Social Studies Resources
NYS Social Studies Resource Toolkit Conceptual Foundations
The Toolkit is designed to put instructional and curriculum design tools into the hands of teachers and leaders in local districts. The Toolkit resources focus on implementation of the Inquiry Arc, as presented in The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, including the four dimensions: (1) Developing questions and planning inquiries, (2) Applying disciplinary concepts and tools, (3) Evaluating sources and using evidence and (4) Communicating conclusions and taking informed action.
The Conceptual Foundations provides the intellectual foundation for the Toolkit project and specifically, the Inquiry Design Model. The Inquiry Design Model (IDM) is a distinctive approach to creating instructional materials that avoids over-prescription by highlighting key elements, offering pedagogical suggestions, and relying on teacher expertise and experience.
Written by New York State teachers for New York State teachers, the centerpiece of the Toolkit are inquiries that are provided for all K-12 teachers. An inquiry is larger than a lesson plan but smaller than a unit; they are not scripts or modules for teachers to follow. Rather, these inquiries set a curricular and instructional course that teachers can consider in light of the NY Framework. In this way, teachers must bring their professional expertise and knowledge of successful instructional practice into the inquiry.
Within the Toolkit are 84 inquiries: six at each grade K-11 and twelve at grade 12 (six each for Economics and Participation in Government). Each of the inquiries features a blueprint and a short description of how the inquiry might be taught. Fourteen of the inquiries (one at each grade K-11 and two at grade 12) are fully annotated with explanations. Review of the annotated inquiry is a recommended first step for teachers, as it provides considerable curricular and instructional guidance in implementing an inquiry-based approach.
Select a grade band below to see the array of inquiries being developed for each grade level. By viewing the topics for each inquiry, curriculum teams can begin planning their work to develop additional inquiries for the remaining grade-level topics.
Topics and Key Ideas of Toolkit Inquiries:
Kindergarten-Grade 4 Inquiry Topics and Key Ideas
Grades 5-8 Inquiry Topics and Key Ideas
Grades 9-12 Inquiry Topics and Key Ideas
The Conceptual Foundations provides the intellectual foundation for the Toolkit project and specifically, the Inquiry Design Model. The Inquiry Design Model (IDM) is a distinctive approach to creating instructional materials that avoids over-prescription by highlighting key elements, offering pedagogical suggestions, and relying on teacher expertise and experience.
Written by New York State teachers for New York State teachers, the centerpiece of the Toolkit are inquiries that are provided for all K-12 teachers. An inquiry is larger than a lesson plan but smaller than a unit; they are not scripts or modules for teachers to follow. Rather, these inquiries set a curricular and instructional course that teachers can consider in light of the NY Framework. In this way, teachers must bring their professional expertise and knowledge of successful instructional practice into the inquiry.
Within the Toolkit are 84 inquiries: six at each grade K-11 and twelve at grade 12 (six each for Economics and Participation in Government). Each of the inquiries features a blueprint and a short description of how the inquiry might be taught. Fourteen of the inquiries (one at each grade K-11 and two at grade 12) are fully annotated with explanations. Review of the annotated inquiry is a recommended first step for teachers, as it provides considerable curricular and instructional guidance in implementing an inquiry-based approach.
Select a grade band below to see the array of inquiries being developed for each grade level. By viewing the topics for each inquiry, curriculum teams can begin planning their work to develop additional inquiries for the remaining grade-level topics.
Topics and Key Ideas of Toolkit Inquiries:
Kindergarten-Grade 4 Inquiry Topics and Key Ideas
Grades 5-8 Inquiry Topics and Key Ideas
Grades 9-12 Inquiry Topics and Key Ideas
| social-studies-conceptual-foundations.pdf |
NYS Social Studies Core Curriculum (Click Here to Download)
In Social Studies classes students confront questions about the wonder and excitement of humankind in the world. How have humans defined themselves and made meaning of the world? How are we connected to and different from those who have come before us? What does all of humankind have in common? Who are we as a nation and what are our values and traditions? How did we get to be the way we are? How have we found unity in the midst of our diversity? Which individuals and groups contributed to our development? What are our great achievements as a nation? Where have we failed and what do we need to change? What are our responsibilities to ourselves and to society at large? What will we be like in the future? What is our place in the world? In short, social studies classes help students understand their roots, see their connections to the past, comprehend their context, recognize the commonality of people across time, appreciate the delicate balance of rights and responsibilities in an open society, and develop the habits of thoughtful analysis and reflective thinking.
| ss_core_curriculum.pdf |
NYS Social Studies Framework Grades K-8 (Click Here to Download)
| ss-framework-k-8.pdf |
NYS Social Studies Framework Grades 9-12 (Click Here to Download)
| ss-framework-9-12.pdf |
C-3 Framework for Social Studies
The result of a three year state-led collaborative effort, the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards was developed to serve two audiences: for states to upgrade their state social studies standards and for practitioners — local school districts, schools, teachers and curriculum writers — to strengthen their social studies programs. Its objectives are to: a) enhance the rigor of the social studies disciplines; b) build critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills to become engaged citizens; and c) align academic programs to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies.
| c3-framework-for-social-studies.pdf |
BPS Social Studies Grades 9-12 Sequence Guide (Click Here to Download)
| bps_ss_sequence_hs.pdf |
State Standards and CCLS
NYS Social Studies Standards (Click Here to Download)
Standard 1: History of the United States and New York
use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
Standard 2: World History
use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Standard 3: Geography
use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.
Standard 4: Economics
Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the U.S. and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.
use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
Standard 2: World History
use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Standard 3: Geography
use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.
Standard 4: Economics
Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the U.S. and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.
| sslearn.pdf |
10 Unifying Themes of Social Studies
| unifying_themes_of_social_studies.pdf |
P-12 Common Core Learning Standards Documents (Click Here to Download)
On January 10th, 2011, the Board of Regents approved the recommended additions to the Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy and Common Core Learning Standards for Mathematics, plus a new set of Prekindergarten Standards. The documents can be accessed below. Additional information about the P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy is available on the EngageNY website at http://engageny.org
| nysp12cclsela.pdf |
| cclselass.pdf |
CCLS Shifts for ELA & Math (Click Here to Download)
| common-core-shifts.pdf |
NYSUT Rubric for APPR (2012 Edition) (Click Here to Download)
Just as New York State's Teaching Standards describe effective practice, the NYSUT Teacher Practice Rubric reveals the state's broad standards in specific and focused terms. This rubric selected for use in the TED system approved by NYSED for use statewide by districts working to implement Annual Professional Performance Reviews.
| 2012_sedapproved_nysut_tpr.pdf |
Teacher Evaluation and Development (TED) Handbook
| ted_workbook.pdf |
