Social Studies

 SOCIAL STUDIES

Philosophy of Social Studies

The philosophy for teaching social studies at ASD shall be one of emphasizing critical thinking, integration, striving for understanding, and undertaking positive community actions.

To this end we believe it is important to do the following:
1. Promote a strong sense of community, within our school and within our host country.

2. We believe that social studies must be taught as an integrated subject, not only with other curricular subjects, but also in the scope and sequence of the discipline. This would mean less emphasis on isolated studies (i.e. US History) and more on integrated studies (i.e. The Americas, or The US and the World).

3. We believe that students need to play an active role in their study of social studies, and that a variety of assessments need to be used to demonstrate proficiency of standards and benchmarks. Assessment should be more than homework and tests, but should include projects, presentations, and research papers.

PreK - 12 Social Studies Standards

Standard 1 - “Big History” Time, Continuity, Change, and Causality
Students will understand patterns of change and continuity, relationships between people and events through time, and various interpretations of these relationships

Standard 2 - “The Web” Interaction between and within societies
International Exchange, Trade, War, and Diplomacy
Students will understand causes and effects of all forms of interaction between and with-in various elements of society

Standard 3 - “Where you are, determines who you are” People, Places, and Environment
Students will understand the concepts of geography and demography and how geography and demography influence, and are influenced by human history

Standard 4 - “SPRITE”: A Framework for Viewing the World
Social, Political, Religious, Intellectual, Technological, Economic
Students will develop and utilize a framework for understanding, evaluating, and comparing societies (combines AERO standards 4-8)

Standard 5 - “Prove It” : Construct, Evaluate, Support Arguments
Students will learn how to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety of sources to construct, evaluate, and support arguments; an emphasis on critical thinking and writing.

Standard 6 - “I see”: Understand context, bias, and point of view
Students will develop the ability to assess claims of universal standards, putting culturally diverse ideas and values in historical context, not to suspending judgment, but developing understanding