Social Science
Our youth live in a world that is evolving by the day and is diverse and full of connections, processes and institutions with which they must try to understand and navigate through. In addition, the technology that our children interact with has, and continues to, evolve constantly - allowing our society to be truly global. A strong social science education will support our youth as they prepare to enter into this ever-evolving society and help to prepare them for college, career, civics and life.
In order for our youth to have an opportunity for this type of education they must be presented with a high-quality curriculum and teachers that are able to implement instruction in this way. Our department works to support these efforts by supporting curriculum development, leading teacher learning and organizing resources that will allow the classroom learning to move beyond the classroom. The Common Core State Standards identifies literacy-based skills that play an important role in social science learning, and the district is working to support the implementation of teaching that integrates these skills. The full implementation of these standards means that your children should be spending less time working from a textbook and interacting with a variety of types of text, practicing analysis and research of those texts and then having opportunities to communicate what they have learned in a variety of formats.
The learning that our students experience should also move outside of the classroom and allow for actual engagement in one of the greatest classrooms in the world - the city of Chicago. Chicago is filled with cultural and academic resources that are rich with opportunities and learning experiences. These are resources that can and should be accessed by teachers and families.
In order for our youth to have an opportunity for this type of education they must be presented with a high-quality curriculum and teachers that are able to implement instruction in this way. Our department works to support these efforts by supporting curriculum development, leading teacher learning and organizing resources that will allow the classroom learning to move beyond the classroom. The Common Core State Standards identifies literacy-based skills that play an important role in social science learning, and the district is working to support the implementation of teaching that integrates these skills. The full implementation of these standards means that your children should be spending less time working from a textbook and interacting with a variety of types of text, practicing analysis and research of those texts and then having opportunities to communicate what they have learned in a variety of formats.
The learning that our students experience should also move outside of the classroom and allow for actual engagement in one of the greatest classrooms in the world - the city of Chicago. Chicago is filled with cultural and academic resources that are rich with opportunities and learning experiences. These are resources that can and should be accessed by teachers and families.
(From the CPS Department of Literacy in Social Science, https://cps.edu/Pages/TL_SocialScience.aspx)