Curriculum: Social Studies

Social Studies in the Middle School

The social studies curricula in the Middle School gradually move from the "here and now" in the 6/7s to "long ago" in the 7/8s and 8/9s and to "far away" in the 9/10s. Students continue to learn primarily from direct experience; however, as they get older, they also resort to other, less immediate sources of knowledge such as books, museums, pictures, documents, and computers. Through this kind of work, children begin to make powerful connections between historical and distant occurrences and the situations they experience in their everyday lives. All of the social studies curricula draw upon and extend children's developing skills as readers and writers. In each study, children have opportunities to participate in interdisciplinary activities that enrich their learning in a variety of ways. These include models, murals, dioramas, artifacts, factual and original writing, and dramatizations. For example, when the 6/7s design and construct their own buildings of wood, it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunities for gathering and integrating basic geometry and measurement concepts. Over time, increased emphasis is placed on the process of research to answer students' inquiries: selecting a topic, gathering information about it, and integrating the data into some form of presentation. Instead of simply memorizing facts and statistics, children are deeply involved with many modes of learning experiences while studying the richness and variety of people and their world. Teachers include anthropology, history, political science, geography, and economics along with the visual arts, music, drama, literature, and dance within the course of the study.

6/7s

The 6/7s are ready to enlarge their focus from the relationships within a workplace to entire neighborhoods and the interdependencies among the people who live and work in them. They are curious about the city as a whole, learning to appreciate the richness and diversity of people and neighborhoods through their trips around New York City. In the fall, they learn the relationships between wholesale and retail food markets in the city by operating their own fruit and vegetable market in the lobby of our school building. In the winter, they re-construct in the block area the culturally diverse urban communities that they visited on trips and finally build their own permanent city with crates and woodworking materials. Through their trips, recreations, meetings, book research, and interviews, they learn how human needs are met within each neighborhood.

7/8's

After studying the community as it exists in the present as 6/7s, children are now ready to study the past history of our city and environs. They may explore animal, plant, and human life as it existed in Central Park or around the Hudson River five hundred years ago and learn how that life has changed over time, emphasizing science and social studies. This study enables children to visit the places they are learning about: classes take many trips to the Park and learn about its history and geography; or they take trips to and around and on the Hudson, including boat basins; bridges; rides on police boats, fireboats, ferries, Coast Guard tugboats, and the Clearwater- a sloop that sponsors ecological programs about the Hudson River. In addition, children visit the city's museums to look for evidence and artifacts from the past. Children explore the ways in which the people of the Lenape tribe solved the basic problems of survival and living in the woodlands around this area and the river. They express their understandings about a long-ago culture through drama, the making of crafts and dioramas, murals, expository writing, and oral presentations. The study includes a look at the lives of eastern woodland tribes today.

8/9's

The 8/9s begin the year looking at "What is an Explorer?" They investigate present-day explorers (e.g. in space, in science), and follow that up with a geography study, together with map reading and map creation. The study then turns to historical explorers such as Henry Hudson, Magellan, Columbus, Verrazano, and the settlers who followed. Students explore such questions as why the settlers left their homes, what they brought with them, etc. The 8/9s study now focuses on New Amsterdam, which is a more extensive examination of the past for this older age group. They research the groups of people who settled in this area and how their lives were and continue to be connected to the geography of the place in which they live. As the children discover how these settlers sought shelter, food, and clothing, they gain insights about and an appreciation of the different cultures and beliefs. Trips to museums and to original living sites dating from the era of New Amsterdam provide rich sources of information about the changing environment of Manhattan and the different groups of people who have lived in the various neighborhoods over time. Children integrate what they have learned through doing written research; painting murals; making maps, crafts, and foods; and performing an original play about the settlers of New Amsterdam.

9/10s

When children reach the 9/10s, they have a more solid sense of their own place and time in the world and their studies support their ability to develop a larger understanding of history and geography. They begin studying peoples who lived not only long ago, but also far away. They study the environment and wildlife of the Netsilik of the Arctic. For this study, museums and current and historical films, readings and research help children imagine and learn about how people survive and thrive in this remote and harsh environment. An alternative curriculum in the 9/10s is a study of Africa. Students start the year by studying the Masai or the Mbuti- they examine their lives in the Savannah or rain forest, and their relationship to their particular environment; then they compare those life experiences to ours. Later in the year, the 9/10s begin a study of ancient Egypt by learning about the rivers through concrete experiences, including work with terrain models and sand tables. As they closely study the geography of the Nile, they learn about land and water forms and the basics of mapping. For both studies, 9/10s explore how the environment affected the people and how they sought to alter or manage it to meet their needs in the past and in the present. Ideas are generated through a variety of readings, folk tales, first person narratives, videos, and field trips. They express and communicate what they have learned through discussions, journal writing, research projects, models, dramatizations, art, music, and homework assignments.