ELEMENTARY SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM

Our teachers are using the Integrated Social Studies/English Language Arts Curriculum through the Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES Curriculum Council.  The New York State Learning Standards for Social Studies and English Language Arts, and the New York State Education Department Social Studies Scope and Sequence Content Understandings were used as a framework for unit development.  The curriculum is based on child-centered learning experiences and connected to the local, regional, and state communities. The curriculum includes models at the primary level of the types of questions found on the past New York State Fifth Grade Assessments: Multiple Choice Questions, Constructed Response Questions and Document Based Questions. All of the skills identified by the New York State Education Department in Social Studies and English Language Arts that a child in the primary grades should possess are also incorporated into the lessons.  These include: encouraging higher order thinking skills, involving collaborative learning, using information sources that could not be found elsewhere, or are not as rich, engaging the research spirit, utilizing real-time data, and having real world connections.