R9 K-12 Social Studies Support

My name is Chelsea Howells, and I am your Social Studies Specialist at Region 9 ESC! This newsletter is meant to provide you with updates on social studies standards, instructional strategies, resources, professional development opportunities, and more.

It is finally spring! I hope you are able to get out and enjoy the fresh air of spring (in between the rain, heat, and ice of Texas weather)! It is testing season, track season, and countdown to summer season, so I greatly appreciate you carving out time to read this newsletter!

Important to note in this issue:

• Region 9 Rocks - lots to celebrate!
• Social Studies Summer PD Offerings
• TEA Updates - Stay in the know on the changing social studies standards!
• STAAR and AP Review Resources

As always, I am here to help you in any way that might make your path smoother and workload lighter. Please don't hesitate to reach out any time!

~Chelsea

@ChelseaHowells9

chelsea.howells@esc9.net

Congratulations to Mary Fieldhouse of Central Elementary in Vernon ISD on being selected as the Texas Law Related Education Elementary Ambassador for Region 9!

Congratulations to Ashley Penney of McNiel Middle School in Wichita Falls ISD! She will serve as our Region 9 Middle School LRE Ambassador!

Mary and Ashley were selected based on the strength of their applications and administrator recommendations. They will join a cadre of educators who will serve as LRE ambassadors and train educators in our regional service area, which includes 37 school districts!

Both will travel to Austin for a week of training that will focus on providing the content, resources, and skills to support quality civic education professional development!

Thank you for representing our region, Mary and Ashley!

Two more WFISD teachers were accepted to attend the Sphere Summit: The Foundations of Civic Culture in Washington D.C. in July. This includes a full scholarship covering accommodations, meals, materials, resources, and a travel stipend.

Congratulations to Christian Wood of Barwise Middle School and Sarah Murray of McNiel Middle School!

Last edition, we celebrated Robert Wilkinson (Barwise) and Ashley Penney (McNiel).

If you are interested in applying to attend the summit, please visit https://www.cato.org/sphere/about-sphere for more information!

Every year, students across the state compete in the Texas Citizen Bee, which is hosted by the Law Related Education department of the State Bar of Texas. The Texas Citizen Bee is a statewide civic education program and competition and is funded by the Sumners Foundation.

Students take a 35-question multiple-choice test covering content from the U.S. History EOC. The top 10 finalists advance to the verbal rounds, which require each student to answer one question from each of the following categories: 1)People/Events 2)Documents and Supreme Court Cases and 3) Constitution.

Our region had 21 students from 2 high schools compete in the Citizen Bee on March 29 and 30th! 11 students progressed from the written round to the final verbal round.

Congratulations to our 2022 Region 9 Winners!

1st place - $250 gift card - Prasi Desai, Rider High School, Wichita Falls ISD (Sponsor Dr. Aaron Wilson)

2nd place - $100 gift card - Adam Sproles, Burkburnett High School, Burkburnett ISD (Sponsor Kimbra Thomas)

3rd place - $50 gift card - Robert Haas, Burkburnett High School, Burkburnett ISD (Sponsor Kimbra Thomas)

Due to a conflict with UIL Competition for Prasi, Adam Sproles, his parents, and Mrs. Thomas traveled to Austin on Friday, April 22nd to participate in the “Capitol Experience” where they enjoyed speakers and tours of the Capitol complex. The State Citizen Bee Competition followed on Saturday, April 23rd!

The Annual Bee in a Box History Competition was held April 19th and 20th. The Bee in a Box Competition is a middle school version of the Citizen Bee competition held at the High school level.

"I'm very proud of these students for choosing to take part in it. 2 were 7th graders and have not been taught a majority of the material because it is 8th grade level US History. They still did very well." said Ashley Penney, the McNiel Middle School sponsor and co-creator of the competition. The Competition was hosted by Law-Related Education and funded by the Sumners Foundation. Participants will receive gift cards, shirts, and other gifts for participating. This is the 7th year for this competition. McNiel has participated every year since it was created, including the virtual competition last year.

Congratulations to the 2022 Region 9 Bee in a Box winners!

1st Place - $100 gift card - Lorelei Mitchell, McNiel Middle School, Wichita Falls ISD

2nd Place - $50 gift card - Simon Kim, McNiel MS, Wichita Falls ISD

3rd Place - $25 gift card - Kyla Moses, McNiel MS, Wichita Falls ISD

If you have something exciting to share, whether it be in your classroom or something awesome going on in your social studies department, please email me to be featured in the next newsletter!

chelsea.howells@esc9.net

bit.ly/summerR9

Please note: There are two options if you would like to participate in training about the new STAAR item types.

1. Face to Face: July 25th at Region 9

2. Virtual: Zooms on June 24, July 22, and August 5 from 10-11 am AND 3 hours of follow-up work

This list may change - some logistics and approvals are still being hammered out. You will receive an email if you register for an affected session.

TEA Social Studies TEKS Review Work Group C met in February and March 2022 to begin developing recommendations for revisions to the TEKS for Grade 8 and selected high school courses. Work Group C’s drafts are working documents and not yet final. Recommendations for changes to the TEKS are still under consideration by the work group and subject to change. The work group will reconvene at a later date to finalize its draft recommendations.

When providing specific comments and recommendations for a work group, please identify the work group in the subject line of the email. For example, in the subject line, please indicate "Social Studies TEKS Review Work Group C Feedback." Please submit comments to TEA at teks@tea.texas.gov.

Many of you have seen or heard about versions of new social studies standards on social media. Remember, social studies TEKS are currently under review and will have multiple drafts and proposals created. Nothing is finalized or recommended at this time. You have the opportunity to provide feedback multiple times during this process. Linked below are sites to bookmark and follow for all the latest information on this topic.

Link to Social Studies TEKS Review Announcements

Link to Social Studies TEKS Review Work Group Drafts

Dear social studies educators,

As you may know, the State Board of Education (SBOE) is in the process of revising the kindergarten-grade 12 social studies TEKS. As part of the review process, the SBOE convenes work groups to make recommendations for revisions to the TEKS. TEA collects applications from educators, parents, and community members who are interested in serving on work groups.

The Kinder-8th TEKS work group is next on the list!

Should you wish to participate, you are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Initial work groups will begin convening as early as this month. The application is available at https://tea.texas.gov/academics/curriculum-standards/teks-review/2021-2022-social-studies-teks-review.

Questions related to the application for the social studies TEKS review and revision process can be directed to teks@tea.texas.gov.

TEA has published new information regarding the STAAR redesign. Check out the links below for access to these resources:

The STAAR redesign includes several components:

Online Testing and Accommodations

New Question Types (Especially check out the online samplers of new question types, updated test blueprints, and scoring and reporting guides)

Cross-curricular Passages

Evidence-based Writing

More information about the STAAR redesign can be found on the STAAR Redesign webpage.

Have you been wondering what the new STAAR tests will contain? Updated blueprints have been posted to the testing page for TEA.

• Updated RLA assessed curriculum documents that identify the reading and writing student expectations that will be eligible for assessment on the redesigned RLA tests. Note: Mathematics, science, and social studies assessed curriculum documents will not change.
• Preliminary blueprints that show the distribution of questions, points, and readiness and supporting standards across reporting categories on the redesigned tests. RLA blueprints also include test design information, including the number of passages, the reading load, and the genres eligible for assessment.

Click on the button below to see more.

If we are looking at Frequency Distribution by TEKS Clusters according to Lead4Ward, these are the three key areas that have appeared with the most frequency on STAAR within the past 4 years.

8th grade

⭐ 1. Constitution

⭐ 2. Industrialization

⭐ 3. Exploration and Colonization

US History

⭐ 1. 1990's-21st Century

⭐ 2. Gilded Age

⭐ 3. Civil Rights/Cold War/World War I (all relatively close in #s - look closely at what your students struggled with the most)

Questions to ask yourself about these topics:

• What did my data look like for these units?
• What specific concepts confused students the most?
• Are there mnemonic devices for any of these units I need to review?
• Have I used STAAR released questions specific to these units?

Remember, you cannot reteach everything prior to STAAR. Prioritize what will have the most impact on your students and make the review engaging!! Please feel free to email me if I can be of assistance as you plan.

Link to Blog Post

Look no further than the Law-Related Education Bee in the Box website for 8th grade U.S. History and the Citizen Bee website for high school U.S. History. The content has been reorganized into eras to allow students to study the people, events, documents, and Supreme Court cases during that time in history.

Quizzes by Era - Quizzes have been added in each era so that students may use the results to gauge their learning as they move through the content.

Cumulative Quiz - The Quiz Me section is a great review at the end of the year as you are reviewing for STAAR.

Join the Bill of Rights Institute's live study sessions to review the essential content students need to succeed on the APUSH test while exploring the skills students need to score highly! These webinars are suitable for AP US History students preparing to take the AP US History exam.

Click here to view the entire schedule and register.

AP U.S. Government and Politics

For students looking to prepare for the SCOTUS Comparison FRQ, check out:

• The Battle for Votes: Gerrymandering, which includes discussion of Shaw v. Reno.
• Presidents v. Press: How the Pentagon Papers Leak Set Up First Amendment Showdowns, which examines New York Times v. United States.

To help students review concepts connected to voting rights highlighted in Units 3 and 5, view the following videos:

• Suffrage for Black Women.
• Dr. Martin Luther King at Gee’s Bend.
• Campaigns and Elections: The 2000 Election.

AP U.S. History

While it’s fresh in your students’ memory, have them reexamine our collection on the Cold War. It includes a seven-part series created in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and a collection focusing on the Cold War in Latin America. These videos will help students contextualize events and ideas from Units 8 and 9.

For more on political party conventions over time, ranging from the 1830 to 2004, this collection will aid your students in connecting changing political parties with broader political, social and economic themes throughout modern U.S. history. These videos will be helpful for students looking to solidify their skills in Contextualization and Making Connections.

• Election of 1860: Slavery Splits the Democrats.

• 1912 Republican Convention: TR Starts the Bull Moose Party

• 1968 Democratic National Convention: The Mess in Chicago.

AP Human Geography

• Topic 2.6 - Malthusian Theory: What is overpopulation and when will it happen? Watch Human Geography: The Population Bomb to explore a theory that failed to materialize.

• Topic 4.6 - Internal Boundaries: Watch The Battle for Votes: Gerrymandering to examine the impact that redrawn districts can have on election results.

• Topic 5.11 - Challenges of Contemporary Agriculture: Explore the history behind GMOs and their impact on food production by watching Genetically Modified Food.

• Topic 6.7 - Infrastructure: How does infrastructure impact economic and social development? Check out Crumbling Bridges: US Infrastructure 10 Years After Minneapolis.

Click here to read the article

credit: TCEA Emily Hopkins

Ep. 12 Earth Day and the Environment

Looking for resources to celebrate Earth Day? Searching for content for students to explore environmental policy? Tune in to discover C-SPAN programs to use in your classroom.

Advanced Placement US Government and Politics Review

Preparing your students for the AP exams? Tune in to discover resources and learn about C-SPAN’s Cram for the Exam review program for the upcoming Advanced Placement US Government exam.

credit: Jessica Torres, Region 12 @owl_b_torresedu

Click here for more information.

Click here for a marketing poster

Deadline for submissions: May 16, 2022

Students in 8th-12th grade, ages 13-19 are eligible

Contest Submission

• An essay of up to 1,200 words expressing the student’s a) understanding of the ideal of “E Pluribus Unum” and how their project furthers that ideal in their community b) How their project furthers at least one Civic Virtue and one of Founding Principle as defined in the Bill of Right’s Institutes “Principles and Virtues.
  
• A report of up to 2,000 words detailing a student’s completed or in-progress civic engagement project
  
• Visual documentation of the student’s project and its results
  

Prizes

• Student Grand Prize – one at $10,000
• Student First Prize one at $7,500
• Student Second Prize – one at $5,000
• Student Third Prize – one at $2,500
• Honorable Mention – six at $1,500 each

• Teacher Grand Prize – one at $500, awarded to the teacher sponsoring the student winner of the Student Grand Prize
• Teacher Support Prize – one at $500, awarded to the teacher sponsoring the greatest number of valid Contest entries
• Teacher Submission Prize – twenty at $250 each (only one prize per teacher), awarded to the first 20 teachers sponsoring 10 valid Contest entries

The Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center is proud to announce a new annual award for geography teachers in the state of Texas honoring the late Valleau Wilkie Jr.

The award includes: A $500 honorarium and a recognition plaque for the award winner. Plus, permanent posting in the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at Texas State University.

Qualifications:

1. Must have been or currently is a Texas teacher of High School World Geography, AP Human Geography, or Grade 6 World Cultures.
2. Been a Geography teacher in Texas for at least three (3) years.

Application must include the following:

1. Statement of quality teaching in last three years (500 words or less).
2. Two letters of reference.
3. Two short statements on quality teaching by students, if possible.
4. A current educational resume/professional biography.

For information and how to apply click here.

Applications must be received by May 15, 2022. The inaugural winner will be announced by the end of May 2022.

-----

Mr. Wilke was a natural leader and lifelong educator and mentor. He headed the Sid W. Richardson Foundation from 1973-2011. It was during this time that Mr. Wilke recognized the importance of the link between Texas State University and the National Geographic Society and how that relationship could improve teaching and learning in geography in the schools of Texas. Mr. Wilke and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation have played a major role in support of the state and national leadership of Texas State University in geography education.

June 20 - 24 at Baylor University

The Jack Miller Center invites you to a professional development program the week of June 20-24 at Baylor University!

The Zavala Summer Civics Institute is an opportunity to study fundamental texts in the American political tradition with Baylor University professors. The Institute is designed to help increase your familiarity with key primary sources for use in your classroom. The more exposure students have to primary sources, the richer and fuller their knowledge of America's history and political system will be.

Sessions will explore the ratification debates, separation of powers, and federalism as well as controversial issues such as race and the Constitution and the expansion of rights.

The institute is entirely cost-free for teachers. All materials are included and breakfast and lunch will be provided daily. All participants will receive a certificate of completion and a $400 stipend.

See a tentative agenda for the program here.

Applications are open for Sphere Summit: Teaching Civic Culture Together summer 2022! Sphere Summit, a full‐​scholarship professional development program for grades 5–12 educators, returns as a fully in‐​person experience in Washington, DC, and will run July 10–14 and July 24–28. More information can be found at this website.

Texas in the Twentieth Century (2022 In-Person Institute)

On June 6–9, 2022, Humanities Texas will partner with Texas Tech University to hold a professional development institute for Texas teachers covering significant topics related to Texas in the twentieth century.

Teaching Evidence-Based Reading Practices at the Secondary Level (2022 Online Institute)

From June 28–30, 2022, in partnership with the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin, Humanities Texas will hold an online institute on teaching reading at the sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade levels for both social studies and English language arts (ELA) teachers.

Reading Like a Historian with the Stanford History Education Group (2022 Online Institute)

From July 5–7, 2022, the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) will introduce social studies teachers to their Reading Like a Historian curriculum.

Using Digital Humanities in the Classroom (2022 Online Webinars)

On July 11 and 12, 2022, Humanities Texas will hold a two-part webinar for ELA and social studies teachers introducing a variety of digital humanities resources that support secondary-level instruction.

How to apply

Complete the online application. Apply as soon as possible. Registration occurs on a rolling basis and space is limited.

***The institutes are free to teachers and their schools.

Driving on the Right Side of the Road (DRSR) would like to invite you and your fellow teachers to apply to be part of our upcoming Teacher Traffic Safety Academy, to be held in Austin on July 12, 13, and 14, 2022 at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The training is free of charge and participants will be provided free meals (up to $41), travel costs (within federal per diem and TMCEC limits) and lodging.

The emphasis in this year’s training will be Mock Trials and Traffic Safety Education. The workshop will introduce new lessons that teach the value and relevance of using mock trials in your classroom using the lens of municipal courts and traffic safety. The workshop will also include several field trips to the important Texas courts and landmarks.

Participants will leave with lessons that are ready to implement in their classrooms that not only teach the social studies TEKS, but infuse life-saving traffic safety lessons that all students need. Currently, we anticipate 14 in-service hours will be earned by educators participating in this workshop. DRSR can only allow a limited number of teachers to participate in this workshop, so send your application in as soon as possible.

Details

Dates: July 12-14, 2022

Site: AT&T Hotel and Conference Center (tentative) located in The University of Texas at Austin, 1900 University Avenue, Austin, 78705

Online application link

We Rule: Civics for All of US is a new education initiative from the National Archives that promotes civic literacy and engagement. We're providing teachers with programming, curricula, and exceptional field trip experiences both online and at our locations across the country.

Our civics programs empower young people to make a positive difference and improve the world they are inheriting. These programs draw upon the vast archival holdings of the National Archives housed in our nation’s capital, the Presidential Libraries, and at National Archives facilities nationwide to promote the knowledge and skills students need for civic engagement in the 21st century.

Each two-hour program in this summer virtual workshop series will explore how to use primary sources to explore the big ideas of the founding documents. During each interactive session, educators will engage with primary sources and partake in collaborative group work and discussion to discover how to use National Archives resources and programs to teach civic knowledge and skills.

• July 19, 2022 - The Bill of Rights Workshop for Elementary Educators

• July 21, 2022 - The Bill of Rights Workshop for Secondary Educators

• July 26, 2022 - We the People: Teaching the Constitution Workshop for Elementary Educators

• July 28, 2022 - The Power to Vote: Who Decides? Workshop for Secondary Educators

Click here to learn more and register.

Message from TXCSS:

Thank you to our amazing #TXCSS2021 Presenters! We received overwhelmingly positive responses to the conference survey regarding the presenters and the sessions. It just reinforced what we already knew… TXCSS has a wealth of people committed to sharing their passion with our community.

In that regard, we encourage you to join us in #ForgingtheFuture at #TXCSS2022 in Denton, October 14-19, and sharing the awesomeness you use in your classrooms with your students.

We look forward to another year of innovative, empowering sessions!

TXCSS Conference Committee

Find more information at: https://www.txcss.net/conference

Check them out below:

2021-2022

Secondary Edition

Feb/Mar 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August-September 2021

Elementary Edition

Feb/Mar 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August-September 2021

Social Studies Specialist

Region 9 ESC

#GCT #iCivicsEducator #MIE #GridGuide #EdPuzzleCoach

Email: chelsea.howells@esc9.net
Website: https://www.esc9.net/393857_4
Location: 301 Texas 11 Loop, Wichita Falls, TX, USA
Phone: 940-397-8106
Twitter: @ChelseaHowells9