The Social Studies Connection

Click here for last month's edition of the Social Studies Connection.

Secondary Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator

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

In this edition:

• Student Programs: Ft. Hayes Social Studies Project Wins Emmy Award
• Curriculum and Instruction: Textbook Adoption: African-American Studies, Psychology/Sociology
• Curriculum and Instruction: Gamification with GimKit
• Curriculum and Instruction: Social Studies Teaching & Learning Strategies with Visible Learning
• Curriculum and Instruction: SS Literacy & Language Support
• Curriculum and Instruction: Social Studies Assessment Resources
• Professional Development: Old School Month - TCI Ten, Tuesdays at Ten
• Professional Development: January 17 Professional Development Day
• External Professional Development: Echoes & Reflection PD

Congratulations to Eric East, social studies teacher and department chair at Ft. Hayes Arts & Academic HS, whose class project on the history of Milo-Grogan won an Emmy award. The story was detailed in the recent article, "The Case of the Forgotten Ft. Hayes Emmy."

In 2018, Fort Hayes students in Eric East’s class worked with historian Doreen Uhas Sauer to create a Milo-Grogan classroom assignment. WOSU filmed the students over a month as they conducted research that would eventually air on WOSU as part of the Columbus Neighborhoods series. The episode won a Regional Emmy award in the Educational/School Program category.

View the full episode of Columbus Neighborhoods below.

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The following message appeared in the November 14, 21, and 28 editions of the CEA Voice.

Textbook Selection Committee Nominations

Our Master Agreement provides CEA members input into vital classroom decisions. Section 504.01 details the agreed-upon framework for one of these, textbook selection. When it is time to review textbooks in a particular subject area, teachers from those subjects participate. The District will be selecting the following resources for High School Social Studies:

• African-American Studies
• Psychology/Sociology

Note: Each grouping above represents a separate textbook committee.

Bargaining unit members may only serve on one committee due to the RFQ process. Here’s how the process works:

• CCS posts a notice asking for textbook-adoption committee participants.
• Only teachers from each pertinent subject area and grade level at schools involved elect the nominees.
• Each of the building nominee elections is conducted by its principal and Association Building Council (ABC).
• Nominations should be emailed to CEA President John Coneglio (coneglioj@ceaohio.org) and copied to Brian Morton (bmorton6466@columbus.k12.oh.us) no later than Friday, Dec. 2, 4:30 p.m.
• Nominations should be on school letterhead signed by both the building Principal and Senior Faculty Representative.
• Nominees go to a joint Association and Board committee for a final vote.

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Gamification provides opportunities for:

• student engagement and collaboration;
• timely and actionable feedback; and
• deeper understanding of key ideas and concepts.

Gamification with TCI

Each TCI lesson includes a lesson game that can be used to review key ideas and events. The game can be projected by the teacher for class use, or assigned for students to play independently. The lesson games are autograded and teachers can track trends in student responses.

Gamification with Gimkit

Gimkit provides fast-paced gameplay that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win. Students earn virtual currency, which they can "invest" during the game to boost their score. Games can be played live or can be assigned as independent practice. Students can compete against each other or collaborate in teams or as a whole class. When teachers launch the game, they choose from a variety of play modes.

CCS Social Studies has a Gimkit Pro subscription. To join, first create a Gimkit account with your CCS account. Then, complete the form here to request the Gimkit Pro link. The Pro link will be emailed to you within 1-2 days.

CCS Gimkit Collections

CCS Social Studies has started building collections of standards-aligned unit games. Check this page for updates and links to those collections.

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The Social Studies Teaching & Learning Strategies page provides a curated collection and annotated bibliography of 50 teaching and learning strategies for social studies organized into five categories:

• Preview and Reading;
• Historical Concepts and Events;
• Social Studies Skills and Primary Sources;
• Evidence-Based Argumentation; and
• Discussion and Deliberation.

TCI strategy descriptions are indicated in bold purple in each category.

This resource has recently been reorganized to align with the Visible Learning Framework. Each category now includes icons to show how the strategies best align with the phases of learning:

• Surface Learning - Students gain initial understanding of the concepts, terms, skills, facts, and vocabulary of a topic.
• Deep Learning - Students begin to make connections between these ideas and generalize about broader principles.
• Transfer Learning - Students apply these connections to new situations.

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A new quarterly bulletin highlights resources available to support all teachers with literacy and English language development in the social studies classroom.

The bulletin includes information and resources across five topics:

• CCS Adopted Programs Support;
• ESL Department Support;
• Supplemental Resources; and
• Professional Articles for Teachers.

Check out the Fall 2022 edition here.

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The Social Studies Assessment Resources page has recently been revamped to include new resources and align with the HQSD requirements of OTES 2.0.

This page provides links to ODE learning modules on Quality Assessment Design—part of the Formative Instructional Practices (FIP) program—and to the CCS HQSD page on ILEAD.

Additionally, resources are included for assessing social studies:

• Content: What should students know?
• Skills: What should students be able to do? and
• Literacy: What should students be able to do with text analysis and writing?
  

The sidebar also includes information on CCS Assessment tools (MasteryConnect and TCI) and instruments.

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At 10:00 a.m. on Tuesdays, we release a new video focused on the TCI approach and digital platform tools on the CCS Social Studies YouTube channel.

So far this year our videos have covered:

• TCI and SQ3R
• Gamification with TCI and Gimkit
• Performance Tasks and Writing Assessments in TCI
• Social Studies Intentional Planning with TCI
• TCI Vocabulary Tools and Support
• TCI Tools for Reading Support
• TCI Visual Sources and Strategies

December will be "Old School Month" on TCI Ten—featuring some of TCI's best known strategies that work in both digital and paper/pencil environments. Interactive Student Notebooks will be the featured topic on December 8.

If you have ideas for topics, please let us know. Also, we would like to begin incorporating testimonials and tips from CCS social studies teachers into our videos. Contact Matt Doran if you would like to be included.

In addition to live PD opportunities, teachers can learn TCI at their own pace with these on-demand resources.

• Getting Started with Middle School Social Studies Program

• Getting Started with High School Social Studies Program
• TCI CCS Homebase
• TCI Bring Learning Alive! Interactive Guidebook

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The next Professional Development Day is January 17, 2023. This is a district-led PD day. Social Studies sessions will focus on implementation of the Social Studies MTSS resources and the Snapshot of the Successful Social Studies Classroom guide.

Additional information about the January 17 PD Day will be forthcoming.

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Courses offered in December include Teaching about Contemporary Antisemitism and back by popular demand, our newest online course to support teaching with The U.S. and the Holocaust, a film by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein.

Courses are interactive, asynchronous, and released over a three-week period; estimated 6-10 hours to complete. Certificate of completion provided and option to earn graduate-level credit through the University of the Pacific.

Click the links below for more information and registration:

• Teaching about Contemporary Antisemitism

• Examining the Holocaust and World War II: Online Course to Support Teaching with The U.S. and the Holocaust, a film by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein

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