Archived Social Studies News Updates

Revised Instructional Resource on Social Studies Document-Based Questions (DBQs)

The Department's online instructional social studies resource, An Introduction to the DBQ, has been revised and is now available online.

This resource provides an overview of DBQs, and how to develop them for local classroom instruction to model the structure of DBQs found on State assessments. Revisions to this tutorial include:

New and updated web links.
Additional guidance on using DBQs for instruction.
A revised Sample DBQ and Sample DBQ Scoring Rubric for instructional use that model the format of DBQs on New York State social studies assessments.
Connections to the revised generic scoring rubrics for State social studies assessments.

This tutorial is only available online. It is also available on the Social Studies Publications web page.

Constitution Day: Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Educational institutions which receive Federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to theUnited States Constitution on September 17 of each year. In 2008, schools can celebrate Constitution Day on Wednesday, September 17.

For a description of Constitution Day resources available online, please visit: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/constitutionday.html.

Social Studies Generic Scoring Rubrics

All grade 3 – 12 students and teachers should now be using the revised generic scoring rubrics to prepare for future Grade 5, Grade 8 or Regents-level social studies examinations. The respective rating guides used to score each examination are now based on these revised rubrics.

Where necessary, revisions were made to the rubrics to better explain the criteria for scoring each specific score point. Only minor changes were made to the general criteria for scoring the essays and are based on comments from social studies teachers and a review of past operational examinations and rating guides. The revised generic rubrics provide additional criteria on which to base a score of zero and address the issue of essays in which the student copied too much information directly from the documents.

A complete explanation of the revisions and copies of the Revised Generic Scoring Rubrics are available on our social studies website.

A revised Grade 5 generic scoring rubric has just been released for use beginning with the November 2007 examination. A memorandum from Assistant Commissioner Abrams, the revised rubric, and a complete explanation of the new Grade 5 generic scoring rubric are also available at the web link above.

Explore Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS)

The Library of Congress’ educational outreach program, Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS), is now available in New York State.

New York State has been selected to apply for participation in the regional expansion of this educational outreach program because of its affiliation with the National Council for the Social Studies. For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps.

Law Day 2008 - "The Rule of Law"

The Law, Youth and Citizenship (LYC) Program of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) will celebrate this year's American Bar Association Law Day, offering a variety of resources for teachers, schools and the general public. The theme for 2008, the 50th anniversary of Law Day, is "The Rule of Law." The effort is to provide resources and strategies for New York schools to help increase student achievement in citizenship
education. The effort includes partnerships with the New York State Education Department and the Newspaper in Education Program.

An online civics education toolkit developed by the New York State Education Department includes materials that cut across multiple content areas. NYSBA and LYC's Law Day partnership includes the New York
Newspaper Publishers Association's Newspaper in Education Program. Newspapers across the state are publishing a five-part series highlighting this year's theme, "The Rule of Law." Each part in the series focuses on a significant U.S. Supreme Court case that originated in New York State and includes a classroom activity. A teacher's guide with student worksheets is available.

Teachers who share their Law Day plans with LYC will receive a free set (30) of Law Day rulers.

For more information on Law Day, explore the LYC Web site, www.lycny.org.

Find Your Public Library in New York State

This resource, as well as an online public access catalog, is available from the New York State Library, at www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/libs/publibs.

Write for the NYS Social Studies State Assessments: 2008 Dates

Download and print out an Item Writer Application form at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/inform/informarch/itemwriterapp.html

The following item writer training sessions will be held in 2008:

Global History and Geography Regents Exam training: Monday-Tuesday, March 3-4
U.S. History and Government Regents Exam training: Monday-Tuesday, March 10-11
Grade 5 Elementary-Level Social Studies Test training: Monday-Tuesday, March 17-18

If you are interested in participating, please fill out the form linked above and mail it in to the Department. We will contact you in January with an official invitation to one of the sessions.

Preference will be given to people currently teaching social studies in grades 3 and 4 (Grade 5 Test), grades 9 and 10 (Global History Regents), or grade 11 (U.S. History Regents). Participants' travel-related expenses will be reimbursed in compliance with New York State travel regulations, and they will be paid for the 2-day session. Participants attending these sessions must agree to accept an item writing assignment, and will be paid a salary for completing and submitting items to SED. These items may appear on future State social studies assessments.

New Teaching Unit Available from the New York State Library

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 has recently been posted on the New York State Library Web site. Visit the Resources and Services for Teachers page at www.nysl.nysed.gov/teachers.htm, and scroll down to the Labor History section (next to the image of the trains).

The student activities have been correlated with NYS standards and performance indicators. The packet used microfilmed newspapers, a primary resource that can be used by students of all ages without having to fear that they might accidentally damage the original material. Images of the actual newspaper articles are posted with transcriptions.

All Teacher Evaluation Forms used by teachers and supervisors to comment on and evaluate each state-level examination are now available only in an electronic format, on the Office of State Assessment website www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/. Scannable evaluation forms are no longer being printed or shipped to schools. Schools still possessing old Teacher Evaluation Forms from previous administrations should discard these forms. All teachers and supervisors who administer NYS examinations should now go online to complete and submit their Teacher Evaluation Forms. The comments offered by NYS educators provide valuable information to the Department, and assist in the development of future State examinations. This change will make it easier for teachers to submit their comments and will allow the Department to make more timely use of this information.

The specific web address for Teacher Evaluation Forms is http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/exameval. This address is also provided in most test administration materials and in the scoring materials provided for each examination.

Since 1995, the New York State Library has been scanning New York State government documents and providing free access to these digital versions through the State Library online catalog. Recently, the State Library expanded the types of materials being scanned.

From any internet connection, researchers, including educators and students, may access these high demand historical documents through the Catalog/Digital Collections link on the State Library website. Examples of these items include 19th century NYS Census volumes (statistical schedules), New York Red Book (New York State Gov't --executive, legislative, judicial and county information), Registers of NY Regiments in the Civil War, Final Report on the Battle of Gettysburg, the NYS Museum Bulletin (1907-1996; with plans to scan earlier volumes), and selected NYS town and local histories.

For more information, and instructions for accessing these materials go to the State Library web site at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/scandocs/historical.htm or call the Library reference desk at 518-474-5355.

The most recent issue of the Social Science Docket, a joint publication of the New York and New Jersey Councils for the Social Studies, is titled New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance. It includes selections from a document-based curriculum guide prepared for the "Gateway to the City" Teaching American History Grant Project. The complete guide is available at www.people.hofstra.edu/faculty/alan_j_singer and on the NYSCSS Web site.

The curriculum guide is a 2005 National Council of the Social Studies (NCSS) "Social Studies Program of Excellence" award winner. Alan Singer and Mary Carter of Hofstra University (Hempstead) developed this resource along with April Frances (Lawrence Road MS, Uniondale) and Kerry Creegan (Massapequa HS, Massapequa).

In 2004, over 25 government agencies and non-governmental organizations joined forces to create the Consortium. Its goal is to advance and promote the civic missions of schools and the civic learning of their students throughout New York State. The Consortium has identified three strategies for achieving its goal:

2. Design a professional development system to train teachers in civic education and civic engagement

3. Encourage and support school-district policies that renew the importance of the civic mission of their schools

The second Social Studies Summit was held on April 29-30, 2004 in Albany. The purpose was to provide the State Education Department with suggestions for future social studies curriculum, assessment, and staff development initiatives. The summit was co-sponsored by the New York State Council for the Social Studies (NYSCSS) and the New York State Social Studies Supervisory Association (NYS4A). It resulted in 13 specific recommendations.

The current status of these recommendations was updated on March 1, 2006 to reflect SED action taken on them. Future periodic updates will be posted on the current status of each recommendation.

Section 168-a (3) of the executive law was recently amended by designating November 30 as Shirley Chisholm Day in New York State. Section 801-a of the education law is also amended by adding a new subdivision (b) which authorizes NYSED "to develop a curriculum of materials regarding the legacy of Shirley Chisholm for optional use in school district on or around November 30^th."

WIDE ANGLE: WINDOW INTO GLOBAL HISTORY
www.thirteen.org/edonline/wideangle
Wide Angle: Window into Global History was produced by Thirteen/WNET New York to support the teaching and learning of Global History and Geography in high school classrooms across New York State. The project Web site provides high school teachers with resources tying video material from PBS' award-winning WIDE ANGLE series of international documentaries to Regents and Advanced Placement courses in Global and World History. The site comprises ten media-rich lesson plans with embedded video and a Video Bank of over 40 downloadable video clips, organized by teaching theme and associated with guiding questions for students.

ACCESS ISLAM
www.thirteen.org/edonline/accessislam
Access Islam is a pioneering new educational tool. Designed by Thirteen/WNET New York to support the study of Islamic cultures, traditions, and holidays in grades 4-8, the site contains over 100 minutes of downloadable video drawn from the PBS newsmagazine RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY and covering topics such as Muslim Prayer, Ramadan Observance, Zakaat, Hajj, Islamic Art, Muslims in America, and more. Also find 10 standards-based lesson plans, a timeline, glossary, background on Islam, and resources to support teaching about religion in the classroom.

PRAIRIE TO PARIS
www.thirteen.org/edonline/americanmasters
Thirteen/WNET has also recently launched PRAIRIE TO PARIS: Exploring the Worlds of MY ÀNTONIA and THE SUN ALSO RISES a Web-based companion to the award-winning PBS series AMERICAN MASTERS. The site is designed to enhance high school students' understanding of Willa Cather's MY ÀNTONIA and Ernest Hemingway's THE SUN ALSO RISES. Visitors to the site can explore the worlds of the two novels through timelines, essays, interactive film trailers, maps of real and fictive locations, and biographical information on the authors. Educators are also encouraged to provide feedback on the site by emailing it to prairietoparis@thirteen.org.

The Department will continue to use a DBQ format for the Grade 5 Elementary-Level Social Studies Test that asks students to address a given topic without requiring them to provide a specific number of examples. Consistent with this format the rubrics for scorers are not based on a specific number of examples provided by the student. This format for DBQ, first used on the Grade 5 test in November 2001, results in essays that are driven more directly by the documents provided, reinforces the holistic nature of the scoring process and encourages students to use multiple examples to best develop each DBQ topic.

In addition, DBQs on the Grade 5 test continue to direct students to use a minimum of one more than half of the documents in their response. That minimum number will vary depending on the total number of documents provided on a given DBQ. The specific minimum number of documents students must use will be stated in the directions given to the students on each DBQ. This format aligns the requirements for the DBQ on the Grade 5 test with those of the intermediate and commencement-level social studies tests.

You can access this on the social studies Web site. Go to Social Studies under "Publications."

Each grade level connection column now includes: classroom activities with graphic organizers; teacher notes; interdisciplinary connections; suggested documents and other resources selected by New York State teachers; trade books; teacher resources; listings of possible field trips; internet sites; a list of key terms; a bibliography.

Throughout the Ages is a visual educational resource from the New York State Archives, the Archives Partnership Trust, and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation that focuses on using historical records as learning tools in pre-K-grade 6 education. The site offers more than 200 digital images of historical photographs, letters, broadsides, maps, and paintings. The "Build Your Own Worksheet" option is an innovative feature that can be customized for individual needs.

"Culture: A Geographical Perspective" - a short paper on studying cultures through geography.

Tips on "How to Select World Communities" - along with planning templates for the world communities selected.

A "Call For Content": teachers can submit grade 3 standards-based learning experiences (lessons plans, units, teaching strategies) for future posting on this resource.