Social Studies Updates
December 2023
New This Month
December Book Raffle!
Fill out this form for a chance to win A Life Like Mine: How Children Live Around the World (elementary) or The Last Cherry Blossom (secondary). Congratulations to last month's winners: Morgan Whithaus-Meyer (Watts) and Hannah Locklear (Jordan)!
Literacy for Civic Life Fellowship: $3000 grant!
The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a national non-profit that has spent more than twelve years supporting the ability of teachers to deliver assignments and instruction that effectively and practically develop student literacy skills tied to college-and-career readiness standards across all disciplines, is proud to expand its Literacy for Civic Life (LCL) Fellowship. This fellowship is open to Social Studies and ELA teachers in Grades 6-8 who are able to incorporate at least two civics-focused LCL instructional cycles (typically requiring 7-10 days of instruction) per year. Read more here.
Field Trip to the Carolina Theatre (Free! School just needs to pay for the bus!)
The Carolina Theatre will screen the film February One for grades 5-12 students. The film depicts Ezell Blair, David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil—the “Greensboro Four”—as they began a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Date: Thursday, February 1, 2024
Grades: 5- 12
Film Times: 10 am and 11:30 am
Location: Carolina Theatre, 309 W Morgan street, Durham NC 27701
Tickets: Free, DPS Register at this link. Use password: DURHAM
Curriculum connections: History, Film history, Government/Civics, Geography, Civil Rights
Carolina Theatre’s CONFRONTING CHANGE CIVIL RIGHTS EXHIBIT, TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE & APRIL CELEBRATION
The Carolina Theatre has its own history of segregation highlighted in our Confronting Change Exhibit located on the third floor of the theatre.
Theatre Civil Rights Exhibit Tours and limited (in-person & zoom) classroom visits with members of the theatre’s Civil Rights committee are available. Members of the committee protested at the Carolina Theatre in the late-50’s and 60’s and their protests eventually led to the desegregation of the theatre in 1963. Email Shana Adams at shana@carolinatheatre.org
Confronting Change Teacher Resource Guide is a companion to classroom discussions on Civil Rights movement in Durham or to complement a tour at the Carolina Theatre. (attached)
Show Way: The Musical school show
Soonie’s great-grandma was just seven years old when she was sold to a big plantation without her ma and pa, with only some fabric and needles to call her own. She began to stitch a Show Way, a quilt with secret meanings to show enslaved people the way to freedom. As each generation passes, the Show Way shines a light on the past and paves a road to the future, stitching together possibility and promise.
Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Grades: 3- 12
Show Times: 10 am and 11:30 am
Location: Carolina Theatre, 309 W Morgan street, Durham NC 27701
Tickets: Free, DPS Register at this link. Use password: DURHAM
There is still time for these great oportunities!
DEADLINE 12/15. Lesson Plan Contest from Annenberg Classroom (all grade levels). $1500 Prize!
The film, “The First Amendment: New York Times v. Sullivan,” is the latest addition to the collection of free, nonpartisan, high-quality resources offered to educators, students, and families by Annenberg Classroom and the Civics Renewal Network...To learn more about/watch the film, please click here.
In celebration of the film, the Annenberg Classroom is sponsoring a lesson plan contest. The winning entry will receive $1,500 to fully develop the lesson. If you are a passionate educator interested in submitting a proposal, fill out this short form to receive more details. Deadline for submissions is December 15.
DEADLINE 1/5/24. Apply for the iCivics Educator Network (all grade levels)
The iCivics Educator Network is a group of energetic civics, history, government, and social studies teachers who serve as champions and ambassadors for high-quality equitable civic education. As a member of the Educator Network, you’ll be connected to fellow educators with whom to collaborate and learn from and gain access to the tools and resources you need to effectively engage your students. Apply Here!
Lesson Planning Resources
Near Pod
Near Pod has teamed up with Smithsonian Learning Lab and iCivics to create a robust library of K-12 Social Studies content. Check out this K-2 lesson on Kwanzaa or this iCivics lesson "The Federalist Debate".
Canva's Magic Studio
Canva has added AI powered tools! Lots of great tools for teacher and students to make creative projects. It's easy, too!
iCivics' Well Versed
Animated music videos about how kids can make this country rock! Explore the series of 12 videos for elementary students (ages 6-11) and preschoolers (ages 2-5). Includes discussion questions, activity ideas, and a lyrics sheet in each video's viewing guide.
Help For Your English Language Learners
Have you ever been unsure of how to grade an English Learner in your class? How do you measure your students’ mastery of the content so that they will be able to accurately show what they learned? How do we ensure that we’re being fair to all students in our assessment and grading practices? To fairly grade ELs, we must position them to be able to access our instruction.
Please check out our “Issues and Solutions for Grading ELs” for some suggestions for how to approach grading in Quarter 2 and beyond. For more research and recommendations on this topic, these brief articles share more info:
The Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs from Colorin Colorado
How We Can Fairly Assess English Learners by Valentina Gonzalez
Please contact ESL Instructional Facilitator Wendi Love (wendi_love@dpsnc.net) for support with English learner strategies that also work for the rest of your class.
North Carolina Council for the Social Studies
NOMINATIONS DUE 12/15
- It's award season! Nominate yourself, an amazing colleague, or an inspiring student teacher for an award. There is even a scholarship opportunity for your seniors. Nominate here.
- NCCSS Wants You! To serve on its Board of Directors. Learn more and apply here.
- Discover new trends and best practices in social studies education with the NCCSS podcast. You can subscribe here.
- The annual conference is February 22-23, 2024. Read more here.
Professional Development Opportunities
New PD from the National Museum of the American Indian
Becoming a Native Knowledge 360° Educator: Is a Treaty Intended to Be Forever?
Tuesday, January 16, 2024, 7:00–8:15 PM ET
Register now.
How do we teach about treaties and their relevance today? In this professional development program, educators will apply the museum’s Becoming an NK360° Educator framework—Spark, Connect, Learn, Act—to the topic of treaties. To protect and preserve their people and cultures, Native nations often made the difficult decision to sign treaties with other sovereign nations, including the United States. Using an inquiry-based approach, we’ll examine the importance of treaties as primary source documents in your classroom.
To dive deeper into a specific treaty and case study, select a second session of your choice according to grade. Learn about the people and the impact treaties had on specific nations in one of three different locations: Northern Plains (Horse Creek Treaty of 1851), Virginia (Treaty of Middle Plantation of 1677), or New Mexico (Navajo Treaty of 1868).
Northern Plains (Horse Creek Treaty of 1851), High School Session
Tuesday, January 30, 2024, 7:00-8:15 PM ET
Register here.
Virginia (Treaty of Middle Plantation of 1677), Upper Elementary Session
Tuesday, February 13, 2024, 7:00–8:15 PM ET
Register here.
New Mexico (Navajo Treaty of 1868), Middle School Session
Tuesday, February 27, 2024, 7:00–8:15 PM ET
Register here.
Foundations for Transforming Teaching and Learning about Native Americans
Free, but registration is required.
This continuing education course, hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and edX, will broaden your knowledge about the impact harmful narratives have on Indigenous people and how you can recognize and share more complete narratives. Learn more about the course and register here.
New Pamunkey Digital Storybook and Lesson
Life Along the River: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia is a new digital storybook that explores the history and contemporary life of the Pamunkey people. The content of the storybook is organized into four chapters: place, community and culture, history, and the future. Explore here.
Celebrating Native Cultures Through Words: Storytelling and Oral Traditions
Indigenous peoples have strong storytelling traditions. Histories, stories, and religious rites are still passed from the memories of one generation to the next through the spoken word. The worldviews of Native peoples are intricately woven into the fabric of language and ways of speaking. The oral tradition connects past, present, and future and tightens tribal and familial bonds.
Use this Helpful Handout as an introduction to the rich tradition of Native American stories and their role within Native communities.
School Group Reservations for the imagiNATIONS Activity Center in New York
Reserve now to bring your students for a self-guided tour of the imagiNATIONS Activity Center at our New York museum. This interactive center provides visitors with a lively space to explore scientific principles behind Native innovations and technologies, many of which remain a part of our daily lives. The experience will leave teachers and students with a key takeaway—Indigenous people are the original innovators of the Americas. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Selecting Indigenous Images for Your Classroom
Teachers examine why commonly used imagery and language about Native peoples are detrimental to student understanding of Native histories and cultures. Hear from celebrated Native American contemporary graphic artists Michael Sheyahshe (Caddo) and Dr. Lee Francis IV (Laguna Pueblo).
Questions? Contact NMAI-NK360@si.edu.
- On-demand training for teaching about the Holocaust from the US Holocaust Museum.
- ON DEMAND: ELA & SS Integration in Elementary Classrooms (from NCDPI)
- National Humanities Center
- FREE ON-LINE COURSES! (35 CEUs!) Topics include: Islam & the Middle Ages. Journey to Equality: Examining the Promise, Reality, and Legacy of Reconstruction. Medieval Africa, & more!
- WEBINARS: Lot's of amazing topics including: Indigenous Center, European Other: Teaching Indigenous Histories of the Americas, Hip Hop & Youth Culture as Pedagogy, how Will Students Learn to Write Now That We Have ChatGpt? and many more.
Inquiries
Featured Inquiry: How did Pauli Murray push for the promise?
An elementary inquiry from the National Council of the Social Studies.
If you are interested in using this inquiry, email Charlene (charlene_martinklein@dpsnc.net) to borrow the featured texts.
C3 Inquires Aligned to Q2 Maps
Below are some ready made inquires that align with the DPS curriculum maps for 2nd quarter. Reach out to Charlene (charlene_martinklein@dpsnc.net) if you want assistance or if you want to work together on planning your own inquires.
K: Holidays
3: Geography
4: Call for Change (Women’s Suffrage)
5: Declaration of Independence
6: Agriculture
World: The Printing Press Enlightenment & Revolutions
American: Reconstruction. Women’s Suffrage. Chinese Railroad Workers
Civic Literacy: Electoral College. Political Parties