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OSPI’s Civic Education
Initiative (CEI) is in its fifth year. The Initiative seeks to ensure that
every
student is provided a high-caliber civic education from kindergarten through
high school graduation. This year’s work will focus
on building the WA C3 Hub, an
open educational resource featuring high-quality, Washington-centric inquiries
for use by K-12 social studies students and teachers alike.
Want students to leave your
classroom ready for civic life? Follow recommendations made by the Campaign for
the Civic Mission of Schools. Check out the Six Proven Practices, which provide an effective and comprehensive approach to ensuring
that all students receive the civic knowledge and skills necessary to become informed
and engaged citizens. If each of us added one or two of these practices to our
teaching repertoire in 2017-18, the results could have a staggeringly powerful
impact on American democracy.
 Legacy Washington is the home of several high-caliber social studies resources. Two examples:
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Who are we? provides a series of oral history profiles exploring our state’s diversity through the lives of extraordinary Washingtonians.
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Korea 65 features a public exhibit and a series of online oral history profiles that cast light on this forgotten conflict. The program comes with middle school curriculum appropriate for upper elementary and high school students as well.
- Download the Korea 65 Lesson Plans
Questions? Contact Laura Mott: 1-360-902-4171 or info@sos.wa.gov
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Visit Social Studies Teachers
(SST) Connect. Explore the curriculum maps and the
instructional maps to find
contact information for colleagues in Washington state who are teaching the same
courses or working on the same instructional practices as you. You may register
to share your contact information. Maybe 2017-18 will be the school year to
meet and learn with colleagues beyond your school and district. |
October: WSCSS Fall Conference (Edmonds): October 7
November: NCSS Annual Conference (San Francisco):
November 17-19
December: Social Studies Showcase #1 (Yelm): Date TBD
January: Council
on Public Legal Education leads Civic Summit II (Olympia/Seattle): January 22-23.
February: WSCSS K-8 Conference (Seattle): February 3
March: WSCSS Spring
Conference
(Skamania): March 9-11
May: Social Studies Showcase #2 (Cashmere): Date
TBD
In our modern age of data-driven
instruction and high-stakes testing, inquiry is receiving renewed attention.
Whether or not you have added inquiry to your classroom practice, it is never
too late to deepen your understanding of this teaching strategy that dates back
to Ancient Greece. One of the best ways to hone your inquiry skills is to visit
the C3 Teachers
website. This site provides a digital powerhouse of information on inquiry. For
those of us who like to supplement our online learning with hard copies,
there’s good news. Inquiry-Based Practice
in Social Studies Education: Understanding the Inquiry Design Model (authors
S. G. Grant, Kathy Swan, and John Lee) is now available.
The Washington Geographic
Alliance (WAGA) is an organization whose goal is to increase geographic
literacy for teachers and students in Washington. This year WAGA is promoting
two initiatives. The first is for elementary teachers: the Giant Map Project.
The giant map of Washington State (think of a map that takes up half the space
of your classroom floor) is a hands-on, feet-on map that is loaned to schools
for a week at a time. The second initiative is a summer institute on
geo-inquiry. The institute will give teachers an in-depth grounding in the
process of thinking geographically in different settings, much like modern day
field studies. If you are interested in joining WAGA or receiving more
information, please email one of the WAGA co-coordinators:
 How can you sort through the
massive number of online resources that tout silver-bullet solutions to
teaching economics? The answer is . . . you can’t! So let FEPPP do it for you.
FEPPP stands for the Financial
Education Public-Private Partnership. Visit the FEPPP
website for resources that include the Washington State K-12 Financial
Education Standards, rich supplies of FEPPP-vetted resources, and professional
development opportunities that will be provided by FEPPP during the 2017-18
school year.
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 National History Day: National History Day (NHD) is a
year-long academic program focused on historical research, interpretation, and
creative expression for 6th- to 12th-grade students. By participating in NHD,
students become writers, filmmakers, web designers, playwrights, and artists as
they create unique contemporary expressions of history. The experience
culminates in a series of contests at the local and affiliate levels and an
annual national competition in June in Washington, DC. For more information
about NHD in Washington, please contact Mark Vessey, History Day Coordinator,
Washington State Historical Society, by phone (360-586-0219) or email: mvessey@wshs.wa.gov.
National History Club: Consider forming a history club at your school and joining the
National History Club (NHC). Since 2002, schools in 44 states have joined the
NHC and there are over 16,000 student members. The NHC’s main goal is to bring
together students and teachers with a love for history, helping history clubs
learn from each other’s ideas, experiences, and stories, which are distributed
through the organization’s tri-annual Newsletter, monthly eUpdates, and other
communication methods. Clubs can participate in award programs such as the
“History Student of the Year,” the National History Scholars Society, and the
Lessons of Leadership contest to further engage and reward the student members.
For more information including how to join, please visit: www.nationalhistoryclub.org.
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OSPI sponsors a Social Studies
Cadre, comprised of 35-40 classroom teachers and specialists who have both
teaching experience and expertise in social studies education. Visit the Cadre
website to find a list of the Cadre members in your ESD. To submit your social
studies questions for discussion with Cadre members, please contact Carol Coe,
Social Studies Program Supervisor, OSPI, by phone (360-725-6351) or email: carol.coe@k12.wa.us. Your question may be featured
in one of the monthly Cadre Conversations scheduled throughout the 2017-18
school year.
 It
seems like everyone has. Now there’s an opportunity to use Hamilton in our classrooms. The Gilder Lehrman
Institute is partnering with Hamilton and The Rockefeller Foundation on the Hamilton
Education Program. The Hamilton Education Program is going on tour for the
2017–2018 school year and is coming to Seattle, where it will host two student
matinees on March 8 and March 14, 2018. Local high school
students from Title I schools will get a special opportunity to see and learn
history through Hamilton. Are
you a teacher at a Title I-eligible high school in or near Seattle? If so, then
please visit the Hamilton Education Program website
or contact Sasha Rolon Pereira, Associate Director of Education and
Director of the Hamilton Project by phone (646.366.9666 x.13) or email: pereira@gilderlehrman.org.
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The Core Knowledge Foundation provides access to free
content-rich Social Studies (history and geography) curriculum. Materials are
also available for Language Arts and Science. To access the social studies
units of your choice, visit the Core Knowledge curriculum website and start exploring.
If you find something you want, you will need to register (just one time) and
then begin downloading to your heart’s content.
 This fall MoPOP will offer four hands-on, arts-based workshops that will transform the way you teach. Designed to address a broad spectrum of student and teacher learning styles, these workshops will provide tools to address middle and high school learning targets and infuse your curriculum with new ideas that can easily be applied to arts-up teaching! Click here to find out more: MoPOP 21st Century.
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