Matthew I. Doran
Office of Teaching & Learning
Curriculum Division
Southland Center
Email: mdoran2067@columbus.k12.oh.us
Website: http://www.ccsoh.us/socialstudies
Location: 3700 South High Street, Columbus, OH, USA
Phone: 380-997-0470
Twitter: @mdoran2067
Big Ideas and Overarching Essential Questions in Social Studies
This year's Department Chair professional development sessions are focused on establishing a vision for social studies and connecting classroom practices with our vision. The first three meetings have focused on Big Ideas and Overarching Essential Questions.
- Establishing a clear vision, purpose, and focus for social studies instruction across all courses;
- Linking big picture concepts (macro-curriculum) with daily instructional practices (micro-curriculum); and
- Making social studies relevant to student success in college, career, and civic life.
The Big Ideas collectively identified for all CCS social studies courses are:
- Change;
- Democracy;
- Diversity;
- Evidence;
- Justice; and
- Power.
View and download the document below to see the Big Ideas and Overarching Essential Questions. This document will guide the development of social studies curriculum moving forward.
Transition to Revised Standards in American History and American Government for 2020-2021
This spring and summer we will make the necessary changes in Curriculum Maps, Clear Learning Targets, and Model Lessons for American History and American Government.
Some of the changes involve only minor wording revisions. In American History, there are more substantial changes in the language of the founding documents standards to emphasize the impact instead of the origins of the founding documents. In American Government, standards related to the amendments have been consolidated and focus on the collective impact of groups of amendments rather than memorizing individual amendment numbers.
A complete crosswalk of the old and new standards will be posted this spring. Again, these changes do not take effect until next school-year, 2020-2021.
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Featured Online Resources for World History, American History, and American Government
The free resource portals below provide high-quality instructional materials for social studies classrooms.
The World History OER Project is a new and evolving open-source curriculum. This curriculum includes videos, readings, vocabulary activities, and additional instructional resources. It includes the best resources from the Big History Project, but also provides a 1750-present scope for Modern World History classes.
iCivics provides a wealth of resources for American Government teachers. Teachers can download full curriculum units with turnkey lessons and student handouts. Students can also play online video games that teach key concepts in American Government.
The Stanford History Education Group has released its new Civic Online Reasoning (COR) curriculum resource portal. The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.
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Quick Review Guides
The Quick Review Guides are one-page front/back documents with bullet points of key vocabulary and concepts to know for Ohio's State Tests. The Quick Reviews can be downloaded here for American History and here for American Government.
Hard copies of the Quick Review Guides are also available in card stock. To order card stock copies, complete the form here. Keep in mind that new guides will be developed for the 2020-2021 school-year to align with the 2018 standards revision. You will only need to order enough for this year's students and discard them at the end of the year.
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Joint Department Chair and MS Content Experts January PD
The focus of this meeting will be raising awareness about the 2020 Census. A Census in Schools campaign representative will discuss the importance of the census to ensuring proper representation and funding allocation. We will also have the opportunity to explore the excellent lessons from the Statistics in Schools website.
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