Page 139 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

American victory; the impact of the American Revolution on politics, economy, and society; and the institutions and practices of government created during the Revolution and how they were revised between 1787 and 1815 to create the foundation of the U.S. political system based on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The content standards for Grades K–4 subsume both U.S. and world history. They are not organized chronologically within historical eras but instead are organized within eight historical themes identified for emphasis in the early grades:
1. Family life now, in the recent past, and in various places long ago.
2. History of the local community and how communities in North America varied
long ago.
3. The people, events, problems, and ideas that created the history of the state.
4. How democratic values came to be and how they have been exemplified by people,
events, and symbols.
5. The causes and nature of various movements of large groups of people into and
within the United States, now and long ago.
6. Regional folklore and cultural contributions that helped form our national heritage.
7. Selected attributes and historical developments of various societies in Africa, the
Americas, Asia, and Europe.
8. Major discoveries in science and technology, their social and economic effects, and
the scientists and inventors responsible for them.
The basic standards statement (NCHS, 1996) and related publications from NCHS elaborate on the standards and provide suggested activities to use in teaching to them. For a complete statement of the standards and information about related publications, see the NCHS website (www.ssnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/).
We believe that elementary teachers should familiarize themselves with these stan- dards, especially if they form the basis for the history standards adopted by their state or school district. However, we also believe that the standards need to be adapted, rather than taken at face value, if they are used to inform instructional planning in the elementary grades.
NCSS Standards Relating to History
The National Council for the Social Studies (2010) Curriculum Standards include a theme, Time, Continuity, and Change. In the early grades, it calls for experiences that allow students to demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the differences in views; dem- onstrate an ability to use correctly vocabulary associated with time such as past, present, future, and long ago; read and construct simple timelines; identify examples of change; recognize examples of cause and effect relationships; compare and contrast different stor- ies or accounts about past events, people, places or situations, and identify how they con- tribute to our understanding of the past; identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others; demonstrate an understanding that people in different times and places view the world differently; and use knowledge of facts and concepts drawn from history, along with elements of historical inquiry, to inform decision-making about and action-taking on public issues.
The middle grades should include experiences that allow students to demonstrate an understanding that different scholars may describe the same event or situation in dif- ferent ways but must provide reasons or evidence for their views; identify and use key
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CHAPTER 5 How Can I Teach History Powerfully? 111