Social Studies
Standard 1
Students will 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.
Alternate Level - Social Studies
Key ideas -
1. Students will study family, neighborhood, community, New York State
and United States history, culture, values, beliefs and traditions and the important
contribution of individuals and groups.
Performance indicators -
Students:
- participate in activities that highlight historical events.
- learn and communicate about the roots of American culture, its development from many
different traditions, and the ways many people from a variety of groups and backgrounds
played a role in creating it.
- communicate about the basic ideals of American democracy.
- demonstrate the traditions in their family, neighborhood, community and United States.
- distinguish between near and distant past and interpret simple timelines.
- communicate about the important accomplishments of individuals and groups living in
their neighborhoods and communities.
- identify individuals who have helped to strengthen democracy in the United States.
- view historic events through the eyes of those who were there, as shown in their art,
writings, music, and artifacts.
- learn and communicate about their rights as citizens with disabilities and how to
protect and secure these rights.
Sample tasks -
This is evident, for example, when students:
- share information about their family and family tree and traditions.
- take part in a Thanksgiving celebration.
- collect photographs of themselves from birth to present.
- listen to and view material a local historian presents to them.
- learn songs based on an historic event, such as the Erie Canal.
- learn who Abe Lincoln or George Washington are by participating in a play about their
lives.
- attend a cultural event hosted by Native Americans to learn about their beliefs, songs
and dances.
- listen to an adult with a disability discuss his/her experiences and rights as a
disabled person.
Standard 2
Students will 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.
Alternate Level - Social Studies
Key ideas -
1. Students will study world history, cultures and civilizations and
the important contribution of individuals and groups.
Performance indicators -
Students:
- study and communicate about different world cultures and civilizations focusing on their
accomplishments, contributions, values, beliefs, and traditions.
- demonstrate an understanding of past, present, and future time periods.
- demonstrate knowledge of calendar time in terms of days, months and years.
- explore the lifestyles, beliefs, traditions, rules and laws, and social/cultural needs
and wants of people during different periods in history and in different parts of the
world.
- view historic events through the eyes of those who were there, as shown in their art,
writings, music, and artifacts.
- utilize media to become aware of current events.
Sample tasks -
This is evident, for example, when students:
- attend and take part in a cultural fair.
- using a calendar, mark days with pictures indicating activities and cross off days
completed.
- find a photo of a world event in a newspaper or magazine and explain what it is about.
- share a family tradition from a different culture/nation.
- watch the news on television and tell about one current world issue.
- have myths, legends, biographies and autobiographies of world figures read to them and
discuss their contributions to the world culture.
Standard 3
Students will 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.
Alternate Level - Social Studies
Key ideas -
1. Students will study local, State, national and global geography.
Geography can be divided into six essential elements: The world in spatial terms, places
and regions, physical settings (including natural resources), human systems, environment
and society and the use of geography.
Performance indicators -
Students:
- communicate about how people live, work, and utilize natural resources.
- draw or build maps and diagrams representing their home, school and community.
- locate places within the local community, New York State and United States.
- gather and organize geographic information from a variety of sources and display it in a
number of ways.
- identify and compare physical characteristics of different regions and people.
- demonstrate their location within their community, State and world.
Sample tasks -
This is evident, for example, when students:
- state their address.
- using a large map of the world, cut out pictures of different people/cultures and attach
to appropriate location on map.
- using model homes, stores, trees, etc. build a model of their community.
- travel from home to school via public transportation.
- draw a picture of their school and surrounding land features (mountains, rivers, ocean,
etc.).
- discuss the community or region they live in (climate, size, location in State, etc.)
- visit a library and look at books about the local community, New York and United States.
Standard 4
Students will 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 United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the
scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
Alternate Level - Social Studies
Key ideas -
1. Students will study major economic concepts.
Performance indicators -
Students:
- learn and communicate about jobs in their community.
- understand that money is necessary to buy goods and services.
- communicate about how goods and services are produced.
- develop and demonstrate money management skills.
Sample tasks -
This is evident, for example, when students:
- attend a job fair.
- purchase lunch at cafeteria or school supplies at the school bookstore.
- open a savings and/or checking account and deposit/withdraw from the account to make
purchases.
- purchase items at store/restaurant.
- observe community workers at their jobs.
- participate in community activities such as shopping, going to the post office, etc.
Standard 5
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their
understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of
the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic
values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities
of citizenship, including avenues of participation.
Alternate Level - Social Studies
Key ideas -
1. Students will study government, civic life and values and
citizenship.
Performance indicators -
Students:
- explore the basic purposes of government and the importance of civic life.
- demonstrate knowledge of the holidays, celebrations, and symbols of our nation.
- demonstrate what it means to be a good citizen in the classroom, school, home, and
community.
- identify and describe the rules and responsibilities students have at home, in the
classroom, and at school.
- learn that effective, informed citizenship is a duty of each citizen, and demonstrate it
through voting and community service.
- identify basic rights that students have and those that they will acquire as they age.
- show a willingness to consider other points of view before drawing conclusions or making
judgments.
- participate in activities that focus on a classroom, school, or community issue or
problem.
Sample tasks -
This is evident, for example, when students:
with assistance, register to vote.
- say the Pledge of Allegiance.
- vote in a school/class election.
- take part in a fund raiser to support a community cause.
- visit local and State governing bodies.
- participate in a July 4th celebration.
- participate in a recycling program to clean up their community.
- participate in an exercise to develop classroom or home rules.
- draw a picture of the American flag.