and if a parent complained later, I could refer back to my note.

2. Communicate with your administrators

Keep your school administrators informed. When I decided to "field test" lessons related to The Vietnam War series, I e-mailed my principal to let him know. I also asked him what he would suggest as far as telling parents about language and violence issues. He's the one who suggested sending a note home.

3. Inform without bias

The 2016 presidential campaign provided a great deal of news and controversy. The best way that I found to deal with this with my government students was to approach things in an open, yet scholarly manner, while at the same time not letting my class know my own political leanings or which candidates I supported. Especially since many of the students I taught were preparing to cast their first ballot, I felt it was important for them to be armed with the information they needed to make an informed choice.

4. Make corroborating news a part of the assignment

In instances where the teacher wishes to have students do research about political or other controversial issues, care should be taken to explain that not every website or blog is reviewed for accuracy. Teach students to look for outlandish claims, bias, and subjectivity in information they find online. Suggest that for any claim about a politician, celebrity, or cause online, they try to find another site that corroborates the original information.

5. If showing biased information, keep it balanced

During the campaign, I would occasionally show clips from various talk shows or parody shows that featured content about the candidates. I tried to balance this so that both candidates were featured roughly equally. In some instances, while I thought content was good (or funny), I felt it better to not use it if it had something I might have considered "off-color" or overly controversial.

6. Avoid heavily biased news unless it is part of the lesson

I felt it was important that my students have an opportunity to watch the inauguration ceremonies for President Donald Trump in January 2017. However, we viewed the swearing-in and inaugural address on what I thought would be a more unbiased network. I would likely avoid letting students view content from what might be considered a more biased network, unless there was an overriding reason to allow them to view it.

7. Review content thoroughly before sharing

Definitely preview content thoroughly before showing it to students. Look for possible "booby traps," or content that might be objectionable or controversial. If you plan ahead, you are much less likely to create an issue, or worse, an unpleasant confrontation with a parent.

With social studies, it's always controversial

In conclusion, while social studies teachers frequently deal with what might be considered "controversial content," with a little forethought and planning teachers can effectively avoid conflict with students, parents, and administrators.

Want to immerse your students in civics in a meaningful way?

Learn how using simulations in the classroom will engage and inform students like never before.

Michael Hutchison is social studies department chair at Lincoln High School in Vincennes, Indiana. A 39-year teaching veteran, he has written multiple titles for Social Studies School Service as well as lessons for several Ken Burns films, including The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, and The Vietnam War. In 2014, the Indiana Historical Society named him Caleb Mills History Teacher of the Year.

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7 Tips for Tackling Controversial Topics in Social Studies - Social Studies

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Social Studies 7 Tips for Tackling Controversial Topics in Social Studies

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Teach Controversial

History?

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Teaching Controversial Issues in a Time of Polarization

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Teaching Controversial Issues in a Time of Polarization

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Issues in a Time of

Polarization

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Speaking Up for Science and Social Studies

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Speaking Up for Science and Social Studies

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Speaking Up for Science and Social Studies

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Be More Helen

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On Wednesday 28th August our friend Helen Snelson sadly passed away in York surrounded by her family and friends. It’s normal after someone has died to list their achievements and praise thei…

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Making field trips to museums memorable this school year

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Making field trips to museums memorable this school year

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Making field trips to museums memorable this school year - SmartBrief

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Whether you’re focusing on the learning experience, logistics or links to curricula, the Smithsonian has ideas to support field trip planning that make the process a little less daunting, no matter when and where you plan to visit this school year, writes Ashley Naranjo.

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Some L.A. teachers, tired of waiting, are creating their own climate curriculum

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Some L.A. public school teachers are investing personal time and talent to create climate lessons and raise funds for green initiatives on their campuses.

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The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

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The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

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The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

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An Alabama sculpture park evokes the painful history of slavery

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An Alabama sculpture park evokes the painful history of slavery

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/ CBS News

In Montgomery, Alabama, wedged between a maze of train tracks and the river, a long-neglected plot of land has been transformed. It's now home to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, the vision of lawyer and social activist Bryan Stevenson.

The 17-acre park, set to open this month, is filled with nearly 50 sculptures by world-famous artists like Kehinde Wiley, Simone Leigh. and Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, collectively evoking the history of slavery in America. "Artists have the ability to depict the humanity and the dignity of people, even in the midst of something brutal and violent," said Stevenson. "It's a tough subject. It's a challenging subject. And we wanted to use art to help people manage the weight of this history and engage in a more complete way with the lives of enslaved people."

It's the latest project for Stevenson, founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), also based in Montgomery. For more than 30 years, Stevenson and his team have provided legal services to people on death row, to date helping overturn more than 140 convictions and sentences. He said understanding the racial injustices of the present begins by reckoning with the tortured legacy of the past.

"As they say, the truth can set us free," said Stevenson. "And I genuinely believe that there is something that feels more like freedom, more like equality, more like justice waiting for us in America. But I don't think we'll get there if we don't find the courage to talk honestly about our past."

Over the years, the EJI has expanded its mission, to build cultural sites in Montgomery, like the Legacy Museum, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, focusing on America's history of lynching.

Stevenson said, "There were 10 million people who were enslaved in this country, and much of what I hope we can do is honor those who struggled and suffered, and those who endured and persevered."

That begins by taking park visitors across the Alabama River, a route taken by tens of thousands of enslaved Africans.

"You'd see these boats with enslaved people chained in the bottom and docking, just a half-mile from here," he said, "and then there would be what enslaved people referred to as the weeping time, the time where they had to fear being separated from children, separated from spouses."

The park mixes artifacts of slavery, like 170-year-old plantation dwellings and a whipping post, with powerful works of artistic imagination.

"Strike," by artist Hank Willis Thomas, evokes violence and resistance. "I'm also thinking about peace and resolution," said Thomas. "In this case, the gesture of just stopping the brutality begins the opportunity for us to find peace."

That theme of resilience continues down the pathway to the park's centerpiece: a 43-foot-tall monument, filled with names, designed by Stevenson himself.

"The names come from the 1870 census," he said. "That was the first time that formerly enslaved people could claim a name that would be recognized by the government, that would be recorded for history."

"People mostly think that they got all those names from their enslavers, but that's not necessarily true?" asked Whitaker.

"No," said Stevenson. "Only about 40% of adopted names were associated with an enslaver, to kind of maintain these kinship lines that had been created on plantations - brothers, sisters, cousins. They wanted to stay connected and they needed a name to bring that together."

In total, there are 122,000 surnames on the wall, including Whitaker's own. "Wow. That's moving, man. That's moving. And with one T! Those are my people! Those are the one-T Whitakers!"

Then and now, Stevenson said, the towering memorial is also a metaphor for the hope of a better future in the distance: "We will continue to struggle for the freedom that you died for - that's what I think we owe those who've suffered before us."

For more info:
Story produced by Sara Kugel. Editor: Carol Ross.
See also:

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An Alabama sculpture park evokes the painful history of slavery

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In Montgomery, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park - 17 acres filled with nearly 50 sculptures by world-famous artists - evokes the history and repercussions of slavery in America.

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Emmy Lou and the Doughboys: Gender and Wholesome Fun in the Great War

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Emmy Lou and the Doughboys: Gender and Wholesome Fun in the Great War

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Emmy Lou and the Doughboys: Gender and Wholesome Fun in the Great War

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Throughout World War I, 3500 young American women sailed to France where they served snacks, danced, and made small talk with lonely doughboys far from home. Most young women did not go to war, especially not those who valued their reputations, but wartime demands brought American women to the war zone in new ways. This webinar will follow Emma Young Dickson as she leaves home for the first time, endures the turmoil of war, and ultimately passes on a legacy of wartime service to her daughter. It will place Emma in the broader history of women’s wartime work, the expanding place of women in American society, and the larger struggle for women’s suffrage. Serving coffee and doughnuts, it turned out, played an important role in the expansion of women’s citizenship and public roles.

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Women's History

Details

Presenter

Marianne De Padua, Assistant Manager of Professional Learning, New-York Historical Society

Date & Time

September 14, 2022 7:30 pm

Category

Colonial & Revolutionary America, Women's History

Description

Explore the contributions and challenges women faced during the American Revolution. Using resources from Women & the American Story, the New-York Historical Society's free online curriculum guide, learn how to seamlessly integrate these significant, yet often overlooked stories, into your K-8 classroom practice.

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Women's History Presenter Marianne De Padua, Assistant Manager of Professional Learning, New-York Historical Society Date & Time September 14, 2022 7:30 pm Category Colonial & Revolutionary America, Women's History Explore the contributions and challenges women faced during the American Revolution.

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Introduction to Standards in Historical Thinking

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Introduction to Standards in Historical Thinking

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The study of history, as noted earlier, rests on knowledge of facts, dates, names, places, events, and ideas. In addition, true historical understanding requires students to engage in historical thinking: to raise questions and to marshal solid evidence in support of their answers; to go beyond the facts presented in their textbooks and examine the historical record for themselves; to consult documents, journals, diaries, artifacts, historic sites, works of art, quantitative data, and other evidence from the past, and to do so imaginatively-taking into account the historical context in which these records were created and comparing the multiple points of view of those on the scene at the time.

Real historical understanding requires that students have opportunity to create historical narratives and arguments of their own. Such narratives and arguments may take many forms-essays, debates, and editorials, for instance. They can be initiated in a variety of ways. None, however, more powerfully initiates historical thinking than those issues, past and present, that challenge students to enter knowledgeably into the historical record and to bring sound historical perspectives to bear in the analysis of a problem.

Historical understanding also requires that students thoughtfully read the historical narratives created by others. Well-written historical narratives are interpretative, revealing and explaining connections, change, and consequences. They are also analytical, combining lively storytelling and biography with conceptual analysis drawn from all relevant disciplines. Such narratives promote essential skills in historical thinking.

Reading such narratives requires that students analyze the assumptions-stated and unstated-from which the narrative was constructed and assess the strength of the evidence presented. It requires that students consider the significance of what the author included as well as chose to omit-the absence, for example, of the voices and experiences of other men and women who were also an important part of the history of their time. Also, it requires that students examine the interpretative nature of history, comparing, for example, alternative historical narratives written by historians who have given different weight to the political, economic, social, and/or technological causes of events and who have developed competing interpretations of the significance of those events.

Students engaged in activities of the kinds just considered will draw upon skills in the following five interconnected dimensions of historical thinking:

1. Chronological Thinking
2. Historical Comprehension
3. Historical Analysis and Interpretation
4. Historical Research Capabilities
5. Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making

These skills, while presented in five separate categories, are nonetheless interactive and mutually supportive. In conducting historical research or creating a historical argument of their own, for example, students must be able to draw upon skills in all five categories. Beyond the skills of conducting their research, students must, for example, be able to comprehend historical documents and records, analyze their relevance, develop interpretations of the document(s) they select, and demonstrate a sound grasp of the historical chronology and context in which the issue, problem, or events they are addressing developed.

In short, these five sets of skills, developed in the following pages as the five Standards in Historical Thinking, are statements of the outcomes that students need to achieve. They are not mutually exclusive when put into practice, nor do they prescribe a particular teaching sequence to be followed. Teachers will draw upon all these Thinking Standards, as appropriate, to develop their teaching plans and to guide students through challenging programs of study in history.

Finally, it is important to point out that these five sets of Standards in Historical Thinking are defined in the following pages largely independent of historical content in order to specify the quality of thinking desired for each. It is essential to understand, however, that these skills do not develop, nor can they be practiced, in a vacuum. Every one of these skills requires specific historical content in order to function-a relationship that is made explicit in Chapters 3 and 4, which presents the standards integrating historical understandings and thinking for history for grades 5-12.

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Historical Thinking Standards - Public History Initiative

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The study of history, as noted earlier, rests on knowledge of facts, dates, names, places, events, and ideas.

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Powerful, Purposeful Pedagogy in Elementary School Social Studies

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Powerful, Purposeful Pedagogy in Elementary School Social Studies

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A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies
Approved 2017

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A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies
Approved 2017

Rationale

The advancement of "liberty and justice for all," as envisioned by our country's founders, requires that citizens have the knowledge, attitudes and values to both guard and endorse the principles of a constitutional democracy. Beginning to build this knowledge at an early age involves educators who are well grounded in social studies educational practice. Social studies at the elementary level should provide students with purposeful and meaningful learning experiences that are challenging, of high quality, developmentally appropriate, and reflective of contemporary social and diverse global realities. National Council for the Social Studies, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (Silver Spring, Md.: National Council for the Social Studies, 2010)

The marginalization of social studies education at the elementary level has been documented repeatedly. T.L. Heafner, K.A. O'Connor, E.C. Groce, S. Byrd, A.J. Good, S. Oldendorf, J. Passe, and T. Rock, "A Case for Advocacy: Becoming AGENTS for Change," Social Studies and the Young Learner 20, no. 1 (2007): 26-27; T.L. Heafner and P.G. Fitchett, "Tipping the Scales: National Trends of Declining Social Studies Instructional Time in Elementary Schools," Journal of Social Studies Research 36, no. 2 (2012): 190-215. According to a report by the Center on Education Policy, since the enactment of the "No Child Left Behind" federal education policy (NCLB), 44 percent of districts surveyed have reduced time for social studies. That percentage rose to 51 percent in districts with "failing schools." J. McMurren, NCLB Year 5: Choices, Changes, and Challenges: Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB Era (Washington, D.C.: Center on Education Policy, 2007). Denying students opportunities to build social studies vocabulary and background knowledge by engaging in social studies activities can lead to lower literacy levels and, ironically, increase the achievement gap. C.D. Jerald, The Hidden Costs of Curriculum Narrowing (Washington, D.C.: Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2006). In many states, reading and math test scores become the sole measurement and focus of learning. Even when social studies is included in high-stakes testing, both novice and veteran teachers tailor teaching to the content requirements of the test, rather than to meaningful learning of core concepts.S.G. Grant, "High-Stakes Testing: How are Social Studies Teachers Responding?"Social Education 71, no. 5 (2007): 250-254. As a result of educational practices steeped in the "teach to test" phenomenon, teaching and learning are reduced to that which is necessary for students to do well on state tests rather than providing a well-rounded program to ready students for life as active citizens in the context of a global society. Heafner et al., "A Case for Advocacy: Becoming AGENTS for Change"; M. Neill, "Low Expectations and Less Learning: The Problem with No Child Left Behind,"Social Education 67, no. 5 (2003): 281-284.

If the young learners of this nation are to become effective participants in a democratic society, then social studies must be an essential part of the curriculum throughout the elementary years. In a world that demands independent and cooperative problem solving to address complex social, economic, ethical, and personal concerns, core social studies content is as basic for success as reading, writing, and computing. Knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for informed and thoughtful participation in society require a systematically developed elementary program focused on concepts from the four core social studies disciplines: civics, economics, geography and history.

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards offers a viable approach to disciplinary and multi-disciplinary instruction by positioning inquiry "at the heart of social studies." Social Studies for the Next Generation: Purposes, Practices, and Implications of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards (Silver Spring, Md.: National Council for the Social Studies, 2013): viii. The C3 Framework emphasizes concepts and tools in civics, economics, geography, and history as children investigate compelling questions that deal with social studies topics. By engaging in social studies inquiry, young children can begin to see themselves as capable problem-solvers and active contributors to their communities and beyond.

Both the United States of America and the world are rapidly changing, creating a far more multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual, multi-religious and multicultural context for elementary education. Thus, elementary educators have to be prepared to value and to serve a far more diverse group of young learners and families than at any time in the past. Social studies must be a vital part of elementary curricula in order to prepare children to understand and participate effectively in an increasingly diverse world.

Our global community owes children opportunities to explore the variety and complexity of human experience through a dynamic and meaningful education. When children are grounded in democratic principles, immersed in age-appropriate democratic strategies, and engaged in meaningful inquiry, they construct the foundational skills that prepare them to participate respectfully and intelligently in a nation and world marked by globalization, interdependence, human diversity, and societal change.

Purpose of Elementary Social Studies

The purpose of elementary school social studies is to enable students to understand, participate in, and make informed decisions about their world. Social studies content allows young learners to explain relationships with other people, to institutions, and to the environment, and equips them with knowledge and understanding of the past. It provides them with skills for productive problem solving and decision making as well as for assessing issues and making thoughtful value judgments. Above all, it integrates these skills and understandings into a framework for responsible citizen participation locally, nationally, and globally. The teaching and learning processes within social studies are uniquely organized to develop these capacities, beginning with the youngest learners in our schools.

The "expanding communities" curriculum model of self, family, community, state, and nation is insufficient for today's young learners. Elementary social studies should include civic engagement, as well as knowledge from the core content areas of civics, economics, geography, and history. Skills that enhance critical thinking, socio-emotional development, prosocial skills, interpersonal interactions, and information literacy are more meaningful and useful when developed within the context of social studies. The infusion of technology into elementary social studies also prepares students as active and responsible citizens in the twenty-first century. Digital Age: Technology-Based K-12 Lesson Plans for Social Studies, eds. L. Bennett and M.J. Berson (Silver Spring, Md.: National Council for the Social Studies, 2007). M.J. Berson and I.R. Berson, "Developing Thoughtful "Cybercitizens," Social Studies and the Young Learner 16, no. 4 (2004): 5-8. Digital citizenship must become a priority in our schools, even for the youngest learners. National Council for the Social Studies, Technology Position Statement and Guidelines (2013), http://socialstudies.org/positions/technology.

Position on Powerful and Purposeful Elementary Social Studies

Teaching and learning in the elementary classroom should be meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. National Council for the Social Studies Task Force on Standards for Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies, A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy (1992/2008), www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful. These qualities of powerful social studies learning are foundational to the development of children's knowledge, skills, and dispositions as participating citizens in a global society.

A. Meaningful

In order for social studies instruction to be meaningful, teachers must understand and meet the needs of their students. At every grade level, teachers should capitalize on the diversity and natural interests of their students in the world around them. L. Bennett, "Motivation: Connecting Each Student with the World," Social Studies and the Young Learner 19, no. 3 (2007): 4-6. By building on students' skills and experiences, teachers can design learning events that challenge students to make meaningful connections and expand their knowledge and viewpoints.

In social studies, as in any knowledge domain, learners benefit from having a variety of ways to understand a given concept. Increasingly, elementary teachers have students of diverse backgrounds and differing abilities in their classes, making differentiated instruction and culturally relevant pedagogy necessary in order to meet individual needs. Successful early childhood/elementary teachers possess both a command of the subject matter and the ability to engage students in the learning process through a variety of developmentally appropriate instructional practices and methodologies.

The elementary social studies curriculum should be more than a collection of enjoyable experiences. A piecemeal approach to social studies programming can result in a disconnected conglomeration of activities and teaching methods that lack focus, coherence, and comprehensiveness. Exclusive focus on food, fun, festivals, flags, and films is not an effective framework for social studies teaching and learning. Meaningful teaching requires reflective planning, instruction, and assessment around specific social studies concepts, skills, and big ideas.

B. Integrative

Social studies is integrative by nature. Powerful social studies teaching crosses disciplinary boundaries to address topics in ways that promote social understanding and civic efficacy. It also integrates knowledge, skills, and dispositions with authentic action. J. Alleman, J. Brophy, and B. Knighton, "How a Primary Teacher Protects the Coherence of Her Social Studies Lessons," Social Studies and the Young Learner 21, no. 2 (2008): 28-31. J. Brophy and J. Alleman, "A Reconceptualized Rationale for Elementary Social Studies," Theory and Research inSocial Education 34, no.4 (2006): 428-454; J. Brophy, J. Alleman, and B. Knighton, Inside the Social Studies Classroom (New York: Routledge, 2009). When children pursue a project or investigation, they encounter many problems and questions based in civics, economics, geography, and history. With teacher guidance, children can actively explore both the processes and concepts of social studies while simultaneously exploring other content areas. Specialized social studies academic vocabulary and concepts should be developed and integrated into the curriculum. Students cannot internalize vocabulary for use unless teachers model it and use it in classroom discussions.

Effective practice does not limit social studies to one specified period or time of day. Rather, teachers can help children develop social studies knowledge by capitalizing on teachable moments throughout the day and across the curriculum. Children's everyday activities and routines can be used to introduce and develop important civic ideas. Integrating social studies throughout the day eases competition for time in an increasingly crowded curriculum. With a strong interdisciplinary curriculum, teachers find ways to promote children's competence in social sciences, literacy, mathematics, and other subjects within integrated learning experiences. S.L. Field, M. Bauml, and M. Ledbetter, "Social Studies Every Day: Powerful Integration with English-Language Arts," Social Studies and the Young Learner 23, no. 3 (2011): 22-25. Learning experiences reach across disciplinary boundaries (e.g., integrating history and geography) as well as subjects (e.g., social studies and English Language Arts). The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) annually publishes an annotated bibliography, Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, which helps teachers build literacy connections to social studies topics. National Council for the Social Studies, Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, an annual supplement to the May-June issue of Social Education. See www.socialstudies.org/notable.

As valuable as integration is within elementary curriculum, it is not an end in itself. Teachers should ensure that the social studies experiences woven throughout the curriculum follow logical sequences, allow for depth and focus, and help young learners move forward in their acquisition of knowledge and skills. The curriculum should not become, in the pursuit of integration, a grab bag of random social studies experiences that are related marginally to a theme or project. Rather, concepts should be developed to assure coherence and meaning.

The development and implementation of purposeful and powerful integrative social studies is dependent on teachers who have been given the time and resources necessary to engage in the decision-making process essential to thoughtful planning. This will allow for a better selection of content, resources, activities, and assessments for the classroom.

C. Value-Based

Young learners do not become responsible, participating citizens automatically. They need to engage in frequent opportunities to make daily decisions about democratic concepts and principles that are respectful of the dignity and rights of individuals and the common good. They need to participate in learning experiences that involve core values of democracy, including freedom of speech and thought, equality of opportunity, justice, and diversity. Revitalizing Civic Learning in Our Schools. A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies (2013), www.socialstudies.org/positions/revitalizingciviclearning. In other words, the voices of elementary students must be heard and taken seriously. This learning transcends the simplistic "character virtues" approach to values education in elementary schools. Thoughtful and deliberate classroom engagement related to controversial or ethical issues provides opportunities for elementary students to practice critical thinking skills while examining multiple perspectives. Revitalizing Civic Learning in Our Schools. A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies (2013); J. Passe, "A Counter-Intuitive Strategy: Reduce Student Stress by Teaching Current Events," Social Studies and the Young Learner 20, no. 3 (2008): 27-31. Elementary teachers should create opportunities for students to discuss values, engage in real-world problem solving, weigh costs and benefits, consider opportunity costs, and make rational and reasoned decisions.

D. Challenging

Challenging elementary school social studies can pave the way for lifelong learning and active citizenship. Revitalizing Civic Learning in Our Schools. A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies (2013). Teachers should provide students opportunities for in-depth investigation of concepts that challenge and engage them. Challenging social studies instruction includes research, debates, discussions, projects of all varieties including the arts, and simulations that require application of critical thinking skills. Instead of simply reading and answering questions from textbooks, elementary students should be taught to inquire, question, evaluate, and challenge informational sources. Teachers should ask young children compelling questions that stimulate decision-making, problem solving, and issue analysis.

E. Active

In effective social studies programs, elementary teachers use a variety of approaches, strategies, technology, and materials to support children's interests and abilities. As new information or skills are presented, teachers facilitate discourse and students consider new ideas and assimilate multiple perspectives. L.S. Levstik and K.C. Barton, Doing History: Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle Schools (New York: Routledge, 2011). Processes such as problem solving, debates, simulations, project-based learning, and role-playing are active strategies that can lead to new opportunities for student discovery and engagement. E. Brewer, "Keep Social Studies in the Elementary School," Childhood Education 82, no. 5 (2006): 296-298. Teachers decide when to take the lead during instruction and when to support the students' leadership in learning. They guide and facilitate rather than dictate learning.

Recommendations for Implementing Powerful and Purposeful Elementary Social Studies

Effective elementary social studies instruction requires continuous support for successful student learning. Teachers need adequate preparation and professional development, daily instructional time, ample resources, and assistance at the local, state, and national levels.

A. Enhance the effectiveness of elementary teacher preparation and continuing professional development

If the status of elementary social studies education is to improve, then the education of teachers who have the responsibility for teaching those children will be a critical factor. Elementary teachers need sufficient content knowledge in the core disciplines and processes of social studies, skill in using a variety of teaching and assessment strategies, and the ability to locate, evaluate, and use appropriate resources. Examples of active learning projects that are rich in content and exciting for children are published in the NCSS journal Social Studies and the Young Learner. Social Studies and the Young Learner is published four times each year and is a member benefit of National Council for the Social Studies. See www.socialstudies.org/publications/ssyl. Teachers also need to understand the characteristics and abilities of young children and how to differentiate social studies content and skills for diverse learners. W. Melendez and V. Beck, Teaching Young Children in Multicultural Classrooms: Issues, Challenges and Perspectives (San Francisco, Calif.: Wadsworth/Cengage, 2013). Elementary teachers also need the ability to integrate social studies with other curricular areas.

As essential as all of this is, social studies can be brought to life only when teachers themselves have positive attitudes about social studies. If teachers understand the importance of social studies in the early years, they are more likely to transfer their enthusiasm for social studies to their students.

Ongoing professional development is also necessary for teachers to develop and monitor the curriculum. Resources are needed to support teachers' involvement in professional conferences, college courses, summer institutes, webinars and podcasts, and visits to educational sites. Effective professional development should model the kind of flexible, interactive teaching styles and instructional strategies that work well with children.

B. Devote time and resources to instruct elementary students in social studies

A specific daily block of time should be allocated for social studies equivalent to that provided for other core content. A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy (1992/2008), www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful. To support effective teaching and learning, social studies enriched classrooms require a wide array of materials for young children to explore and manipulate. Equity requires that all programs have these resources, including visual images of diverse people and materials representing multiple perspectives. C. Copple and S. Bredekamp, Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8. Revised edition (Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2009). Twenty-first century skills and technologies should be utilized to further enhance student learning. 24. Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2008). The 21st Century Skills and Social Studies Map, www.p21.org/storage/documents/ssmap111208.pdf.

C. Collaborate on developing well-aligned systems of appropriate high-quality standards, curriculum, and assessment

In an era of accountability, developing quality elementary social studies curricula and assessments requires collaboration among multiple stakeholders including teacher leaders, administrators, school districts, professional organizations, and government education agencies. Effective standards-setting efforts involve coupling social studies standards with opportunities for children to learn in developmentally appropriate ways, not just with expectations for their performance. Toward this end, two NCSS documents are invaluable resources: National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. 25. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment; Social Studies for the Next Generation. Both formative assessment that enhances student learning and summative assessment of student learning should align with curriculum and standards.

D. Advocate for quality social studies education at local, state, and national levels

Elementary teachers must be explicit in advocating for social studies inside and outside of the classroom or school. Teachers need opportunities to be involved in the decisions that determine dedicated instructional time by grade level and what is taught in social studies, how social studies is taught, and what resources will be used. 26. C.F. Risinger, (2012). "What Social Studies Educators Can Do about the Marginalization of the Subject They Teach,"Social Education 76, no. 6: 299-300. They should be encouraged to participate in local, state, and national discussions on the future of elementary social studies education.

Conclusion

Success in the twenty-first century requires the ability to make rational decisions both independently and collectively. These abilities are not innate but are nurtured and developed through intentionally and carefully planned experiences. Students must have ample opportunities to practice social studies skills and concepts in multiple contexts. The social studies are as basic for success as reading, writing, mathematics, and science. If the young learners of this nation are to understand their roles and become effective participants in a democratic society, social studies must be an essential part of the elementary curriculum. State and district policies must provide the time, resources, and professional development necessary to support exemplary social studies education. The democratic tradition of this country deserves an equal place in the elementary classroom. The founders of this country would expect nothing less.

This position statement was edited by a committee from the Early Childhood and Elementary Community and members of the NCSS Board of Directors, and was approved by the NCSS Board of Directors.

Task Force on Early Childhood/Elementary Studies 2009: Ilene Berson, Linda Bennett, and Dorothy Dobson.

Early Childhood and Elementary Community Revision Committee 2015: Kimberly Heckart, Chair; Michelle Bauml, Lois M. Christensen, Elise Fillpot, Patricia Palmer, Wilma Robles-Melendez

©Copyright 2016 National Council for the Social Studies. This statement is freely reproducible in any quantity for educational purposes.

Other References

Fitchett, P.G., T.L. Heafner, and R. Lambert. "Examining Social Studies Marginalization: A Multilevel Analysis." Educational Policy 28, no. 1 (2014): 40-68.

Fitchett, P.G. and T.L. Heafner. "A National Perspective on the Effects of High-Stakes Testing and Standardization on Elementary Social Studies Marginalization." Theory & Research in Social Education 38, no.1 (2010). 114-130.

K.A. O'Connor, T. Heafner, and E. Groce. "Advocating for Social Studies: Documenting the Decline and Doing Something about It." Social Education 71, no. 5 (2007): 255-260.

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Powerful, Purposeful Pedagogy in Elementary School Social Studies

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A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies Approved 2017

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What are primary sources?

Primary sources are the raw materials of history - original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place.

Why teach with primary sources?

Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them a sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era. Helping students analyze primary sources can also prompt curiosity and improve critical thinking and analysis skills.

Primary sources expose students to multiple perspectives on significant issues of the past and present. In analyzing primary sources, students move from concrete observations and facts to questioning and making inferences about the materials. Interacting with primary sources engages students in asking questions, evaluating information, making inferences, and developing reasoned explanations and interpretations of events and issues.

Before you begin

Successful student interactions with primary sources require careful primary source selections and lesson planning.

Select one or more primary sources that support the learning objectives and are accessible to students. Consider your students' needs and interests and any logistical factors for using the item, such as legibility or copyright status. The Library of Congress Primary Source Sets for educators are a good place to start and the Free to Use and Reuse sets for more general audiences are another.

Consider whether students will be able to identify point of view, put the items into historical context, and compare these items to other primary and secondary sources.

Plan instruction, including activity types, time required, and whether students will work individually, in small groups, or as a whole class. Use the Primary Source Analysis Tool from the Library of Congress and select guiding questions from the teacher's guide to support students in analyzing the primary sources.

Engage students with primary sources

Primary sources help students relate in a personal way to events of the past and promote a deeper understanding of history as a series of human events. Because primary sources are incomplete snippets of history, each one represents a mystery that students can only explore further by finding new pieces of evidence.

Ask students to observe each primary source.

Where does your eye go first?

What do you see that you didn't expect?

What powerful words and ideas are expressed?

Encourage students to think about their response to the source.

What feelings and thoughts does the primary source trigger in you?

What questions does it raise?

Promote student inquiry

Inquiry into primary sources encourages students to wrestle with contradictions and compare multiple sources that represent differing points of view, confronting the complexity of the past.

Encourage students to speculate about each source, its creator, and its context.

What was happening during this time period?

What was the creator's purpose in making this primary source?

What does the creator do to get his or her point across?

What was this primary source's audience?

What biases or stereotypes do you see?

Ask if this source agrees with other primary sources, or with what the students already know.

Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sources

Primary sources are often incomplete and have little context. Students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple resources to find patterns and construct knowledge.

Questions of creator bias, purpose, and point of view may challenge students' assumptions.

Ask students to test their assumptions about the past.

Ask students to find other primary or secondary sources that offer support or contradiction.

Ask for reasons and specific evidence to support their conclusions.

Help students identify questions for further investigation and develop strategies for how they might answer them.

Offer students opportunities to demonstrate their learning by writing an essay, delivering a speech taking a stand on an issue in the primary sources, or creating a museum display about a historical topic. For more follow-up activity ideas, take a look at the general or format-specific teacher's guides.

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Getting Started with Primary Sources | Teachers | Programs | Library of Congress

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What are primary sources? Primary sources are the raw materials of history - original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place.

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How Can Civics Education Safeguard Democracy?

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How Can Civics Education Safeguard Democracy?

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When you've been around as long as I have, one gets all manner of intriguing questions. While I usually respond to such queries in private, some seem likely to be of broader interest. So, in "Ask Rick," I occasionally take up reader queries. If you'd like to send one along, just send it to me, care of Greg Fournier, at greg.fournier@aei.org.
Dear Rick, Last fall, I saw you wrote a piece that seemed to suggest we shouldn't care whether civics education encourages students to vote. With presidential primary season upon us, I found myself thinking back on the piece. At the time, I thought that was a pretty odd stance, especially for someone who once taught high school civics. Did I misunderstand you? If not, that strikes me as a dubious stance at a time when democracy is under threat. Sincerely, Dubious
Dear Dubious,

Thanks for your thoughtful query. Let's see. First off, let me provide readers with a bit of context for your question. Last fall, the American Educational Research Association touted a new study that found, as the press release declared, "State-Mandated Civics Test Policy Does Not Improve Youth Voter Turnout." In discussing the study's results, I argued that the tendency to regard voting and advocacy as the aim of civic education is misguided.

Why would I think it's misguided to focus on voting? Well, self-government also requires knowledge, a respect for rules, personal responsibility, patience, and a willingness to work with those who see things differently. My concern is that these things have gotten neglected amid the focus on "engagement." After all, let's note that "democracy is under threat" at a time when voting is easier than ever (due to mail-in ballots, same-day registration, et al.) and at a time of historically high voter participation. There's an obvious disconnect here.

Once upon a time, as you note, I taught high school civics. So, it's no surprise that I want graduates to vote. But we live in an era when "small money" donors have eclipsed party leaders in their influence on candidates, Americans consume political tirades as social media entertainment, and the most extreme voters call the shots in party primaries. The problems we confront are not, I'd argue, due to a lack of political participation but to a lack of restraint, trust, knowledge, and respect for institutions and norms.

Self-government depends on our accepting electoral outcomes or court decisions even when we disagree vehemently with the result. It depends on presidents and voters understanding that the executive branch isn't empowered to spend billions of dollars (on a border wall or a student-loan jubilee) without a law that empowers them to do so. It depends on respect for due process, free speech, canvassing boards that faithfully review vote tallies, independent courts, responsible legislators, and limits on executive authority. That's the stuff that should be at the heart of civics education.

Today, civics education has strayed pretty far afield from such notions. Heck, in 2022, the RAND Corp. reported that, when asked about the purpose of civics education, more K-12 teachers emphasized environmental activism than "knowledge of social, political, and civic institutions." Teachers who say they're more concerned about environmental activism than civic institutions when asked about civics education are probably not focused on exploring why things like federalism or the separation of powers might be good (especially when they impede one's preferred environmental agenda).

As I see it, the critical part of civics education isn't students learning how to be heard; it's their learning to be responsible, reflective citizens. And voting doesn't require that voters be either responsible or reflective. Rather, it's mostly an opportunity to tell office-seekers, "This is what I want." That may be a crucial part of citizenship, but it's also the easy part.

I'll go further: The hard part is understanding why we shouldn't always get our way. That applies equally to Trump backers who refuse to accept that he lost in 2020 and student-loan borrowers who want the Biden administration to ignore all those legal niceties and just "forgive" the hundreds of billions they owe the U.S. Treasury. In these cases (as in many others), the guardians of self-government have not been the voters. Civic education should help students grasp the role of institutions and norms in safeguarding self-government and checking illiberal impulses, whether those are found on the right or the left.

I'm far less concerned with teaching students to get their way than with helping them understand how anti-majoritarian arrangements like the Bill of Rights, the federal system, the separation of powers, and judicial review can protect us-even in those moments when we're furious about the results. Civics should teach students how democratic institutions actually work and what it takes to maintain them. And it should prepare them to be the kind of officials and citizens who will stand up to bullies, mobs, and demagogues in the years to come.

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How Can Civics Education Safeguard Democracy? (Opinion)

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The purpose of civics education must be about more than just getting students to vote.

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A Position Statement of National Council for the Social Studies Approved April 2023

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Powerful Teaching and Learning in Social Studies

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Powerful Teaching and Learning in Social Studies

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A Position Statement of National Council for the Social Studies
Approved April 2023

A comprehensive social studies education provides the foundation for an appreciation of democracy, an understanding of the responsibilities and rights that come with participating in a republican form of government, and the knowledge and skills to be informed, responsible, and active global citizens. NCSS advocates that all students in grades PK-12 receive a comprehensive program of study in social studies each school year, including at least 45 minutes of daily social studies instruction at the elementary level As supported by the Council for Chief State School Officers, 2018. https://ccsso.org/resource-library/marginalization-social-studies and 4 credit hours of social studies in the high school grades. As students participate in their social studies education, it is crucial that teachers implement powerful teaching and learning strategies because these are designed to best support students as they acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions essential to a well-educated populace in a democratic society and global system.

Our social studies classrooms must be "laboratories for democracy" where learners analyze historical and contemporary public issues that impact their lives, and engage in their local community, state, nation, and world. How one teaches is inseparable from what one teaches. Powerful and rigorous social studies teaching that is rooted in standards, supported by professional development that reflects best practices, and utilizes high-quality educational materials is crucial to realizing the NCSS vision: A world in which all students are educated and inspired for lifelong inquiry and informed civic action.

The principles of teaching and learning consider the processes through which knowledge is constructed, produced, and critiqued. Teaching social studies powerfully and authentically begins with a deep knowledge and understanding of students, the subject, and each subject's unique goals. Teachers must pursue ongoing professional development to develop a deep understanding of their subject and best practices centered in research-based social studies pedagogies in order to effectively build on the pillars that support powerful teaching and learning in social studies classrooms. These pillars are:

Pillar 1: Powerful social studies places learners at the center of the learning endeavor.

Pillar 2: Powerful social studies is grounded in intellectual quality that allows learners to see the relevance and applicability of social studies topics to their daily lives.

Pillar 3: Powerful social studies fosters civic engagement necessary for a well-functioning democratic society and global community.

Pillar 1: Powerful social studies places learners at the center of the learning endeavor.

Learner identity: The diversity of learners' identities and cultural assets is woven into lessons and units of study to engender personal connections to social studies content, skills, and dispositions. Thus, social studies instruction can be delivered with inclusive, culturally relevant activities to spark personal connection and motivation to learn.

Multiple ways of learning: Social studies instruction includes a wide array of student-centered learning activities. Multiple and varied instructional experiences address the range of learning needs to reach, motivate, and engage learners in ways that build on their individual strengths, needs, and aspirations.

Learner collaboration: Students learn through collaboration and interactions with other learners. Teachers create collaborative instructional strategies that support learning and developing social interaction and listening skills as well as positive interdependence. Collaborative learning promotes engaging and meaningful discourse to deepen learner understanding of social studies content, to navigate differing points of view and perspectives, and to develop listening and speaking skills.

Classroom environment: Teachers and learners create classroom environments where the exploration of ideas, opposing viewpoints, and perspective-taking expand learner agency and engender a sense of belonging and interdependence. The examination of social, cultural, political, religious, and regional values, biases, and beliefs develops an understanding of differing perspectives necessary for civic life and global citizenship. NCSS acknowledges social, economic, political, and cultural complexities found in American classrooms and challenges social studies educators to continually examine their own values and perspectives as they select and present materials that privilege multiple perspectives.

Classroom discourse: Sustained classroom conversations structured around powerful ideas allow learners to engage in the cognitive processing and construction of social studies understandings, skills, and dispositions. Focusing on developmentally appropriate complex ideas extends learners' thinking; constructs social studies understandings, skills, and dispositions; and develops effective speaking, listening, debate, and persuasion skills. Teachers use best practices to promote civil discourse in ways that encourage the sharing of ideas and perspectives from all students.

Pillar 2: Powerful social studies is grounded in intellectual quality that allows learners to see the relevance and applicability of social studies topics to their daily lives.

Inquiry arc: The social studies is grounded in the Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework. Learners construct investigations structured around enduring understandings and guided by compelling and supporting questions. The inquiry approach supports content and skill development that prepares learners to think independently and critically while exploring complex ideas and sometimes unresolved questions. It also promotes curiosity and civic engagement and invites students to address local, national, and global issues strategically and creatively.

Inclusive and complex content: Learners identify aspects of the social studies that allow them to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments found in multiple narratives while also learning that history, government, geography, and economics are complicated and that not all people have experienced the world in the same ways as others. Social studies classrooms allow space for students to ask whose stories are told and whose are not reflected in narratives and then to investigate why. Learners build an understanding of the complexities of narratives, both past and present, and that to privilege one over the other limits inclusivity.

Depth of learning: Social studies lessons and units of study prioritize depth over breadth to develop deep understanding, higher-order thinking, and interdisciplinary literacy skills. Planning learning opportunities that delve deeply into a topic enables learners to make deeper connections, increases their retention, and promotes their transfer of learning.

Integrated learning: Social studies effectively integrates with a wide variety of disciplines to better understand the human experience. Social studies allows for the development of the skills developed from multiple disciplines as teachers not only expose students to historical primary sources and the skills necessary to help students learn to read, write, and think like historians, but they also leverage concepts found in psychology, geography, political science, economics, and other social sciences to help students learn to read, write, and think like social scientists. Learners leverage social science concepts and skills to build data literacy so that they can better understand statistics and motivations that impact government and economic policies and social behavior. It is through an integrated approach to learning all the social studies that students can engage in authentic applications of social studies to address and solve problems.

Critical media literacy: Critical media literacy requires rigorous evaluation of information. Given the preponderance of information in the media and young people's disposition toward accessing media for all kinds of information, media analysis coupled with data literacy and inquiry prepares learners to be knowledgeable and astute consumers of information necessary for a well-educated contemporary society.

Primary and secondary sources: Powerful social studies lessons make use of primary and secondary sources to develop disciplinary literacy skills and encourage students to think critically about significant events both past and present. The effective use of primary and secondary documents allows learners to examine sources from diverse perspectives, including those from historically marginalized and minoritized communities, and sets the stage for questioning how the past is remembered, how to wrestle with contradictions, and how to compare and contrast multiple sources representing differing points of view.

Constructing understanding: Learners are active participants in constructing their understanding of and solutions to issues and problems. Engaging in problem-solving activities develops reasoning and critical thinking, and by being actively involved with all steps of the learning process, learners are constructing their agency and civic identities with the ways they perceive and construct solutions to public issues.

Developing literacies: Social studies builds crucial background knowledge needed for students to grow as readers and reduces opportunity gaps among students who arrive in classrooms with different levels of experiences on which to draw when making meaning of texts. Teachers teach students thinking routines and strategies that are necessary to make sense of images and other non-text sources. Students use the knowledge they learn from texts and other sources to develop claims that are supported by evidence and to communicate their ideas in written, oral, and digital presentations which build reading, writing, speaking, and technology literacies. The various literacies that students develop in social studies classrooms provide opportunities and supports needed to confidently navigate a complex and constantly changing world.

Pillar 3: Powerful social studies fosters civic engagement necessary for a well-functioning democratic society and global community.

Community involvement: Social studies lessons are organized to partner with families, local community entities, and beyond to foster authentic and meaningful learning and civic discourse and action.

Civic virtues and democratic principles: In the social studies classroom, learners are supported in developing civic virtues, including attentiveness to mutual respect, cooperation, and multiple perspectives necessary to contribute to the common good and engage in political and civil society. They analyze the democratic principles of equality, liberty, freedom, rights, and responsibilities, and critique historical events and current actions that both reflect and violate these democratic principles.

Civic literacy: Learners develop an understanding of the structures, functions, and responsibilities within different levels of government. Learners can use this knowledge to effectively participate in a democratic society, taking informed action.

Civic engagement: As defined by the C3 Framework, "civic engagement is both a means of learning and applying social studies knowledge," and "people demonstrate civic engagement when they address public problems individually and collaboratively and when they maintain, strengthen, and improve communities and societies." The values embodied in our democratic form of government, with its commitment to justice, equality, and freedom of thought and speech, are reflected in social studies teaching and learning in preparation for civic action within and beyond the classroom.

Conclusion

At the heart of social studies education is the goal that the next generation of young people are informed, active, and responsible community members and global citizens who can appreciate the past, understand the present, and impact the future. Powerful social studies instruction, as described in this statement, promotes rigorous, research-based, hands-on pedagogy that cultivates student development of knowledge and understanding, strengthens skills for engaging in democratic processes, and embraces a vision toward creating a world for fulfilling life and career aspirations. If we, as social studies educators, aim to leave our country and world in the hands of a well-prepared next generation, then we must provide learners a place where they can meaningfully engage to develop active citizenship skills and dispositions foundational for a lifetime of civic involvement and civic action to build healthy and safe local and global communities.
This position statement was written by: Shannon M. Pugh, EdD (NBCT)
Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Maryland
NCSS President (2022-2023) Margit E. McGuire, PhD
Seattle University, Washington
NCSS President (1990-1991) Jason Butler
DeKalb County Public Schools, Georgia Jyoti Castillo, PhD
Kamehameha Schools, Hawaii Daneel Moore, PhD
Middle Georgia State University, Georgia Becky Ramirez
Ector Independent School District, Texas Patricia Russac
Buckley Country Day School, New York

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Powerful Teaching and Learning in Social Studies

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A Position Statement of National Council for the Social Studies

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What is (or are) social studies?  Victoria Coleman1(Research Division) 

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Implementing the C3 Framework: What is our Task as Social Studies Leaders

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Implementing the C3 Framework: What is our Task as Social Studies Leaders

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Michelle M. Herczog, Ed.D. President-Elect, National Council for the Social Studies

This article originally appeared in the NSSSA Leader Newsletter

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Michelle M. Herczog, Ed.D. President-Elect, National Council for the Social Studies

This article originally appeared in the NSSSA Leader Newsletter

Implementing new standards, any standards, calls upon teachers to update their practices, build content knowledge, acquire new resources, and prepare for new ways to assess student learning. It requires a great deal of work, time, and dedication - a "big lift" for many already overburdened with an ever-increasing list of responsibilities. And as we know, asking people to change practices they have worked hard to perfect is daunting and sometimes unrealistic. As instructional leaders, it is important to value teachers' expertise when guiding them to explore new approaches to teaching and learning. Establishing a culture of continuous improvement is vital to this work. Building trust, collaboration, and collegiality establishes an environment for the stages of implementation to occur. It is also imperative to provide the support needed to be successful - high quality job-embedded professional learning, resources, and time to acquire new learning, develop new practices, test them out in classrooms, share findings with colleagues, reflect on feedback and revise lessons as needed.

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, like a number of other initiatives, calls upon social studies teachers to reexamine their instructional practices to enhance the rigor of the social studies disciplines and build critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills of students to become engaged citizens. Teachers' ability to be successful depends on the support they receive from social studies leaders - instructional coaches, department chairs, curriculum directors, administrators, and others who have deep knowledge of the C3 Framework, the instructional shifts for classroom practice, and the ability to facilitate collegial dialogue to build the structures to support a system-wide approach.

Achievethecore.org has a number of powerful tools to guide school-level instructional leaders in beginning the work of understanding and implementing the Common Core. The areas of consideration and guidelines described are equally valuable to social studies leaders who are moving forward to help teachers implement the C3 Framework. In that vein, the following guidelines, adapted from the achievethecore.org are also useful to social studies leaders in their work to implement the C3 Framework at school sites.

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards is relatively new to many in the educational community. As a leader, this is an opportunity for you to not only model quality leadership, but quality learning as well. That process of learning will continue over the next several years. Your learning and leadership will likely impact your work and the work of teachers for years to come. Areas of consideration are described below. An accompanying powerpoint presentation to guide discussion in each of the areas can be found at the National Council for the Social Studies website at socialstudies.org/c3

_Knowledge_: As an instructional leader, it is your responsibility to understand the instructional shifts required by the C3 Framework. Many aspects of the C3 Framework will be familiar and will not likely be recognized as a shift - using inquiry to drive instruction, analyzing multiple perspectives, and drawing conclusions are hallmarks of high quality social studies instruction. However, the focus on compelling and supporting questions described in Dimension One and the focus on communicating conclusions and taking informed action in Dimension Four will likely stretch teachers' thinking. Embracing your role as an instructional leader means knowing the content your teachers need to teach, the inquiry arc of the C3 Framework, and an understanding of the shifts teachers need to make in their practice to achieve the goals of the Framework.

Introduce teachers to the C3 Framework by providing background information - the rationale, the process for development, the organizations involved, the intended audiences, the goals and objectives, the guiding principles, and then of course, the instructional shifts as described below.

Instructional Shifts for Social Studies

Shift #1: Inquiry is at the center.

A set of interlocking and mutually supportive ideas that frame the ways students learn social studies content.

Speaks to the intersection of ideas and learners.

Focus on the use of questions to spark curiosity, guide instruction, deepen investigations, acquire rigorous content, and apply knowledge and ideas in real world settings to enable students to become active and engaged citizens in the 21st century.

Shift #2: Disciplinary integrity and interdisciplinary connections matter.

Civics

Using deliberative processes

Participating in school settings

Following rules

Economics

Making economic decisions

Using economic data

Identifying prices in a market

Geography

Reasoning spatially

Constructing maps

Using geographic data

History

Classifying historical sources

Determining the purpose of an historical source

Analyzing cause and effect in history

Connections to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

citing textual evidence

understanding disciplinary vocabulary

distinguishing and using fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text

distinguishing competing or alternating claims

narrating historical events.

Shift #3: Informed action and application of knowledge is clear and present.

Deliberation with others to define and address issues builds problem solving and collaboration skills

Reasoning, analyzing and communicating conclusions builds critical thinking and communication skills

Influencing institutions builds dispositions for engaging in civic life.

Applying knowledge to real world problems prepares students for college, career, and civic life.

Shift #4: The Inquiry Arc represents an instructional arc - a frame for teaching and learning.

Developing questions and planning inquiries

Compelling questions focus on real social problems, issues, and curiosities about how the world works.

Supporting questions scaffold students' investigations into the ideas and issues behind a compelling question.

Applying disciplinary concepts and tools

Evaluating sources and using evidence

Communicating conclusions and taking informed action

After studying the C3 Framework at length and examining the instructional shifts, invite teachers to use the C3 Framework Instructional Guide developed by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, found at socialstudies.org/c3. The Guides invite teachers to focus on the specific aspects of each of the four dimensions in their respective grade span in grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, or 9-12. Each one includes the descriptions of each dimension for each grade span. Directions for use are in the preface.

Rather than leafing through the entire C3 Framework, the guides allow teachers to focus on the specific aspects of their grade span as a lens for examining their current practices. The template included in the guide allows teachers to stretch their existing work to include all four dimensions.

Deepen teachers' understanding of the instructional shifts by using the Discussion Guide to facilitate conversation.

Vision: Implementing the C3 Framework is an excellent opportunity for focus and coherence throughout your school to prepare students for college, career and civic life. Utilize the key questions below to guide your work. Don't leave the work of making connections among C3 Framework implementation efforts and the other activities of the school or district to the teachers to do alone. This connection should be obvious and overt.

How will you assess the outcomes?

What will professional development look like?

What will you look for in classroom observations?

What resources do you have to support implementation?

Money? Time? Energy?

How will you address existing policies and procedures?

What supports are needed for English Learners and students with special needs?

Metrics: As with any successful change management exercise, it will be critical to have clear, measurable goals and to commit to collecting data on progress toward those goals so that appropriate adjustments and support can be implemented. It is important to be able to clearly articulate what the C3 Framework looks like in the classroom. What would principals, instructional coaches, parents, and others expect to see when they see a C3 classroom in action?

Getting to Measurable, Meaningful Metrics

Build Capacity: Support teachers by offering focus and coherence in their work, support their understanding of the C3 Framework, recognize their authentic development in the change, provide them with quality tools and resources, not quick fixes. Find your early adopters and make them champions and advocates for the work of the C3 Framework.

Utilize the handout below to process and plan strategies to support individuals in this change process. This activity is best done in groups. The framework includes the opportunity to name individual leaders in each group. This process supports the concept that the work of instructional leadership is more than simply creating a plan, and instead requires differentiation in the needs of individual teachers.

The discussion here should center on the evidence that would be relevant to determining where individuals are in the continuum. Another important note to message here is that not all teachers will become advocates and innovators. If the participants in your setting develop a thorough description and evidence statements around each of these levels, it could well inform a set of metrics for the overall implementation effort.

Building Capacity for the Work

Stay Engaged: Continue to seek out current information on assessments, best practices, criteria for quality materials. Take advantage of the many resources, classroom exemplars, professional learning opportunities that are being developed by social studies experts across the nation. Borrow, use, adapt the work of others to meet the needs of the students in your school. Visit the National Council for the Social Studies website socialstudies.org/c3 and attend the NCSS and NSSSA annual conferences to learn, share, and collaborate with others.

Utilize the handout below to identify the challenges, opportunities, and next steps for implementing the C3 Framework as a continuous cycle of inquiry.

Reflecting on Actions to Implement the College, Career, and Civic Life C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards

Finally, instructional leaders should engage with their state education departments. Seek out information regarding resources they have available, timelines, and resources for support. Remember, you are part of this learning system as well. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to engage teachers in a marvelous journey to increase the rigor and relevance of the social studies so we can truly prepare all students for college, career, and civic life in the 21st century.

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Implementing the C3 Framework: What is our Task as Social Studies Leaders?

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Michelle M. Herczog, Ed.D. President-Elect, National Council for the Social Studies This article originally appeared in the NSSSA Leader Newsletter

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What is Social Studies?

Definition

Social studies is the study of individuals, communities, systems, and their interactions across time and place that prepares students for local, national, and global civic life.

Purpose

Using an inquiry-based approach, social studies helps students examine vast human experiences through the generation of questions, collection and analysis of evidence from credible sources, consideration of multiple perspectives, and the application of social studies knowledge and disciplinary skills. As a result of examining the past, participating in the present, and learning how to shape the future, social studies prepares learners for a lifelong practice of civil discourse and civic engagement in their communities. Social studies centers knowledge of human rights and local, national, and global responsibilities so that learners can work together to create a just world in which they want to live.

Disciplines and Courses

At the elementary level, social studies includes the interdisciplinary study of history, geography, economics, and government/civics and is well-integrated with the study of language arts, the visual and performing arts, and STEM.

At the secondary level, students engage in social studies through singular, disciplinary lenses as well as interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary ones.

States, districts, and schools use various names to identify the disciplines, fields, and subjects of a comprehensive social studies education. As such, creating an all-inclusive list of subject and course titles is almost impossible. Fundamentally, social studies courses include those that study the array of human experiences and the spaces in which we interact as humans.

Social studies can include but is not limited to, disciplines and courses such as:

History, including local and state history, United States history, world history and global studies, African American history, and women's history as well as other courses about the history of specific groups, regions, and eras;

Geography, including physical, environmental, cultural, and human geography as well as courses related to the application of geographic tools (i.e. GPS and GIS);

Economics, including general economics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and international economics;

Government and Citizenship, including civics, citizenship education, political science, local, state,tribal, and United States government, international relations, comparative government, and law and legal studies;

Social Sciences, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, gender studies, LGBTQ+ studies, and religious studies;

Ethnic Studies, including African American studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander studies, Indigenous studies, and Latin American studies;

Human Rights and Social Justice, including human rights education, social justice issues, international organizations, and genocide studies;

Financial Literacy, including personal finance (NCSS recognizes financial literacy as an important course for students, but financial literacy is distinct from and is not a replacement for economics and economic education); and

Contemporary Issues, including courses in current events and the study of one or more social studies topics in current contexts.

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What is Social Studies? Definition Social studies is the study of individuals, communities, systems, and their interactions across time and place that prepares students for local, national, and global civic life.

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In the early 1900s, the nation's civic leaders launched a full court press to make secondary education - previously offered to an elite few - available to the many. They compelled communities to build high schools and sought to convince the populace that a diploma was their ticket out of a life of hard labor, as well as society's chance at unprecedented economic expansion. But how to assess the validity of what was being taught?

Simultaneously, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie hoped to kick-start the expansion of higher education by donating $10 million to bankroll pensions for college professors. This posed a parallel dilemma: How to decide whether a scholar had put in enough time to earn the annuity?

Thus was born the wonky educational anachronism known as the Carnegie Unit, brainchild of the trustees of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. A certain number of hours spent in a high school classroom added up to a credit, the trustees decided in 1906. A set number of credits earned a diploma. So quantified, the diploma could be used as the entrance ticket to a college or university, where Carnegie Units would add up to a degree - or the right to retire.

Carnegie Units went on to become the central currency of a dizzying number of aspects of education, ranging from what subjects students are exposed to to how states allocate school funds. But it was quickly understood that while the units were good for, say, establishing whether a public school had delivered its pupils enough hours of teaching to earn its taxpayer dollars, it was not particularly helpful at signaling what a student had learned during those hours in class - now, 117 years later, better known as seat time.

Some innovators, like the leaders of the Phoenix Union High School District, are experimenting with ways to leave the Carnegie Unit in the past. Students at PXU City, a Phoenix high school without a building, can create their own personalized educational experience from a menu of 500 options, including classes at any number of high schools, college courses and job training programs throughout the city.

The experiment came to the attention of Carnegie's present-day leaders, who are engaged in their own effort to replace their turn-of-the-century units. The person tasked with figuring out how better to quantify what students have learned, and how the schools of the future can help them realize the historical promise of social and economic mobility, is Tim Knowles, the foundation's president and former director of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute.

Knowles recently talked to Beth Hawkins about a pilot project to reimagine seat time that includes the Phoenix district, the possible benefits of freeing teachers from unit-driven bell schedules and how to transform entire school systems. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell us about the Carnegie Unit, what it is, how it wove itself into education's very DNA and why it's time to step away from it.
In 1906, when the Carnegie Foundation created the Carnegie Unit, it suggested that a college degree should be 120 credits. Today, it's 120 credits. It's become the bedrock currency of the educational economy. It's infiltrated everything. It's how we organize high schools and universities, how we think about assessment, it's instrumental to accreditation, to who gets financial aid and who doesn't. It defines the daily work of teachers and professors. It is the system.

What it is, fundamentally, is the conflation of time and learning. It's the suggestion that X number of minutes equals learning. The problem is, that it basically ignores everything we've learned in the last 100 years about what knowledge is and how it's acquired. We've had neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists and psychologists and learning scientists come along and say, "People learn through solving real problems, they learn from peers, they learn from mentors, they learn in apprenticeship, they learn from experience."

Phoenix Teens Build Their Own High School Program From 500 Class, Career Options

In its time, the Carnegie Unit was an incredibly important reform because it standardized an utterly nonstandardized educational sector. But it crept into the core DNA of educational practice and didn't evolve or adapt in the face of a significant amount of empirical knowledge about how human beings actually learn. That's problem No. 1.

No. 2 is that it inhibits educational innovation. Competency- or mastery-based education has existed, arguably, since Dewey and Montessori. But it's existed at the edges. It's never been central. We can all point to schools that are breaking the boundaries of what learning should look like, how it's organized, how it's structured. While those examples exist, they're often led by extraordinary teachers and school leaders. We haven't figured out how to take it from the margins to the mainstream. That's a problem.

The third thing is perhaps more existential, and that is the absence of social and economic mobility in our nation. This is not to suggest that education isn't an essential solution to addressing social and economic mobility, it's just that it's not nearly powerful enough an engine for doing so. The Carnegie Unit is, in my view, partly responsible for that. In the 1950s, over 90% of young people would [end up] better off than their parents. That number is basically cut in half now. We're going in precisely the opposite direction, and underlying that are some really fundamental inequities, which are exacerbated by race and by class.

If we want to radically increase economic and social mobility, we need to reimagine what learning is, and really take into consideration what we know about the context in which people learn. Young people need to be engaged in much more experiential, hands-on solving of real problems and applied work.
Why is the Carnegie Foundation the organization to take this on?
It's been a narrative in the organization and beyond for decades. One of the questions was, what are you going to do about assessment, because if you are going to take on the future of learning, then you have to be thinking about the future of assessment. That led us in the last year to a deep partnership with ETS, which is the largest assessment company on Earth. It's very good at determining reliability and validity.

If we believe that learning, wherever it takes place, is important, then in order for that to take root at scale, we need to persuade parents first that the learning their young people are experiencing outside the schoolhouse is valuable. And is legible to the postsecondary sector if you're applying to college. And legible to employers if you're going more directly into the workforce. Everybody intuitively knows there's enormous amounts of learning there. We need tools that can validate that learning.

We're going to build assessments to assess the skills, not the disciplinary knowledge, that we know are predictive of success. Things like your ability to collaborate, to communicate, how hard you work, are you persistent, your creative thinking, your critical thinking. The aim with ETS would be to get to the point where every young person in America doesn't just graduate from high school with a transcript that has grades and attendance and test scores, but a skills transcript as well.

The wonderful thing about Carnegie, it's got this incredible responsibility to be a place that looks around the corner. It did that in 1906, for really important reasons. It created Pell grants for really important reasons. It established standards for medical schools, engineering, law schools. It's done these things at certain times in its history that really needed to happen, because there were gaps. And it's positioned in a way that it can take a slightly longer-term view about where we need to get.

In Phoenix, a driving factor behind the district's decision to move away from the Carnegie Unit more quickly and widely than it had planned before the pandemic was teenagers. Students who weren't in high school when COVID hit had no expectation of a bell schedule.

At the heart of accelerating learning is ensuring young people are leaning in, are engaged, are inspired and are working on problems that they think are actually useful - whether it's useful for their own trajectories, pursuing a track that is orienting them to a particular profession or sector, or more here and now. One can learn a great deal about democracy by actually practicing it, or identifying an issue that you care about and learning how civically to engage in a way that can draw attention and potentially movement regarding that issue.

So, yes, engagement is an instrumental variable in all this, and, as you are pointing out, teenagers have already spoken. We know they're not engaged. There have been some systems around the country that have made marked improvements in high school completion, but there are many where 50, 60 or 70% of students are biding their time. Getting through. If we're losing 30 or 40% of our young people before they've even had a shot, then we've got to take a step back and ask what might work better, what we need to do differently. And that's not a small incremental step, like providing double blocks in math or high-dosage tutoring. There's something much more fundamental involved in reconsidering how we think about time and learning.

The other thing about teenagers is that when you create opportunities which are highly engaging, and you enlist their agency in learning, you really just have to get out of the way. Versus in a set of circumstances that may feel to them far more compliance-oriented, where they're doing seven periods for 40 minutes or 42 minutes between bells with a two-minute passing period, with seven different teachers every day who may have so many students that they can't even learn their names until the end of October. If you turn that on its head, young people are going to rise and surprise us.

'If we're losing 30 or 40% of our young people ... then we've got to take a step back and ask what might work better, what we need to do differently.'

There was a survey of high school students nationally during the pandemic, and almost to a person they said they wanted to come back to school - not surprisingly. But not all of the time. I don't think that was a statement about not being interested in learning. I think that was a statement about not wanting only that form of learning all the time. Valuing the community that school creates, valuing the fact that there are some domains of expertise and disciplinary areas where they need to be in classrooms with amazing teachers, but also recognizing that, "Wait, I've been learning independently. I've been pursuing things I'm passionate about."

If we could scaffold that systematically with opportunities for apprenticeships, for internships, for community embedded work, I think it's safe to say not only would we be hewing much more closely to what empirical evidence says is the best way to learn, but we would be in a situation where the young people were much, much more interested and excited about what they were learning.
L et's talk for a second about the obstacle that is adult time. I've talked to so many people in education who say, Yeah, that's great. But we'd have to fundamentally reorganize how the adults use their time.
We would. By saying we're taking on the Carnegie Unit, we are not saying we're going to have eight periods a day in 10th grade and then we're going to layer on a whole other set of things. So how we organize teacher time, and the role of the teacher, has to fundamentally shift.

But teacher pipeline issues are real. Schools are struggling to find really exceptional people who want to spend their career teaching. Embedded in rethinking the use of adult time is the opportunity to rethink the role of teachers. There are few people who want to have the same responsibilities on the first day of their professional career as they do on the last day of their 35th year.
You mentioned a skills transcript. That got me thinking about how many people you're dangerous to if you're successful. So many things are proxies for whether a person has a skill set. The college degree is a proxy: We assume that because you made it through this filter - which might be meaningless - you are going to be valuable to this endeavor, this institution, this company. But we don't actually know whether you come with the requisite skills.
If we could turn the teaching profession into something where you're teaching in teams, for example, or where you may be teaching in the morning and then advising groups of students through the afternoon as they engage in activities in their communities and with postsecondary institutions, the job could become much more attractive and interesting to a much wider range of young people over time. Adult time is a predicament, but it's also an opportunity.

Right. We've had a very fragmented K-12-to-postsecondary-to-employment path, replete with assumptions. If you go to an elite private or highly selective public college, whether by virtue of where it is geographically or by nature of how you get in, there all kinds of assumptions that you're going to come with these other things that we care about, in addition to whatever's on your transcript, like your grades and your test scores. But that's a pretty crude measure of whether you do. So there is a threat to the established pathways.

'By saying we're taking on the Carnegie Unit ... how we organize teacher time, and the role of the teacher, has to fundamentally shift.'

We could credibly determine whether a young person has a set of skills wherever those skills were developed. If I'm living on the south side of Chicago, and I take my two siblings to school every morning, and then I get to my high school on time at 7:30, I do my homework, I perform well in the traditional ways, I participate in afterschool activities and I work, those are skills that that are invisible, or less visible than the proxies you were suggesting. Or whether I was lucky enough to be born in a situation where my parents were taking me to rarefied places every summer, or putting me in rarefied summer camps.
Devil's advocate. When the pandemic forced schools away from seat time, lots of people said, 'Hey, wait - maybe we could just have asynchronous learning. I wouldn't have to report to a building anymore.' Or the variation we're hearing a lot about now, the four-day week. In blowing up seat time, temporarily or permanently, did states just leave the barn door open?
Part of the agenda is to make the education sector a more vital engine for individuals, no matter their backgrounds, to be able to succeed in a post-affirmative action world. A skills transcript would provide elite schools with a different kind of visibility on every kid. It wouldn't have to have anything to do with race per se, but I would hope it would help make visible the skills and dispositions young people bring, even if they're growing up in really underresourced places.

The conditions under which they blew up seat time during the pandemic are slightly anomalous. I wouldn't compare what we're trying to do to that, because we're certainly not of the view that people should be socialized in front of a laptop. But I'm sympathetic to the accountability side. Whether we have the existing system or a fundamentally transformed one, it's going to demand that we know how young people are performing.
What are you learning so far?
None of what I've been talking about should suggest we no longer believe in algebra or reading. There's things that we really do think young people benefit from learning. How they learn those things is an open question. If we are in a period where people are questioning the power of our educational system and asking questions about how we might empower it further, it has to be undergirded by accountability systems that are credible. And fair. Otherwise, you're right. It could be a slippery slope.

Our agenda, which we're working in partnership with XQ on, is in short: establish proofs, create places where this is happening, build evidence for improvement. Develop policy and national discussion about transformative learning opportunities. And then think hard about the postsecondary piece. Unless the work we do in high school is relevant, legible and understandable to postsecondary, it could falter.

There are learnings from the people who've been doing this for a long time, sometimes in quiet opposition to the systems in which they sit, sometimes with some support from the state within which they sit. They are there, and it's important to recognize and acknowledge that there are educators across the country who've been doing this with young people from all kinds of different backgrounds.

'Red and blue, left and right, communities, in spite of all our polarized hype, are saying there are a set of things that we want for young people. That should make us optimistic.'

One of the [trends] in the educational system at the moment are these things called portraits of a graduate or portraits of learners. They're everywhere. One of the things we did with ETS was look carefully at all the ones that we could. They're interesting, because they represent an American consensus about what the purpose of schooling is. They are really focused on skills. Often, they've been developed with lots of parent voice and teacher voice and student voice. Red and blue, left and right, communities, in spite of all our polarized hype, are saying there are a set of things that we want for young people. That should make us optimistic, if we can leverage that.

Disclosure: The XQ Institute, which has partnered with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to explore alternatives to the Carnegie Unit, provides financial support to .
The other things that that you will hear is, A) they haven't really made a big difference, and B) we have no way of measuring the things in them. The problem is the Carnegie Unit problem. They haven't cracked the Carnegie Unit, they haven't cracked this architecture of learning that we've established. We have to do that. We want our young people to be able to think critically, and we don't really know how to measure that. How do we measure that they're civically involved?

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74 Interview: Time ≠ Learning - Tim Knowles on Scrapping the Carnegie Unit

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From credits to seat time to school finance to student engagement, century-old unit of measurement is stifling real education reform and innovation.

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2—The Themes of Social Studies

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2—The Themes of Social Studies

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Standards Main Page
Executive Summary
Preface
Introduction
Thematic Strands

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.

Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. The study of culture examines the socially transmitted beliefs, values, institutions, behaviors, traditions and way of life of a group of people; it also encompasses other cultural attributes and products, such as language, literature, music, arts and artifacts, and foods. Students come to understand that human cultures exhibit both similarities and differences, and they learn to see themselves both as individuals and as members of a particular culture that shares similarities with other cultural groups, but is also distinctive. In a multicultural, democratic society and globally connected world, students need to understand the multiple perspectives that derive from different cultural vantage points.

Cultures are dynamic and change over time. The study of culture prepares students to ask and answer questions such as: What is culture? What roles does culture play in human and societal development? What are the common characteristics across cultures? How is unity developed within and among cultures? What is the role of diversity and how is it maintained within a culture? How do various aspects of culture such as belief systems, religious faith, or political ideals, influence other parts of a culture such as its institutions or literature, music, and art? How does culture change over time to accommodate different ideas, and beliefs? How does cultural diffusion occur within and across communities, regions, and nations?

Through experience, observation, and reflection, students will identify elements of culture as well as similarities and differences among cultural groups across time and place. They will acquire knowledge and understanding of culture through multiple modes, including fiction and non-fiction, data analysis, meeting and conversing with peoples of divergent backgrounds, and completing research into the complexity of various cultural systems.

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. Young learners can explore concepts of likenesses and differences among cultural groups through school subjects such as language arts, mathematics, science, music, and art. In social studies, learners interact with class members and discover culturally-based likenesses and differences. They begin to identify the cultural basis for some celebrations and ways of life in their community and in examples from across the world. In the middle grades, students begin to explore and ask questions about the nature of various cultures, and the development of cultures across time and place. They learn to analyze specific aspects of culture, such as language and beliefs, and the influence of culture on human behavior. As students progress through high school, they can understand and use complex cultural concepts such as adaptation, assimilation, acculturation, diffusion, and dissonance that are drawn from anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines to explain how culture and cultural systems function.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the past and its legacy.

Studying the past makes it possible for us to understand the human story across time. The historical experiences of societies, peoples and nations reveal patterns of continuity and change. Historical analysis enables us to identify continuities over time in core institutions, values, ideals, and traditions, as well as processes that lead to change within societies and institutions, and that result in innovation and the development of new ideas, values and ways of life.

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. Study of the past makes us aware of the ways in which human beings have viewed themselves, their societies and the wider world at different periods of time.

Knowing how to read, reconstruct and interpret the past allows us to answer questions such as: How do we learn about the past? How can we evaluate the usefulness and degree of reliability of different historical sources? What are the roots of our social, political and economic systems? What are our personal roots and how can they be viewed as part of human history? Why is the past important to us today? How has the world changed and how might it change in future? How do perspectives about the past differ, and to what extent do these differences inform contemporary ideas and actions?

Children in early grades learn to locate themselves in time and space. They gain experience with sequencing to establish a sense of order and time, and begin to understand the historical concepts that give meaning to the events that they study. The use of stories about the past can help children develop their understanding of ethical and moral issues as they learn about important events and developments. Children begin to recognize that stories can be told in different ways, and that individuals may hold divergent views about events in the past. They learn to offer explanations for why views differ, and thus develop the ability to defend interpretations based on evidence from multiple sources. They begin to understand the linkages between human decisions and consequences. The foundation is laid for the further development of historical knowledge, skills, and values in the middle grades.

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. They develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for differences in perspectives on historical events and developments, recognizing that interpretations are influenced by individual experiences, sources selected, societal values, and cultural traditions. They are increasingly able to use multiple sources to build interpretations of past events and eras. High school students use historical methods of inquiry to engage in the examination of more sophisticated sources. They develop the skills needed to locate and analyze multiple sources, and to evaluate the historical accounts made by others. They build and defend interpretations that reconstruct the past, and draw on their knowledge of history to make informed choices and decisions in the present.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.

The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world. Students learn where people and places are located and why they are there. They examine the influence of physical systems, such as climate, weather and seasons, and natural resources, such as land and water, on human populations. They study the causes, patterns and effects of human settlement and migration, learn of the roles of different kinds of population centers in a society, and investigate the impact of human activities on the environment. This enables them to acquire a useful basis of knowledge for informed decision-making on issues arising from human-environmental relationships.

During their studies, learners develop an understanding of spatial perspectives, and examine changes in the relationship between peoples, places and environments. They study the communications and transportation networks that link different population centers, the reasons for these networks, and their impact. They identify the key social, economic and cultural characteristics of populations in different locations as they expand their knowledge of diverse peoples and places. Learners develop an understanding of the growth of national and global regions, as well as the technological advances that connect students to the world beyond their personal locations.

Today's social, cultural, economic and civic issues demand that students apply knowledge, skills, and understandings as they address questions such as: Why do people decide to live where they do or move to other places? Why is location important? How do people interact with the environment and what are some of the consequences of those interactions? What physical and other characteristics lead to the creation of regions? How do maps, globes, geographic tools and geospatial technologies contribute to the understanding of people, places, and environments?

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with geography, regional studies, and world cultures. Student experiences will encourage increasingly abstract thought as they use data and apply skills in analyzing human behavior in relation to its physical and cultural environment. In the early grades, young learners draw upon immediate personal experiences in their neighborhoods, towns and cities, and states, as well as peoples and places distant and unfamiliar, to explore geographic concepts and skills. They learn to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools. They also express interest in and concern for the use and misuse of the physical environment. During the middle grades, students explore people, places, and environments in this country and in different regions of the world. They learn to evaluate issues such as population growth and its impact, "push and pull" factors related to migration, and the causes and implications of national and global environmental change. Students in high school are able to apply an understanding of geospatial technologies and other geographic tools and systems to a broad range of themes and topics. As they analyze complex processes of change in the relationship between people, places, and environments, and the resulting issues and challenges, they develop their skills at evaluating and recommending public policies.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of 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. Given the nature of individual development in a social and cultural context, students need to be aware of the processes of learning, growth, and interaction at every level of their own school experiences. The examination of various forms of human behavior enhances an understanding of the relationships between social norms and emerging personal identities, the social processes that influence identity formation, and the ethical principles underlying individual action.

Questions related to identity and development, which are important in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, are central to the understanding of who we are. Such questions include: How do individuals grow and change physically, emotionally and intellectually? Why do individuals behave as they do? What influences how people learn, perceive, and grow? How do people meet their basic needs in a variety of contexts? How do individuals develop over time? How do social, political, and cultural interactions support the development of identity? How are development and identity defined at other times and in other places?

The study of individual development and identity will help students to describe factors important to the development of personal identity. They will explore the influence of peoples, places, and environments on personal development. Students will hone personal skills such as demonstrating self-direction when working towards and accomplishing personal goals, and making an effort to understand others and their beliefs, feelings, and convictions.

In the early grades, young learners develop their personal identities in the context of families, peers, schools, and communities. Central to this development are the exploration, identification, and analysis of how individuals and groups are alike and how they are unique, as well as how they relate to each other in supportive and collaborative ways. In the middle grades, issues of personal identity are refocused as the individual begins to explain his or her unique qualities in relation to others, collaborates with peers and with others, and studies how individuals develop in different societies and cultures. At the high school level, students need to encounter multiple opportunities to examine contemporary patterns of human behavior, using methods from the behavioral sciences to apply core concepts drawn from psychology, sociology, and anthropology as they apply to individuals, societies, and cultures.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among 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. Schools, religious institutions, families, government agencies, and the courts all play an integral role in our lives. They are organizational embodiments of the core social values of those who comprise them, and play a variety of important roles in socializing individuals and meeting their needs, as well as in the promotion of societal continuity, the mediation of conflict, and the consideration of public issues.

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. The study of individuals, groups, and institutions, drawing upon sociology, anthropology, and other disciplines, prepares students to ask and answer questions such as: What is the role of institutions in this and other societies? How am I influenced by institutions? How do institutions change? What is my role in institutional change?

Students identify those institutions that they encounter. They analyze how the institutions operate and find ways that will help them participate more effectively in their relationships with these institutions. Finally, students examine the foundations of the institutions that affect their lives, and determine how they can contribute to the shared goals and desires of society.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, and history. Young children should be given the opportunity to examine various institutions that affect their lives and influence their thinking. They should be assisted in recognizing the tensions that occur when the goals, values, and principles of two or more institutions or groups conflict-for example, the school board removing playground equipment for safety reasons vs. the same equipment being used in a city park playground (i.e., swings, monkey bars, or sliding boards). They should also have opportunities to explore ways in which institutions (such as voluntary associations, or organizations like health care networks) are created to respond to changing individual and group needs. Middle school learners will benefit from varied experiences through which they examine the ways in which institutions change over time, promote social conformity, and influence culture. They should be encouraged to use this understanding to suggest ways to work through institutional change for the common good. High school students must understand the paradigms and traditions that undergird social and political institutions. They should be provided opportunities to examine, use, and add to the body of knowledge offered by the behavioral sciences and social theory in relation to the ways people and groups organize themselves around common needs, beliefs, and interests.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create, interact with, and change structures of 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. Learning the basic ideals and values of a constitutional democracy is crucial to understanding our system of government. By examining the purposes and characteristics of various governance systems, learners develop an understanding of how different groups and nations attempt to resolve conflicts and seek to establish order and security.

In exploring this theme, students confront questions such as: What are the purposes and functions of government? 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 conflicts exist among fundamental principles and values of constitutional democracy? 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. By applying concepts and methods of political science and law, students learn how people work to promote positive societal change.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with government, politics, political science, civics, history, law, and other social sciences. Learners in the early grades explore their natural and developing sense of fairness and order as they experience relationships with others. They develop an increasingly comprehensive awareness of rights and responsibilities in specific contexts. During the middle school years, these rights and responsibilities are applied in more complex contexts with emphasis on new applications. Learners study the various systems that have been developed over the centuries to allocate and employ power and authority in the governing process. High school students develop their abilities to understand and apply abstract principles. At every level, learners should have opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills to participate in the workings of the various levels of power, authority, and governance.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

People have wants that often exceed the limited resources available to them. The unequal distribution of resources necessitates systems of exchange, including trade, to improve the well-being of the economy, while the role of government in economic policy-making varies over time and from place to place. Increasingly, economic decisions are global in scope and require systematic study of an interdependent world economy and the role of technology in economic growth. As a result, a variety of ways have been invented to decide upon answers to four fundamental questions: What is to be produced? How is production to be organized? How are goods and services to be distributed and to whom? What is the most effective allocation of the factors of production (land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship)?

In exploring this theme, students confront such questions as: What factors influence decision-making on issues of the production, distribution and consumption of goods? What are the best ways to deal with market failures? How does interdependence brought on by globalization impact local economies and social systems?

Students will gather and analyze data, as well as use critical thinking skills to determine how best to deal with scarcity of resources. The economic way of thinking will also be an important tool for students as they analyze complex aspects of the economy.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with concepts, principles, and issues drawn from the discipline of economics. Young learners begin by prioritizing their economic wants vs. needs. They explore economic decision-making as they compare their own economic experiences with those of others and consider the wider consequences of those decisions on groups, communities, the nation, and beyond. In the middle grades, learners expand their knowledge of economic concepts and principles, and use economic reasoning processes in addressing issues related to fundamental economic questions. High school students develop economic perspectives and deeper understanding of key economic concepts and processes through systematic study of a range of economic and sociopolitical systems, with particular emphasis on the examination of domestic and global economic policy options related to matters such as trade, resource use, unemployment, and health care.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of relationships among science, technology, and society.

Science, and its practical application, technology, have had a major influence on social and cultural change, and on the ways people interact with the world. Scientific advances and technology have influenced life over the centuries, and modern life, as we know it, would be impossible without technology and the science that supports it.

There are many questions about the role that science and technology play in our lives and in our cultures. What can we learn from the past about how new technologies result in broader social change, some of which is unanticipated? Is new technology always better than that which it replaces? How can we cope with the ever-increasing pace of change, perhaps even the concern that technology might get out of control? How can we manage technology so that the greatest numbers of people benefit? How can we preserve fundamental values and beliefs in a world that is rapidly becoming one technology-linked village? How do science and technology affect our sense of self and morality? How are disparate cultures, geographically separated but impacted by global events, brought together by the technology that informs us about events, and offered hope by the science that may alleviate global problems (e.g., the spread of AIDS)? How can gaps in access to benefits of science and technology be bridged?

This theme appears in units or courses dealing with history, geography, economics, and civics and government. It draws upon several scholarly fields from the natural and physical sciences, social sciences, and the humanities for specific examples of issues as well as the knowledge base for considering responses to the societal issues related to science and technology.

Young children learn how science and technologies influence beliefs, knowledge, and their daily lives. They study how basic technologies such as telephones, ships, automobiles, and airplanes have evolved and how we have employed technology such as air conditioning, dams, and irrigation to modify our physical environment and contribute to changes in global health and economics. From history (their own and others'), they can construct examples of the effects of technologies such as the wheel, the stirrup, an understanding of DNA, and the Internet. In the middle grades, students begin to explore the complex influence of scientific findings and technology on human values, the growth of knowledge, and behavior. Students examine scientific ideas and technological changes that have surprised people and even challenged their beliefs, as in the case of discoveries about our universe and their technological applications, as well as the genetic basis of life, atomic physics, and other subjects. As they move from the middle grades to high school, students continue to think analytically about the consequences of change and how we can manage science and technology to increase benefits to all. Students gain the knowledge to analyze issues such as the protection of privacy in the age of the Internet; electronic surveillance; the opportunities and challenges of genetic engineering; test-tube life; and other findings and technologies with implications for beliefs, longevity, and the quality of life and the environment.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of global connections and interdependence.

Global connections have intensified and accelerated the changes faced at the local, national, and international levels. The effects are evident in rapidly changing social, economic, and political institutions and systems. World trade has expanded and technology has removed or lowered many barriers, bringing far-flung cultures, institutions, and systems together. Connections among nations and regions of the world provide opportunities as well as uncertainties. The realities of global interdependence require deeper understanding of the increasing and diverse global connections among world societies and regions.

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 from and problems associated with global interdependence? How might people in different parts of the world have different perspectives on these benefits and problems? What influence has increasing global interdependence had on patterns of international migration? 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?

Analyses of the costs and benefits of increased global connections, and evaluations of the tensions between national interests and global priorities, contribute to the development of possible solutions to persistent and emerging global issues. By interpreting the patterns and relationships of increased global interdependence, and its implications for different societies, cultures and institutions, students learn to examine policy alternatives that have both national and global implications.

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. Through exposure to various media and first-hand experiences, young learners become aware of how things that happen in one part of the world impact other parts of the world. Within this context, students in early grades examine and explore various types of global connections as well as basic issues and concerns. They develop responsive action plans, such as becoming e-pals with a class in another part of the world. In the middle years, learners can initiate analyses of the consequences of interactions among states, nations, and world regions as they respond to global events and changes. At the high school level, students are able to think systematically about personal, national, and global decisions, and to analyze policies and actions, and their consequences. They also develop skills in addressing and evaluating critical issues such as peace, conflict, poverty, disease, human rights, trade, and global ecology.

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic.

An understanding of civic ideals and practices is critical to full participation in society and is an essential component of education for citizenship, which is the central purpose of social studies. All people have a stake in examining civic ideals and practices across time and in different societies. Through an understanding of both ideals and practices, it becomes possible to identify gaps between them, and study efforts to close the gaps in our democratic republic and worldwide.

Learning how to apply civic ideals as part of citizen action is essential to the exercise of democratic freedoms and the pursuit of the common good. Through social studies programs, students acquire a historical and contemporary understanding of the basic freedoms and rights of citizens in a democracy, and learn about the institutions and practices that support and protect these freedoms and rights, as well as the important historical documents that articulate them. Students also need to become familiar with civic ideals and practices in countries other than our democratic republic.

Questions faced by students studying this theme might be: What are the democratic ideals and practices of a constitutional democracy? What is the balance between rights and responsibilities? What is civic participation? How do citizens become involved? What is the role of the citizen in the community and the nation, and as a member of the world community? Students will explore how individuals and institutions interact. They will also recognize and respect different points of view. Students learn by experience how to participate in community service and political activities and how to use democratic processes to influence public policy.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units or courses dealing with civics, history, political science, cultural anthropology, and fields such as global studies and law-related education, while also drawing upon content from the humanities. In the early grades, students are introduced to civic ideals and practices through activities such as helping to set classroom expectations, examining experiences in relation to ideals, participating in mock elections, and determining how to balance the needs of individuals and the group. During these years, children also experience views of citizenship in other times and places through stories and drama. By the middle grades, students expand their knowledge of democratic ideals and practices, along with their ability to analyze and evaluate the relationships between these ideals and practices. They are able to see themselves taking civic roles in their communities. High school students increasingly recognize the rights and responsibilities of citizens in identifying societal needs, setting directions for public policies, and working to support both individual dignity and the common good. They become familiar with methods of analyzing important public issues and evaluating different recommendations for dealing with these issues.

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2-The Themes of Social Studies

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Standards Main Page Executive Summary Preface Introduction

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Learning Is Not a Spectator Sport: Essentials of Active Participation

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Learning Is Not a Spectator Sport: Essentials of Active Participation

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When educators ask, what is the one action we can take to improve student learning, my answer is universal no matter the grade level or domain; Increase the Opportunities to Respond. This action is truly transformative. However, as with many instructional practices, HOW we implement the practice makes a difference. The following four Essentials of Active Participation can inform and guide our practice. I'll cover these and other ideas in my upcoming webinar, for which you can register here.

Essential No. 1: Request frequent responses from students.

While there are many reasons for asking students to respond during lessons, research has emerged with four clear and consistent benefits. (MacSuga-Gage & Simonsen, 2015; Van Camp, Wehby, Martin, Wright & Sutherland, 2020) First, as responses increase so do students' on-task behavior, a definite contributor to learning. Second, increased responses increase academic learning, the primary goal of education. If students are continually asked to rehearse information and to retrieve information from memory, retention is optimized. Third, perhaps the greatest gift to teachers, disruptive behaviors are reduced when students are responding academically throughout the lesson. Finally, increasing opportunities to respond increases the intensity of interventions.

You may be wondering how many responses might be desirable. Again, research provides some guidelines, though they need to be viewed as guidelines not mandates. (MacSuga-Gage & Simonsen, 2015; Simonsen & Myers, 2015) If simple responses such as unison choral responses, gestures, or holding up response cards are requested, effective teachers generally provided three to five opportunities to respond per minute. When the responses were more complex such as sharing with a partner or solving a math problem on a whiteboard at least one response per minute was elicited. In other words, many responses are requested in each lesson.

Essential No. 2: Require overt responses-saying, writing, doing.

To be effective, overt responses in which students say, write, or do something must be requested in all lessons in all subject areas. While thinking and silent reading, covert responses, might be embedded in a lesson, overt responses are necessary so we can monitor and check student learning, provide corrective and affirmative feedback, and adjust the lesson based on student performance.

You might want to adopt this motto that is posted and followed in many schools:
Every day, in every class, every student is participating by speaking, writing, or doing.

Essential No. 3: Involve all students.

To optimize learning and equity in our schools, everyone needs to do everything during instruction; everyone says, writes, or does something to show their understanding. In other words, a " No Opt Out " school policy should be adopted paired with classroom practices and expectations. Of course, this policy needs to be coupled with quality instruction, targeted scaffolds that set students up for success, and a safe environment in which students can take risks and make mistakes without embarrassment or bullying.

How might a school start on the Everyone does Everything (Feldman, 2021) path? The first step is to adopt a " No Hands Raised "policy. (Wiliam, 2014) Students can be taught to only raise their hands when the teacher directs them to raise their hands or when they seek clarification or elaboration from the instructor. The dangers of having students raise their hands and calling on volunteers are well known to teachers: 1) The more assertive, higher-performing students volunteer more often and receive more practice than their peers. 2) The same students volunteer again and again. 3) Over time, other students begin to opt out, reducing their learning. 4) The teacher does not have a valid measure of student understanding from this selective participation.

However, the most important reason for moving away from calling on volunteers or even non-volunteers is that these practices reduce the number of responses that each student makes in a lesson. Let's say that I have a class of 20 students and call on each student once. Each student would make one response. However, if ALL students say answers chorally, share answers with their partners, write down talking points before a discussion, solve a math problem on a whiteboard, or hold up a response card, each student would make 20 responses. More learning will occur with 20 responses versus one.

Essential No. 4: Structure the active participation procedure.

All high-leverage instructional practices, including active participation procedures, are intentional, structured, planned, and consistently implemented. Let's look at a number of common practices and the structure needed for optimum use.

Choral Responses

When answers are short and the same, teachers can request that students say the answer together. However, the teacher must act like the conductor of the school band or choir. The teacher must direct the students using a vocal signal such as "everyone" or a hand signal. Without a signal or cue, students will blurt out the answer and other students will simply mimic their peers.

Partner Responses

When answers are long and different, teachers might ask students to share answers with their assigned partners. Again, structure beyond "turn and talk" should be added. First, to avoid one of the partners dominating the partnership, the teacher should assign designations such as 1 and 2, A and B, or Blue and Red, so the teacher can direct one of the students to share the answer. Second, the teacher can give a job to both partners. For example, the teacher might say, "Ones, tell your partner the answer to the question. Twos, then tell your partner if you agree or disagree and why."

Class Discussions

Class discussions generally engage a small number of repeat participants. To increase the effectiveness and equity of discussions, the teacher can provide a well-planned prompt, give all students time to record their talking points, and have all students share their talking points with their partners. Thus, ALL students have been included. Also, having rehearsed their ideas, more students will join the formal class discussion

Hold-ups

Students can be asked to respond by holding up their whiteboards, their fingers to indicate the correct answer out of four, or their True or False response cards. However, if students hold-up their whiteboards, fingers, or response cards as soon as they formulate their answers, some students may copy their peers' responses. Instead, the students can form their answers on their desks and teacher can signal, "Show Me."

Truly, Learning is NOT a Spectator Sport.If our mission is to enhance student learning, we must request structured, frequent, overt responses from all students. May you and your school make increasing opportunities to respond a priority. Everyone will benefit. I hope you'll join me for my presentation on April 7.

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Learning Is Not a Spectator Sport: Essentials of Active Participation

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When educators ask, what is the one action we can take to improve student learning, my answer is universal no matter the grade level or domain; Increase the Opportunities to Respond. This action is truly transformative.

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2024 Belfer National Conference for Educators - Holocaust Education

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2024 Belfer National Conference for Educators - Holocaust Education

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June 24 - 26 | Attend Live or Watch On Demand

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June 24 - 26 | Attend Live or Watch On Demand

Inspire Students to Ask Why

At this free, virtual conference, explore the latest practices in accurate, meaningful teaching about the Holocaust with leading historians and educators. Discover thought-provoking resources that provide students with historical context and opportunities to advance media literacy skills.

Time:

Location: Virtual Event

Tickets:

Add to Calendar

Register for the 2024 Belfer National Conference for Educators

Why Attend? Plan Your Experience Schedule

Why Attend?

Engage with leading experts in real time through multiple live interactive sessions.

Watch all sessions at your convenience on demand following the conference.

Access historically accurate, classroom-ready lessons and resources based on the Museum's extensive collections.

Get a first look at the Museum's newest teaching tools.

Hear directly from Holocaust survivors and experienced educators.

Connect in real time with a community of educators dedicated to teaching and learning about the Holocaust

Benefits

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2024 Belfer National Conference for Educators - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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At the 2024 Belfer National Conference for Educators, explore the latest practices in accurate, meaningful teaching about the Holocaust with leading historians and educators. Discover thought-provoking resources that provide students with historical context and opportunities to advance media literacy skills.

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Join NCSS for a summer of professional development and learning!

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June 10-12, 2024
Registration Cost: Free!
In-Person Event | Boise, ID | Boise State University

All social studies educators are welcome to attend

Engage in inquiry using the C3 Framework and the Library of Congress' digital primary sources at the Boise State University in Boise, ID from June 10-12, 2024. NCSS is proud to invite methods professors, doctoral students, and classroom teachers to a special free professional learning institute this summer! Learn more and register now.

Summer Virtual Conference
June 24-25, 2024
Registration Cost: $99/$199 (members/nonmembers)
Group and Student Pricing Available!

Virtual Event
Recommended for all social studies elementary teachers
National Council for the Social Studies proudly presents its 2nd annual Virtual Summer Conference! This year's conference is designed especially for elementary teachers. Join us virtually as we explore, Inquire and Inspire: Cross-Disciplinary Learning in Elementary Classrooms. Learn More and Register.

2024 NCSS Summer Leadership Institute
July 15-17, 2024
Registration Cost: $199/$299 (members/nonmembers)
In-Person Event | Washington, DC | National Archives
Recommended for all social studies leaders, educators, administrators professionals
Support the mission of NCSS in advocating and building capacity for high-quality social studies through leadership, services, and support to educators. This year's SLI will focus on unlocking the power of your unique voice and story, and discovering how to champion the importance of social studies education at all levels. Learn More and Register.

Tenth Annual IDM Summer Institute
July 22-23, 2024
Registration Cost: $499/$599 (members/nonmembers)

Group Pricing Available!

In-Person Event | Washington, DC | George Washington University
Recommended for classroom educators, administrators and curriculum developers
The IDM Summer Institute is back! This is our 10th year helping teachers learn about inquiry-based teaching and learning in general and the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) and designing inquiries in particular. With more and more states adopting new standards featuring the C3 Framework and inquiry, the need for designing inquiry learning experiences in social studies is greater now than ever. Learn More and Register.

Questions? Email registration@ncss.org

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Special for Elementary Methods Professors:

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WWI Teacher Workshop: Artifacts and Inquiries

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WWI Teacher Workshop: Artifacts and Inquiries

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World War I was a historic event that had no easy answers - making it perfect for the Inquiry Design Model in a K-12 classroom. Teachers, join the Museum and Memorial for a full-day onsite workshop covering how to teach students about national and global civic responsibility during times of war. Using primary resources from the museum, a Museum and Memorial educator will provide guidance on designing an inquiry of your own.

$20 | R.A. Long Learning Center

Registration includes:

A $20 gift voucher for the Museum Store

Lunch at the Museum and Memorial

A new ready-to-use lesson and a new lesson designed for your own classroom

Admission to the Museum and Memorial

Interaction with real WWI artifacts

Peer collaboration

A six-hour PL Certificate will be provided digitally upon completion of the workshop and a grant-enabling survey.

Space is limited. Registration closes April 10, 2024.

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Teacher Workshop: Artifacts and Inquiries

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A full-day onsite workshop with Museum and Memorial educators covering how to teach students about national and global civic responsibility during times of war. PL Certificate offered.

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he Social Studies grades 3-5 blocks and grades 6-8 blocks were updated February 2024. Each updated block now includes all elements: Sources, Teacher Notes, Sample Assessment Items, Enrichment ideas, Additional Suggested Resources, Scoring Guides and Rubrics.

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The Social Studies grades 3-5 blocks and grades 6-8 blocks were updated February 2024. Each updated block now includes all elements: Sources, Teacher Notes, Sample Assessment Items, Enrichment ideas, Additional Suggested Resources, Scoring Guides and Rubrics.

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Educators’ Beliefs about Teaching Science and Social Studies in K-3

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Educators’ Beliefs about Teaching Science and Social Studies in K-3

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ACT Research & Policy | Issue Brief | November 2019 Chrys Dougherty, PhD, and Raeal Moore, PhD

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Educators’ Beliefs about Teaching Science and Social Studies in K-3 

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NCSS Statement on the Development of Social Studies Standards

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NCSS Statement on the Development of Social Studies Standards

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A Current Events Response by National Council for the Social Studies
September 2022

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NCSS Statement on the Development of Social Studies Standards

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A Current Events Response by National Council for the Social Studies

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Early Childhood in the Social Studies Context

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Early Childhood in the Social Studies Context

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NCSS Position Statement

Approved by the NCSS Board of DirectorsMarch 2019

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Approved by the NCSS Board of Directors March 2019
As young children engage in their play and daily activities, they show a natural interest in the world around them. Early childhood educators may capitalize on these interests and carefully plan a variety of experiences with social studies in mind, cultivating and extending young children's diverse skills and abilities to form and voice opinions, identify and solve problems, negotiate roles, perceive diversity and inequality, and recognize the consequences of their decisions and behaviors on others. Social studies is a vital part of the early childhood curriculum, since children's formative experiences shape their attitudes as "citizens of their classroom, their schools, and of the larger community" (Mardell, 2011).

Given the importance of early years educators in creating learning environments and experiences that foster young children's skills as active citizens committed to inclusion and equity, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) affirms pedagogic practices in the early years that support young children's progression of social studies learning in early childhood settings. This includes a focus on the materials, resources, and interactions needed to support young children's skills and dispositions. NCSS recognizes the developmental continuum of social studies learning, and this statement focuses primarily on young children from age 3 through preschool/prekindergarten. This document complements the NCSS position statement on Powerful, Purposeful Pedagogy in Elementary School Social Studies (NCSS, 2017).

Early Childhood Experiences
The foundation of early childhood education is built upon relationships that children develop in their homes, communities, and schools. In these settings, children meet new friends, learn to get along with others, share their opinions, engage in decision making, and contribute as a member of a group. Young children develop an understanding of the roles that they enact as citizens of a democratic society as they participate in activities that allow them to express their compassion, caring, and desire to help others (Project Zero, 2016). Numerous examples showcase the capacity of young children to discuss, debate, and think critically to solve important problems as they interact with others to accomplish goals together (Haywoode, 2018; Ardalan, 2017; Krechevsky et al., 2016; Krechevsky, Mardell, & Reese, 2015; Mardell & Carpenter, 2012; Hall & Rudkin, 2011).

Social studies learning offers many valuable components in supporting early learners as they identify real world problems and participate in creating an inclusive and caring democratic society. Through the social studies, children explore and ask questions about social systems, the abstract societal norms and values affecting human relationships and interactions in everyday life. These include nonverbal yet observable social cues that reflect subtle forms of bias, discrimination, and inequity. Young children take note of these early on, both through implicit and explicit means, throughout their daily experiences and interactions.

Additionally, social concepts represent what most educators would call the content or disciplinary areas of social studies. Social concepts are introduced and embedded in children's learning through various means, ranging from read alouds, classroom centers, and/or explicit instruction and conversations on topic areas. Social concepts should focus on topics or themes that are representative of real-world situations and/or problems children face in their classroom and community as well as current events (Mindes, 2015).

Teachers serve a direct role in how young children are exposed to social studies, both the systems and concepts. This includes providing a nurturing environment as well as intentional topics focusing on self, the family, the center or school, and the local community (Mindes, 2015). Best practices include providing learning opportunities that are developmentally appropriate (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009); offering contributions to the school/program culture; and supporting specific skills reflective of social emotional expectations, approaches to learning, and social skills as appropriate (Mindes, 2015).

In the early childhood classroom, social studies content is best presented as part of inquiry-based learning experiences that put children's interests at the heart of learning. Inquiry-based learning is a common instructional practice that capitalizes on opportunities supportive of social system and social concept learning. This includes offering topics of study that focus on child interest, social context, and real-world problems in an effort to connect learning to authentic experiences that engage children. Project-based learning offers such an opportunity (Helm & Katz, 2000). A project is an in-depth study of a real-world topic that typically occurs over a period of weeks or even months. Projects provide a context for young learners to apply their growing academic knowledge and skills in authentic ways (Katz, Chard, and Kogan, 2014). Through engagement in inquiry-based learning, young children are provided opportunities to explore and interact, which both influence and shape their knowledge and skills across social studies domains as well as other integrated curricular areas. As children share their receptive and expressive understandings of the social context, they represent what they are learning in a variety of ways (e.g., writing, drawing, painting, dramatic play, 3-dimensional construction, music and movement, and graphics). Inquiry-based learning also provides group learning opportunities that serve a common goal and purpose, which offers children ownership and belonging through a collaborative situation (Mindes, 2005).

Additionally, language and communication skills, critical thinking, and learning behaviors (i.e., approaches to learning) such as engagement and persistence are supported as children interact and work through various experiences. Teachers can then build on the naturally occurring learning through intentional efforts to scaffold dialogue to present various perspectives and offer evidence of different arguments, while also modeling respect for different opinions and viewpoints.

In the early years, inquiry emerges and is enacted through play-based modalities. Through structured and free play, children establish meaningful relationships with peers and educators, and engage in physical, cognitive, linguistic and socio-emotional aspects of learning. This process of learning through play is age-appropriate and naturally occurring for young children (Epstein, 2014; Gronlund & Rendon, 2017; Mindes, 2005, 2015). Dramatic play learning centers provide such an opportunity for child-directed, creative experiences, and early childhood educators often intentionally utilize the dramatic play center as a setting in which children explore and address topics of study related to social studies (Epstein, 2014; Gronlund & Rendon, 2017; Mindes, 2005, 2015). Accordingly, early childhood programs should furnish materials and sustained periods of time that enable children to engage in projects that allow for rich and deep social studies learning.

Through these authentic experiences, teachers may rely on systematic instruction, responsive instruction to child-initiated play, and teacher-guided instruction to align children's outcomes to early learning standards and support skills that are foundational for the C3 Framework (Gronlund & Rendon, 2017). Although state early learning standards for social studies may vary, they most commonly reflect elements of learning in both social systems and social concepts areas such as: (1) membership in a democratic classroom community, (2) location and place relationships, (3) similarities and differences among personal and family characteristics, (4) basic economic principles relative to the lives of young children, and (5) an appreciation of one's own and other cultures in a diverse society (Epstein, 2014).

Culturally Responsive Teaching
Early childhood educators may either diminish or exacerbate social inequalities in the classroom, based on how they approach children's socio-cultural, ethnic, religious, and gendered diversity. As teachers utilize instructional practices that are child-driven and based on interest, equally important is staying attuned to culturally relevant pedagogy and practices (Durden, Escalante, & Blitch, 2015; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Basic tenets of these include "attention to the achievement of [all] children including those ... minoritized and marginalized; constructing curriculum and instructional practice in ways ... including the knowledge, histories, and communicative styles of those [both inside] and outside the dominant culture; and developing children's abilities to ... use learning to affect social change"(Goodman & Hooks, 2016, p.34).

Critical to the notion of culturally responsive teaching is the daily environment of young children, where they learn about and experience social studies systems and processes. This environment is not only a physical space, but a social one, ripe for interactions and learning opportunities in relation to social systems and concepts. The environment conveys both nonverbal and verbal messages to both inhabitants and visitors about those things valued and coveted by society. For example, early childhood educators must prioritize the correct pronunciation of children's names, which provide powerful links to young learners' individual identity and ancestral heritage. When young children see themselves represented and acknowledged in their environment, their notion of belonging and membership in the classroom community are positively supported (Catalino & Meyer, 2016; Mindes, 2015).

More directly, the social system and concepts viewed in the environment matter. This includes not only the vocabulary children hear, but also children's exposure to visual representations, play materials, and literature genre reflective of the various family structures, languages, and racial/ethnic cultures as well as other characteristics of the larger community (Catalino & Meyer, 2016; Mindes, 2015). With intentional efforts, teachers may explicitly engage with social justice issues, such as racism, sexism, and economic inequality, and introduce young children to the ways in which societal change happens to counter bias and discrimination.

Consequently, early educators must create learning environments in a thoughtful and aesthetic way to enrich children's learning experiences. Environments should evolve to reflect the interests of the children and adults in the classroom. Children need to see themselves in their respective and varying communities. A child's feelings of belonging and group membership, as well as opportunities to experience the pleasure of community contributions, will guide his or her conscious decisions to engage in the community as a citizen.

Families
Equally important is the role of families in supporting their children's learning in social studies contexts. Families should be viewed as collaborators in establishing a sociocultural context of respect and partnership in early education environments (Epstein, 2014; Mindes, 2005, 2015). Classroom topics of study should illustrate examples of various family structures and cultural traditions. These practices not only foster children's social and emotional learning at home and in alternative environments; they provide intentional life experiences to enhance children's awareness of the wider community and world around them (Mindes, 2015). Teachers should use multiple strategies to engage families, including inviting family members to share their experiences and valuing the role of families as partners in making decisions about their child's education (Durden et al., 2015).

Recommendations
NCSS recommends that early childhood educators should uphold the following principles and approaches in their work with young children:

Young children have the capacity to use the skills of reasoning and inquiry to investigate social studies concepts as they explore how people interact in the world. Educators should recognize the value and importance of fostering young children's curiosity and provide experiences in the early years that connect social studies content to young children's roles as active citizens committed to inclusion and equity. Social studies experiences are already represented in children's play and the interactions that they encounter in their lives, but educators need to intentionally ask questions that provoke clarifications and expand children's ability to discuss, debate, and think critically for deeper understanding (Strasser & Bresson, 2017).

Early childhood is a time when the foundations of social studies are established, and curricular standards should explicitly attend to engaging and developing young children's capacity for citizenship, democratic or civic activity, and participation in decision-making, as well as critical disciplinary literacies. As teachers tap into children's interests to plan open-ended, inquiry-based explorations, young learners' formative experiences will constitute the basis for ongoing growth of the social studies content and process skills defined in the NCSS National Curriculum Standards and in the C3 Framework (NCSS, 2010, 2013). Although many states explicitly attend to social studies knowledge and skill development in the early years (e.g., see the Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards at http://flbt5.floridaearlylearning.com/standards.html#d=VII and the Illinois Early Learning and Developmental Standards at www.isbe.net/documents/early_learning_standards.pdf), early childhood practitioners are encouraged to draw from the local context in which they teach and children's interests to guide their planning and instruction.

As teachers set the tone for children's social studies learning, it is critical that curricular and instructional decisions embrace diversity and social justice while intentionally contesting bias and inequity. Providing a classroom explicitly focused on diversity among children's cultures and languages is integral to ensuring that social systems and social concepts are represented in a learning environment that fosters inclusion and equity. Also critical are efforts by teachers and providers to intentionally embed diverse languages, materials, and experiences in the early childhood classroom (Durden et al., 2015; Gay, 2000; Goodman & Hooks, 2016; Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Young children need multiple and varied opportunities to engage in social studies inquiry. To build understanding of social studies concepts, young children need opportunities to engage in extended investigation of topics of interest, drawing on a variety of materials that offer multiple perspectives and foster classroom communities built on inclusive and democratic values.

Early childhood educators should receive social studies-specific professional development that includes guidance on how to teach social studies to young learners to cultivate bias-free and discrimination-free communities. Many educators underestimate the capacity of young children to have an opinion and engage in the cultural and civic life of a community. Lack of appropriate preparation may cause both preservice and experienced teachers to fail to see social studies as a priority for young children and to lack confidence in their ability to teach social studies effectively. Thus, both preservice education and continuing professional development experiences need to place greater emphasis on encouraging teachers' repertoire of pedagogic practices, materials, and resources for building positive social studies attitudes and dispositions, valuing the contributions of young children as citizens who enrich their communities now and in the future.
References
There is a need for the social studies community to engage in further research on early childhood social studies curriculum and instruction. The ways in which early childhood social studies is conceived and citizenship is enacted in practice with young children are under-researched areas of scholarship, and the existing research is typically highly contextualized. To advance the available evidence about young children, it will be necessary to conduct empirical research across diverse contexts and investigate how instructional practices can enhance young students' historical skill development and associated civic competencies, including children's perspectives on the choices and challenges they experience, their reactions to the experiences of others, and their developing responses to matters of social justice, participation, and agency.

Ardalan, G. (2017). Spreading happiness: A preschool classroom in Washington, DC, investigates citizenship and makes a statement-"Be happy!" Young Children, 72 (2), 64-71.

Beneke, M. R., Park, C. C., & Taitingfong, J. (2018). An inclusive, anti-bias framework for teaching and learning about race with young children. Young Exceptional Children. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250618811842

Catalino, T., & Meyer, L. E. (Eds.). (2016). Environment: Promoting meaningful access, participation, and inclusion (DEC Recommended Practices Monograph Series No.2). Washington, DC: Division for Early Childhood.

Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Derman-Sparks, L., LeeKeenan, D., & Nimmo, J. (2015). Leading anti-bias early childhood educators: A guide to change. New York: Teachers College Press.

Durden, T. R., Escalante, E., & Blitch, K. (2015). Start with us! Culturally relevant pedagogy in the preschool classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43 (3), 223-232.

Epstein, A. S. (2014). Preschool: Social studies in preschool? Yes! Young Children, 69 (1), 78-83.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, & practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Goodman, K., & Hooks, L. (2016). Encouraging family involvement through culturally relevant pedagogy. SRATE Journal, 25 (2), 33-41.

Gronlund, G., & Rendon, T. (2017). Saving play: Addressing standards through play-based learning in preschool and kindergarten. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Hall, E. L., & Rudkin, J. K. (2011). Seen & heard: Children's rights in early childhood education. New York: Teachers College Press.

Haywoode, A. (2018). City Connects prompts data-driven action in community schools in the Bronx. Phi Delta Kappan, 99 (5), 44-46.

Helm, J. H., & Katz, L. (2000). Young investigators: The project approach in the early years. New York: Teachers College Press.

Katz, L. G., Chard, S. C., & Kogan, Y. (2014). Engaging children's minds: The project approach. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Krechevsky, M., Mardell, B., Filippini, T., & Tedeschi, M. (2016). Children are citizens: The everyday and the razzle-dazzle. Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Emilia Exchange, 23(4), 4-15.

Krechevsky, M., Mardell, B., & Reese, J. (2015). Children are citizens book. Project Zero, Harvard University Graduate School of Education. www.pz.harvard.edu/resources/children-are-citizens-book-2015

Krechevsky, M., Mardell, B., & Romans, A. N. (2014). Engaging city hall: Children as citizens. The New Educator, 10 (1), 10-20.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that's just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34 (3), 159-165.

Mardell, B. (2011). Learning is a team sport: Kindergartners study the Boston marathon (video). Project Zero, Harvard University Graduate School of Education. www.pz.harvard.edu/resources/learning-is-a-team-sport-kindergartners-study-the-boston-marathon.

Mardell, B., & Carpenter, B. (2012). Places to play in Providence: Valuing preschool children as citizens. Young Children, 67 (5), 76-78.

Mindes, G. (2005). Social studies in today's early childhood curricula. Young Children, 60 (5), 12-18.

Mindes, G. (2015). Preschool through grade 3: Pushing up the social studies from early childhood education to the world. Young Children, 70 (3), 10-15.

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) (2010). National curriculum standards for social studies: A framework for teaching, learning, and assessment. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies.

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) (2013). The college, career, and civic life (C3) framework for social studies state standards: Guidance for enhancing the rigor of K-12 civics, economics, geography, and history. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies.

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) (2017). Powerful, purposeful pedagogy in elementary social studies. www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerfulandpurposeful.

Project Zero, Harvard University Graduate School of Education. 2016. Children are citizens. www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/children-are-citizens.
This position paper was written by:
Strasser, J., & Bresson, L. M. (2017). Big questions for young minds: Extending children's thinking. National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Kimberly Villotti, Administrative Consultant, Bureau of Leading, Teaching, & Learning Services, Iowa Department of Education.

Ilene Berson, Ph.D., NCSP, Professor, Area Coordinator of Early Childhood Programs and Early Childhood Ph.D. Coordinator, University of South Florida.

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Early Childhood in the Social Studies Context

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Approved by the NCSS Board of Directors March 2019 As young children engage in their play and daily activities, they show a natural interest in the world around them.

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C3 Teachers - Inquiry Design Model Lessons

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C3 Teachers - Inquiry Design Model Lessons

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Ryan Lewis / December 19, 2023

Waking up to the news of the world can at times feel like a dizzying whirlwind. Today, amid the escalating turmoil in Israel and Gaza, I listened to a news interview in which the reporter was asking a former Israeli hostage negotiator their opinion on what the coming days and months would hold for Israelis [...]

Janae Bell / February 17, 2023

As I walk down my hallways, I gaze at my students' Black History Month posters that cover the walls and I realize how I've changed since my early years. This month my school's hallways are decorated with beautiful images that celebrate singers from Cab Calloway to Summer Walker, athletes like Gabby Douglas and Doug Williams, [...]

Jeff Rieck / December 22, 2022

In 2019, I wrote about how I began my year pre-assessing student performance on the skills central to the IDM: (1) making evidence-based arguments. As we approach the second half of the school year, I want to share new insights for preparing students to engage with inquiry. After 2019, and in response to the impact [...]

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The Inquiry Design Model The Inquiry Design Model (IDM) is a distinctive approach to creating curriculum and instructional materials that honors teachers' knowledge and expertise, avoids overprescription, and focuses on the main elements of the instructional design process as envisioned in the Inquiry Arc of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for State [...]

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What's your story?

As a middle school English teacher, sometimes I wished I could have simply asked my students that question. I know well how the narratives we tell ourselves about ourselves shape what we believe we can and cannot do.

Instead, it's been my job as a teacher to pick up on the little clues they have dropped day in and day out. As the best storytellers do, they have shown me their stories, giving glimpses of their backgrounds and beliefs. And those beliefs-their narratives-have a profound influence on whether or not they think they can succeed, whether or not they perceive education as a springboard or cinder block. The better I understand the narratives at work in their lives, the better position I'm in to help students-especially disengaged students-develop counternarratives to stories that may be holding them back.

We teachers have our narratives, too, whether or not we think of them as such. We carry personal myths about where we came from and how we got here. We may share internalized tales of feeling misunderstood and disenfranchised. We may perceive our school communities as allies or obstacles. There are realities, sure, but stories also have power to create reality.

I know I have my story, and it definitely has colored how I have approached teaching. Here are the bare bones. My family was working class. I was a high school dropout. I earned a GED and went to college. I became a teacher. For me, my personal narrative of self-doubt and struggle has synthesized with a counternarrative of overcoming obstacles, of opposition that led to transformation.

What follows are examples of three narratives that commonly unfold in classrooms. They are followed by possible counternarratives, shifts in perception that we can teach and, more importantly, model for our students. Counternarratives offer opportunities for us-students and teachers alike-to not just accept the stories the world tells us, but to practice becoming the authors of what comes next.

Narrative #1: "I'm Not Good at This"

I proctor multiple assessments each year, and the ramping up of high-stakes testing has put fear of failure front-and-center in many students' minds-and teachers and administrators, too. In some classrooms, student scores are even posted on the wall to foster competition. These assessments are all well and good for kids who excel at test-taking, but can be torture chambers for those who don't. Competition may be celebrated in our culture, but in schools it creates a dynamic where identifying clear winners and losers can bend and break young spirits.

Even if the results are not so publicly displayed, kids quickly figure out where they sit in the pecking order. I clearly remember my own experience as a third-grader. I was pulled out of class for reading remediation. Though no adult ever told me, I recognized that I was receiving extra instruction compared to the rest of my classmates. No special category or document was needed. In my mind-my own narrative-I was not just failing; I was a failure.

An emphasis on competitiveness has kids pigeonholing their academic abilities before they reach adolescence. The labels land and stick-smart, average, special needs-and the labels evolve into narratives about their identity. I have had students introduce themselves with confessions of failure even before giving their name: "Hi, I'm not good at reading. My name is Mary."

The Counternarrative: "I'm Not Good at This ... Yet"

The work of educational researchers Peter Johnston and Carol Dweck added a hopeful word to this narrative: YET. We can tack this on to any skill we're struggling with: "I'm not as good at book reports as I'd like to be ... yet." It is the essence of the growth mindset.

We need to understand and communicate that assessments are not absolute. Whatever the reliability and validity measures, standardized tests will always produce a scatter plot showing some students above, many in the middle and some below average-because that's what average means and what standardized tests do. Too often we even forget that they are assessments -ways to assess where we're at and how to adjust to get to where we want to go.

I have done my best to reassure students that giftedness and skill exist beyond the scope of any test score. I have had students assume that, because I teach English, I might not like or respect them if they do not care for books. They have actually found it reassuring when I tell them MY narrative: That there was a time when I had my own struggles with English. It took some time and effort for me to improve and reach a point where I actually enjoyed reading. When I was their age, I wasn't good at reading ... YET.

Beyond that, though, I let them know that my care for them goes beyond their academic performance.

Narrative #2: "I'm Just Here So I Can Get a Job"

"I'm just going to do work and get a job," more than one student has told me. It is a refrain, especially among students without much enthusiasm for formal learning. For many, maybe most students, going to school is primarily about one day making a living. They don't make the connection between studying literature, contemplation, writing, critical thinking and what they'll be when they grow up. And honestly, we haven't always made a good case for the relevance of much of our coursework.

"If I'm going to be a cosmetologist, why do I need to learn this?" one student asked me my first year as a teacher. This is a fair question that deserves exploration, especially where education is viewed in terms of job training.

The Counternarrative: "I'm Here to Learn How to Learn"

Learning at its best is about exploration and critical reflection. Unfortunately, this tenet of education is more available to privileged students who are likely to have been exposed to more of life's options. Their schools have more resources for bringing in guest authors, Skyping with scientists in Antarctica or taking field trips to the state capital to do a Q&A with a state representative.

In contrast, working-class kids and students in under-resourced communities may not get such experiences. They may be stuck with decades-old documentaries in the library and limited internet access. Classrooms may be full to bursting and personal relationships with teachers lacking. Instead of entering into project-based learning, they may be assigned worksheets and simple tasks. Their imaginations may have little exposure to a wider world of possibilities. Worse yet, they may be led to believe they don't deserve to dream any bigger than what they see around them.

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How to turn "I'm not good at this" into "I'm not good at this-yet!"

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Using C3 and Television to Teach Narratives and Counter Narratives

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Using C3 and Television to Teach Narratives and Counter Narratives

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Using C3 and Television to Teach Narratives and Counter Narratives

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This webinar will use the C3 Framework with television sitcoms to teach narrative versus counter-narrative issue-centered topics in the classroom. The webinar will review the C3 Framework, discuss how television sitcoms align with C3 (what dimension to use it with), discuss how to use narratives and counter-narratives in the classroom and experience an example lesson utilizing dimensions one through four consisting of two television sitcom episodes on the topic of voting.

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Learn about what DESE has identified as being Priority for K-12 Social Studies.

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Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in consultation with the Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission, is developing a curriculum framework of instruction with suggested resources for teaching the Holocaust as well as a high-quality professional development training course for participants.

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Mission Statement

The mission of the Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission is to promote implementation of the Holocaust and awareness programs in Missouri in order to encourage understanding of the Holocaust and discourage bigotry.

The Holocaust is defined as the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators during the period from 1933 through 1945. Millions of others were also murdered.

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Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission Professional Learning for Missouri Educators Teaching the Holocaust in Missouri February 28 - March 1, 2024 Columbia, Missouri Register Now Attend a free multi-day professional learning workshop designed to support accurate and meaningful teaching about the Holocaust. Space is limited to 26 educators. Yom

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Click here to learn access information and resources from DESE Social Studies. Includes: Standards K-12, Item specifications, PD, and resources.

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Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

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Quick Links

Good day Missouri Social Studies educators,

Like so many other previously seemingly routine tasks, even drafting a back-to school message is proving a bit more complex this August. It is not a typical year and these are not typical times for schools and school communities, so the usual adages about journeys, adventures and paths seem painfully inadequate.

For many of us, it is difficult to know just when and where to begin thinking about schools and/or school buildings re-opening, plus how to plan for teaching and learning as the uncertainties of resources, time and, sadly, even life, seem to change daily.

And yet, as social studies educators, we know people have faced greater challenges throughout history. And, they did it with little scientific understanding, meager resources, a dearth of accurate information and absent timely communication.

Comparatively, we have vast assets of knowledge, experience and human capital to use as we re-open our schools, restructure our institutions and rebuild our communities. Here at DESE, it is our responsibility to support you as you work with Missouri students and their families. We have been focused over the past months on providing useful, accurate and reliable information as you seek to make informed decisions regarding teaching and learning in our Missouri schools.

I want to call your attention to two sets of rich resources that can provide guidance for the many important decisions you will make in the coming days.

1. In June, 100+ Missouri educators, including three representatives from the Missouri Council for the Social Studies, worked to craft recommendations pertinent to school re-opening. You can access those recommendations as well as a wealth of relevant resources for teaching and learning at: https://dese.mo.gov/college-career-readiness/curriculum/task-force-learning-acceleration

2. In July, DESE sponsored a week of virtual Professional Learning, including three days focused on returning-to-learn ideals for social studies, science, ELA and ELD. Recordings and materials from those sessions can be found though the hub at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mONPqxtKjFR4CO9BteB6ggGciPwzVCQHOwA2m7Tkn10/edit

Use your specific educator lens-- teacher, curriculum specialist, instructional coach, administrator or social studies friend-to explore these multi-leveled assets. They contain a wealth of ideas generated by educators across our state and nation. I am confident you will find some tools and strategies to address the many challenges posed by your current circumstance.

As we work through this time together, the mindset of 'challenge as opportunity' remains paramount in our work and in our lives. Please feel free to reach out with thoughts, questions or ideas in the coming days. I want to support you and your mission.

Regards,
Dixie Johnson Grupe​
Director, Social Studies
Office of College and Career Readiness
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
573-751-0398
Dixie.Grupe@dese.mo.gov

Current Standards

The standards, approved on April 19, 2016 are for implementation beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. They will be assessed in Government and HS American History (optional) EOC assessments in a census field test in 2018-2019 and then in operational form beginning in 2019-2020.

Social Studies - K-5: K-5 PDF | K-5 Word
Social Studies - 6-12: 6-12 PDF | 6-12 Word
Social Studies - K-12: K-12 Excel (Updated 02.15.19)

Crosswalks

*Updated 5.30.18
K-5 | MS American History | MS World Geography | MS World History | HS American Government. | HS American History | HS World History

Teacher View

These are the new Missouri Learning Standards K-12 Expectations for Social Studies, but the alternative layout includes details and resources classroom teachers may find helpful.

Additional Resources

Missouri Council for History Education

Build your own Professional Development: Sponsored by Missouri Council for History Education. The Missouri Humanities Council has partnered with MOCHE to sponsor a Visiting Scholars Program. They will line up a team of experts (subject and curriculum development) to meet with your faculty and either talk about improving history education overall and/or how to improve teaching about specific topic areas your faculty suggests. They will bring in university researchers, authors, and seasoned teachers to help your faculty start the year with ideas to energize their classrooms; all at no cost to your district. Interested school districts' in-service coordinator should contact Flannery Burke, Visiting Scholars Coordinator to set a date. fburke@slu.edu

US Holocaust Memorial Museum: History Unfolded

US Holocaust Memorial Museum: History Unfolded is a new project at the museum asking "citizen historians" to help research the way the Holocaust was reported in local US newspapers from 1933 to 1945. For more information on this project: ushmm.org/history-unfolded.

Veterans National Education Program

This on-line resource includes free resources tied to modern history, culture, geography and current events. For more information http://v-nep.org/global-awareness-map/

K-5:

6-12:

All Social Studies awards are currently on hold due to the ongoing pandemic. Check back for more information.

Colloquia Resources

Causation (September 1, 2016) PowerPoint

Equal Protection, Equal Justice PowerPoint

Geography and Geographic Skills (November 3, 2016) PowerPoint

Thinking Like a Social Scientist: Comparative Thinking (November 3, 2016) PowerPoint

Highway Expansion and Landscape Change in East Tennessee

Narratives of the Mother Road: Geographic Themes Along Route 66*

Periodization Colloquium Presentation (March 2, 2017)

Teaching a New History: The History of North America - Kevin Jon Fernlund (March 2, 2017)

Continuity and Change over Time Presentation (September 14, 2017)

Contextualization: How is our story shaped by forces larger than ourselves? (November 2, 2017)

Human Trafficking in Medieval Europe Presentation (November 2, 2017)

Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence Part 1 (February 14, 2018)

Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence Part 2 (May 10, 2018)

Song: Consider the Source (September 20, 2018)

Famed International Paleontologist Excavates World's Largest Dinosaur (September 20, 2018)

Use of Historical Evidence: What Does It Mean to Consider the Source (September 20, 2018)

How Do We Make Meaning form Divergent Sources? (November 15, 2018)

Working Like a Social Scientist: History is an Argument (January 17, 2019)

Argumentation II: How Do We Effectively Use Evidence to Create Meaningful Arguments? (March 20, 2019)

Colloquia IV: Assessing like a Social Scientist Part 1 (September 24, 2019)

Colloquia IV: Assessing like a Social Scientist Part 2 (November 12, 2019)

MOCHE Presentation: "Energizing" your Curriculum (September 24, 2019)

webMapping In Social Studies (November 12, 2019)

The Growth of Presidential Power Presentation (January 14, 2020)

Colloquia IV: Assessing Like a Social Scientist (January 14, 2020)

These historical resources are primary source documents and are thusly reflective of the time and place in which they were written. Take caution in the use of these texts. The documents may contain objectionable content and are not appropriate for all students.

1. Songs from the Civil War - Confluence Spring/Summer 2011

2. Worker Number 74530 - Kate L. Gregg - Confluence Fall 2009

3. When Sleepy Hollow came to St. Louis - Irving - Confluence Spring/Summer 2015

4. A Mean Race Report - CV May 1909

5. Memoir of Faithful Slaves - CV August 1911

6. Monument to Faithful Slaves - CV March 1905

7. Monument to Family Slaves - CV October 1914

8. Monument to Slaves - CV September 1904

9. Problem of the - CV January 1907

10. Tribute to Our Faithful Slaves - CV July 1905

11. Major Ewing's New Book Ad 1906

12. Confederate History in Memorials - CV

13. Stowe Opposition - CV 1902

14. Slave Monument Question - CV November 1904

15. The Lost Cause Ideology and Civil War Memory at the Semicentennial: A Look at the Confederate Monument in St. Louis - Patrick Burkhardt - Confluence Spring/Summer 2011

16. A Confederate Monument for St. Louis - CV

17. St. Louis to Have Confederate Monument - CV January 1906

National Economics Challenge
Teacher Professional Development from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Teacher Resources and Professional Development from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

In 2016 the State Board of Education authorized the organization of a workgroup to evaluate, and possibly make recommendations to modify or revise Personal Finance learning standards. These standards have not changed since 2006 when the State Board of Education revised graduation requirements for Missouri's students to include one-half credit of Personal Finance.

The workgroup, comprised of Missouri educators and community leaders from across the state, began work in December 2016. After more than nine months of work, three public hearings, feedback from educators, higher education representatives and business community members and revisions based on that input, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education presented the standards for approval.

On September 19, 2017, the State Board of Education approved the new standards. Districts should begin preparing local curriculum based on the new standards for implementation in the 2018-2019 school year. Development of a new online assessment tool aligned to the new standards will begin immediately for implementation in the 2019-2020 school year.
Resources for Personal Finance Curriculum Development

1. Personal Finance Course Level Expectations: approved September 2017

2. Personal Finance Crosswalk: 2016 Standards/2017 Standards/Coding

3. Personal Finance Course Level Expectation Excel 2017

4. Personal Finance Competencies: 2006​

5. Resources through the St. Louis Federal Reserve

1. Go to- www.econlowdown.org

2. Log in as a teacher

3. Go to the resource gallery

4. Select resource types and click on Syllabus

5. Select Sample Personal Finance Syllabus with 2017 Missouri Standards to preview

6. Create a classroom

7. Add the syllabus to the classroom and assign desired items.

6. Resources through the Kansas City Federal Reserve

​​​ https://www.kansascityfed.org/education
Personal Finance Assessment:

As part of their curriculum, students in Missouri must earn a 1/2 credit in the area of Personal Finance.

Students who are receiving personal finance credit from embedded coursework: The online assessment is REQUIRED. The pass rate is the district's decision.

Students attempting to "test out" and receive personal finance credit toward graduation: The online assessment is REQUIRED. Students must attain a score of 90% or higher to receive personal finance credit.

Students who are enrolled in a stand-alone personal finance course: The online assessment is OPTIONAL. Participation, however, permits the district to evaluate student achievement with an assessment fully aligned to state standards.

A student may take the Personal Finance Assessment ONE time per testing window.

The Personal Finance Assessment is provided at no cost to districts

In 2014 Missouri legislators passed House Bill 1490, mandating the development of the Missouri Learning Expectations. In April of 2016, these Missouri Learning Expectations were adopted by the State Board of Education. Groups of Missouri educators from across the state collaborated to create the documents necessary to support the implementation of these expectations.

One of the documents developed is the item specification document, which includes all Missouri grade level/course expectations arranged by domains/strands. It defines what could be measured on a variety of assessments. The document serves as the foundation of the assessment development process.

Although teachers may use this document to provide clarity to the expectations, these specifications are intended for summative, benchmark, and large‐scale assessment purposes.

Components of the item specifications include:

Expectation Unwrapped breaks down a list of clearly delineated content and skills the students are expected to know and be able to do upon mastery of the Expectation.

Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Ceiling indicates the highest level of cognitive complexity that would typically be assessed on a large scale assessment. The DOK ceiling is not intended to limit the complexity one might reach in classroom instruction.

Item Format indicates the types of items used in large scale assessment. For each expectation, the item format specifies the type best suited for that particular expectation.

Content Limits/Assessment Boundaries are parameters that item writers should consider when developing a large scale assessment. For example, some expectations should not be assessed on a large scale assessment but are better suited for local assessment.

Sample stems are examples that address the specific elements of each expectation and address varying DOK levels. The sample stems provided in this document are in no way intended to limit the depth and breadth of possible item stems. The expectation should be assessed in a variety of ways.

Text Types suggests a broad list of text types for both literary and informational expectations. This list is not intended to be all inclusive: other text types may be used in the classroom setting. The expectations were written in grade level bands; for this reason, the progression of the expectations relies upon increasing levels of quantitative and qualitative text complexities. (English Language Arts Only)

Calculator Designation indicates whether a calculator will be available for test questions written to a particular expectations on the large-scale assessment. (Mathematics Only)

Stimulus Materials defines types of stimulus materials that can be used in the item stems. (Science and Social Studies Only)

Possible Evidence indicates observable methods in which a student can show understanding of the expectations. (Science Only)

Social Studies Item Specifications (Updated 5.30.18)

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Quick Links Supports for Remote Teaching and Learning Assessment Associations Conferences Missouri Learning Standards Social Studies Meeting Registration Information Waiver Information Good day Missouri Social Studies educators, Like so many other previously seemingly routine tasks, even drafting a back-to school message is proving a bit more complex this August.

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Critical Thinking in the Social Studies Classroom

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Critical Thinking in the Social Studies Classroom

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World of Primary Sources!

Let’s Get Sourcing!

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Bringing History to Life in Elementary School by Analyzing Photos

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Bringing History to Life in Elementary School by Analyzing Photos

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Guided inquiry based on primary source photographs can deepen young students' interest in history.

Burke & Atwell / Glasshouse Images / Alamy Stock Photo

A 1916 protest against President Woodrow Wilson's opposition to women's suffrage

History has the potential to be a captivating subject in elementary classrooms, but too often, it involves rote memorization and lacks relevance. As a result, students are often disengaged.

Instead, children should learn about history in ways that promote critical thinking and encourage them to better understand the world by making connections between past and present. Bruce VanSledright referred to this approach as " historical thinking," or engaging in the same thinking processes used by historians.

This means learning how to analyze primary sources, like photographs and artifacts, to understand important ideas like chronology, how the human experience has changed throughout time, and the causes and consequences of historical events. Guiding students to think critically about history enables them to evaluate how decisions made in the past impact the present and to reenvision a more just future.

I've found photographs powerful in fostering students' historical thinking; they provide a visual entry point and prevent the reading barriers that students sometimes experience with text-based sources. Like other primary sources, photographs tell a story about history.

Getting Started

First, determine the major learning goals you hope students will achieve when studying a particular topic. Standards are a helpful guide, but they're often broad. One state social studies standard regarding women's suffrage states, "Examine the main ideas of the suffragists' movement," which can include manyimportant ideas, including civil rights, equality, and representation.

Intentionally select historical photographs that reflect the major learning goals you've determined. Then, create questions for each step of the three-step analysis process while keeping in mind the purpose of each step.

Include several guiding questions for students to consider regardless of the photograph you select, such as "What do you observe in the photo?" and "What color is the photo?" Other guiding questions should be context-specific, such as "How does this source help us better understand the women's suffrage movement?"

Visual Discovery Activities

Teachers' Curriculum Institute provides a helpful framework for guiding students in analyzing historical photographs. Titled "Visual Discovery," the activity scaffolds student thinking through three steps: gathering evidence, interpreting evidence, and making hypotheses from the evidence.

Students gather evidence as they pay close attention to details, such as people, objects, and text. Next, they begin to interpret evidence as they make inferences about those details. Students then draw conclusions about the story that the photograph seeks to tell; they consider how the photographer's perspective may influence that story and make connections between past and present.

When implementing this kind of activity, you can create an anchor chart and/or graphic organizer that includes guiding questions for each step. The following samples present the three-step process for learners in kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth grades.

Grades K-2: Ruby Bridges

With this photo of Ruby Bridges, invite students to gather evidence using guiding questions like these: What do you see (people, objects, place)? Do you see adults, children, or both? What do you notice about their skin color? What do you notice about the place? What color is the photograph?

Next, offer questions that help students interpret the evidence: Who are the people in the photo? Do you think the photo was taken today or a long time ago? Where do you think the photo takes place? Why are the adults helping the young girl out of the building? What do you see in the photo that supports your conclusions?

Support students' making hypotheses from evidence, asking these questions: What story is the photo trying to tell? Who do you think took the photo and why? What more do we want to know about the person who took it? The time period? What have we learned about Ruby Bridges from this photo? What more do we want to know about Ruby Bridges? What does this photo make you think of today?

Analyzing photographs captivates my elementary students and draws them into historical narratives. However, they typically want to skip the first step and immediately make interpretations. Don't let them do this! Gathering evidence requires a thoughtful look at details. There are many men in suits and ties in the Ruby Bridges photo, but one is wearing a police cap-an important detail that students could miss if they don't observe evidence first.

Grades 3-5: Women's Suffrage Movement

For a lesson based on the photo above from the women's suffrage movement, support students' gathering evidence with questions like these: What do you observe (people, objects, place, text)? What kind of clothing are the people wearing? Do they appear to be men, women, or a mix of both? What words or text do you see on the signs? What do you notice about the location? What color is the photo?

Help them interpret evidence, asking: Who are the people in the photo? When and where do you think the photo took place? What are the people trying to accomplish? What evidence from the photo supports your conclusions?

Students can create hypotheses using questions such as these: What story is the photo trying to tell? What more do we want to know about the creator of the photo? About the historical context of the photo? Why do you think the creator took the photo? How does this source help us to better understand the women's suffrage movement? What more do we want to know about the women's suffrage movement? How does this photo remind us of voting and/or gender rights today?

Guiding elementary students through the analysis process often leads to more questions, which is exciting and a powerful way into future instruction. For the women's suffrage photo, my students were intrigued to know more about the photographer. What was their stance regarding the civil rights of women? Was this photo taken to help or hinder the cause? They also wanted to know more about the experiences of women of color who faced intersecting levels of oppression, particularly in the Jim Crow South. Document students' questions and weave them into subsequent learning experiences.

These activities are powerful tools for guiding elementary students to think like historians, providing an accessible scaffold for engaging students with powerful history topics and concepts, and with critical thinking about the past.

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Bringing History to Life in Elementary School by Analyzing Photos

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Guided inquiry, paired with primary source photos, can be a powerful strategy for elementary school history classes.

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Teaching with your mouth shut and other things that happen in an inquiry-based classroom

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Teaching with your mouth shut and other things that happen in an inquiry-based classroom

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History, technology, and probably some other stuff

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Teaching social studies in a polarized world

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Teaching social studies in a polarized world

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In recent years, division over how social studies should be taught has plagued school districts around the country.

The irony, according to Lawrence Paska, executive director of the National Council for the Social Studies, is that in many places, the subject is "not being taught, period."

Social studies is sometimes seen as an afterthought, left out of daily instruction, he said. But instead of strengthening social studies or helping more students engage with the subject, the focus in recent years has been on undermining or attacking it, he said.

The increasing politicization of social studies was a concern shared by many educators, education leaders, researchers and advocates at last week's annual NCSS conference in Nashville. Sessions examined ways educators can navigate state laws that limit conversations on race and other difficult topics, as well as how they can develop the high quality materials and instruction those attending said was vital to preparing students for civic life.

About 3,500 people attended the conference, among them K-12 and higher ed educators who teach the subjects that constitute social studies - including history, civics, geography, economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, law and religious studies.

Last month, NCSS updated its definition of social studies as the "study of individuals, communities, systems, and their interactions across time and place that prepares students for local, national, and global civic life." The revised definition is meant to emphasize an inquiry-based approach, in which students start by asking questions, then learn to analyze credible sources, said Wesley Hedgepeth, NCSS president.

The group also chose to set out guidance for elementary and secondary school social studies instruction, to emphasize that education in the topic must begin in the early grades, Hedgepeth said.

The inquiry-based approach is defined within the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, a set of decade-old, Common Core-like guidance for social studies. The approach has received pushback from conservative politicians who want to see more "patriotic" social studies curriculums, experts at the conference said.

Critics say revisions, or attempted revisions, to social studies standards by policy makers in states such as Virginia and South Dakota remove inquiry-based learning. The new standards instead emphasize "rote memorization of facts that are deemed to help children become more patriotic," said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. Educators and researchers say these efforts are part of a pattern - deliberate or not - of flooding state standards and curriculums with so much content that it becomes impossible for teachers to spend the time needed to go in-depth on topics and for students to engage in critical thinking or questioning.

While it isn't new for state legislatures and boards to step in to dictate what's taught, what's different now is that laws prohibit teaching certain histories rather than requiring them to be taught, according to Grossman.

While many educators at the conference seemed to want to avoid politics and focus on their instruction, they recognized that simply choosing to be a social studies teacher can be seen as taking a political side. Conservative politicians today increasingly see social studies teachers as targets, attendees said. Educators from Virginia, Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky, among other states, said fights over social studies standards or anti-critical race theory and anti-LGBTQ+ laws have been bruising. Some talked about receiving death threats and being doxxed, while others said they were increasingly fearful of losing their jobs.

In a workshop on how educators can get involved in advocacy efforts surrounding state revisions of history and social studies standards, Virginia teachers shared how they organized to fight a controversial social studies standards revision under the administration of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Sam Futrell, a middle school social studies teacher and president of the Virginia Council for the Social Studies, said educators organized their state professional organizations and local unions to push back against a draft revision that she said included several errors and omissions such as referring to Native Americans as "America's first immigrants."

Sessions at the conference also focused on how to strengthen and improve social studies materials and instruction. Educators from several states, including Maryland, Iowa and Kentucky, spoke about the need for curriculum and resources that don't simply cater to big states like Florida, California and Texas. Social studies curriculum publishers from Imagine Learning, Core Knowledge and Pearson also talked about their efforts to update materials to make them relevant to kids from diverse backgrounds and to work more closely with educators in different states to meet their needs.

Some school leaders said they need high-quality resources that can help teachers who aren't specialists in a particular subject or area of history to fill gaps in their knowledge. Others said the absence of a national approach to social studies instruction is an obstacle to ensuring that all students have a common framework for understanding the country and its history and participating in civic life.

Bruce Lesh, supervisor of elementary social studies for Carroll County Public schools in Maryland, said that while math, science and English have national frameworks for instruction, nothing equivalent exists in social studies. The C3 Framework discusses how to teach social studies, but it's not like the Next-Gen science standards or Common Core English and math standards that lay the groundwork for what to teach and help all students gather a common set of knowledge and skills.

In those other disciplines, said Lesh, "There was an effort to take the inequity out of what was taught to students."
This story about social studies was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

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Teaching social studies in a polarized world - The Hechinger Report

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At the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee, educators discussed how the culture wars are reshaping their work at a time when simply teaching the subject may be viewed as political.

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What themes are emerging from state AI guidance?

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What themes are emerging from state AI guidance?

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States are focusing on how the tech will impact the workforce as they stress the need for AI literacy.

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What themes are emerging from state AI guidance?

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States are focusing on how the tech will impact the workforce as they stress the need for AI literacy.

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

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National Council for the Social Studies first published national curriculum standards in 1994. Since then, the social studies standards have been widely and successfully used as a framework for teachers, schools, districts, states, and other nations as a tool for curriculum alignment and development. However, much has changed in the world and in education since these curriculum standards were published. This 2010 revision aims to provide a framework for teaching, learning, and assessment in social studies that includes a sharper articulation of curriculum objectives, and reflects greater consistency across the different sections of the document. It incorporates current research and suggestions for improvement from many experienced practitioners. These revised standards reflect a desire to continue and build upon the expectations established in the original standards for effective social studies in the grades from pre-K through 12.

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

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National Council for the Social Studies first published national curriculum standards in 1994. Since then, the social studies standards have been widely and successfully used as a framework for teachers, schools, districts, states, and other nations as a tool for curriculum alignment and development.

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Read more about social studies in K-12 schools, including history and civic.

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Social Studies and Science Get Short Shrift in Elementary Schools

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Social Studies and Science Get Short Shrift in Elementary Schools

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Social Studies and Science Get Short Shrift in Elementary Schools

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To Make Assignments More Meaningful, I’m Giving Students a More Authentic Audience

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To Make Assignments More Meaningful, I’m Giving Students a More Authentic Audience

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This fall, after a restless night overthinking an assignment for my upcoming class and drinking three cups of not-strong-enough coffee, I added the final touch on my latest assignment for students in my World History II class.

I was finally satisfied with the plan I had for my 10th graders, when it hit me: none of this actually matters.

To be clear, this assignment would require students to analyze documents and write their own responses using evidence, which are important skills of course, but it would inevitably lead to me manically red inking papers that ultimately were written because I assigned an essay that would only ever be read by me.

Unfortunately, my students' work - and the inkblots which carried my feedback - would never get into the hands of readers who could make change. So, the hours students spent writing and the time I spent grading would have no impact outside the four walls of my classroom.

It was a maddening moment of clarity for me. Sure, the skills of writing may have been practiced, but so what? To what end? As a high school social studies teacher, my job includes helping students learn to use evidence to present arguments, engage in civil discourse and take informed action to bring about change. A core part of that is preparing students to write out in the real world.

But there are forces that get in the way. Curricular mandates and pressure from school and district leaders, for example, can create a teaching and learning environment that fosters insular, make-work assignments. When I considered some of my latest assignments, I realized that's what I was doing - these writing tasks embodied work without deep value or authentic audiences. As a result, my students were only completing them for a grade, and had lost sight of why they're learning any of this at all. I couldn't blame them.

I had a related revelation a few years ago, when I began to recognize that curriculum without a why is problematic. Since then, I've redesigned my curriculum, honing in on an overarching essential question for each unit that allows me to explore modern, relevant issues with students. I like to think of this shift as a transition from content-based to issues-based curriculum.

As I reflected on the evolution of my curriculum and why I was teaching what I was teaching, I questioned how I'd landed on the tasks I'd been assigning students.

While looking for research and ideas for how to make a change, a close friend of mine recommended a talk by Larry McEnerney, who served as director of the writing program at the University of Chicago for 30 years, about the craft of effective writing. While McEnerney was speaking to graduate students, some of his points resonated deeply for my work with high schoolers, particularly as he pointed out a hard truth about writing in the educational system: "Teachers read texts because they are paid to care about the students. You've learned to write in a system where you're writing to readers who are paid to care about you. That will stop," McEnerney said.

This served as a reminder that make-work assignments can hinder students' writing abilities because students write only with the teacher and assignment in mind, as opposed to a genuine audience of readers interested in deepening their understanding or making a change.

With McEnerney's points in the back of my mind, I began wondering how I could provide students with opportunities to write in a variety of contexts that served authentic audiences.

I wanted to build upon the curricular updates I've made to develop more meaningful assignments in which students could write for an audience of readers positioned to make change. If I could offer students more opportunities to interact with these issues, I thought, I could help them tap into the why of their learning.

Giving My Students Something to Talk About

For students to say something interesting, meaningful and authentic, they need something interesting, meaningful and authentic to talk about.

This isn't a novel idea. There are a number of teaching methods developed with this idea in mind, such as project-based learning, which centers on students building skills through working on an engaging project with purpose, and inquiry-based learning, which allows students to develop their own questions and curiosities about content. And this concept was a driving force as I redesigned my own curriculum, anchoring it to real, timely, pressing issues that impact my students.

To develop writing assignments that would promote student agency and empowerment, I knew I needed to consider their audience. Who would read their work?

At first, I started small, taking one unit from my American History class - "The Early Republic," - and reflecting on why students truly needed to learn the content, how it's relevant today and what kinds of assignments would provide opportunities for students to write for an audience that would motivate them.

This unit covered the Constitutional Convention, the factions that formed in early American history, and the establishment of the American government system. When I reoriented this unit around an engaging issue, I created an important essential question that would address problems that I knew would resonate with my students: Who are "We, the People?" in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution?

By shifting the focus of the unit from historical content to this essential question, I was able to help students explore a number of modern issues, including representation, government structures and voter suppression. Students began to think more critically about who was being represented by the Constitution, and more importantly, who was not.

In prior years, this unit culminated with an essay in which students responded to the essential question. This year I decided to experiment with a new assignment where students had the option to write a letter to a legislator, a nonprofit organization, a lobbyist or a political action group to help advocate for potential policy changes to better represent "the people."

This pivot changed everything for students. In addition to learning about the Constitutional Convention and early American history, they learned how to use their writing to advocate for issues they cared about. They worked collaboratively and brainstormed people and organizations to send their work to. They began seeking feedback on their work before they sent it because there were stakes beyond grades. It even sparked a meta-discussion around whether they, the students, were a part of "We, the People," and if their voices could inspire change.

After experiencing success reworking this assignment, I tried it with a unit from my World History class called "Atlantic Revolutions," which included the American, French, Haitian and Mexican revolutions.

I had already reframed the unit from focusing solely on historical content to applying historical understanding to modern challenges, particularly the essential question, "Is the United States heading towards political violence?" Students evaluated the usefulness of a number of academic theories, including Louis Gottschalk's Theory of Revolution and Symbolic Politics Theory, decided which theory was most comprehensive and then applied it to the modern-day U.S.

Rather than culminating the unit by having students write yet another essay for me, I offered them an opportunity to write to a political theorist, an academic, a law enforcement officer, legislator or news pundit, regarding the current threat of political violence through utilizing one of the theories they studied.

They began asking questions like, "Who should I write to?" and "Who has the power to actually change things?" and "How do I find the contact information of those in positions of power?" By developing more authentic writing opportunities, the historical content in our units became alive and useful for my students.

Beyond the Curriculum

My greatest fear as a teacher is a student raising their hand in class and genuinely asking, "Why do we need to know this?"- and me stumbling to land on a clear, important answer. This nightmare keeps me up at night (hence the need for those three cups of coffee).

Grounding my units in important modern issues has allowed my students to see the value in what they are learning, and designing assignments that empower them to make a difference has made the purpose more evident. It's been exciting to witness my students engaging with the content more meaningfully through interactions with the world outside of the classroom.

This idea has been critical for me as a social studies teacher, but it goes beyond the social studies classroom. To engage our students in deep learning across disciplines, any teacher can reflect on their content and ask themselves questions like, "Why am I teaching this?" and "Is this the most meaningful assignment I can offer?" If they're not satisfied with the answer, centering a core issue that students can apply their learning toward might help.

I got into this profession to make a difference. What really matters isn't if my students can regurgitate information on a quiz or write a formulaic five paragraph essay. What matters most to me is that they see the value in what they are learning, develop agency in how they engage with it and believe that their voice matters in this world.

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To Make Assignments More Meaningful, I'm Giving Students a More Authentic Audience - EdSurge News

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This fall, after a restless night overthinking an assignment for my upcoming class and drinking three cups of not-strong-enough coffee, I added the ...