Using the Second Grade Social Studies Frameworks:

How do I Get Started?

Sarah Blascovich BrownTeacher on Assignment

• I teach whatever I’ve been teaching, because I’ve always done it that way.

• Day 1=Chapter 1=page 1• We don’t have time to

teach it anyway, so why worry about it?

Out with the old. In with the NEW!!!Day 1 QCC Day 1 GPS

• I teach whatever I’ve been teaching, because I’ve always done it that way.

• Day 1=Chapter 1=page 1• We don’t have time to

teach it anyway, so why worry about it?

Out with the old. In with the NEW!!!Day 1 QCC Day 1 GPS

• Start with introducing concepts so students can build important schema

• Design an authentic activity/task that will demonstrate student understanding

• Think about trade books that will enrich the content being taught.

What to expect in a curriculum map:

What to expect in a framework:

EUs and EQsActivities & Mods

K-5 Suggested Enduring Understandings

Teaching Unit One• Think about all you do to teach

routines and procedures at the beginning of the year…this is unit one!– Lasts about two weeks– Introduces all the Enduring Understandings

that will be used in Social Studies– Accesses students’ prior knowledge– Builds the scaffolding needed to understand

historical, geographic, government, and economic concepts.

– A great way to integrate reading strategies and good literature in this unit and beyond!

How do I know what concepts to teach?

• Use your curriculum map!– The concepts are listed for each unit of

the map.– Every piece of content is listed under a

relevant concept• These are suggestions – make them work

for your class!

• Since you have already introduced the concepts during Unit One, you can refer to them during the course of the unit!

What if I didn’t teach Unit One?

• Do mini-lessons/activities to introduce the concepts as you get to them.

• Stop and do a Unit One in the middle of the year! {This really CAN be done!}

• Find ways to incorporate the concepts so that students can buildtheir schema.

Photo courtesy of Yvette Welch, Gilmer County Schools

The Concept Wall

Photo courtesy of Kim Sampson, Sharon Elementary, Forsyth County Schools

The Concept Wall

Photo courtesy of Kim Sampson, Sharon Elementary, Forsyth County Schools

The Concept WallBroad EQs & Relevant information

Using the Next Units• Now that you have helped students understand

the themes of Social Studies, now it is time to teach the content!

• Add to your concept wall!– Essential questions to guide student learning– Standards/elements (if necessary/required)– Include important content vocabulary for the unit.– Visual clues: portraits, photographs, book covers…

• Look ACROSS the curriculum to guide you – make things match!

Using the Next Units• Continue the work you started in Unit One – link

the content students are learning BACK to their own lives, experiences, and prior learning.

• Incorporate meaningful integration whenever possible!

• Take some time to plan the activities you want to do before you begin, particularly if you are using a culminating performance task.

• Re-introduce the concepts to students as necessary – there are NO rules about this!

Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. HarveyWritten and Illustrated by Maira Kalman

Connecting Theme: Individuals, Groups, and InstitutionsEnduring Understanding: The student will understand that what people, groups, and institutions do can help or harm others whether they mean to or not.

This is a great book to discuss the levels of this EU: individual people did specific jobs on the fireboat, and as a group provided an important service on 9/11. The group worked as part of a larger government institution: the fire department.

Allow students to brainstorm other circumstances when individuals might come together as groups to help other people.

Use a map of New York City to help students understand the role of geography in this story – Manhattan is an island, and the World Trade Center was located at the southern tip of it. {http://www.aaccessmaps.com/show/map/manhattan}

The last page of the story could serve as a response prompt: what will happen if the group of friends does buy the tugboat? Could it help New York, too? How?

Learn more about the John J. Harvey at www.fireboat.org.

Resources:Resources:• The New Georgia Encyclopedia (regions):

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-948

• UGA’s Museum of Natural History (regions): http://dromus.nhm.uga.edu/~GMNH/gawildlife/index.php?page=information/regions

• State of Georgia’s Kids’ Page (general info):http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/house/kids/elemen/elemindex.htm

• State of Georgia (all state government):http://www.georgia.gov

• Georgia State Parks (history/information):http://www.gastateparks.org/core/item/page.aspx?s=124597

Resources:Resources:

What resources have you used

successfully to talk about Georgia?

What resources have you used

successfully to talk about Georgia?

Teaching Unit Two:• The geographical & governmental identifications in this unit

(regions/rivers of GA & levels/officers of government) are meant to be introduced here and then reinforced all year long.

• If you haven’t done so already, visit your local highway rest stop and get a couple of maps of Georgia (or use outdated ones sitting in your glove compartment). Outline the relevant rivers on one, and the regions on another. Laminate, and you have two great teaching tools!

• Find great maps of Georgia through the Carl Vinson Institute at UGA: http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/gamaps.htm.

Teaching Unit Two:Discuss everyday life in modern Georgia:

Review concepts of Time, Change, Continuity from Unit OneIntroduce students to the things they will be comparing with the historical

figures all year: food, clothing, homes, transportation, communication, recreation, rights, and freedoms.

Compare/contrast these items from one region to another within modern Georgia: do kids in Waycross dress the same way that kids in Elijay dress for Christmas? Why or why not? What food is unique to Vidalia? Does your community have a public bus system – why or why not?

Spend a little bit of time discussing the geography taught in first grade – continent, nation, state, county, city…

Teaching Unit Two:• Don’t delay introducing economics – Labor Day

is the perfect time to do it!– www.econedlink.org– www.econed.org

• The K-2 Economics document also includes an activity called “The Land of Snakes & Donuts” that involves Play-dough. While there is more than snakes & donuts involved in economics, it’s a great hands-on way to get started!

Final Thoughts• Why mess with concepts and enduring

understandings?– Front end planning and instruction will pay off in the long

run.– Students will know more than memorized dates, names,

and places.– Make the concept wall an integral part of your teaching…it

will help you and the students make connections within and between concepts.

• Try to incorporate some social studies content every day – even if it’s just a quick review of a concept.