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

• People and events are organized chronologically to increase understanding of historical relationships.
• Processes and resources of historical inquiry allow for interpreting the past and analyzing present day issues
• Societies are diverse and change over time.
• Different forms of government have been developed, practiced, and changed throughout history.
• Religious beliefs and philosophical ideas change societies.
• Maps, globes and other geographic tools are used to acquire process and report information about the past and present.
• Physical and human characteristics of places define regions.
• Migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity.
• Resources impact interactions between humans and their environment.
• What were the structure and functions of government? How did it change over time?
• Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.
• Resources impact the production and distribution of goods and services.
• Trade, specialization, and interdependence influence relationships among individuals, groups and societies.
• Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.

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

• How can we use geographic tools, to gather and interpret information about the Western Hemisphere?
• How do physical and human characteristics define and identify region and place?
• Which physical process has had the greatest impact on shaping and continuing to shape the earth's surface?
• How do migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity?
• How have humans modified the environment?
• What essential information from a map/globe is needed to acquire, process and report information?
• What are the significant physical and political features of Canada?
• Which physical and human characteristics (populations, political divisions, and language) most impacts peoples' lives?
• How are goods and services produced in Canada distributed?
• How can people and events in early history of Canada be organized chronologically?
• How can two or more Canadian cultures be compared using one or more elements of culture?
• What type of government does Canada have?
• Why did the government of Canada change over time?
• What are the resources of Canada?
• How does trade and interdependence influence the relationship of Canada with its neighbors?
• What are the physical characteristics that impact peoples' lives?
• How can people and events in Mexico's history be organized chronologically?
• What impact did the explorers have on Mexico and the native inhabitants?
• What sources can be used to learn about the people and events?
• How did the societies of Mexico change over time?
• How does Mexico's government compare to other governments in the Western hemisphere? How has the government changed from early history to the present?
• What are the most important resources of Mexico?
• What is the effect of Mexico's economy on its neighbors and vice versa?
• Why do the people migrate from place to place?
• What are the social, economic, and environmental issues associated with immigration and migration?
• What are the resources of Central America? How, and for whom, are the resources distributed.
• How can the culture of the people of Central America be compared to that of other cultures?
• How were the different islands formed? What are the physical and human features of the different islands?
• What types of governments were developed on each island?
• What are the main resources found on the various islands?
• How can the culture of the people of Caribbean be compared to that of other cultures?
• What are the physical and human characteristics of South America?
• How can people and events in South America's history be organized chronologically?
• How have the governments changed from early history to the present?
• What, how and for whom are goods and services produced and distributed?
• Using basic cultural elements, how can the South American cultures be compared?

Standards

History 1: Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.
Benchmark B: Students use chronology to organize historical events and people.
History 2: Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
Benchmark A: Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses regarding what happened in the past and how to obtain and analyze historical data to answer questions and test hypotheses.
Benchmark B: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources of historical information (e.g., letters, diaries, literature, text, newspaper, art, music, technology, oral history, interviews).
History S3: Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.
Benchmark B: Students understand the history of social organization in various societies.
History  5: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.
Benchmark A: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.
History  6: Students know that religious and philosophical ideas have been powerful forces throughout history.
Benchmark A: Students know the historical development of religions and philosophies.
Benchmark  B: Students know how societies have been affected by religions and philosophies. 
Geography  Geography1: 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.
Geography 2: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
Benchmark A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places.
Benchmark B: Students know how and why people define regions.
Benchmark C: Students know how culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.
Geography 4: Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
Benchmark A: Students know the characteristics, location, distribution, and migration of human populations.
Geography 5: Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and changes in meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources.
Benchmark B: Students know how physical systems affect human systems.
Geography  6: Students apply knowledge of people, places, and environments to understand the past and present, and to plan for the future.
Benchmark A: Students know how to apply geography to understand the past.
Civics 1: Students understand the purposes of government, and the basic constitutional principles of the United States republican form of government.
Benchmark C: Students understand the principles of the United States Constitutional Government.
Civics 2: Students know the structure and function of local, state, and national government and how citizen involvement shapes public policy.
Benchmark A: Students know the organization and functions of local, state, and national governments.
Civics 3: Students know the political relationship of the United States and its citizens to other nations and to world affairs.
Civics 4: Students understand how citizens exercise the roles, rights, and responsibilities of participation in civic life at all levels.
Benchmark A: Students know what citizenship is.
Benchmark D: Students know how citizens can participate in civic life.
Economics 2: Students understand how different economic systems employ different means to produce, distribute, and exchange goods and services.
Benchmark B: Students understand how a country's monetary system facilitates the exchange of resources.
Economics 3: Students understand the results of trade, exchange, and interdependence among individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies.
Benchmark A: Students understand that the exchange of goods and services creates economic interdependence and change.

Middle School D-11 Social Studies Indicators - Colorado Standards are very general. To more clearly define learning expectations for all students, District 11 has added these indicators of success to the required curriculum.

History
1. Chronological Organization: Organize events and people in chronological order and use this data to determine cause/effect relationships.
2. Historical Inquiry: Identify, interpret, compare, and evaluate primary and secondary sources, including documents, eyewitness accounts, letters and diaries, literature, and newspapers.
3. Diverse and Changing Societies: Describe basic cultural elements (traditions, customs, religion, language, government), compare and contrast societies, and explain how they changed over time.
4. Science, Technology, and Economic Activity: Identify and explain changes in technology and evaluate their impact on historical events.
5. Political Institutions and Theories: Describe forms of government, then give examples of societies that practiced and changed them over time (democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, clan/tribal, and autocracy).
6. Religious and Philosophical Ideas: Describe religious beliefs and philosophical ideas, and how they changed societies.

Geography
1. Use and Construction of Geographic Tools: Interpret maps, globes, charts, and geographic databases.
2. Characteristics of Place and Region: Define and identify regions by describing physical and human characteristics of places.
3. Physical Processes Shape the Earth’s Surface: Describe physical processes that shape the earth’s surface.
4. Patterns of Human Population and Interaction: Explain how migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity.
5. Human and Physical Systems:  Explain how humans modify the environment and how the environment influences human activity.
6. Apply Knowledge of Geography: Describe how characteristics of places and environments influence events in the past and present.

Civics
1. Purpose of Government and US Constitutional Principles: Explain the purposes of government and identify the principles stated in the Constitution.
2. Structure and Function of Government: Describe the structures and functions of national, state, and local governments.
3. Political Relationships: Define foreign policy and describe ways nations interact (ed) diplomatically in the past and present.
4. Citizenship Participation: Explain roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizens (including students as citizens).

Economics
1. Scarcity and Decision Making: Identify and give examples of economic resources and make decisions involving opportunity costs.  
2. Resources and Production of Goods and Services: Describe the roles of supply, demand, and price in the production and distribution of goods and services.
3.  Trade, Exchange, and Economic Interdependence: Describe how trade, specialization, and interdependence influence relationships among individuals, groups, and societies.

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

• Quarter 1 Unit 1:  Introduction to Western Geography (See "For Teachers" to access DOGSTAILS and Picture the Place lessons)
• Quarter 1 Unit 2:  Oh Canada! (@25 days-last 5 weeks of the quarter) 
• Quarter 2 Unit 3:  Mexico
• Quarter 3 Unit 4:  Central America 
• Quarter 3 Unit 5:  Caribbean Islands 
• Quarter 4 Unit 6:  South America  

Parent Resources