Page 43 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

FIGURE 1.1 Visual of Expanding Communities Framework
CHAPTER 1
Elementary Social Studies: What Is It? What Might It Become? 15
Kindergarten: Myself and Others Grade 1: Family and School Grade 2: Neighborhoods
Grade 3: Communities
Grade 4: States
Grade 5: Nation
Grade 6: World Cultures/Hemispheres
Communities. Communities past and present, different kinds of com- munities, changes in communities, community government and services, communities in other countries, cities, careers, urban problems, business and industry, and pioneers and American Indians. Sometimes state studies (if not taught in the fourth grade).
Grade Four: Geographic regions. World regions, people of the world, climatic regions, physical regions, population, food. Also, state studies (if not taught in the third grade). Our state government, state history, people of our state, state laws, state workers, communities past and present. [Note: K–6 or K–8 social studies series typically cover geographic regions in their fourth grade texts. However, local districts often omit or minimize use of these texts and instead mandate that fourth grade be devoted to study of the state, using state-specific textbooks.]
Grade Five: U.S. history and geography. The first Americans, exploration and discov- ery, colonial life, revolution and independence, westward movement, war between the states, immigrants, lifestyles in the United States, values of the American people, and the United States as world power. Usually U.S. history is only covered up to the Civil War in fifth grade, with later history taught in middle school. Also, some fifth-grade texts include units on U.S. regions, Canada, and Mexico.
Grade Six: World cultures/hemispheres. Political and economic systems, land and resources, people and their beliefs, comparative cultures. Western hemisphere: Early cul- tures of South America, the major contemporary South American countries, Central American countries, Canada, Mexico, historical beginnings of the western world. Eastern hemisphere: Ancient Greece and Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Middle East, Europe, Africa, India, and China.
Paul Hanna (1963), a former professor of education and author of numerous articles and books about social studies education, who is most widely credited with developing and promoting the expanding communities approach, rationalized it as being logical, in starting with the family and then moving outward toward progressively wider human communities. This idea was viewed as convenient because it allowed for a holistic, co- ordinated approach to the study of people living in societies. He recommended that
Grade Three:
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