Social Studies Process Standards

STRAND I. TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE: HISTORY

A. Chronological Thinking
B. Historical Comprehension
C. Historical Analysis and Interpretation
D. Historical Research Capabilities
E. Historical Issues: Analysis and Decision-Making

STRAND II.   POWER, AUTHORITY, AND GOVERNANCE: GOVERNMENT/POLITICAL SCIENCE

A. Explaining and Analyzing
B. Evaluating, Taking, and Defending Positions

STRAND III.   PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS: GEOGRAPHY

A.  Asking Geographic Questions
B.  Acquiring Geographic Information
C.  Organizing Geographic Information
D.  Analyzing Geographic Information
E.  Answering Geographic Questions.

STRAND IV.     PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND CONSUMPTION: ECONOMICS

A. Identifying (e.g., economics problems, alternatives, benefits, and costs).
B. Analyzing (e.g., incentives at work in an economic situation).
C. Examining (e.g., the consequences of changes in economic conditions and public policies).
D. Collecting and organizing (e.g., economic evidence).
F. Comparing (e.g., benefits with costs).

Economic skills to be learned by the end of high school include

A.  interpreting basic economic concepts;
B.  analyzing key economic issues that affect our lives as workers, consumers, and citizens;
C.  analyzing trends of major changes in the American and world economy;
D.  evaluating data from major economic indicators;
E.  evaluating different views on economic issues; and
G. analyzing the expected and actual consequences of personal choice and public policy

Process Standards for Communicating in Social Studies

A. Communicating in Writing
B. Communicating Orally
C. Communicating Graphically
D. Communicating with Research
E. Communicating Socially

Grade 5: U.S. Studies 1877 to Present

Time, Continuity, and Change: History

5.2   The learner will demonstrate an understanding of the major developments in the United States from the end of Reconstruction through World War II. The student should be able to

5.2.11 explain the impact at home and abroad of the United States involvement in World War II;

5.2.12 recognize events, people, and various cultures that influenced the United States during this period;

III. People, Places, and Environments: Geography

5.9The learner will demonstrate an understanding of the world in spatial terms. The student should be able to:

5.9.3      display spatial information on maps and other geographic representations; and

5.9.4discuss the causes and consequences of spatial interaction among people.

Grade 7: Contemporary World Regions

I.    Time, Continuity, and Change: History

7.1 The learner will demonstrate an understanding of the political and social developments of world regions. The student should be able to

7.1.5  describe the rise of totalitarian states;

7.1.6  analyze the causes and consequences of world conflicts;

7.1.8examine prospects for political democracy and social justice in the world regions.

II.   Power, Authority, & Governance: Government/Political Science

7.2  The learner will demonstrate an understanding of government, its origins and functions, including civic life and politics in world cultures. The student should be able to

7.2.2  identify how the world is organized politically into nations and states;

7.2.3  explain how nation-states interact with each other;

7.2.6  explain the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments;

III. People, Places, and Environments: Geography

7.3  The learner will demonstrate an understanding of world culture regions. The student should be able to

7.3.1   make and use maps, globes, graphs, charts, and models to describe and analyze the location and spatial distribution of people, places, and environments on a global scale and in the principal world culture regions;

7.3.5   identify and compare the cultural characteristics of each world region;

7.3.8explain how people interact with their physical environment to create distinctive regions;

7.3.9compare how people of different cultural backgrounds perceive places and regions;

7.3.10discuss the impact of human migration on the cultural diffusion, change, and conflict in each world region;

7.3.16   describe how conflict and cooperation affect political, social, and economic systems in each world region; and

7.3.17   explain the different ways in which places are connected and how these connections impact economic, cultural, and political interdependence on the regional and global scales.

IV. Production, Distribution, and Consumption: Economics

7.4 The learner will demonstrate an understanding of how scarcity, choice, and markets impact economic activity. The student should be able to

7.4.1 explain how scarcity and choice impact the development of less-developed communities and regions;

Grades 9–10: Global Studies (World Geography/World History)

I.    Time, Continuity, and Change: History

10.2     The learner will demonstrate an understanding of the major developments in the history of the world during the modern era (ca. 1500 to the present). The student should be able to

10.2.14   analyze the consequences of the rise of totalitarian states;

10.2.15   analyze the causes, course, and global consequences of World Wars I and II;

10.2.18   analyze the oppression of groups and the struggle for human rights across the world;

10.2.19 describe the effort to attain stability, peace, and a sense of community in an interdependent world;

II.   Power, Authority, & Governance: Government/Political Science

10.3 The learner will demonstrate an understanding of government, its origins and functions, including civic life and politics. The student should be able to

10.3.3   analyze the political interactions, including conflicts among major nations and empires;

10.3.4    trace the causes and consequences of major governmental changes within selected nations and empires; and

III. People, Places, and Environments: Geography

10.4   The learner will demonstrate an understanding of the world in spatial terms. The student should be able to

10.4.1   use maps and other graphic representations to depict geographic problems;

10.4.7   account for patterns of human movement on Earth;

10.5  The learner will demonstrate an understanding of places and regions. The student should be able to

10.5.1 explain the meaning and significance of place;

10.5.2 analyze the changing physical and human characteristics of places;

10.5.3 explain how relationships between humans and the physical environment lead to the formation of places and to a sense of personal and community identity;

10.5.8   describe the ways places and regions serve as symbols for individuals and society;

10.5.9   describe the ways different groups of people within a society view places and regions;

10.5.10  evaluate how cultural changes affect perceptions of places and regions.

10.7  The learner will demonstrate an understanding of the role of human systems on earth. The student should be able to

10.7 analyze how culture influences ways of life;

10.7.12  analyze the effect of conflict and cooperation and the way they influence the development and control of Earth’s social, political, and economic entities;

10.7.13  examine how people’s lives are affected by the social, political, and economic identities on Earth; and

10.7.14 describe how self-interest and different points of view can be factors in conflict over resources and territory.

Grades 11–12: U.S. and South Carolina Studies, Government/Economics

I.    Time, Continuity, and Change: History

12.1       The learner will demonstrate an understanding of the major developments in the United States and South Carolina from the end of Reconstruction through World War II (1945). The student should be able to

12.1.17 describe the causes and course of World War II, including the Holocaust, the character of the war at home and abroad, and its reshaping of the United States’ role in world affairs.

Character Education

Section 59-17-135 (A)  The General Assembly finds:

(2) teaching positive character traits is essential to improving the learning environment, promoting student achievement, reducing disciplinary problems, and developing civic-minded students.

The School of Character:

Promotes caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect in all phases of school life and curriculum.

·Develops students’ commitment to living and acting in accordance with core ethical values.

PRINCIPALS OF EFFECTIVE CHARACTER EDUCATION

1. Character education promotes core ethical values as the basis of good character.

2.“Character” must be comprehensively defined to include thinking, feeling, and behavior.

3. Effective character education requires an intentional, proactive, and comprehensive approach that promotes the core values in all phases of school life.

4. The school must be a caring community.

5. To develop character, students need opportunities for moral action.

6. Effective character education includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners and helps them succeed.

7.Character education should strive to develop students’ intrinsic motivation.