President’s Comments

Spring 2013 Edition Tar Heel News

President’s Comments
Becky Griffith, NCCSS President 2011-2013

Please join us for the 43rd Annual North Carolina Council for the Social Studies Conference. The conference will be held Thursday, February 28 and Friday, March 1, 2013 at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. The theme this year is “Opening Windows to the World.” For additional information visit the NCCSS website http://ncsocialstudies.org/conference/

Start a local chapter of Rho Kappa at your school. Rho Kappa Social Studies Honor Society is the only national organization for high school juniors and seniors that recognizes excellence in the field of Social Studies. Any accredited public or private high school can apply for a local chapter, through which individuals will be inducted into Rho Kappa Honor Society. Rho Kappa provides national recognition and opportunities for exploration in the social studies. For additional information visit http://rhokappa.socialstudies.org/rhokappa/Home/

As the North Carolina Essential Standards in Social Studies are implemented, teachers can access valuable information at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Wiki Site. This resource is designed especially for educators to assist in the preparation of moving to the K-12 Social Studies Essential Standards. The North Carolina K-12 Social Studies Essential Standards are available, along with a number of other resources such as the Instructional Toolkit components and professional development material. To access the site, visit http://ssnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/

It has been my pleasure to serve as President of the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies over the past two years (2011-2013). I want to thank my mentor, Steve Pierce, NCCSS Past-President, for his wisdom and guidance. I extend best wishes to our incoming President Melissa Hockaday. I look forward to my term as Past-President (2013-2015) and ask you to contact me with suggestions as to how NCCSS can best serve your needs in the classroom. beckygriffith.nccss@gmail.com

The following information was taken from this website:
http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Publications/

The Vision for the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Inquiry in Social Studies State Standards provides guidance for states to use in enhancing their standards for rigor in civics, economics, geography, and history in K-12 schools. The C3 Framework, currently under development, will ultimately focus on the disciplinary and multidisciplinary concepts and practices that make up the process of investigation, analysis, and explanation which will be informative to states interested in upgrading their social studies standards. It will include descriptions of the structure and tools of the disciplines (civics, economics, geography, and history) as well as the habits of mind common in those disciplines. The C3 Framework will also include an inquiry arc-a set of interlocking and mutually supportive ideas that frame the ways students learn social studies content. This framing and background for standards development to be covered in C3 all point to the states’ collective interest in students using the disciplines of civics, economics, geography, and history as they develop questions and plan investigations; apply disciplinary concepts and tools; gather, evaluate, and use evidence; and work collaboratively and communicate their conclusions.

The C3 Framework will focus primarily on inquiry and concepts, and will guide – not prescribe – the content necessary for a rigorous social studies program. CCSSO recognizes the critical importance of content to the disciplines within social studies and supports individual state leadership in selecting the appropriate and relevant content.

Like the Common Core State Standards, the C3 Framework will be based on evidence and will aim at college and career readiness. As a core area in the K-12 curriculum, social studies prepares students for college and career including the disciplinary practices and literacies that are needed for college-level work in social studies academic courses and the critical thinking, problem solving, and collaborative skills needed for the workplace.

The C3 Framework also adds a third essential component to college and career readiness – civic life. Learning to be actively and responsibly engaged in civic life requires knowledge and experience; children learn to be citizens by working individually and together as citizens. An essential element of social studies education, therefore, is experiential – practicing the arts and habits of civic life collaboratively.

The forthcoming framework, to be released in 2013, will be a significant resource for all states to consider in their local processes for upgrading state social studies standards, rather than set standards for states to adopt. This document, Vision for the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Inquiry in Social Studies State Standards, is designed to give states and other interested parties an understanding of how the C3 Framework is being developed and designed.