BEST PRACTICES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES Middle School Sequence of Courses Follow us on Twitter

Topics….. Rationale Time Line Course Codes Specific EOC Assessment Correlations Lesson Plan Example Next Steps- How to get prepared? AGENDA

Read Carefully WB # click on Weekly Briefing's Tab Big Idea: In order to better align student content and skills between elementary, middle, and senior high school Social Studies courses, the Department of Social Sciences is changing the sequence of required courses for Social Studies at the middle school level.

Read Carefully WB # click on Weekly Briefing's Tab Rationale: Building upon the 5th grade U.S. History course required in elementary schools allows 6th grade students to continue learning U.S. History in a more rigorous and in-depth level. Much of the historical content emphasized in early U.S. History can later assist students with often abstract and complex content addressed in 7th grade Civics (e.g., the era of the American Revolution and the Creation of the U.S. Constitution); and Placing the middle school World History course in 8th grade aligns the two required World History courses in 8th grade (Early humans through the Middle Ages) and the World History course in 9th grade (Byzantine Empire through Modern Times).

Read Carefully WB # click on Weekly Briefing's Tab Timeline: To transition to this targeted sequence of courses for required middle school Social Studies courses, the following sequence will be followed for the and academic years: 6th grade U.S. History 7th grade Civics 8th grade U.S. History.

Read Carefully WB # click on Weekly Briefing's Tab Course Codes: School Year and – Grade 6 M/J US History Courses G6 M/J United States History R6 M/J United States History (M/J Course Credit Recovery) G6 M/J United States History & Career Planning G6 M/J United States History, Advanced GG M/J United States History, Advanced, Gifted G6 M/J United States History, Advanced & Career Planning GG M/J United States History Advanced & Career Planning Gifted G6 – Access M/J United States History E6 – Access M/J United States History ESOL Related G6 – Access M/J United States History and Career Planning

Read Carefully WB # click on Weekly Briefing's Tab Course Codes: School Year and – Grade 8 M/J US History Courses M/J United States History RC M/J United States History (M/J Course Credit Recovery) M/J United States History & Career Planning M/J United States History, Advanced M/J United States History, Advanced, Gifted M/J United States History, Advanced & Career Planning M/J United States History Advanced & Career Planning Gifted. *Note: the current M/J World History Course codes will be used for the new 8 th grade World History courses for the academic year.

Why did we wait to do this now? Big Picture: th grade will be getting tablets supporting digital access to instructional resources K-12 Social Studies adoption will take place (to implement in the school year) and implementing this transition now will facilitate that the correct materials are reviewed for the correct grade level. Civics teachers need relevant historical content to be emphasized in 6 th grade ASAP!

CategoryCorrelations/Connections M/J U.S. HistoryM/J CivicsM/J World ELA/MAFS Standards30 30 ELA/MAF Standards Identical in all 3 courses Correlations to Civics EOC Assessment Benchmarks 18 out of 3535 main tested Civics EOC Assessment Benchmarks 6 out of 35 Social Science Specific Skill Standards 7 relevant history skill standards All SS Skill benchmarks embedded in Civics Content Standards 6 relevant history skill standards Additional Related Civics Content Topics 28 additional related topicsN/ANone M/J Civics and M/J U.S. History Snap Shot of Correlations

SHS World and SHS U.S. History Snap Shot of Correlations CategoryCorrelations/Connections SHS World HistorySHS U.S. History ELA/MAFS Standards30 30 ELA/MAF Standards Identical in both courses Correlations to U.S. History EOC Assessment Benchmarks 11 out of 1818 main tested U.S. History EOC Assessment Benchmarks Social Science Specific Skill Standards No specific skill benchmarks7 Skill specific benchmarks Additional Related U.S. History Benchmarks 22 loosely related content benchmarks 33 closely related content benchmarks N/A

Next Steps- how to get prepared? This goes out to the current 6 th grade teachers: 1.Get a copy of the U.S. History text and review it. 2.Review the pacing guides, timelines, and year at a glance. 3.Remember- the electronic textbook’s reading level can be changed to better accommodate 6 th grade learners (it is automatically set for 8 th grade reading level). 4.Devise a plan with your department to share instructional materials. 5.Be on the look out for upcoming PD opportunities to improve your: U.S. History knowledge and skills and Your technology skills through the Digital Transformation Initiative trainings. All dates of aforementioned trainings are pending.

Next Steps- how to get prepared? This goes out to the current 6 th grade teachers: How to change the reading level of the MS US History Digital Book:

Next Steps- how to get prepared? Share this information You can download this presentation by going to the Department’s website and click on “Current News” and find the file titled: Feb. 16 PD Day Presentations and look for the file titled: MS Sequence of Courses.

Team Social Sciences- one team- one message: Improve student achievement! District Department of Social Sciences Mr. Robert C. Brazofsky, Executive Director Phone: Dr. Sherrilyn Scott, Supervisor Phone: Ms. Jackie Viana, SupervisorPhone: Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Holocaust EducationPhone: Mr. Nicolas Valdes, CSSPhone: Ms. Kelly Webner, CSSPhone: Support Staff Mr. Michel Delgado, Senior Computer OperatorPhone:

BEST PRACTICES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES Middle School Sequence of Courses QUESTIONS? Follow us on Twitter