Standards

Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• Maps, globes and geographic tools are used to locate information about places.
• Developments in technology have changed societies throughout history.
• Societies are diverse and change over time

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• What information can be learned from reading a map?
• What evidence of science and technology is found in schools in Colorado Springs and in Kenya?
• How does the way of life in Kenya compare to the way of life in communities of Colorado Springs for young people? 
• What are the roles of students in each place?

Standards and Benchmarks

History 3: Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.
Benchmark B: Students understand the history of social organization in various societies.
History 4: Students understand how science, technology, and economic activity have developed, changed, and affected societies throughout history.
Benchmark A: Students understand the impact of scientific and technological developments on individuals and societies.
Geography 1: Students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.
Benchmark A: Students know how to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
Benchmark B: Students develop knowledge of earth to locate people, places, and environments.
Civics 4: Students understand how citizens exercise the roles, rights, and responsibilities of participation in civic life at all levels.
Benchmark A: Students know how various societies were affected by contacts and exchanges among diverse people.

Elementary Social Studies D-11 Indicators, K-5

History
1.Chronological Organization: Organize events and people in history chronologically (time lines, lists, sequencing).
2.Historical Inquiry: Use primary and secondary sources to ask and answer questions (who, what, when, why, how) about the past and present, and to determine cause and effect relationships.
3.Diverse and Changing Societies: Describe cultural similarities, differences and interactions among various groups in both past and present.
4.Science, Technology, and Economic Activity: Identify and explain changes in technology (scientific achievements and inventions) and how they changed history.
5.Political Institutions and Theories: Describe how and why rules and laws (government) have been made and enforced.
6.Religious and Philosophical Ideas: Identify beliefs of individuals and groups and their effects on societies.

Geography
1.Use of Geographic Tools: Use tools (maps, globes, photographs, graphs, charts, and databases) to locate information about places.
2.and 3.Physical Processes/Physical and Human Characteristics of Places and Regions: Identify and describe human and physical characteristics of places, and use them to define regions.
4.Patterns of Human Population: Explain why people migrate and settle in different places.
5.Human and Physical Systems: Describe ways humans change the physical environment and how the physical environment affects human activity.
6.Apply Knowledge of Geography: Describe how and why places change over time.

Civics
1.Purpose of Government and US Constitutional Principles: Explain how people get, use, and misuse power and authority.
2.Structure and Function of Government: Explain how governments are organized at the local, state, and national levels and the responsibilities of each.
3.Political Relationships: Describe ways that peoples and nations interact.
4.Citizenship Participation: Explain the rights, roles, and responsibilities of students as citizens in the classroom, school, community, state, and nation.

Economics
1.Scarcity and Decision-Making: Identify scarce natural, human, and capital resources and evaluate decisions about how they are used.
2.Resources and Production of Goods and Services: Explain how, why, and for whom goods and services are produced.
3.Trade, Exchange, and Economic Interdependence: Identify ways goods and services are distributed through trade, exchange and interdependence.

District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units:

Lesson 1: Lesson 1 Title
Duration: @ 1 class period

Integrated Reading and Writing: Read the Bookflix audio book on Africa and A Story, A Story  Username = bkflix and password = school