Balanced Achievement and Accountability

1. Balanced Achievement and Accountability Benchmarking to Exemplary Practice in Social Studies February 2, 2009

2. Why are you here? • To discuss the Social Studies Departmental role in RSD Educational Strategic Plan for 2006-2012 • To help students obtain skills embedded in RSD mission statement - specifically become a productive and responsible citizen

3. Vision for Social Studies Department • The Social Studies Department is a learning community united in its commitment to insuring that students develop an understanding of foundational versus issue-based perspectives of human interaction from a world view to a regional view to a national view culminating in its application.

4. Social Studies Vision Scaffold Application Grade 12 National View Grade 11 Regional View Grade 10 World View Grade 9

5. What links the curriculum vision? • Commonality of content focus, skills development, instructional strategies and literacy development. • Grade 9- Focus on cultural, political and economic development based on physical characteristics. Emphasis is onexplaining spatial patterns of phenomena that answer the how question. • Grade 10 - Build on geographical knowledge and skills that allow for a focus on regional European development and influences through the millennium. Emphasis is on analyzing spatial patterns of phenomena that answer the why question. • Grade 11 - Continue to build on previous geographic and skill knowledge for a focus on the development of the American experience and character. Emphasis is on analyzing spatial patterns of phenomena that answer the why question. • Grade 12 - Application of knowledge and skills to the understanding analysis of national and world events.

6. How does the departmental vision connect to the state standards? • The overall vision is based on the collective social studies standards for geography, history, civics and government, and economics. • Within specific grade level content, emphasis is placed on specific domains. For example, the content for grades 9 and 10 draws heavily from the geography and world history standards.

7. Curriculum priorities • A standard describes the minimal behavior that a student should demonstrate if he or she is to be considered proficient. • At a specific grade level, the strategic plan calls for the development of a curriculum so that all students can demonstrate proficiency in meeting a stated standard. • Leveled curricula must fulfill this need by having all students demonstrate proficiency on essential knowledge and skills. • Because of this need, social studies curriculum content at each grade level will be prioritized into essential, important and compact categories.

8. Prioritized Curriculum Map of Standards and Objectives H Important Compact Essential Essential Important CP Essential CCP

9. Prioritized Instructional Time Map of Curriculum Content H 20% I 20% C 60% E 75% E 25% I CP 100% E CCP

10. Development of Curriculum Map Across Block/Course Every course needs to develop: • A power curriculum that prioritizes instructional design with an accompanying set of instructional objectives and a curriculum map. …So, what is a power curriculum?

11. High Impact Strategies Literacy Writing Strategies Extended Thinking Skills Summarizing Vocabulary in Context Advance Organizers Non-Verbal Representations Content Vocabulary Writing to inform Summary point writing Distributed summarizing Content Literacy Reading Strategies Main Idea Sequencing Compare/Contrast Fact/Opinion Cause/Effect Inferences Assessment Common Summative Formative Portfolio

13. The Bottom Line for 2009 • Grade 9 - Course will be Human Geography • Grade 9 will use the TCI Geography Alive! textbook • Grade 10 - Course will be European History • Grade 10 will use Prentice Hall World History: The Modern Era textbook