The Social Studies Connection
More than a Newsletter for Secondary Social Studies Teachers
February 2024
Secondary Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator
Office of Teaching & Learning
Curriculum Division
Southland Center - 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH
In Memoriam: Dr. John R. Farley
As I prepared to go to press with this month's newsletter, I was saddened to learn about the death of Dr. John R. Farley, who was a longtime social studies teacher, assistant principal, and district administrator with CCS from the 1970s through 2010s.
Whether you knew him or not, you almost certainly benefitted from John's work. When I began this position in 2006, John was the Director of Development, responsible for bringing in millions of dollars in grant money to the District. He was a great mentor to me and successfully guided us through the application of the Teaching American History grant in 2008, bringing in $1.6 million in federal funds for the History Speaks program.
As a former history teacher, John loved attending the History Speaks Saturday seminars. But he was most especially thrilled when we asked him to be part of a panel discussion on the desegregation of Columbus Public Schools. John was living history on this topic. He worked in staff development at the time, where one of his main roles was helping Columbus teachers understand how to teach diverse populations. Teachers at schools like Brookhaven High School really had little experience teaching Black students, John recalled. Earlier in his career, John had been a new teacher at Linden-McKinley during the civil unrest in 1970-71.
John was a wealth of knowledge about the history of Columbus schools. I enjoyed browsing his collection of artifacts at his 6th Street Annex office. He was also the first to tell me about the Myron Seifert fund, a substantial endowment intended to establish a Columbus Schools museum in the district--a project that not yet come to fruition, and probably few people even know about today.
A historian of social studies education, John's 1978 dissertation "The life and thought of Alan Griffin: exemplar of reflection" detailed the work of a "seminal figure in the evolution of a systematic theoretical statement for the reflective conception of the teaching of history and the social studies."
If you knew John personally, you also knew him to be a perennially kind and positive person with a great sense of humor. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Black History Month Resources
February is Black History Month. The 2024 theme is "African Americans and the Arts" spanning the many impacts Black Americans have had on visual arts, music, cultural movements, and more.
Here is a collection of helpful resources and tools for teaching African-American history.
Learning for Justice
TCI
- Equality in the United States Lesson
- Richard Allen Biography
- Marian Anderson Biography
- George Washington Carver Biography
- Booker T. Washington
- Documents on the Rebellions of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner
- Booker T. Washington's the Atlanta Compromise Speech
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964
CommonLit
- African Cultures and History
- Black Authors
- Black Heritage
- Black History
- Slavery and Abolition in America
- Reconstruction to Jim Crow
- The Harlem Renaissance
- The Civil Rights Movement
- Texts for Talking about Race
Additional Resources
Achieve3000
Achieve3000 returned in January as the literacy intervention program for high schools. High School teachers and students now have access to Achieve3000 via Clever.
Implementation begins with the LevelSet, a Lexile assessment that establishes a baseline Lexile level for the comprehension of nonfiction text. It also drives the differentiation within the Achieve3000 platform. A shoutout to the following schools for finishing in the top 3 of LevelSet completion rates:
- Northland High School
- Mifflin High School
- Whetstone High School
LevelSet remains open and available for students who not have yet completed it. This may be completed in any class of any subject, grades 9-11.
Once LevelSet is complete, you will be able to assign content-specific lessons/articles aligned with your curriculum. The goal will be for each content-area teacher to assign 1 article per week, in order to help students reach maximum gains.
Alignment guides for Modern World History 9, American History 10, and American Government are available on the Social Studies Curriculum page.
Here are some helpful resources for getting started with the LevelSet and Achieve3000 implementation.
Initial professional development on Achieve3000 was provided at the January 16 PD day. Follow-up PD will take place at the March 6, 2024.
For additional support, teachers can schedule a time for drop-in office with Romana Bertolotti, Achieve Product Manager.
TCI Implementation Resource Center
The TCI Implementation Resource Center is your one-stop shop for learning the best practices of TCI and how these practices align with CCS Curriculum.
The Implementation Resource Center provides information about:
- On-Demand PD
- TCI Digital Platform Introduction
- Theory and Research-Based Active Instruction
- TCI Lesson Elements and Cycle
- Activities/Engagement Strategies
- TCI Programs for CCS Middle School Courses
- TCI Programs for CCS High School Courses
- Digging Deeper with TCI Ten PD Videos.
This page is also accessible from the CCS Social Studies Homepage.
Quick Review Guides for Ohio's State Test
The OST Quick Review Guides summarize key concepts for Ohio's State Tests in a 1-page, front and back review guide. The quick review guides align with the 2018 standards.
You can download the Quick Reviews here:
Use this form to request the card stock versions of the American History and American History Quick Reviews for your students. These reviews (pink and green) replaced the previous editions (blue and yellow).
Please discard outdated card stock and paper versions of the Quick Review Guides. Current versions indicate "Revised 2020" in the lower right corner.
March 6, 2024 Professional Development Day
March 6, 2024 is a District-led Professional Development Day. Social Studies teachers will meet at Mifflin High School. This will be a joint event with Social Studies and World Languages teachers, focused on preparing students for success as a citizen in a global community.
As we continue with implementation of the Core Instructional Framework, the March 6 PD Day will focus on Learning Experiences, with emphasis on student voice and choice.
If you have ideas or thoughts to share for this PD, please contact Matt Doran via CCS email.
Make-up PD Days
The CEA Master Agreement states teachers are required to participate in make-up PD sessions in the event of an absence.
Make-up sessions are available in Canvas Catalog. Teachers who were absent September 20 or November 7 PD day will use the online catalog to register for their appropriate course, complete all requirements, and once finished, receive a certificate of completion that must be submitted to their building principal.
The Social Studies PD Day make-up courses are linked below:
The January 16 make-up PD will be available later this month.
External PD Opportunities
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Skills Clinic: Graphic Biographies and Three Close Reads
February 13, 2024 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. PT
During this session, educators will learn about and apply the Three Close Reads strategy to OER Project’s engaging history comics (which we call graphic biographies). These comics explore the lives of individuals mostly drawn from the “margins” of world history, and they’re carefully built to help students connect those lives to the “big stories” of world history. OER Project’s graphic biographies all come with lesson plans that will let students practice visual and textual literacy skills.
As a special thank you, we'll be giving out ten OER Project poster packs to randomly selected attendees!
Teaching History with Council on Foreign Relations Education
Join this introductory webinar to learn tips and tricks for using free CFR Education historical resources in the classroom, including timelines, videos, simulations, lesson plans, AP and IB curriculum alignments, and more.
Teachers will explore the entire CFR Education library and leave with a ready-to-use lesson plan on the causes of the World Wars.
Tailored to middle and high school U.S. and world history teachers, this webinar will share engaging activities and best practices for teaching history, and offer a Q&A for attendees to ask specific questions.
February 28, 2024, 4:00 p.m.
Council for Economic Education February Webinars
The Council for Economic Education offers free professional development development, live and on-demand. Watch a webinar for a minimum of 45 minutes and you will receive a certificate of completion within 24 hours.
Create a free account and register for sessions of your choice or view the on-demand library.
Echoes & Reflections February Webinars
Echoes & Reflections offers professional development designed to empower educators with the necessary tools and knowledge to teach about the Holocaust effectively.
Echoes & Reflections offers a range of one-hour webinar offerings throughout the year. View the February offerings here.
Teachers can also participate in Echoes & Reflections online courses. Courses are asynchronous, with built-in opportunities for discussion and guidance with an expert facilitator, as well as other educator participants. Explore the course catalog here.