Academic Standards for Reading in Social Studies Courses

Any oral or written assignment dealing with the following standards must meet the requirements for a grade of “C” or better using a specified assessment or rubric. Any assignment that does not meet this requirement will be remediated by department staff in the setting proposed later in this document.

100 Level Courses –

1. Start with effective textbook reading. Students should be able to read and comprehend

1. an assignment well enough to be able to explain the central ideas and locate supporting

1. facts for their explanation.

2. Two supplementary books (or the equivalent) will be added to the curriculum.* Student

2. mastery of the reading material may be assessed in a variety of ways including but not

2. limited to written book reviews, an oral “review” presented to the class or in-class

2. discussion.

3. Students will be introduced to reading skills associated with the use of primary source

1. documents (Appropriately matched to student ability). These skills would include, but

1. are not limited to, recognizing bias on the part of the author, recognizing impact of

1. time period on the document and motive for creation of the document.

200 & 300 Level Courses –

1. Two books (or the equivalent) will be incorporated into the curriculum.* As a progression from 100 level courses, students should be able to add author’s point of view or bias, recognizing the impact of time period and similar external factors to their analysis of the work. (This seems a natural connection to research assignments also assigned to this level.) Suggestions for assessment are the same as for 100 level courses. One additional suggestion for U.S. History classes would be to have books read that approach an issue from opposite sides (i.e. – slavery from both the southern and northern points of view or a book written by a German WW II veteran paired with one by a Holocaust survivor). This would also be a natural connection for the department’s standards in writing.

2. Students will continue to develop their skills in dealing with primary source documents. As a natural progression from 100 level courses, documents should be chosen of greater length and complexity, based on teacher’s discretion. Another suggestion is to have students analyze multiple short documents similar to what is done in an Advanced Placement Document Based Questions. Here again, there is a natural connection to the department’s standards in writing.

400 Level Courses –

1. Two books (or the equivalent) will be added to the curriculum.* Connections should  be made to the department’s standards in both research and writing since these are the culminating courses in our curriculum.

* These readings may be done as a group, in small groups or individually