1. Birmingham Public Schools A K-12 Narrative of Social Studies Education in 2015

2. 9-12 Electives Family History WWII Psychology Vietnam Anthropology Court Cases, Law and you Honors Philosophy Critical Issues Social Psychology Global Issues Geography Fundamentals of Law

3. High School 9-12 Marc is a 17 year old ESL student from France. Though he has lived in the US for the last 4 years, he struggles with speaking in groups and reading complex texts. He has socially integrated with most of the mainstream, but often sticks closing to his other French speaking colleagues. As he gets ready for college, he is deciding between returning to France or staying here for a 4 year university. Marc, age 17

4. Conditions Students take each elective for one trimester. Classes are 70 minutes 4 days per week and 60 minutes for the 5 th day. Many of these classes are ‘ blended’ which means different things to different teachers. Some have textbooks, some don’t. Some rely heavily on targeted databases. Others use teacher created materials, project based learning or more traditional methods. He struggles with the more complex texts such as in Law and you with the legalese vocabulary. He stuggles with project based classes like Vietnam due to the communication between students and group presentations. Standards are adhered to as much as possible considering there are not specific standards for some of these elective courses. The resources are easy to use for both the teacher and students but some materials are more complex than others and may challenge Marc.

5. Major Units of Study All of these elective courses revolve around accepted social studies tenants (C3 Framework): Developing questions and planning inquiries Applying disciplinary concepts and tools Evaluating sources and using evidence Communicating conslusions and taking informed action

6. Foundational Skills & Concepts Develop a thesis statement Use databases to search for information Evaluate whether a source is credible Able to work effectively in groups Good foundation built on the Core Social Studies Curriculum

7. Assessment Strategies Assessment strategies – formative, summative, writing prompts, projects The assessments are heavily teacher created but some are from other sources. None are common assessments. How does your diverse student respond to these assessments? Being an english language learner, all assessments are a challenge In this box, share any connections that your social studies curriculum has with… The goals of the Strategic Plan – reflects almost all of the Strategic Plan points. BPS Learner Profile - reflects almost all of the Strategic Plan points. C3 Framework (Inquiry Arc) – many of the electives are based in the C3 Framework. Social and Emotional Learning Standards – especially through group work, students practice self-management, social awareness, interpersonal skills and more. Character Education’s 11 Principles - Social Studies focuses on such concepts as Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and more. NCSS Vision – these electives allow students to go in depth in certain areas, democracy is a focus of many of these electives, the electives have a good balance between content and concepts, and teacher automony is preserved through course creation.