Teacher Resources and Standards
Cowpens National Battlefield is dedicated to protecting and preserving the cultural and natural features within park boundaries, to commemorating and interpreting the Battle of Cowpens and the natural setting of the battle, and to educate and inform the public about the battle, the Southern Campaign, and the impact that fighting in the South had on the end of the war.
My Wonderful World
Geography is more than places on a map. It's global connections and incredible creatures. It's people and cultures, economics and politics. And it's essential to understanding our interconnected world.
But sadly, our kids aren't getting enough of it. A new National Geographic-Roper survey shows half of young Americans can't locate world powers like Japan and India. Twenty percent can't even find the Pacific Ocean. (More about the survey.) Without geography, our children aren't ready for the world.
That's why we started My Wonderful World. It's a National Geographic-led campaign—backed by a coalition of major national partners—to expand geographic learning in school, at home, and in the community. We want to give our kids the power of global knowledge.
The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia
The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), funded by the Freeman Foundation, is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about Asia in world history, geography, social studies, and literature courses.
South Carolina Stock Market Simulation
The is part of the fastest growing Stock Market Simulation for K-12 students nationwide. As the main program for the South Carolina Council on Economic Education, the North Carolina SMS uses the stock market to teach economics, computers, math, and current events.
Omaha School District's Historical Novel Lessons for 7th and 8th grades
In an effort to utilize supplemental novels as a means of instruction and increasing literacy, it is beneficial for teachers of seventh and eighth grade students to have a uniform novel "enhancement and curriculum guide." This approaches the novel not only from a comprehension standpoint, but one of higher order thinking skills and connecting the learning to specific content standards. Each guide includes a synopsis, web sites and enrichment, vocabulary development, comprehension, timeline activity, map activity, understanding two points of view, and linking the novel to current events. It is hoped that students will be offered a choice of novels and these guides will facilitate that choice for the educator.
Gideon v. Wainwright
In 2003, American celebrated the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, in which a poor Florida prisoner caused the single biggest change in the history of the U.S. criminal justice system. Before Gideon, persons accused of crime could be sent to prison without any representation by a lawyer unless they were wealthy enough to hire one. The Gideon decision guaranteed that all persons accused of a felony are entitled to appointed counsel. To help educate students about the significance of the Gideon decision and the constitutional right to counsel, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has developed a lesson plan for high school history, civics, government, and social studies classes (easily adaptable for middle school classes). Click here to download the lesson plan.
Economics and Geography Lessons for 32 Children's Books
These lessons were developed by Patricia King Robeson and Barbara Yingling sponsored by The Council on Economic Education in Maryland and The Maryland Geographic Alliance.
Lesson Plan Databases
Follow this link to a directory of searchable databases that contain Social Studies lessons.
Media Literacy Clearinghouse
Included on this web site are numerous articles, background and lesson plans designed to help teachers integrate media literacy into classroom instruction.
Teaching Democracy
The Media and American Democracy Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education aims to help secondary school educators teach about the role of the media in our democracy. This web site provides access to many of the program's resources. Click on TEACHING RESOURCES for teacher-written lesson plans.
Professional Organizations
This is a list of Social Studies-related professional organizations, both on the state and national level.
South Carolina African-American History project online
The African-American History project is brought to you through the partnership of BELLSOUTH, SCETV and WIS-TV. The project, now in its twelfth year, provides educators a method of identifying role models for all youth.
South Carolina Geographic Alliance
The South Carolina Geographic Alliance is a network of K-12 educators and university geographers using geography to improve the education of our children. Our primary goal is to bring the concepts and methodology of modern geography to the K-12 classroom by providing high-quality, low cost, professional development opportunities and materials for South Carolina educators. The Alliance is a partnership between the State of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and the National Geographic Society and its Education Foundation.
Support Site South Carolina State Social Studies Curriculum Standards
South Carolina Social Studies Academic Standards contains the revised academic standards in social studies for South Carolina students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. A field review of the first draft of these standards was conducted from April through June 2004, and feedback from that review has been incorporated into this document. Because a working knowledge of government, geography, economics, and history is essential for effective citizenship in a democracy, the theme for these standards is civic education. The final draft was presented to the State Board of Education on January 12, 2005.
Social Studies Web Page on the State Department of Education Web Site
Click on the images for more information about our 2006 Conference
Sponsor.
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South Carolina Remembers |
Click here for Lessons from NCSS |