The Foundational Objectives describe the required learnings for elementary social studies and are outlined in the component areas of knowledge, skills/abilities, attitudes/values, and citizen action. They are broad in scope and take all of the elementary years to develop. They will be developed to the depth and at the pace suitable for the students.
Students will know that:
Students will:
Students will:
In the curriculum documents, the citizen action objectives are stated using the stem, `Students may'. This allows the teacher and students the flexibility to adapt suggestions provided or design more relevant projects.
Knowledge,Attitude/Values, and Citizen Action
Citizen action is an outgrowth of the four major social studies goals, concept formation, knowledge acquisition, growth in skills/abilities, and development of attitudes/values, and is identified as a foundational objective in the elementary social studies program. Providing students with many opportunities to participate responsibly in a variety of social situations will help them function positively in a world of interdependent peoples, communities, and nations.
Citizen action may be something as simple as participating appropriately in a group task. It could be as planned and deliberate as meeting with a Member of Parliament to discuss an important issue.
The model below demonstrates that learning in elementary social studies takes place as the child's understanding grows inward and outward.
Growing inward means that all of life's experiences including what the child learns through the social studies themes and concepts contribute to the development of knowledge, skills/abilities, and attitudes/values with the consequence of developing a student who is equipped to participate as a contributing citizen now and in the future.
Growing outward means that as children practice citizen action they acquire knowledge, learn skills/abilities, and develop attitudes/values that increase their understanding of social studies, as well as all of life's experiences.
The learning objectives outlined for each unit in the curriculum guides contribute to the achievement of the Foundational Objectives identified for elementary social studies. The learning objectives have been categorized into knowledge, skills/abilities, attitudes/values, and citizen action to ensure that different areas of student development receive emphasis. These categories are interrelated and interdependent.
The learning objectives are developmental. As knowledge, skills/abilities, attitudes/values, and citizen action are developed within different contexts the learning objectives will be developed to a greater degree of sophistication. In preparation for this greater degree of sophistication it may be necessary for students and teachers to return to previous stages of development in order to incorporate new, successive processes and content. Teachers are to determine when students are ready to engage in increasingly challenging processes and activities and when they are ready to explore concepts in greater depth.
These learning objectives can be used to guide daily and weekly lesson planning and classroom activities. They also give direction to student evaluation. Teachers will frequently monitor these objectives informally and routinely as part of their daily classroom responsibilities. Such monitoring will assist teachers in adapting learning experiences. Evaluation should reflect students' progress in achieving the unit objectives.
The achievement of the Foundational and Learning Objectives requires that the teacher ensure learning experiences reflect the interests and cultural and family backgrounds of the students in the classroom. It is important for students and teachers to plan learning experiences together. The teacher guides this planning. A planning session could start with the class brainstorming and webbing what they already know about a topic, identifying areas of interest, identifying resources, and planning ways in which they will access, organize, and present information.
The chart that follows provides examples of specific skills/abilities within each major category. It also indicates at what grade levels the skills/abilities may be introduced or developed. The knowledge, attitudes/values, and citizen action learning objectives are identified at the beginning of each unit and module within the curriculum document.
Perceive
Guide students to understand that we have two ways of perceiving, concretely through physical senses, or abstractly through reason, emotion, or intuition. Give students opportunities to perceive experiences both concretely and abstractly. Where possible, provide activities that allow students to draw upon all of their senses.
Providing opportunities for students to perceive situations, events, etc. from perspectives other than their own will work towards decreasing ethnocentric and egocentric attitudes in students. Literature and drama activities help students understand the experiences and feelings of others.
Make Connections
Students need to make various connections, such as the following:
Initiate Research
The social studies program supports Resource-based Learning, identifying the skills initiate research, access information, organize information, and present information as Skills/Abilities Foundational Objectives. The teacher will need to plan instruction that develops skills in these areas and then provide opportunities for students to apply what they have learned. The goal is independent learning.
Initiating research involves planning. The following are some suggestions for including students in the planning process:
Names of published materials, such as pamphlets, and addresses where they can be obtained, are included in the activity guide. The students and teacher may determine the information needed and order that material.
The teacher will need to model various approaches to initiating research, as well as accessing, organizing, and presenting information. As students build a repertoire of approaches for each of the steps the teacher gradually hands over to the students the decision making for the approach to be utilized. Readiness to assume this decision making role will vary from one student to another. As students develop independent learning skills, they may assume more and more of the decision-making role.
Access, Organize, and Present Information
It should be noted that accessing and organizing informat does not necessarily lead to presenting information, but may be end in itself. Students, with teacher guidance, may identify times when the accessing and organizing of information may lead to presentation.
Information presentation may occur as reporting information or utilizing information. The reporting may be done to the class, a small group, a large audience, or to the teacher. Information may be utilized for another purpose such as a project, answering a question, or writing a poem.
Sources for accessing information may include:
Fiction:
stories, poems, plays
Factual Information:
non-fiction books, pictures, speakers, audio tapes, interviews, magazines, newspapers, study prints, maps, films, filmstrips, models, field trips, video tapes, community resources, games/simulations, computer software and data bases, real objects, artifacts
Organizing information may include the following:
Oral:
panel discussion, debate, cassette, slide-tape, speech, discussion, dialogue, interview, song, oral imitations
Visual:
charts, tables, illustrations, films, graph, collage, mural, map, display, blueprint, cartoon, poster, diagram, flow chart, videotape, model, diorama, puzzle, scrapbook
Kinaesthetic:
model, sculpture, game, dramatization, pantomime, skit, survey, impersonation, prototype
Written:
journal/diary, letter, report, book, editorial, story, log, outline, poem, advertisement, recipe, guide, manual
Using Maps and Graphs
All elementary students should have opportunities to use maps and graphs to access, organize, and present information.
Encourage students to bring to school maps and graphs they find, for example, in newspapers and magazines. Make overheads of these maps (when copyright allows) to assist in instruction. These maps and graphs may be kept in a file and referred to when appropriate.
Through the proper teaching of map reading skills, maps should become as familiar to the child as books and other reading materials. Maps of various kinds should be readily available in classrooms. In the lower grades the maps should be as simple and uncluttered as possible. Ideally, they should contain only the information that is needed (e.g., countries). As students learn to interpret maps, more information may be included. The skills involved in reading maps do not develop automatically, they must be taught.
Using Computers
Students may access information through bulletin boards, data bases, links with networks, educational programs, and CD ROM disks. The teacher and students may plan to communicate with other students nearby and far away. All students, even grade 1 children, may benefit from having many opportunities to use computers to access, organize, and present information.
Current and Local Events
Every elementary teacher can use current and local events to develop social studies understandings.
