Ohio Department of Education Social Studies Model for the Third Grade Sarah Mitchell Spring 2000 ED 417

Introduction and Rationale A social studies program that studies the past and present is vital for preparing today’s students to make informed and responsible decisions as good citizens. “Social Studies: Ohio’s Model Competency-Based Program” has been designed by the Ohio Department of Education to give direction to school districts when writing their own social studies curriculum, and to ultimately improve the current quality of social studies learning.

The following are goals and a few objectives of the ODE Social Studies Model and should be used as a guide for each year of schooling: Goal 1: To enable learners to gather and interpret information using perspectives from appropriate fields of social studies, to use methods and skills drawn from the social studies, and to actively engage in learning. The student will: 1. use current resources and technology to gather information 2. identify, develop, and examine issues by applying ideas and methods of the social studies 3. read and make inferences based upon information drawn from a variety of sources

Goal 2: To enable learners to explain how the world’s people cope with the challenges of existence, examine issues from multiple perspectives, and respond to individual and cultural diversity. The learner will: 1.use economic, geographic, historical, and political understandings to examine how people address questions of existence 2.examine issues by using diverse perspectives to interpret information 3.appreciate the historical and contemporary influences on the individual and on groups

Goal 3: To enable learners to work with others, make informed judgements and decisions, and act in accordance with democratic processes and principles. The learner will: 1. work independently to accomplish goals 2. work cooperatively (as a participant and leader) to accomplish shared goals 3. develop reasoned judgements to support, reject, or create alternative issue positions

Communities and community life is the focus of the social studies curriculum at the third grade level. Strand 1: American Heritage The learner will: 1. measure time by years, decades, and centuries. 2. explore local historical developments. 3. investigate narratives and/or documents. 4. explore sources of information about local history. 5. investigate the influence of geography on the history of the local community. 6. observe and record changes in the community.

Activities: 1. Have each student create a timeline of the important events in their lives. 2. Find and read documents of biographies from local Native Americans. Have each student present their information to the class. 3. Visit the Air Force Museum and discuss the importance of flight to Dayton’s local history..

Activities continued: 4. Have the students interview a senior citizen in the Community about life when they were growing up. Students can compare/contrast life then and now. 5. Watch the local weather forecasts on T.V. each day for a week. Allow the students to make predictions the previous day, and at the end of the week create a graph of the daily temperatures. Have a local meteorologist come in and talk about the typical weather patterns of the area.

Websites: 1. Current weather maps/movies: 2. Dayton Daily News: 3. Dayton, OH home page: 4. Air Force Museum: 5. The History Channel:

Strand 2: People in Societies The learner will: 1. Describe the various cultural groups that have settled into the local community and plot on a map their settlement patterns. 2. Determine why various cultural groups settled where they did in the local community. 3. Recognize the diverse nature of society by identifying and describing the characteristics of different groups of people in the community.

Activities: 1. Discuss the Amish beliefs and where they have settled in Ohio. 2.Study the different ethnic groups prevalent in the community and have students investigate why they settled where they did. 3.Create a chart comparing the differences and similarities between the different cultural groups in the community.

Activities continued: 4. Wear traditional clothing and eat traditional foods from the community in the past. 5. Learn a tradition from a local ethnic group. (example: a Native American dance)

Websites: 1. Dayton education: 2. Ohio Department of Education: 3. Ohio Home page: 4. American Indian Educational Center: 5. Paul Lawrence Dunbar House:

Strand 3: World Interactions The learner will: 1. Develop map skills. 2. Compare maps showing local communities and chart the most common attributes. 3. Use maps and globes to point out the location of the community, state, country, and continent relative to other places. 4. Cite examples of how different cultures use goods, services, and resources.

Objectives continued: 5. Locate areas that provide resources to Ohio and areas which receive resources from Ohio, considering how resources are moved. 6. Compare the local community with communities of selected cultures around the world. 7. Explore the concept of region to illustrate the boundaries of a neighborhood and suggesting how it may be defined.

Activities: 1. Using cardinal directions, have the students describe how to get to their homes from the school using words. 2. Using cardinal directions, have the students draw a map of their neighborhood. 3.After researching the goods and services produced in the local community, take the students on a field trip to one of the places that they learned about.

Activities continued: 4. Take a field trip to find local examples of hills, valleys, lakes, streams, buildings, etc. 5. Create webpals for each student with students in other areas of the country or world. Have them compare and contrast their hometown communities.

Websites: 1. Geography for Kids: 2. Ohio Tourism: 3.Lonely Planet: 4. E-conflict World Encyclopedia: 5. USA Citylink home page:

Strand 4: Decision Making and Resources The learner will: 1. Categorize economic activities as examples of production or consumption. 2. Select a good and suggest the land and labor resources necessary for its production. 3. Itemize the costs and benefits of alternative consumer choices and determine the opportunity costs. 4. Identify different forms of money and recognize that money is used to purchase goods and services, or to save. 5. Suggest why people save money. 6. Identify goods and services provided by local government and how people use them.

Activities: 1. Study the various government operated services like the library and post office, and take a field trip to one of them to discover their importance. 2. Create a store where students have a certain amount of money to buy objects. They can learn principles of saving and spending as they make a budget to buy what they want. 3. Present the students with three types of snack foods and have them decide in groups which one they would purchase based on cost and preference.

Activities continued: 4. Visit a local manufacturing company to discover the goods and resources necessary for producing needed and wanted items. Let the students learn that the more labor required for a good the more expensive it is to buy it. 5. Have students keep a record of one day’s activities and make a graph categorizing each activity as either production or consumption.

Websites: 1. Miami Valley Business Directory: 2. Econopolis: 3. The U.S. Mint H.I.P. Pocket Change: 4. Government and Economic Facts for Kids: 5. Oingo: “Online Education on Economics for Kids”:

Strand 5: Democratic Processes The learner will: 1. Identify the purposes of local government. 2.Link examples of governmental actions with the purposes of local government. 3. Examine current issues and determine when his/her interests and the public good are involved. 4. Discuss how a community group can organize to address the public good.

Activities: 1. Have students clip out newspaper articles about local government and decide how the government’s actions will affect them. 2.Have a local government official come in and speak to the students about the importance of being an active citizen in the community. 3. The students can make a chart of the five purposes of local government and give examples of each that fulfill these purposes.

Activities continued: 4. Have the class discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of running the school like a democracy. How do the rules get created, and does the body that create them act like a county commission or the U.S. Congress? Who enforces the rules, and are disputes resolved? 5. Study the famous politicians from your community and/or state. Each student can do a PowerPoint presentation on one. Why are they famous?

Websites: 1. Ohio Home Page: 2. The Columbus Dispatch: 3. Welcome to the White House: 4. U.S. House of Representatives: 5. Dayton Home Page:

Strand 6: Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities The learner will: 1. Locate sources of news and acquire information regarding local issues. 2. Identify factual statements in sources of news. 3. Take part in creating rules based on the idea of fair play, selecting persons to serve in positions of authority, and following directions and rules. 4. Develop citizenship traits. 5. Facilitate a project to improve the physical environment of the school or community.

Activities: 1. Have the students choose one subject such as education or the weather and clip out appropriate news articles for a week. Then they can make it into a scrapbook and compare the events that took place that week. 2. Create a set of class rules that everyone feels is appropriate and agrees to. 3. Take a collection of food items to the local food shelter, and if possible, let the students distribute it.

Activities continued: 4. Arrange a time for the students to tutor or read to younger students. 5. Write a class letter to the local newspaper about a concern they have in the community.(example: street and park safety)

Websites: 1. Dayton Daily News: 2. Best News Site: 3. Global Internet News Agency: 4. Kidlink: 5. Project Vote Smart:

The following are performance objectives for the third grade: 1. Given a set time period and a narrative about the community, the learner will record changes that occurred. 2. Given the population of the local community, the learner will describe cultural groups that live there. 3. Given a map of the local community, the learner will locate physical and human features. 4. Given a consumer decision, the learner will itemize the costs and benefits of alternative choices, including opportunity cost.

Performance objectives continued: 5. Given an example of a local government activity, the learner will describe how the activity addresses a purpose or purposes of government. 6. The learner will work with others to govern a group activity, as evidenced in part by the capacity to: a. help create rules b. select leaders c. follow directions and rules

A social studies program must put students in situations where they can use their knowledge, skills, and democratic principles they have learned. The activities in this presentation do that, with the ultimate goal of the students becoming active and educated citizens in the community.

Teachers and parents alike must take responsibility for teaching children to solve problems and make informed decisions. By appropriately using the Ohio Department of Education’s Model for the Social Studies Program, we can be confident that the children of today will become the capable leaders of tomorrow. The End