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Social Studies Instruction

The Social Studies Office, under the Curriculum and Instruction Department, has been collaborating with Zia, a curriculum development company, to create a systemic progression of instructional support designed to provide foundational knowledge and skills that will prepare students to master goals, achieve at higher levels, and exhibit increased success in academic performance in grades 4-12, including the USHC End of Course assessment.

The 3 priorities for effective Social Studies instruction are consistently embedded in all lesson plans, activities, and resources:

  • Student-centered
  • Skills-focused
  • Rigorous Instruction

CCSD follows a 6E model, which ensures consistency and quality in all developed curricular support:

  1. ESTABLISH - sets the learning targets for each lesson, which combine the content and skills associated with every standards indicator
  2. EXPLAIN - provides the agenda progression for the lesson and teacher directions for executing the lesson
  3. ENHANCE - includes background knowledge students will need for understanding the content and skills targeted for mastery
  4. ENGAGE - provides student-centered activities that develop agency and ownership of student learning
  5. EXPAND - provides scaffolding strategies for Multilingual, Exceptional Children, and Gifted and Talented / Advanced students to have access and ability to master the identified goals of each lesson
  6. EVALUATE - includes formative assessments of each lesson to guide instruction and achievement of lesson goals

NOTE:

  • All instructional resources used in this curriculum project have been vetted and approved by CCSD and/or the S.C. State Department of Education
  • The development of a system-wide curriculum for the Social Studies program has been an area of great need since Social Studies is the only content area that does not have a progression of learning supported by instructional materials that spiral learning. Each Social Studies course has a different textbook publisher and, therefore, does not have curriculum supports or an assessment program that builds on prior courses to assess student learning.
  • Courses that will have a newly developed progression of instructional support include:
    • Grade 4 The United States and South Carolina Studies Part I
    • Grade 5 The United States and South Carolina Studies Part II
    • Grade 6 World Civilizations
    • Grade 7 Geography of World Regions
    • Grade 8 South Carolina and the United States History
    • HS 9 Human Geography
    • HS 10 Modern World History
    • HS 11 United States History and the Constitution
    • HS 12 U.S. Government
    • HS 12 Economics and Personal Finance
  • Projected date for release is January 2026.
  • Professional Development is planned to ensure teachers are prepared to execute the newly created instructional support materials effectively