Social Studies - 1st Grade

Enduring Understanding: B.F. Skinner said, "Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten." This statement explains enduring understandings. In Understanding by Design, by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, enduring understandings are defined as "specific inferences, based on big ideas, that have lasting value beyond the classroom." These are typically written as full-sentence statements about what, specifically, your students will understand and be able to use later on in life, even when the small details of what they learned have been forgotten.

Enduring understandings are also transferable in new situations. Wiggins and McTighe explain that, because enduring understandings are often abstract, "they require uncoverage through sustained inquiry rather than one-shot coverage. The student must come to understand or be helped to grasp the idea, as a result of work. If teachers treat an understanding like a fact, the student is unlikely to get it."

Essential Question: An essential question is "a question that lies at the heart of a subject or a curriculum (as opposed to being either trivial or leading) and promotes inquiry and uncoverage of a subject. Essential questions thus do not yield a single straightforward answer (as a leading question does) but produces different plausible responses, about which thoughtful and knowledgeable people may disagree." An essential question can be either overarching or topical (unit-specific) in scope.
(Source: Understanding by Design, by Grant P. Wiggins and Jay McTighe; ISBN: 416600353.)

Standard I    Standard II    Standard III    Standard IV

(Culture): Students will recognize and describe how schools and neighborhoods are both similar and different.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Recognize and describe examples of differences within school and neighborhood.

Essential Questions

• What can I learn from different traditions within my community?

Indicators:

1. Recognize differences within their school and neighborhood.
2. Share stories, folk tales, art, music, and dance inherent in neighborhood and community traditions.
3. Recognize and demonstrate respect for the differences within one's community (e.g. play, associations, activities, friendships).
4. Recognize and describe the importance of schools and neighborhoods.

Objective 2:
Recognize and identify the people and their roles in the school and neighborhood. Explain how these roles change over time.

Essential Questions

• How can people in my school and neighborhood help people around them?

Indicators:

1. Identify the roles of people in the school (e.g., principal, teacher, librarian, secretary, custodian, bus driver, crossing guard, and cafeteria staff).
2. Explain the roles of the people in the neighborhood (e.g., police officer, firefighter, mail carrier, grocer, mechanic, plumber, miner, farmer, doctor, and tribal leader).
3. List and discuss how neighborhoods change over time (e.g., new businesses, new neighbors, technology, and rural one-room schools).

(Citizenship): Students will recognize their roles and responsibilities in the school and in the neighborhood.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Describe and demonstrate appropriate social skills necessary for working in a group.

Essential Questions

• Explain the importance of being a good friend.

Indicators:

1. Describe behaviors that contribute to cooperation within groups at school and in a neighborhood.
2. Discuss the roles and responsibilities of being a member of a group.
3. Participate in a group activity modeling appropriate group behavior.
4. Identify and express feelings in appropriate ways.
5. Articulate how individual choices affect self, peers, and others.
6. Communicate positive feelings and ideas of self (e.g., positive self image, good friend, helper, honest).
7. Predict possible consequences for a variety of actions.

Objective 2:
Identify and list responsibilities in the school and in the neighborhood.

Essential Questions

• What are my responsibilities within my school and neighborhood to demonstrate good citizenship?

Indicators:

1. Describe and practice responsible behavior inherent in being a good citizen in the school (e.g., safety, right to learn) and neighborhood.
2. Explain why schools have rules, and give examples of neighborhood rules (e.g., respecting private property, reporting vandalism, and obeying traffic signs and signals).
3. Demonstrate respect for others in the neighborhood (e.g., the "Golden Rule"—elements include fair play, respect for rights and opinions of others, and respect for rules).
4. Participate in responsible activities that contribute to the school and neighborhood (e.g., follow teacher directions, put belongings away, participate in discussions, take turns, listen to others, share ideas, clean up litter, report vandalism, give service).
5. Practice and demonstrate safety in the classroom (e.g., classroom safety procedures, fair play, playground rules).
6. Practice and demonstrate safety in the neighborhood (e.g., crossing streets, avoiding neighborhood dangers).

Objective 3:
Name school, neighborhood, Utah state, and national symbols, landmarks, and documents.

Essential Questions

• Explain how symbols, landmarks, and documents can unite you with others and fill your role as a good citizen.

Indicators:

1. Identify school symbols and landmarks (i.e., mascot, songs, events).
2. Identify neighborhood and community symbols and landmarks (i.e., firehouse, city hall, churches, other landmarks, city festivals).
3. Identify Utah state symbols, documents, and landmarks.
4. Identify national symbols, documents, and landmarks (e.g., Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Liberty Bell, Washington Monument).
5. Demonstrate respect for patriotic practices and customs (e.g., Pledge of Allegiance and flag etiquette).

(Geography): Students will use geographic tools to demonstrate how symbols and models are used to represent features of the school, the neighborhood, and the real world.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Identify and use geographic terms and tools.

Essential Questions

• Why is understanding how to read maps important?

Indicators:

1. Use a compass to locate cardinal directions.
2. Identify the equator and north and south poles.
3. Identify Utah on a variety of maps and on a globe.
4. Identify the United States on a variety of maps and on a globe.

Objective 2:
Recognize and use a map or a globe.

Essential Questions

• Why would recognizing and understanding map features be important?

Indicators:

1. Create a map showing important sites or landmarks on a school or community (i.e., firehouse, city hall, churches).
2. Locate physical features (i.e. continents, oceans, rivers, lakes), and man-made features (equator, North and South poles, countries) on a map and on a globe.
3. Identify the compass rose and cardinal directions on a map and on a globe.

(Financial Literacy): Students will describe the economic choices people make to meet their basic economic needs.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Explain how goods and services meet people's needs.

Essential Questions

• How can goods and services help meet people’s needs?

Indicators:

1. Identify examples of goods and services in the home and in the school.
2. Explain ways that people exchange goods and services.
3. Explain how people earn money by working at a job.
4. Explain the concept of exchanging money to purchase goods and services.

Objective 2:
Recognize that people need to make choices to meet their needs.

Essential Questions

• Why do some people have to make choices in order to meet their needs?

Indicators:

1. Describe the economic choices that people make regarding goods and services.
2. Describe why wanting more than a person can have requires a person to make choices.
3. Identify choices families make when buying goods and services.
4. Explain why people save money to buy goods and services in the future.

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