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Social Studies

21st Century Curriculum Design in ACPS Content and Program Areas: Social Studies

Students in classroom Every student is a citizen of this country. History and social science are keys to the development of a well rounded citizen who understands the past and the issues of the present. He or she has a problem-solving capacity to contribute to the identification of emerging social, economic, political, and cultural problems — and to the solutions of those problems.

A 21st Century social studies curriculum will help all students develop critical thinking competencies, including the ability to build on and learn from the past. History, civics, economics, and geography are intertwined in such a curriculum — with all learners understanding the links and connections among these areas. Our ACPS students will become true ethical citizens capable of contributing to positive social growth and change in the 21st Century.

Key Curriculum Design and Learning Principles for Social Studies:

  • Social studies themes and processes are embedded throughout the K-12 curriculum with big ideas and themes revisited in a spiraling fashion.
  • Students develop critical thinking and research skills that reinforce their understanding of major themes and patterns in world history and world cultures and regions.
  • Social studies students develop life-long habits of mind, including questioning and posing problems; thinking and communicating with clarity and precision; gathering data with all the senses; thinking flexibly; creating, imagining, and innovating; striving for accuracy; and applying past knowledge to new situations.
  • In all social studies classrooms, students become social scientists, engaged in authentic and reality-based performance tasks such as mock elections and campaigns, debates, Socratic seminars, and authentic research using a range of sources and media.
  • Social studies students learn core declarative knowledge (i.e., facts and concepts) but develop a more cohesive, integrated understanding of events, patterns, themes, and processes.
  • All social studies classrooms emphasize the processes of social science inquiry, including comparison of perspectives, classification of key patterns and interconnections, cause-effect analysis, and use of key technologies (e.g., on-line investigations, social discourse options such as blogging, web searches, student-created on-line presentations).
  • As a result of participating in a 21st Century Social Studies program (K-12), students enhance their appreciation of their influence as citizens, the nature of global perspectives, and their role in an increasingly interdependent global society.

Exemplary Social Studies Programs Reflecting These Principles: Students in classroom

  • Geography Bees: Offered at all elementary and middle schools to encourage the study of geography.
  • Advanced Placement Programs: A wide range of available courses at the high school levels with improved scores in US History, Government, Psychology, and increased participation in Economics and World History.
  • Socratic Seminars: At middle and secondary levels, engaging students in small group discussion of interpretive questions in response to selected texts.
  • Office of Historic Alexandria and Other Museums: Ongoing partnerships in the area to better meet the needs of the teachers and students, including opportunities for field experiences, enrichment opportunities, and independent study.
  • Summer Economic Institute: Involving students from T.C. Williams High School, St. Stephens/St. Agnes and Bishop Ireton.