5th Grade Social Studies
U.S. History, Geography, Economics and Government: Early Exploration to Westward Movement
The Massachusetts Department of Education's "History and Social Science Curriculum Framework" offers the following summary of the 5th grade curriculum:
"Students study the major pre-Columbian civilizations in the New World; the 15th and 16th century European explorations around the world, in the western hemisphere, and in North America in particular; the earliest settlements in North America; and the political, economic, and social development of the English colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. They also study the early development of democratic institutions and ideas, including the ideas and events that led to the independence of the original thirteen colonies and the formation of a national government under the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of the grade 5 curriculum is to give students their first concentrated study of the formative years of U.S. history"
Our investigation of these focus areas will include:
6th Grade Social Studies
World Geography: History, Economics and Government
The Massachusetts Department of Education's "History and Social Science Curriculum Framework" offers the following summary of the 6th grade curriculum:
"Sixth graders study the world outside of the United States and North America. Students systematically learn geography around the world continent by continent, similar to the way in which atlases are organized. In grade 6, students address standards that emphasize physical and political geography and embed five major concepts: location, place, human interaction with the environment, movement, and regions. Location refers both to absolute location indicated by longitude and latitude and to relative location, indicated by direction, distance, or travel time. The concept of place refers to the physical and man-made characteristics of a place such as a town or city. Human interaction with the environment encompasses the many ways in which people have adapted to their surroundings or altered them for economic reasons. The movement of people, goods, and ideas is the fourth concept. The fifth, region, refers to ways of categorizing areas of the earth, such as by climate or religion."
Our investigation of these focus areas will include:
My educational philosophy can be divided into three focused areas, each of which I strive to achieve every day:
All children, regardless of learning style or individual ability, have the right for a chance to achieve success in the classroom. It is my job as an educator to craft lesson plans that engage students with visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles at all ability levels in order to ensure that they can access the curriculum.
Children must know that you care about them before they're going to care about what you have to say. Trust is the foundation on which all growth is built. If I truly wish to give all students equal access to curriculum, it is my duty as an educator to make connections, build rapport, and ensure that each student understands that I have their best interests in mind at all times.
I firmly believe that 'success' as a middle school educator comes when we work to create intelligent, curious, well rounded students who are prepared for the rigors of high school both academically and emotionally. In order to achieve that 'success,' -one that I have witnessed countless times in the Tisbury school- it is critical that the 5-6 team function as one cohesive unit, a unit who supports students that are struggling in any subject matter, regardless of if it is our own area of expertise. This is why I have always been willing to help students who may not have finished their language-arts papers, or who were struggling to finish 12 missed math assignments 6 days after grades have closed, because in the end what we are teaching these kids is not just academic knowledge of history, grammar, biology or arithmetic, we are teaching them think, learn, and act as independent members of our society. I want those new members to be the best that they can be, and I truly believe that it's this teams willingness to work together that makes Tisbury the best Elementary School on Martha's Vineyard.
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