620 Greenwood Avenue
Social Science
South
In January 2016, Illinois adopted Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science, based on the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies. The purpose of these new, more rigorous standards is to better prepare students to be college and career ready. These standards are designed to ensure that students across Illinois focus on a common set of standards and have the opportunity to develop the knowledge, dispositions, and skills necessary for success in college, career, and civic life in the 21st century. The vision supporting this design is to produce students who are civically engaged, socially responsible, culturally aware, and financially literate (National Council for the Social Studies, 2016)
The Illinois Social Science Standards fall into two complementary categories: inquiry skills and disciplinary concepts. Inquiry skills involve questioning, investigating, reasoning, and responsible action while disciplinary concepts make use of social science ideas, principles, and content to pursue answers to the questions generated by student inquiries.
In social studies, disciplinary concepts are divided among the major disciplines of social science: civics, history, economics, and geography. These standards are taught in conjunction with inquiry skills. Standards on themes are aligned to the disciplinary concepts for our K-4 learners.
Kindergarten: My Social World
Unit Examples
- How are our rules and responsibilities at home and school alike and different?
- What is the difference between a need and want?
- How do I celebrate and remember important people and events?
- What are the major landforms in the world?
- What stories and music are important to me?
- What problems do I have, and what are possible solutions?
First Grade: Living, Learning, and Working Together
Unit Examples
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Who is the President of the United States? Who are the leaders in my home, school, and neighborhood?
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What are producers and consumers?
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How were the experiences of older people like and unlike mine today?
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How can we use maps and globes to learn about the world?
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How do individuals learn from one another?
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How will solutions to problems identified impact my class, school, or neighborhood?
2nd Grade: Families, Neighborhoods, and Communities
Unit Examples
- How are rules and laws different?
- Who provides goods and services to our community?
- How do you believe the community will change in the future?
- How do the physical features of our community compare with other places?
- What is the story of Glencoe?
- What are the consequences of certain solutions to problems in our community?
West
In January 2016, Illinois adopted Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science, based on the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies. The purpose of these new, more rigorous standards is to better prepare students to be college and career ready. These standards are designed to ensure that students across Illinois focus on a common set of standards and have the opportunity to develop the knowledge, dispositions, and skills necessary for success in college, career, and civic life in the 21st century. The vision supporting this design is to produce students who are civically engaged, socially responsible, culturally aware, and financially literate (National Council for the Social Studies, 2016)
The Illinois Social Science Standards fall into two complementary categories: inquiry skills and disciplinary concepts. Inquiry skills involve questioning, investigating, reasoning, and responsible action while disciplinary concepts make use of social science ideas, principles, and content to pursue answers to the questions generated by student inquiries.
In social studies, disciplinary concepts are divided among the major disciplines of social science: civics, history, economics, and geography. These standards are taught in conjunction with inquiry skills. Standards on themes are aligned to the disciplinary concepts for our K-4 learners.
Unit Examples
- Why is citizenship valuable or attractive?
- What are the goods and services produced in Chicago?
- What important events shaped Chicago’s history?
- Where are the major bodies of water and river systems in Illinois?
- Which ethnic groups have settled in Chicago and why?
- What problems exist in different communities?
Fourth Grade: Our State, Our Nation
Unit Examples
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How is the Illinois and United States government organized?
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How do the human resources affect the goods and services that are produced in a region?
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What can we learn about the characteristics of a region by investigating literature from that region?
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How did changes in the weather and climate affect the physical features of the environment in the regions of the U. S.?
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How is culture expressed differently through music, art, and literature in the geographic regions of the United States?
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Identify problems in each region and discuss alternative solutions and their consequences.
Central
The middle grades provide a bridge between the elementary and high school experiences. The structure of the middle grade social science standards is unique. Unlike the elementary and high school standards, the middle grade standards do not assign particular content to each grade level. Rather, these standards focus on the developmental need of middle grade students: to cultivate the critical thinking skills used by social scientists through the inquiry process. The disciplinary concepts of civics, economics, geography, and history are integrated within the curriculum (Illinois State Board of Education, 2016).
Students should be able to utilize the inquiry process to analyze foundational knowledge, develop questions (about the past, present, and future), apply tools to research, weigh evidence, and develop conclusions. Below are the topics that are explored each year in middle school.
Fifth Grade: Our Nation, Our World
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American Indians
- European Exploration
- Early English Settlements
- Comparing Colonies
- Slavery
- Colonial Life
- Causes of Revolution
Sixth Grade: Ancient Civilizations
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Early Hominids
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Sumer Mesopotamia
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Ancient Egypt
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Ancient China
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Ancient Greece
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Ancient Rome
Seventh Grade:
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Peopling of the Americas
- The Colonial Era
- Colonial Conflict
- Revolutionary War
- United States Constitution
- American Expansionism
- Industrial Revolution
- Civil War
Eighth Grade:
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Spanish American War
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Imperialism
- World War I
- African American Civil Rights
- The Great Depression
- World War II
- Holocaust
- Cold War
- Civil Rights
- Vietnam War