Teaching and Learning History in the Digital Age (AHA 2011)

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American Historical Association conference Boston 2011
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The degree of difficulty educators face when dealing with new technologies varies, but the sensation of feeling like a “newbie” when it comes to technology can often create tech-wariness among teachers. Educators should not feel this way.

Teachinghistory.org's presentation at the 2011 American Historical Association (AHA) conference, entitled “Teaching and Learning History in the Digital Age,” offered attendees exposure to free and easy-to-use tools that can work for teachers, regardless of their technological abilities. The main message of this presentation? Start small and be willing to face unexpected hiccups along the way.

Starting Out with Digital Tools

One educator, nearing retirement, was curious about digital tools as I shared with her the topic of my presentation while walking to another conference event. She was initially interested in attending my presentation but found that the whole topic of digital tools was too complex for her.

Start with what feels comfortable.

Besides, where would she even begin searching for new media tools? She found herself regretting her earlier decision to skip panels on digital tools. It seemed that her own dilemma—where to start looking for digital tools—is not unique. The goal of the presentation was to help educators like her gain exposure to technology that is easily available. My advice to her was the same as I provided the audience: Start with what feels comfortable.

Some educators might enjoy exploring complex tools, “going under the hood,” and learning new skills. Other educators might want a ready-made tool, like Wordpress, to help build a course website. The open-source nature of platforms and browsers like Wordpress, Firefox, Zotero, and Omeka allow daring educators to invent the new plug-ins that can radically transform educational tools. For the less adventurous educators, these platforms allow them to take advantage of the work of others.

So . . . What Can Educators Do on the Web?

The presentation at AHA was, in part, inspired by a recent series of articles by Robert Townsend in AHA's Perspectives on History (Oct., Nov., Dec.). In his findings, which surveyed over 4,000 two- and four-year college faculty, Townsend noted that educators are increasingly embracing digital tools. Nearly 70% of respondents characterized themselves as “active users”—a number that might surprise many. Upon closer inspection, however, active digital users are mostly younger (no surprise here), and the most popular tools are not what many digitally-savvy educators would necessarily consider cutting-edge: digital cameras, scanners, search engines, word processors, and online archive searches. Tools that have the potential to change how we “do” history—text mining, social media, GIS/mapping, and data visualizations—received few responses in AHA's survey.

My immediate reaction to Townsend's articles? Is that it? On the one hand, I found it rather underwhelming to see what passes as “digital history” in the second decade of the 21st century. On the other hand, a utopian view of this subject is probably not well-served considering the budgetary and curricular constraints teachers face; lasting change rarely develops out of radical, or revolutionary, change. A more measured approach would be to acknowledge that significant uses of technology in the history classroom will gradually occur through funding for technology training, or, more likely, through collaborative exchanging of ideas among staff.

Key Areas in Digital Tool Use

The presentation at AHA, then, was structured to address three or four key areas teachers address in their planning stages. As always, these tools are helpful, but only when applied with thoughtful consideration towards teaching and research (several good reads recently posted on Edwired deal with the perils and possibilities of web tools).

Digital Tools for Presentations

  • Google Maps is a good instrument for examining memorials, battlefields, and other historical sites, while also allowing users to create new and interesting links between locations.
  • Google Earth allows users to create placemarks, polygon shapes, paths, and images on Google's database of satellite images. This is ideal for creating original maps or recreating routes on military campaigns, plotting the Underground Railroad, or analyzing the Great Migration patterns of African Americans to see if new relationships emerge.
  • ManyEyes users can upload data and choose visualization preferences that might reveal new information about the past.
  • Hypercities uses historical overlays on geographic maps to show change over time
  • Prezi is a structural and/or non-structural approach to presentations where you can type text, embed media files, graphically organize items, and highlight the importance of elements—relative to other ones on the infinite canvas platform—based on size and colors. The presentation at the AHA conference used a Prezi.

Digital Tools for Communication

  • Facebook and Ning allow users to create networks from scratch to imagine what social networks among Bostonian revolutionaries or suffragettes in the early 20th century might talk about. Multiple other free options exist.
  • Twitter lets users publish 140-character updates. What would Abe Lincoln’s Twitter feed look like? What about soldiers on the Pacific front in World War II? John Quincy Adams is already on Twitter!
  • Skype can help bring scholars and institutions together, establishing relationships with sister cities, schools overseas, and other individuals and organizations.
  • Blogs can become a standard classroom management program (if scholars are not tied to BlackBoard), serve as a professional portfolio, or can help historians re-imagine the possibilities for what scholarship on the web looks like.
  • Zotero, in a nutshell, functions like digital flashcards and a note-saving device by adding research items from a database (WorldCat works well), allowing users to create notes for each entry, and providing tagging, sharing, and publication functions. Zotero is a helpful tool for collaborative projects and archiving research sources over time.

Digital Tools for Production

  • Anthologize puts together an original book or compilation from blogs and other sites across the web.
  • Wiki allows users to develop wiki pages for class projects (upload maps, images, and other files) or research project items.
  • Wordle graphically produces a word cloud based on text-mining activities, which often reveals interesting insights otherwise difficult to see in large chunks of text.
  • YouTube and Vimeo are hosting platforms for any original video production.
  • Picasa and Flickr have potential as forums for hosting photo collections (privately or publicly), helping educators and students find visual sources, annotate information, understand copyright laws, and connect images to historical events that are not visible at first (good places to search for images largely in the public domain include the Creative Commons search engine, Library of Congress, National Archives, NY Public Library Digital Collection, and the Smithsonian).
  • iMovie and MovieMaker put users in the driver's seat in using images, text, music, and voiceovers—simple elements of a digital storytelling project—to create original documentaries or short films.
  • Animoto is a simple tool that uses images, uploaded with music and text, to create small videos.

Digital Tools for Miscellaneous Tasks

  • Mindmeister, FreeMind, and OmniGraffle create graphic organizers for study or for lesson/unit plans, and many of them can be placed online for collaborative work.
  • Gaming has untapped potential as a teaching tool; see: Mission US, Do I Have a Right?, BBC History Games, and Playinghistory.org (a good collection of games).
  • Diigo provides a way to annotate the web (highlighting and Post-it notes). It can be added to your browser toolbar and, as long as you are logged in, notes will always appear as you re-visit the page.

With such a long list, but one that barely touches the surface of what scholars can do with new media, it is easy to see that free and open-access tools are readily found online. The problem, however, is that many educators feel the same way as our curious veteran educator at AHA. The question “Where can I find these tools?” is still a bit too commonplace these days. As a result, teachers are often hesitant to seek out new technology—not necessarily due to a lack of will, but rather because many simply don't know what (or where) to search.

This presentation aimed at closing that gap in a small way.

Bibliography

Townsend, Robert B. "Assimilation of New Media into History Teaching: Some Snapshots from the Edge." Perspectives on History (Dec. 2010).

Townsend, Robert B. "How Is New Media Reshaping the Work of Historians?" Perspectives on History (Nov. 2010).

Townsend, Robert B. "A Profile of the History Profession, 2010." Perspectives on History (Oct. 2010).

For more information

Ready to explore the digital tools mentioned above—and more? Check out our Digital Classroom section.

Web Resources for Controversial Issues

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Digital Illus, A Simpleton Tries to Understand the Health Care Debate, 25 Oct 20
Question

Are there good websites that deal with current events and issues such as debates and give solid foundations of what the problem is?

Answer

In a word: Yes!

The difficulty lies in finding the best of the many websites attempting to do just that.

I will focus my answer on the best free websites for high school teachers and students. Each of these sites has concise background information on each issue and presents a thorough explanation of the opposing positions.

There are also many outstanding resources that require a fee or subscription. Among the best pay sites are CQ Researcher and Opposing Viewpoints; check with your media specialist to see if your school or community library subscribes to these.

Which site works best for you depends on what type of issue you are learning about.

For current public policy issues, like health care reform and immigration policy, the best three sites are below. For a quick look at how each site presents the health care debate, click here: ProCon.org; National Discussion and Debate Series; Debatepedia.

  1. ProCon.org: an independent non-profit founded by Steven C. Markoff “to provide resources for critical thinking and to educate without bias.”

    2. Strengths:

    • Best student-oriented background information on each issue, including videos, political cartoons, and infographics
    • 40 current controversial issues
    • Each issue contains a “core question” and multiple sub-questions that address constitutional, policy, and ethical issues
    • Extensive list of pro and con arguments for each question, excerpted from major newspapers, and experts’ and political leaders’ words
    • Credibility of each source is rated with 1-5 stars based on procon.org’s “theoretical expertise ranking”
    • Lesson plan ideas

    Weaknesses:

    • No hyperlinks to original sources
    • Some issues are not related to public policy or the Constitution
  2. National Discussion and Debate Series: video, text, and links from debates at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. This program was created “to encourage a vigorous, well-informed discussion on the national stage about the major issues of our time.”

    3. Strengths:

    • Centered around video footage of a live debate among well-known experts in a formal setting
    • .pdf transcripts of each debate
    • Excellent examples of civil discourse and debate techniques
    • High-level academic "white paper" backgrounders and "jump to" background videos from PBS Newshour

    Weaknesses:

    • Content is designed for high-level readers with some background knowledge of the issue; background information may be inaccessible to struggling readers
    • Only 13 current controversial public policy issues
    • Updated annually, does not include very recent developments
  3. Debatepedia: “the Wikipedia of debates…an encyclopedia of pro and con arguments and quotes. A project of the International Debate Education Association (IDEA), "Debatepedia utilizes . . .wiki technology . . . to engage you and other editors in centralizing arguments and quotes found in editorials, op-eds, books, and around the web into comprehensive pro/con articles.”

Strengths:

  • Unlimited number of issues
  • Constantly updated by users
  • Students can add content

Weaknesses:

  • Like Wikipedia, content is added by users—not professional editors—so quality and credibility can be questionable
  • Many issues lack depth
  • Background information is minimal for many issues

For very recent events that have not yet been clearly defined as a policy or constitutional issue, like the January 8, 2011 shootings in Tucson, AZ, the best site is PBS NewsHour Extra. This site includes background readings, video clips from PBS NewsHour, lesson plans, and daily updates.

For more information

Other sites for teaching about current controversial issues:

Teaching With the News: Created by the CHOICES program at Brown University. Frequently updated with free lesson plans, video clips, and multiple perspectives on current global issues and foreign policy controversies.

TeachableMoment.org: Created by the Morningstar Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. Updated with a new topic from the news each week. Less balanced than the three sites above, it relies primarily on the New York Times for content.

Today’s Best Political Cartoons: Updated daily, archived by topic, and searchable. Political cartoons are an engaging tool for students to probe current issues and controversies.

DoSomething.org: Focused on inspiring young people to volunteer to take action to solve problems in their communities. Good background on many problems, but with a focus on volunteerism more than policy discussion.

Upcoming Deadlines for Professional Development

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Photo, Deadline, Mar. 31, 2009, Moonrhino, Flickr
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Deadlines are approaching for several national professional development programs!

On Feb. 1 (NOTE: deadline extended to Feb. 15th!), the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History stops accepting applications for its summer seminars for teachers. The week-long seminars take place at colleges and universities nationwide, and teach classroom strategies focused on using primary sources effectively. Apply for any of 40 seminars on a range of topics, including Native American history, the Civil War in global context, the 20th-century women's rights movements, and the role of the Supreme Court in American history. Participants will receive a $400 reimbursement.

On Mar. 1, the National Endowment for the Humanities stops accepting applications for its Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers and Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers. The 20 one-week workshops take place at or near significant cultural or historical sites and explore strategies for teaching with place and primary sources. Topics range from "Crafting Freedom: Black Artisans, Entrepreneurs, and Abolitionists in the Antebellum Upper South" to "The Richest Hills: Mining in the Far West, 1865–1920," and participants receive a $1,200 stipend. The seminars and institutes last from two to six weeks, with 13 focusing on U.S. history, including, among other topics, teaching American history through song, Appalachian history and culture, jazz and Motown, and Upper Mississippi River Valley archaeology. Participants receive stipends ranging from $2,100 to $4,500.

February 11 is the deadline for applications to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Teacher Fellowship program. Each year, 15 secondary-level educators from across the country are chosen to serve as museum representatives, engaging in outreach activities to encourage quality teaching on the Holocaust. Participants attend a five-day all-expenses-paid summer institute in DC.

For more information

Not sure where to look for professional development opportunities? Our previous blog post, Finding Professional Development, offers some suggestions.

And remember that nominations for Gilder Lehrman's History Teacher of the Year Award also cut off on Feb. 1!

Finding Professional Development

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Photo, Social Studies Teachers, September 3, 2009, Virtual Learning Center
Photo, Social Studies Teachers, September 3, 2009, Virtual Learning Center
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Is professional development on your schedule for next summer? It may seem early to start planning, but many summer programs will soon (or have already) opened their applications. And professional development opportunities aren't limited to the summer! Organizations offer workshops, seminars, and other chances to network, expand your teaching repertoire, and earn professional credits throughout the year.

Where Should I Look?

Where might you look for these opportunities? You don't have to look far afield—museums, historic sites, national parks, and historical societies in your area may offer professional development. Search a museum's website for its "Education" or "Teachers" section, and take a look. Does it offer programs for educators?

Large museums often provide a schedule of open houses (check for these in the fall), workshops, and pre-field trip orientations just for educators (see the Chicago History Museum Educator Programs page or the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum online catalogue of professional development opportunities.

Not finding anything? Maybe you have a presidential library and museum nearby, providing educators with workshops on using archival resources. Or a local university that offers professional development courses for teachers (such as the Learn NC program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Professional development opportunities may also spring up in unexpected places, in response to events and celebrations. Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial in 2009 prompted Lincoln-related workshops, conferences, seminars, and other training opportunities nationwide.

What Should I Know?

Once you've found something that interests you, make sure to check all of the specifics. You may be guaranteed a spot just by applying, or you may have to compete to participate. Enrollment may be limited to teachers in a certain area or those who teach specific grades. Some opportunities are free, some give out stipends, some cost, and others charge but offer scholarships.

Will you earn professional development credits for attending? How many? Could you earn graduate credit? (Or even a full master's degree? Check out the James Madison Fellowship Foundation designed specifically for teachers).

Examples of Professional Development

The following organizations provide professional development on a regular basis:

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History — weeklong summer seminars for teachers, yearly, hosted by universities across the U.S. Attendees receive a stipend. Applications for summer 2011 are now open!

National Endowment for the Humanities — Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers, and Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers, both yearly. Summer Seminars and Institutes range from 2–6 weeks, and do not all focus on U.S. history topics. History and Culture Workshops last one week and focus on specific U.S. history landmark sites. Both provide a stipend.

Facing History and Ourselves — workshops and in-person and online seminars throughout the year. Focuses on human rights and social action topics, including the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Some workshops are free; other programs charge fees.

Colonial Williamsburg — week-long institutes for elementary, middle/high, and high teachers, yearly, at Colonial Williamsburg. Charges fees.

National Archives and Records Administrations — "Primarily Teaching" workshops, yearly, introducing techniques for using archive resources and teaching with documents. Small fee for materials.

Smithsonian American Art Museum — annual Clarice Smith National Teacher Institute, for teams of middle or high school teachers, with priority given to those teaching social studies and English/language arts. Participants learn how to use art and 21st-century skills to make interdisciplinary connections with their subjects. $200 registration fee; $500 scholarships available.

Federal Judicial Center and American Bar Association — yearly week-long Federal Trials and Great Debates in U.S. History institute for secondary U.S. history and government teachers. Provides reimbursement for travel, lodging, and meal expenses.

The Memorial Library and Holocaust Educators Network — 12-day summer seminar for middle through high teachers, on teaching the Holocaust and social justice issues. $1,000 stipend.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — yearly teacher fellowship for 7–12-grade teachers, including a five-day teacher institute. Expenses paid for institute attendence.

National Humanities Center — hour-and-a-half long online seminars, including tie-ins with PBS American Experience documentaries. Charges fees.

C-SPAN — two-day conference for 6th–12th-grade social studies educators or media/technology specialists, on integrating C-SPAN's resources into the classroom. Also offers a four-week Teacher Fellowship program. Expenses paid.

Dirksen Center — Congress in the Classroom, a four-day workshop for middle- or high-school teachers, on both pedagogical strategies and content for teaching about Congress. Charges registration fee; other expenses paid.

Joe Jelen's Ads as Primary Sources: The Ad Council's Historic Campaigns

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Photo, Smokey Bear Fire Prevention sign along State Highway 70, Jul. 1960, NARA
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The Ad Council has been producing public service announcements attempting to affect change in society and serve the public interest for nearly 70 years. The campaigns take the form of print, radio, and television advertisements. They have run the spectrum of societal issues, from "Rosie the Riveter" and the campaign to place women in war jobs to contemporary ads related to predatory lending. The Ad Council has brought us memorable characters like Smokey Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, and Vince and Larry (the two crash test dummies who convinced us to wear seat belts). But what do these public advertising campaigns say about America? How can we use these ad campaigns to better understand U.S. history?

Through analyzing the ads we can isolate time periods in history and understand what were believed to be the most pressing societal issues of the time. These campaigns tried to decrease behaviors that were believed to lead to social problems or promote behaviors that would lead to a better society. Thus, in seeking to understand the advertisements, we can help students uncover the contemporaneous sociology of the ad campaign.

Where to Start

You can begin by exploring the Ad Council's Historic Campaigns that highlight some of the more notable campaigns in the last 70 years. Each campaign is complete with background information and some have links to PSA videos associated with the campaign. An even more complete retrospective of past advertising campaigns is maintained by the Advertising Educational Foundation and can be accessed here.

How can we use these ad campaigns to better understand U.S. history?

I have found the site particularly useful in helping students understand more recent history. For instance, few would disagree that, socially, the 1980s were rocked by the AIDS epidemic. The site highlights PSAs to prevent the spread of AIDS, which represent a dramatic shift in societal norms with the public call for condom use. The ads on crime prevention featuring McGruff the Crime Dog also help illuminate the 1980s. These ads coincide with America's "war on drugs" and emphasis on law and order during the 1980s. 1970s culture was epitomized by environmental awareness featuring Ad Council PSAs showing Native Americans distraught to find their territory littered. These ads and more can be found in the Historic Campaigns section.

Using Ads in the Classroom

Teaching with advertisements as primary sources is beneficial in two ways. One, students are exposed to yet another example of primary sources that come with their own unique set of historical questions. Two, by learning how to unpack the intent of advertisements on people of the past, students are more apt to be able to recognize advertising manipulation in the present. The Ad Council dedicates a page of resources for educators that includes useful links and frequently asked questions. These pages also identify current advertising campaigns, which might be useful for students to identify some of the important topics of today compared to the important issues they find in earlier decades.

Before having students analyze advertisements as primary sources, it is important to model for students how advertisements should be read. Students should also be made aware of the strengths and limitations of using advertisements to understand the past. An excellent overview of these strengths and weaknesses can be found on page 11 of this guide to primary sources, from the Smithsonian's History Explorer, along with questions to guide students in analyzing advertisements.

By learning how to unpack the intent of advertisements on people of the past, students are more apt to be able to recognize advertising manipulation in the present.

A natural fit to teaching U.S. history through public service announcements would be to have students create their own PSAs. Students could be given a list of pertinent social issues to a particular time period or could be asked to research important topics on their own. Students could write a script and use a pocket camcorder to record their PSA. Editing could be done using iMovie, Windows MovieMaker, or any number of free online video editing tools. The purpose of the assignment is to help students understand the changing nature of social issues in the United States.

Another idea is to have students research the effectiveness of given historic campaigns. The Ad Council maintains a database of reports and figures related to the success of various PSAs. This is a condensed version highlighting the impact of the Ad Council's more famous campaigns. The purpose here is to help students see how effective advertising not only convinces people to buy products, but also can convince people to change behavior for the common good.

Selling Social Issues

The Ad Council works to address the most significant social issues of the day. With that purpose, the Ad Council offers a unique look into making sense of our social past by revealing important issues of the time. Advertisements offer students an opportunity to interpret an overlooked type of primary source of the past and establish connections to the present.

For more information

Looking for more guidelines on using ads in the classroom? Historian Daniel Pope helps you make sense of advertisements, and historian Roger Horowitz analyzes historical documents behind 1950s potato chip advertising campaigns. This syllabus from a university history course also walks you through the steps of analyzing an ad.

Search our Website Reviews using the keyword "advertisement" for reviews of more than 200 websites featuring archived advertisements.

Iowa: 7th-Grade Standards

Article Body

(Note: By the completion of eighth grade, Iowa students are expected to master the following standards.)

Subject: Behavioral Sciences

Behavioral sciences include, but are not limited to, the areas of sociology, anthropology and psychology. In addressing these disciplines the actions and reactions of humans are studied through observational and experimental methods.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the changing nature of society.

    • Understand that a large society may be made up of many groups, and these groups may contain many different subcultures.
    • Understand various institutions influence people.
    • Understand various institutions influence elements of culture.
    • Understand that technology is important in spreading the ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society.
    • Understand the role of institutions in furthering both continuity and change.
    • Understand the means by which individuals, groups, and institutions may contribute to social continuity and change within a community.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how personality and socialization impact the individual.

    • Understand the ways family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic factors and institutional affiliations contribute to personal identity.
    • Understand the influence of perception, attitudes, values, and beliefs on personal identity.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the influences on individual and group behavior and group decision making.

    • Understand that various factors affect decisions that individuals make.
    • Understand role, status, and social class affect interactions of individuals and social groups.
    • Understand that each culture has distinctive patterns of behavior that are usually practiced by most of the people who grow up in it.
    • Understand that standards used to judge behaviors vary for different settings and societal groups.
    • Understand that technology is important in spreading ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society and among different societies.
    • Understand that the media may influence the behavior and decision-making of individuals and groups.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the process of how humans develop, learn, adapt to their environment, and internalize their culture.

    • Understand that all behavior is affected by both inheritance and experience
    • Understand values, language, beliefs, and behaviors contribute to the transmission of culture.
    • Understand that language and tools enable human beings to learn complicated and varied things from others.
    • Understand that technology is important in spreading the ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand current social issues to determine how the individual is able to formulate opinions and respond to those issues.

    • Understand that personal values influence the types of conclusions people make.
    • Understand the concepts of bias, prejudice, stereotyping, power, role, status, justice.
    • Understand group and institutional influences on people, events, and elements of culture.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how to evaluate social research and information.

    • Understand that human behavior is studied using scientific methods.
    • Understand basic distinctions between information that is based on fact and information that is based on opinion.

Subject: Economics

Economics addresses the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The concept of scarcity is understood to mean that available resources are insufficient to satisfy the wants and needs of everyone. Economics is therefore founded upon the alternative use of available resources and the study of choices.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of scarcity and economic trade-offs and how economic conditions impact people's lives.

    • Understand the cost and benefits of economic trade-offs and how scarcity of resources affects costs and benefits.
    • Understand economic trade-offs at different levels (personal, business, local government).
    • Understand the short term and long term impact of economic trade-offs on society.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the functions of economic institutions.

    • Understand the services that are available at banks and credit unions.
    • Understand the process of interests and payments for goods.
    • Understand the role banks play among savers, borrowers, and investors.
    • Understand the types of specialized economic institutions found in market economies (corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, labor unions, banks, and nonprofit organizations).

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how governments throughout the world influence economic behavior.

    • Understand goods and services that the government provides.
    • Understand the government's purpose in preventing monopolies.
    • Understand how taxes are used at the local, state, and national levels.
    • Understand revenues and expenditures in the federal budget.
    • Understand the concepts of balanced budget, budget deficit, budget surplus, and national debt.
    • Understand the role of the Federal Reserve on the economy.
    • Understand the process of filing personal tax returns.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand factors that create patterns of interdependence in the world economy.

    • Understand the impact of imported and exported goods and services in the local community.
    • Understand the concepts of free trade and trade barriers.
    • Understand trade barriers imposed by the United States from a historical perspective and the impact of those actions.
    • Understand the interdependence of America and other regions of the world in terms of imports and exports.
    • Understand balance of trade and trade deficits and their impact on the price of goods.
    • Understand that the increased interdependence of the world market causes economic conditions in one country to affect others.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the impact of advancing technologies on the global economy.

    • Understand the evolution of technology over time.
    • Understand the role of technologies that interlock the global economy.
    • Understand the role of investment and government support in advancing technologies.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how universal economic concepts present themselves in various types of economies throughout the world.

    • Understand the different types of economies and universal economic concepts (supply and demand, production, consumption, labor, capital, etc.) and their influence on each other.
    • Understand how the laws of supply and demand affect price and consumers' responses to prices.
    • Understand how the change of price for one good or service can affect the price for other goods and services.
    • Understand causes of inflation, deflation, and recessions and who gains or loses from them.
    • Understand the relation between gross domestic products and standards of living among countries.
    • Understand unemployment.
    • Understand the role of profit in motivating entrepreneurs in starting new businesses.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the function of common financial instruments.

    • Understand checking accounts.
    • Understand that bank accounts, loans and other services vary from one bank to another.

Subject: Geography

Geography is the study of the interaction between people and their environments. Geography therefore looks at the world through the concepts of location, place, human-environmental interaction, movement, and region.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the use of geographic tools to locate and analyze information about people, places, and environments.

    • Understand the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools and representations of the earth such as maps, globes, graphs, charts, models, grid systems, aerial and other photographs, GIS, satellite-produced images and databases.
    • Understand mental maps of locales, regions and the world.
    • Understand geographic relationships such as population density and spatial distribution patterns.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how geographic and human characteristics create culture and define regions.

    • Understand human and physical characteristics of place.
    • Understand the concept of region.
    • Understand the physical environment affects life in different regions.
    • Understand communities reflect the cultural backgrounds of their inhabitants.
    • Understand patterns of cultural diffusion.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how human factors and the distribution of resources affect the development of society and the movement of populations.

    • Understand physical and cultural patterns and their interactions, such as land use, settlement patterns, cultural transmission of customs and ideas, and ecosystem changes.
    • Understand world patterns of resource distribution and utilization.
    • Understand the role of technology in resource acquisition and use, and its impact on the environment.
    • Understand the development and widespread use of alternative energy sources have an impact on societies.
    • Understand physical and human geographic factors have influenced major historic events and movements.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how physical processes and human actions modify the environment and how the environment affects humans.

    • Understand human systems develop in response to conditions in the physical environment.
    • Understand major processes that shape patterns in the physical environment.
    • Understand the environmental consequences of both the unintended and intended outcomes of major technological changes in human history.
    • Understand technology influences the human capacity to modify the physical environment.
    • Understand the environmental consequences of people changing the physical environment.
    • Understand ecosystems in terms of their characteristics and ability to withstand stress caused by physical events.

Subject: History

History is the study and analysis of the past. Built upon a foundation of historical knowledge, history seeks to analyze the past in order to describe the relationship between historical facts, concepts, and generalizations. History draws upon cause and effect relationships within multiple social narratives to help explain complex human interactions. Understanding the past provides context for the present and implications for the future.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand historical patterns, periods of time and the relationships among these elements.

    • Understand concepts such as chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity.
    • Understand historical periods and patterns of change within and across cultures, such as the rise of civilizations, the development of transportation systems, the growth and breakdown of colonial systems, and others.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how and why people create, maintain or change systems of power, authority, and governance.

    • Understand political events that shaped the development of governments.
    • Understand patterns of nationalism, state-building, religious and social reform.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of culture and cultural diffusion on the development and maintenance of societies.

    • Understand ways groups, societies, and cultures have met human needs and concerns in the past.
    • Understand how information and experiences from the past may be interpreted by people from diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference.
    • Understand language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors have contributed to the development and transmission of culture.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of individuals and groups within a society as promoters of change or the status quo.

    • Understand that specific individuals and the values those individuals held had an impact on history.
    • Understand significant events and people, including women and minorities, in the major eras of history.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the effect of economic needs and wants on individual and group decisions.

    • Understand economic concepts that help explain historical and current developments and issues in local, national, or global contexts.
    • Understand reform, revolution, and social change in the world economy.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the effects of geographic factors on historical events.

    • Understand that historical events have been influenced by, and have influenced, physical and human geographic factors in local, regional, national, and global settings.
    • Understand the forces of cooperation and conflict that shaped the divisions of Earth's surface.
    • Understand geography is used to interpret the past.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of innovation on the development and interaction of societies.

    • Understand technology has influenced the course of history through revolutions in agriculture, manufacturing, sanitation, medicine, warfare, transportation, information processing, and communication.
    • Understand the impact of new inventions and technological developments in various regions of the world.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand cause and effect relationships and other historical thinking skills in order to interpret events and issues.

    • Understand processes such as using a variety of sources, providing, validating, and weighing evidence for claims, checking credibility of sources, and searching for causality.
    • Understand relationships between and among significant events.
    • Understand facts and concepts drawn from history, along with methods of historical inquiry, to inform decision-making about and action-taking on public issues.
    • Understand how and why events may be interpreted differently depending upon the perspectives of participants, witnesses, reporters, and historians.

Subject: Political Science/Civic Literacy

Political science is the study of power and authority through the examination of political processes, governmental institutions, and human behavior in a civil society. In this context the study of civics is understood to include the form and function of government. Civic literacy encompasses civics but also addresses the individual’s social and political participation.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the rights and responsibilities of each citizen and demonstrate the value of lifelong civic action.

    • Understand rights, roles and status of the individual in relation to the general welfare.
    • Understand issues regarding personal, political, and economic rights.
    • Understand what is meant by the "scope and limits" of a right.
    • Understand participation in civic and political life can help bring about the attainment of individual and public goals.
    • Understand the functions of political leadership and why leadership is a vital necessity in a democracy.
    • Understand the importance of voluntarism as a characteristic of American society.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how the government established by the Constitution embodies the principles of democracy and republicanism.

    • Understand the essential ideas of American government that are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other documents.
    • Understand the concepts of constitutional government as fundamental principles of American democracy.
    • Understand the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments.
    • Understand the basic concepts of a federal system of government.
    • Understand values such as individual rights, the common good, self government, justice, equality, diversity, openness and free inquiry, truth, patriotism are fundamental to American public life.
    • Understand the type of citizenry needed to establish and maintain constitutional government.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the purpose and function of each of the three branches of government established by the Constitution.

    • Understand the primary responsibilities of each branch of government in a system of shared powers (legislative, executive, judicial) and ways in which each branch shares the powers and functions of the other branches.
    • Understand how the legislative, executive, and judicial branches use checks and balances.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the similarities and differences among the complex levels of local, state and national government.

    • Understand the relationship between state and local governments and the national government.
    • Understand the powers and responsibilities of local, state and national governments.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand strategies for effective political action that impacts local, state and national governance.

    • Understand the concept of civic responsibility.
    • Understand the importance of political leadership, public service, and a knowledgeable citizenry in American democracy.
    • Understand the concept of political leadership in the student’s own school, community, state, and the nation.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how laws are established at the local, state and national levels.

    • Understand the concept of public policy.
    • Understand the sources, purposes, and functions of law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the common good.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand how various political systems throughout the world define the rights and responsibilities of the individual.

    • Understand constitutions protect individual rights and promote the common good.
    • Understand the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments.

Essential Concept and/or Skill:

Understand the role of the United States in current world affairs.

    • Understand conditions, actions and motivations that contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among nations.
    • Understand current foreign policy issues and the means the United States is using to deal with them.

Virginia's Seventh Grade Standards

Article Body

Strand / Topic: Civics and Economics

CE.1 Standard / Strand:

The student will develop the social studies skills citizenship requires, including the ability to

    • CE.1a) Indicator/Standard: Examine and interpret primary and secondary source documents;
    • CE.1b) Indicator/Standard: Create and explain maps, diagrams, tables, charts, graphs, and spreadsheets;
    • CE.1c) Indicator/Standard: Analyze political cartoons, political advertisements, pictures, and other graphic media;
    • CE.1d) Indicator/Standard: Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information;
    • CE.1e) Indicator/Standard: Review information for accuracy, separating fact from opinion;
    • CE.1f) Indicator/Standard: Identify a problem and recommend solutions;
    • CE.1g) Indicator/Standard: Select and defend positions in writing, discussion, and debate.

  • CE.2 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of the foundations of American constitutional government by

      • CE.2a) Indicator/Standard: Explaining the fundamental principles of consent of the governed, limited government, rule of law, democracy, and representative government;
      • CE.2b) Indicator/Standard: Explaining the significance of the charters of the Virginia Company of London, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and the Constitution of the Unit
      • CE.2c) Indicator/Standard: Identifying the purposes for the Constitution of the United States as they are stated in its Preamble.

  • CE.3 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of citizenship and the rights, duties, and responsibilities of citizens by

      • CE.3a) Indicator/Standard: Describing the processes by which an individual becomes a citizen of the United States;
      • CE.3b) Indicator/Standard: Describing the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition, and the rights guaranteed by due process and equal protection of the laws;
      • CE.3c) Indicator/Standard: Describing the duties of citizenship, including obeying the laws, paying taxes, defending the nation, and serving in court;
      • CE.3d) Indicator/Standard: Examining the responsibilities of citizenship, including registering and voting, communicating with government officials, participating in political campaigns, keeping informed about current issues, and respecting differing opinions in a diverse society;
      • CE.3e) Indicator/Standard: Evaluating how civic and social duties address community needs and serve the public good.

  • CE.4 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of personal character traits that facilitate thoughtful and effective participation in civic life by

      • CE.4a) Indicator/Standard: Practicing trustworthiness and honesty;
      • CE.4b) Indicator/Standard: Practicing courtesy and respect for the rights of others;
      • CE.4c) Indicator/Standard: Practicing responsibility, accountability, and self-reliance;
      • CE.4d) Indicator/Standard: Practicing respect for the law;
      • CE.4e) Indicator/Standard: Practicing patriotism.

  • CE.5 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of the political process at the local, state, and national levels of government by

      • CE.5a) Indicator/Standard: Describing the functions of political parties;
      • CE.5b) Indicator/Standard: Comparing the similarities and differences of political parties;
      • CE.5c) Indicator/Standard: Analyzing campaigns for elective office, with emphasis on the role of the media;
      • CE.5d) Indicator/Standard: Examining the role of campaign contributions and costs;
      • CE.5e) Indicator/Standard: Describing voter registration and participation;
      • CE.5f) Indicator/Standard: Describing the role of the Electoral College in the election of the President and Vice President.

  • CE.6 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of the American constitutional government by

      • CE.6a) Indicator/Standard: Explaining the relationship of state governments to the national government in the federal system;
      • CE.6b) Indicator/Standard: Describing the structure and powers of local, state, and national governments;
      • CE.6c) Indicator/Standard: Explaining the principle of separation of powers and the operation of checks and balances;
      • CE.6d) Indicator/Standard: Identifying the procedures for amending the Constitution of the United States.

  • CE.7 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of how public policy is made at the local, state, and national levels of government by

      • CE.7a) Indicator/Standard: Explaining the lawmaking process;
      • CE.7b) Indicator/Standard: Describing the roles and powers of the executive branch;
      • CE.7c) Indicator/Standard: Examining the impact of the media on public opinion and public policy;
      • CE.7d) Indicator/Standard: Describing how individuals and interest groups influence public policy.

  • CE.8 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of the judicial systems established by the Constitution of Virginia and the Constitution of the United States by

      • CE.8a) Indicator/Standard: Describing the organization and jurisdiction of federal and state courts;
      • CE.8b) Indicator/Standard: Describing the exercise of judicial review;
      • CE.8c) Indicator/Standard: Explaining court proceedings in civil and criminal cases;
      • CE.8d) Indicator/Standard: Explaining how due process protections seek to ensure justice.

  • CE.9 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of how economic decisions are made in the marketplace by

      • CE.9a) Indicator/Standard: Applying the concepts of scarcity, resources, choice, opportunity cost, price, incentives, supply and demand, production, and consumption;
      • CE.9b) Indicator/Standard: Comparing the differences among free market, command, and mixed economies;
      • CE.9c) Indicator/Standard: Describing the characteristics of the United States economy, including free markets, private property, profit, and competition.

  • CE.10 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of the structure and operation of the United States economy by

      • CE.10a) Indicator/Standard: Describing the types of business organizations and the role of entrepreneurship;
      • CE.10b) Indicator/Standard: Explaining the circular flow that shows how consumers (households), businesses (producers), and markets interact;
      • CE.10c) Indicator/Standard: Explaining how financial institutions encourage saving and investing;
      • CE.10d) Indicator/Standard: Examining the relationship of Virginia and the United States to the global economy, with emphasis on the impact of technological innovations.

  • CE.11 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of the role of government in the United States economy by

      • CE.11a) Indicator/Standard: Examining competition in the marketplace;
      • CE.11b) Indicator/Standard: Explaining the creation of public goods and services;
      • CE.11c) Indicator/Standard: Describing the impact of taxation, including an understanding of the reasons for the 16th amendment, spending, and borrowing;
      • CE.11d) Indicator/Standard: Explaining how the Federal Reserve System regulates the money supply;
      • CE.11e) Indicator/Standard: Describing the protection of consumer rights and property rights.

  • CE.12 Standard / Strand:

    The student will demonstrate knowledge of career opportunities by

      • CE.12a) Indicator/Standard: Identifying talents, interests, and aspirations that influence career choice;
      • CE.12b) Indicator/Standard: Identifying attitudes and behaviors that strengthen the individual work ethic and promote career success;
      • CE.12c) Indicator/Standard: Identifying skills and education that careers require;
      • CE.12d) Indicator/Standard: Examining the impact of technological change on career opportunities.

    • Wyoming's Seventh Grade Standards

    Article Body

    • WY.1. Content Standard: Citizenship/Government/Democracy

      Students demonstrate how structures of power, authority, and governance have developed historically and continue to evolve.

      • 1.1. Benchmark:

        Students identify the rights, duties, and responsibilities of a U.S. citizen.

      • 1.2. Benchmark:

        Students understand the historical perspective and issues involved in the development of the U.S. Constitution.

      • 1.3. Benchmark:

        Students recognize the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other amendments and are able to identify those principles in real-life scenarios.

    • WY.2. Content Standard: Culture/Cultural Diversity

      Students demonstrate an understanding of different cultures and how these cultures have contributed and continue to contribute to the world in which they live.

      • 2.1. Benchmark:

        Students explain how family systems, religion, language, literature, and the arts contribute to the development of cultures.

      • 2.2. Benchmark:

        Students describe cultural diversity and the interdependence of cultures.

    • WY.3. Content Standard: Production, Distribution, and Consumption

      Students demonstrate an understanding of economic principles and concepts and describe the influence of economic factors on societies.

      • 3.1. Benchmark:

        Students communicate how economic considerations influence personal, local, state, national, and international decision-making.

      • 3.2. Benchmark:

        Students describe the systems of exchange of past and present.

      • 3.3. Benchmark:

        Students recognize basic concepts of economic systems.

    • WY.4. Content Standard: Time, Continuity and Change

      Students demonstrate an understanding of the people, events, problems, ideas, and cultures that were significant in the history of our community, state, nation and world.

      • 4.1. Benchmark:

        Students identify people, events, problems, conflicts, and ideas and explain their historical significance.

      • 4.2. Benchmark:

        Students discuss current events to better understand the world in which they live.

      • 4.3. Benchmark:

        Students analyze the impact of historical events and people on present conditions, situations, or circumstances.

    • WY.5. Content Standard: People, Places, and Environments

      Students demonstrate an understanding of interrelationships among people, places, and environments.

      • 5.1. Benchmark:

        Students use charts, maps, and graphs to answer questions dealing with people, places, events, or environments.

      • 5.2. Benchmark:

        Students apply the themes of geography to topics being studied.

      • 5.3. Benchmark:

        Students demonstrate an ability to organize and process spatial information; i.e., You Are Here maps of various areas.

    Wisconsin's Seventh Grade Standards

    Article Body

    • WI.A. Content Standard: Geography

      People, Places and Environments: Students in Wisconsin will learn about geography through the study of the relationships among people, places, and environments.

      • A.8.1. Performance Standard:

        Use a variety of geographic representations, such as political, physical, and topographic maps, a globe, aerial photographs, and satellite images, to gather and compare information about a place.

      • A.8.2. Performance Standard:

        Construct mental maps of selected locales, regions, states, and countries and draw maps from memory, representing relative location, direction, size, and shape.

      • A.8.3. Performance Standard:

        Use an atlas to estimate distance, calculate scale, identify dominant patterns of climate and land use, and compute population density.

      • A.8.4. Performance Standard:

        Conduct a historical study to analyze the use of the local environment in a Wisconsin community and to explain the effect of this use on the environment.

      • A.8.5. Performance Standard:

        Identify and compare the natural resource bases of different states and regions in the United States and elsewhere in the world, using a statistical atlas, aerial photographs, satellite images, and computer databases.

      • A.8.6. Performance Standard:

        Describe and distinguish between the environmental effects on the earth of short-term physical changes, such as those caused by floods, droughts, and snowstorms, and long-term physical changes, such as those caused by plate tectonics, erosion, and glaciation.

      • A.8.7. Performance Standard:

        Describe the movement of people, ideas, diseases, and products throughout the world.

      • A.8.8. Performance Standard:

        Describe and analyze the ways in which people in different regions of the world interact with their physical environments through vocational and recreational activities.

      • A.8.9. Performance Standard:

        Describe how buildings and their decoration reflect cultural values and ideas, providing examples such as cave paintings, pyramids, sacred cities, castles, and cathedrals.

      • A.8.10. Performance Standard:

        Identify major discoveries in science and technology and describe their social and economic effects on the physical and human environment.

      • A.8.11. Performance Standard:

        Give examples of the causes and consequences of current global issues, such as the expansion of global markets, the urbanization of the developing world, the consumption of natural resources, and the extinction of species, and suggest possible responses by various individuals, groups, and nations.

    • WI.B. Content Standard: History

      Time, Continuity, and Change: Students in Wisconsin will learn about the history of Wisconsin, the United States, and the world, examining change and continuity over time in order to develop historical perspective, explain historical relationships, and analyze issues that affect the present and the future.

      • B.8.1. Performance Standard:

        Interpret the past using a variety of sources, such as biographies, diaries, journals, artifacts, eyewitness interviews, and other primary source materials, and evaluate the credibility of sources used.

      • B.8.2. Performance Standard:

        Employ cause-and-effect arguments to demonstrate how significant events have influenced the past and the present in United States and world history.

      • B.8.3. Performance Standard:

        Describe the relationships between and among significant events, such as the causes and consequences of wars in United States and world history.

      • B.8.4. Performance Standard:

        Explain how and why events may be interpreted differently depending upon the perspectives of participants, witnesses, reporters, and historians.

      • B.8.5. Performance Standard:

        Use historical evidence to determine and support a position about important political values, such as freedom, democracy, equality, or justice, and express the position coherently.

      • B.8.6. Performance Standard:

        Analyze important political values such as freedom, democracy, equality, and justice embodied in documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

      • B.8.7. Performance Standard:

        Identify significant events and people in the major eras of United States and world history.

      • B.8.8. Performance Standard:

        Identify major scientific discoveries and technological innovations and describe their social and economic effects on society.

      • B.8.9. Performance Standard:

        Explain the need for laws and policies to regulate science and technology.

      • B.8.10. Performance Standard:

        Analyze examples of conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies, or nations.

      • B.8.11. Performance Standard:

        Summarize major issues associated with the history, culture, tribal sovereignty, and current status of the American Indian tribes and bands in Wisconsin.

      • B.8.12. Performance Standard:

        Describe how history can be organized and analyzed using various criteria to group people and events chronologically, geographically, thematically, topically, and by issues.

    • WI.C. Content Standard: Political Science and Citizenship

      Power, Authority, Governance, and Responsibility: Students in Wisconsin will learn about political science and acquire the knowledge of political systems necessary for developing individual civic responsibility by studying the history and contemporary uses of power, authority, and governance.

      • C.8.1. Performance Standard:

        Identify and explain democracy's basic principles, including individual rights, responsibility for the common good, equal opportunity, equal protection of the laws, freedom of speech, justice, and majority rule with protection for minority rights.

      • C.8.2. Performance Standard:

        Identify, cite, and discuss important political documents, such as the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and landmark decisions of the Supreme Court, and explain their function in the American political system.

      • C.8.3. Performance Standard:

        Explain how laws are developed, how the purposes of government are established, and how the powers of government are acquired, maintained, justified, and sometimes abused.

      • C.8.4. Performance Standard:

        Describe and explain how the federal system separates the powers of federal, state, and local governments in the United States, and how legislative, executive, and judicial powers are balanced at the federal level.

      • C.8.5. Performance Standard:

        Explain how the federal system and the separation of powers in the Constitution work to sustain both majority rule and minority rights.

      • C.8.6. Performance Standard:

        Explain the role of political parties and interest groups in American politics.

      • C.8.7. Performance Standard:

        Locate, organize, and use relevant information to understand an issue of public concern, take a position, and advocate the position in a debate.

      • C.8.8. Performance Standard:

        Identify ways in which advocates participate in public policy debates.

      • C.8.9. Performance Standard:

        Describe the role of international organizations such as military alliances and trade associations.

    • WI.D. Content Standard: Economics

      Production, Distribution, Exchange, Consumption: Students in Wisconsin will learn about production, distribution, exchange, and consumption so that they can make informed economic decisions.

      • D.8.1. Performance Standard:

        Describe and explain how money makes it easier to trade, borrow, save, invest, and compare the value of goods and services.

      • D.8.2. Performance Standard: Identify and explain basic economic concepts

        supply, demand, production, exchange, and consumption; labor, wages, and capital; inflation and deflation; market economy and command economy; public and private goods and services.

      • D.8.3. Performance Standard:

        Describe Wisconsin's role in national and global economies and give examples of local economic activity in national and global markets.

      • D.8.4. Performance Standard:

        Describe how investments in human and physical capital, including new technology, affect standard of living and quality of life.

      • D.8.5. Performance Standard:

        Give examples to show how government provides for national defense; health, safety, and environmental protection; defense of property rights; and the maintenance of free and fair market activity.

      • D.8.6. Performance Standard:

        Identify and explain various points of view concerning economic issues, such as taxation, unemployment, inflation, the national debt, and distribution of income.

      • D.8.7. Performance Standard:

        Identify the location of concentrations of selected natural resources and describe how their acquisition and distribution generates trade and shapes economic patterns.

      • D.8.8. Performance Standard:

        Explain how and why people who start new businesses take risks to provide goods and services, considering profits as an incentive.

      • D.8.9. Performance Standard:

        Explain why the earning power of workers depends on their productivity and the market value of what they produce.

      • D.8.10. Performance Standard:

        Identify the economic roles of institutions such as corporations and businesses, banks, labor unions, and the Federal Reserve System.

      • D.8.11. Performance Standard:

        Describe how personal decisions can have a global impact on issues such as trade agreements, recycling, and conserving the environment.

    • WI.E. Content Standard: The Behavioral Sciences

      Individuals, Institutions, and Society: Students in Wisconsin will learn about the behavioral sciences by exploring concepts from the discipline of sociology, the study of the interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions; the discipline of psychology, the study of factors that influence individual identity and learning; and the discipline of anthropology, the study of cultures in various times and settings.

      • E.8.1. Performance Standard:

        Give examples to explain and illustrate the influence of prior knowledge, motivation, capabilities, personal interests, and other factors on individual learning.

      • E.8.2. Performance Standard:

        Give examples to explain and illustrate how factors such as family, gender, and socioeconomic status contribute to individual identity and development.

      • E.8.3. Performance Standard:

        Describe the ways in which local, regional, and ethnic cultures may influence the everyday lives of people.

      • E.8.4. Performance Standard:

        Describe and explain the means by which individuals, groups, and institutions may contribute to social continuity and change within a community.

      • E.8.5. Performance Standard:

        Describe and explain the means by which groups and institutions meet the needs of individuals and societies.

      • E.8.6. Performance Standard:

        Describe and explain the influence of status, ethnic origin, race, gender, and age on the interactions of individuals.

      • E.8.7. Performance Standard:

        Identify and explain examples of bias, prejudice, and stereotyping, and how they contribute to conflict in a society.

      • E.8.8. Performance Standard:

        Give examples to show how the media may influence the behavior and decision-making of individuals and groups.

      • E.8.9. Performance Standard:

        Give examples of the cultural contributions of racial and ethnic groups in Wisconsin, the United States, and the world.

      • E.8.10. Performance Standard:

        Explain how language, art, music, beliefs, and other components of culture can further global understanding or cause misunderstanding.

      • E.8.12. Performance Standard:

        Explain how beliefs and practices, such as ownership of property or status at birth, may lead to conflict among people of different regions or cultures and give examples of such conflicts that have and have not been resolved.

      • E.8.13. Performance Standard:

        Describe conflict resolution and peer mediation strategies used in resolving differences and disputes.

      • E.8.14. Performance Standard:

        Select examples of artistic expressions from several different cultures for the purpose of comparing and contrasting the beliefs expressed.

      • E.8.15. Performance Standard:

        Describe cooperation and interdependence among individuals, groups, and nations, such as helping others in times of crisis.

    Washington's Seventh Grade Standards

    Article Body

    • WA.1. Ealr / Domain: CIVICS

      The student understands and applies knowledge of government, law, politics, and the nation's fundamental documents to make decisions about local, national, and international issues and to demonstrate thoughtful, participatory citizenship.

      • 1.1. Component / Goal:

        Understands key ideals and principles of the United States, including those in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other fundamental documents.

        • 1.1.1. Benchmark / Gle: IDEALS & PRINCIPLES

          Understands how key ideals set forth in fundamental documents, including the Washington State Constitution and tribal treaties, define the goals of our state.

        • 1.1.2. Benchmark / Gle: APPLICATION OF IDEALS & PRINCIPLES

          Analyzes the relationship between the actions of people in Washington State and the ideals outlined in the State Constitution.

      • 1.2. Component / Goal:

        Understands the purposes, organization, and function of governments, laws, and political systems.

        • 1.2.1. Benchmark / Gle: STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT

          Understands and analyzes the structure, organization, and powers of government at the local, state, and tribal levels including the concept of tribal sovereignty.

        • 1.2.3. Benchmark / Gle: FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

          Understands various forms of government and their effects on the lives of people in the past or present.

      • 1.3. Component / Goal:

        Understands the purposes and organization of international relationships and United States foreign policy.

        • 1.3.1. Benchmark / Gle: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

          Analyzes how international agreements have affected Washington State in the past or present.

      • 1.4. Component / Goal:

        Understands civic involvement.

        • 1.4.1. Benchmark / Gle: CIVIC INVOLVEMENT

          Understands the effectiveness of different forms of civic involvement.

    • WA.2. Ealr / Domain: ECONOMICS

      The student applies understanding of economic concepts and systems to analyze decision-making and the interactions between individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies.

      • 2.1. Component / Goal:

        Understands that people have to make choices between wants and needs and evaluate the outcomes of those choices.

        • 2.1.1. Benchmark / Gle: ECONOMIC CHOICES

          Analyzes the importance of financial literacy in making economic choices related to spending, saving, and investing.

      • 2.2. Component / Goal:

        Understands how economic systems function.

        • 2.2.1. Benchmark / Gle: ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

          Analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods, services, and resources in societies from the past or in the present.

        • 2.2.2. Benchmark / Gle: TRADE

          Understands and analyzes how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in Washington State in the past or present.

      • 2.3. Component / Goal:

        Understands the government's role in the economy.

        • 2.3.1. Benchmark / Gle: GOVERNMENT AND THE ECONOMY

          Understands and analyzes the role of government in the economy of Washington State through taxation, spending, and policy setting in the past or present.

      • 2.4. Component / Goal:

        Understands the economic issues and problems that all societies face.

        • 2.4.1. Benchmark / Gle: ECONOMIC ISSUES

          Understands and analyzes the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in Washington State.

    • WA.3. Ealr / Domain: GEOGRAPHY

      The student uses a spatial perspective to make reasoned decisions by applying the concepts of location, region, and movement and demonstrating knowledge of how geographic features and human cultures impact environments.

      • 3.1. Component / Goal:

        Understands the physical characteristics, cultural characteristics, and location of places, regions, and spatial patterns on the Earth's surface.

        • 3.1.1. Benchmark / Gle: MAPS AND GEOGRAPHIC TOOLS

          Analyzes maps and charts from a specific time period to analyze an issue or event.

        • 3.1.2. Benchmark / Gle: CHARACTERISTICS AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF PLACES AND REGIONS

          Understands how human spatial patterns have emerged from natural processes and human activities in the past or present.

      • 3.2. Component / Goal:

        Understands human interaction with the environment.

        • 3.2.1. Benchmark / Gle: HUMAN-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION

          Understands and analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in Washington State in the past or present.

        • 3.2.2. Benchmark / Gle: CULTURE

          Understands examples of cultural diffusion in the world from the past or in the present.

        • 3.2.3. Benchmark / Gle: HUMAN MIGRATION

          Understands the role of immigration in shaping societies in the past or present.

    • WA.4. Ealr / Domain: HISTORY

      The student understands and applies knowledge of historical thinking, chronology, eras, turning points, major ideas, individuals, and themes in local, Washington State, tribal, United States, and world history in order to evaluate how history shapes the present and future.

      • 4.1. Component / Goal:

        Understands historical chronology.

        • 4.1.1. Benchmark / Gle: CHRONOLOGY

          Analyzes a major historical event and how it is represented on timelines from different cultural perspectives.

        • 4.1.2. Benchmark / Gle: CHRONOLOGICAL ERAS

          Understands how themes and developments have defined eras in Washington State and world history by:

          • 4.1.2.a. Grade Level Expectation:

            Explaining and comparing the development of major societies from 600 to 1450 in two or more regions of the world.

          • 4.1.2.b. Grade Level Expectation: Explaining how the following themes and developments help to define eras in Washington State history from 1854 to the present

            Territory and treaty-making (1854 - 1889); Railroads, reform, immigration, and labor (1889 - 1930); The Great Depression and World War II (1930 - 1945); New technologies and industries (1945 - 1980); Contemporary Washington State (1980 - present).

      • 4.2. Component / Goal:

        Understands and analyzes causal factors that have shaped major events in history.

        • 4.2.1. Benchmark / Gle: INDIVIDUALS AND MOVEMENTS

          Understands and analyzes how individuals and movements have shaped Washington State or world history.

        • 4.2.2. Benchmark / Gle: CULTURES AND CULTURAL GROUPS

          Understands and analyzes how cultures and cultural groups contributed to Washington State or world history.

        • 4.2.3. Benchmark / Gle: IDEAS AND TECHNOLOGY

          Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas have impacted Washington State or world history.

      • 4.3. Component / Goal:

        Understands that there are multiple perspectives and interpretations of historical events.

        • 4.3.1. Benchmark / Gle: HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION

          Analyzes and interprets historical materials from a variety of perspectives in Washington State or world history.

        • 4.3.2. Benchmark / Gle: MULTIPLE CAUSATION

          Analyzes multiple causal factors that shape major events in Washington State or world history.

      • 4.4. Component / Goal:

        Uses history to understand the present and plan for the future.

        • 4.4.1. Benchmark / Gle: HISTORICAL ANTECENDENTS

          Analyzes how an event in Washington State or world history helps us to understand a current issue.

    • WA.5. Ealr / Domain: SOCIAL STUDIES SKILLS

      The student understands and applies reasoning skills to conduct research, deliberate, form, and evaluate positions through the processes of reading, writing, and communicating.

      • 5.1. Component / Goal:

        Uses critical reasoning skills to analyze and evaluate positions.

        • 5.1.1. Benchmark / Gle: UNDERSTANDS REASONING

          Understands evidence supporting a position on an issue or event.

        • 5.1.2. Benchmark / Gle: EVALUATES REASONING

          Evaluates the breadth of evidence supporting positions on an issue or event.

      • 5.2. Component / Goal:

        Uses inquiry-based research.

        • 5.2.1. Benchmark / Gle: FORMS QUESTIONS

          Creates and uses research questions to guide inquiry on an issue or event.

        • 5.2.2. Benchmark / Gle: ANALYZES SOURCES

          Evaluates the breadth of primary and secondary sources and analyzes notes to determine the need for additional information while researching an issue or event.

      • 5.3. Component / Goal:

        Deliberates public issues.

        • 5.3.1. Benchmark / Gle: DELIBERATION

          Analyzes and responds to multiple viewpoints on public issues brought forth in the context of a discussion.

      • 5.4. Component / Goal:

        Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a thesis and presents the product in an appropriate manner to a meaningful audience.

        • 5.4.1. Benchmark / Gle: CREATES POSITION AND PRODUCT

          Analyzes multiple factors, makes generalizations, and interprets primary sources to formulate a thesis in a paper or presentation.

        • 5.4.2. Benchmark / Gle: CITING SOURCES

          Creates annotated bibliography or works cited page using an appropriate format.

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