Supporting+Resources

NCSS Understanding by Design Links to Professional Organizations and Centers:
 * State Standards
 * Essential Questions ||

Center for Civic Education: [|www.civiced.org] National Center for History in the Schools: [|www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs] National Council on Economics Education: [|www.ncee.net] National Council for Geographic Education: [|www.ncge.org] Oranganization of American Historians: [|www.oah.org]

What is an Essential Question? http://www.authenticeducation.org/bigideas/article.lasso?artId=53

What is a Big Idea? http://www.authenticeducation.org/bigideas/article.lasso?artid=43

Sample SS Inquiry Lesson Plan: []

Here is an article about "Helping Elementary Students Read for Information" []

And, here is an article titled, "Helping Young Readers Navigate Nonfiction Texts."

[]

Here is a great list of trade books with SS themes:



And another list:



And[| here] is a site with great lists of children's literature for each of the SS themes.

=CT State Standards= [| ct state standards 1998.pdf]

Here is a PDF file of the most current draft of the SS Standards from the [|National Council for the Social Studies]:
[| StandardsDraft10_08.pdf]

In this 136 page document, you'll find the 10 themes of social studies previously presented in the earlier draft and from which we designed our K-5 scope and sequence.

I. CULTURE II. TIME, CONTINUITY & CHANGE III. PEOPLE, PLACES & ENVIRONMENT IV. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT & IDENTITY V. INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS & INSTITUTIONS VI. POWER, AUTHORITY & GOVERNANCE VII. PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION & COSUMPTION VIII. SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IX. GLOBAL CONNECTIONS X. CIVIC IDEALS & PRACTICES

You'll also find descriptions of the following categories for each of the 10 themes which will provide guidance as we develop our units:

Purposes Key Questions (exemplars) for Exploration Knowledge - the learner will understand Processes - learners will be able to Possible student products - students might demonstrate their knowledge, skills and dispositions by and Examples of actual classroom practice presented as "Snap Shots into Practice" at the end of each Theme description.

Beginning on page 130, you'll find "Essential Social Studies Skills & Strategies" listed for each strand which will also help guide the development of our units.

=Understanding by Design= I am reviewing the Understanding by Design Handbook by McTighe and Wiggens who help us to use backwards design of curriculum to teach for understanding. "Food for thought..."

The design process they describe calls for stating a targeted understanding as a proposition, as opposed to stating it as a topic only. The aim is to state clearly what is to be learned, not merely what the area of inquiry will be; what the student should take away, not merely what the teacher will cover.

By selecting understandings as the focus of a unit, designers are asked to state clearly what is to be understood. By stating targeted understanding as a topic only, teachers typically offer a vague phrase about the content, instead of the specific understandings that are meant to result. To say, "I want students to understand the Civil War" or "I want students to understand friendship," is to say nothing about what, specifically, students should understand about those topics. Although saying, 'I want students to understand the causes and effects of the Civil War" or "Friends are different from family," narrows the focus of the topic, these statements still do not specify exactly what insights into cause and effect the teacher wants students to leave with.

To provide greater clarity for teachers and students about what is important, they recommend stating a desired understanding as a generalization or a proposition, not as a phrase or word. Stating the desired understanding as a generalization provides a sharper target for teaching and assessing. For example, stating that a unit goal is for students to understand "the causes of the Civil War" does not say specifically //what// understanding about cause and effect is expected. By contrast, the statement, "the Civil War was fought over states' rights issues more than over the morality of slavery," is a full statement - a generalization summarizing intended insight, not just the topic. Stating desired understandings as specific generalizations makes it much easier for designer and student alike to realize what particular knowledge, activities, and assessments are needed to support that understanding. Similarly, an enduring understanding such as, "True friendship is revealed during hard times," sharpens the friendship unit.

A unit for understanding must involve more than learning the generalization as a statement - as if it were fact. Teaching will entail uncovering the understanding - not merely covering it - if the student is to be more than merely familiar with a claim and have insight into its meaning and importance. Indeed, the mere //stating// of intended understandings, either by the teacher or by the teacher pointing them out in the text//, is the cardinal mistake of coverage, which treats complex ideas as words to be learned. Instead, teachers should be helping students explore the ideas' meaning and confirm their wisdom.//

How do educators determine what is worth understanding from among a range of content standards, topics, and goals and objectives? McTighe and Wiggens offer four criteria, or filters, to use in selecting big ideas and core processes to teach for understanding:

1. To what extent are the content standards and topics //enduring and transferable big ideas, having value beyond the classroom?

2.// To what extent are the content standards and topics //big ideas and core processes at the heart of the discipline?

3.//To what extent are the content standards and topics //abstract, counterintuitive, often misunderstood, or easily misunderstood ideas requiring uncoverage?//

4. To what extent are the content standards and topics //big ideas embedded in facts, skills, and activities?//

(examples) From Cathy Watson at Ox Ridge: Big Idea: //Force Causes Motion and Motion Causes Change// -- can be used as an overarching Big Idea for most, if not all SS in grades 4/5, as well as those in science for most grades. Forces in SS include political, economic, religious, geographic/natural, etc. These forces have occured throughout history and are the catalysts for motions, or movements, which can be literal (exploration/settlement, immigration, etc) or figurative (such as Movements/Ideas of pre-Revolution, etc.). These movements form major changes throughout history and culture and have shaped our modern world.
 * Overarching Essential Questions in Social Studies **

Of course, in science, the forces may include gravitational, geo-natural, biological, etc. The motions or movements can range from celestial (earth's rotation and and tilt, water cycle and weather, etc) to geo-natural (movements of earth's surface, flow of rivers, etc) to biological (sound waves, blood and air flow, etc). The changes are the effects/ results of these forces/motions (i.e. seasons, day/night, weather patterns, sounds made/sights seen, erosion, rock formations, circular/respiratory systems). These changes affect the way we live, just as in Social Studies.

Chris Basta's Sample UBD unit [| Colonization Unit Standards Based.doc]


 * Samples of essential questions that have been compiled by Jay McTighe, coauthor of Understanding by Design as conveyed to Rich Frias by email. **

§ What happened in the past? § How can we know if we weren’t there? § Why study history? § What can we learn from the past? § How am I connected to those in the past? § In what ways is the past about me? § How do we know what really happened in the past? § Whose "story" is it? § Whom do we believe and why? § Is history the story told by the "winners"? § Is history inevitably biased? § Who were the "winners" and who were the "losers" in ? (for any historical event) § Was anyone at fault? (for examining any historical or literary event) § What causes change? § What remains the same? § What can we legitimately infer about the artifacts we find? § What should we do when the primary sources disagree? § How does the legacy of earlier groups and individuals influence subsequent generations? § How do patterns of cause/effect manifest themselves in the chronology of history? § How has the world changed and how might it change in the future? § Is it true that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? ** Civics/Government ** § How are governments created, structured, maintained, and changed? § What are the roles and responsibilities of government? § How do the structures and functions of government interrelate? § What would happen if we had no government? § What are the roles and responsibilities of citizen’s in a democracy? § What kinds of things to "good" citizens do? § How do personal and civic responsibilities differ? § Can an individual make a difference? § How do citizens (both individually and collectively) influence government policy? § What is power? § What forms does it take? § How do competing interest influence how power is distributed and exercised? § How is power gained, used, and justified? § How can abuse of power be avoided? § Who should govern/rule? § Should the majority always rule? § When should society control individuals? § Why do we have rules and laws? § What would happen if we didn’t? § Who should make the rules/laws? § Is it ever o.k. to break the law? § What are "inalienable rights"? § How do governments balance the rights of individuals with the common good? § Should _ __be restricted/regulated? (e.g., immigration, alcohol/drugs, media, etc.) When? Who decides?__ § How do different political systems vary in their toleration and encouragement of change? ** Economics ** § Why do we have money? § What is the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’? § How does something acquire value? § What is it worth? § How much should it cost? Who decides? § Who should produce goods and services? § What impact does scarcity have on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services? § How does the free market system affect my life? …our community? …our society? …the world? § Who should produce goods and services? § Should government regulate business/economy or be its partner? § Why do people to work? Should everyone be expected to work? § What does it mean to "make a living"? § What is the ‘best’ job for you? § How does technological change influence people's lives? …society? § What social, political and economic opportunities and problems arise from changes in technology? § What goods and services should government provide? Who should pay for them? Who should benefit from them? Who should decide? § How do different economic systems vary in their toleration and encouragement of change? ** Geography ** § Why is "where" important? § Why is/was __ located there? (e.g., capitol, factory, battle, etc.) § What makes places unique and different? § How does geography, climate and natural resources affect the way people live and work? § How does where I live influence how I live? § Why do people move? § What do we mean by ‘region’? § What story do maps and globes tell? § How and why do maps and globes change? § How do maps and globes reflect history, politics, and economics? ** Culture ** § o What does it mean to be "civilized"? o What makes a civilization? § How have civilizations evolved § Are modern civilizations more ‘civilized’ than ancient ones? § Why should we be interested in/study other cultures? § Who are the "heroes" and what do they reveal about a culture? § o How and why do we celebrate holidays? o Who and what do we §  memorialize? § What are the significant symbols and icons of civilizations/cultures? What § function(s) do they serve? § Do the arts reflect or shape culture? § What can we learn about a culture through its art forms? § What happens when cultures collide? § Why do people fight? Is conflict inevitable? …desirable? § What is worth fighting for? Is there such a thing as a "just" war? § What is a revolution? § What causes people to ‘revolt’? § Are revolutions inevitable? § How are all religions the same? § How does belief influence action? § How and why do beliefs change? ** Essential Questions from the ** § What is civic participation and how can I be involved? § How has the meaning of citizenship evolved? § What is the balance between rights and responsibilities? § What is the role of the citizen in the community and the nation, and as a member of the world community? § How can I make a positive difference? ** TIME, CONTIUITY, CHANGE ** § Who am I?  §  What happened in the past? § How am I connected to those in the past? § How has the world changed and how might it change in the future? Why does our personal sense of relatedness to the past change? How can the perspective we have about our own life experiences be viewed as part of the larger human story across time? § How do our personal stories reflect varying points of view and inform contemporary ideas and actions? ** PEOPLE, PLACES, ENVIRONMENT ** § Where are things located? § Why are they located where they are? § What patterns are reflected in the groupings of things? § What do we mean by region? § How do landforms change? § What implications do these changes have for people? ** POWER, AUTHORITY, GOVERNANCE ** § What is power? § What forms does it take? § Who holds it? § How is it gained, used, and justified? § What is legitimate authority? § How are governments created, structured, maintained, and changed? § How can we keep government responsive to its citizens' needs and interests? § How can individual rights be protected within the context of majority rule? ** PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, CONSUMPTION ** § What is to be produced? § How is production to be organized? § How are goods and services to be distributed? § What is the most effective allocation of the factors of production (land, labor, capital, and management)? ** SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY ** § Is new technology always better than that which it will replace? § What can we learn from the past about how new technologies result in broader social change, some of which is unanticipated? § How can we cope with the ever-increasing pace of change, perhaps even with the feeling that technology has gotten out of control? § How can we manage technology so that the greatest number of people benefit from it? § How can we preserve our fundamental values and beliefs in a world that is rapidly becoming one technology-linked village? ** CIVIC IDEALS and PRACTICES ** § What is civic participation and how can I be involved? § How has the meaning of citizenship evolved? § What is the balance between rights and responsibilities? § What is the role of the citizen in the community and the nation, and as a member of the world community?
 * History/Historical Analysis and Interpretation **
 * NATIONAL COUNCIL of SOCIAL STUDIES **
 * CULTURE **

= Sample Teachers College Units of Study in Reading = = = As we begin to explore the possibility of integrating our Social Studies units with our Language Arts workshops, you might find it helpful to review these units of study for reader's workshop from the [|Teachers College Reading and Writing Project].

The following units of study were developed by graduate students in one of Lucy Calkins’ classes at Teachers College. The authors have agreed to share their units electronically with you in hopes that you make them your own. Think of these as rough drafts (albeit especially well developed, rich, promising drafts) and tweak, alter, splice, turn inside out. You’ll notice that most of the units include a letter written by the author, looking back on the unit after it was written, thinking about ways to improve on it.

[| Unit Letter- social issues 3-5.doc]

[| social issues unit 3-5.doc]

[| Social Issues 3rd unit.doc]

[| ReadingContentAreaUnit.doc]

[| intro letter-historical fiction.doc]

[| READING HISTORICAL FICTION WITH A CRITICAL LENS_COMPLETE UNIT.doc]

[| Letter for Project hidtorical fiction entire.doc]

[| Entire Unit of Study- historical fiction.doc]