The Maine Learning Results for Social Studies includes four separate strands. The Civics & Government standard and all connected performance expectations specific to civics and government can be found in this document:
Maine Learning Results for Social Social - Civics & Government (Revised 2019)
Resources to support teaching the Civics & Government strand:
- Guidebook: Six Proven Practices for Effective Civic Learning was created by the Education Commission of the States in partnership with the National Center for Learning and Civic Engagement.
- View materials from Kristie Littlefield's (former DOE social studies specialist) presentation at the 2012 Maine Council for the Social Studies Conference.
- iCivics looks to cultivate a new generation of students for thoughtful and active citizenship. Civic knowledge is a prerequisite for civic participation. Yet for decades, civic education had largely disappeared from school curricula and the repercussions are undeniable. Check out their resources and lesson plans.
- The Center on Representative Government is a non-partisan educational institution that develops and provides materials on civics and government at no-cost to students and educators.
- Civic Online Reasoning by Stanford History Education Group: If young people are not prepared to critically evaluate the information that bombards them online, they are apt to be duped by false claims and misleading arguments. To help teachers address these critical skills, they developed assessments of civic online reasoning—the ability to judge the credibility of digital information about social and political issues.
- Street Law helps equip classroom teachers with the strategies, techniques, and materials needed to be effective educators of civics, government, and law. They have a lot of free resources throughout their website and their store.
- Center for Civic Education is dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy in the United States and other countries.
- Civics Renewal Network is a consortium of nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations committed to strengthening civic life in the U.S. by increasing the quality of civics education in our nation's schools and by improving accessibility to high-quality, no-cost learning materials. On the Civics Renewal Network site, teachers can find the best resources of these organizations, searchable by subject, grade, resource type, standards, and teaching strategy.
- C-SPAN Classroom is a free membership service for social studies teachers. Their mission is to enhance the teaching of social studies through C-SPAN's primary source programming and websites.
- PBS Learning Media has resources about the teaching of Civics and Government.
- Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government is designed to inform students, parents, and educators about the Federal Government, which issues the publications and information products disseminated by the GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program.
- The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952.
- Admaker is an online editing tool that allows students to remix a historic campaign ad or to make a new ad.
- In the Interactive Constitution, scholars from across the legal and philosophical spectrum interact with each other to explore the meaning of each provision of the Constitution.
- More coming soon!
The introduction to the Maine Learning Results for Social Studies highlights some critical components to teaching civics and government in Maine:
Introduction
The great architects of American public education, such as Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, and John Dewey, believed that every student must be well versed in our nation's history, the principles and practices which support and sustain citizenship, and the institutions that define our government. Understandings of commerce and geography were critical to their thinking as well. In essence, Jefferson, Mann, and Dewey viewed the study of social studies as critical to the mission of public schools. According to the National Council for the Social Studies: advocates of citizenship education cross the political spectrum, but they are bound by a common belief that our democratic republic will not sustain unless students are aware of their changing cultural and physical environments; know the past; read, write, and think deeply; and act in ways that promote the common good. (C3 Framework for Social Studies, 2013).
A strong Social Studies education depends upon a clear understanding of its interrelated disciplines and inclusion of Maine’s Guiding Principles. Without knowledge of the geography and economics of earlier times, history offers only lists of people, events, and dates. Without knowledge of history, the institutions of American government and the dynamics of today's global economy are difficult to understand. Although social studies curricula vary in their breadth and depth, the Social Studies Standards reflect a focus on government, history, geography, personal finance and economics as the pillars of the content, with other disciplines within the social sciences deemed important, but not essential.
Guiding Principles
The Guiding Principles guide education in Maine and should be reflected throughout Social Studies curriculum. Examples of how students can show evidence of those guiding principles in Social Studies may include:
- Clear and Effective Communicator: Students research and use background knowledge to give audiovisual presentations about current and historical issues.
- Self-Directed and Lifelong Learner: Students generate questions and explore primary and secondary sources to answer those questions while demonstrating a growth mindset.
- Creative and Practical Problem Solver: Students draw conclusions about current and historical problems using valid research and critical thinking.
- Responsible and Involved Citizen: Students practice and apply the duties of citizenship through the exercise of constitutional rights
- Integrative and Informed Thinker: Students compare and contrast to analyze point of view and differentiate between reliable and unreliable primary and secondary sources.
Skills in Social Studies:
The application of skills in Social Studies is crucial to any curriculum. Best practices in Social Studies reflect curriculum, instruction, and assessment that give students opportunities to demonstrate research and develop positions on current Social Studies issues. Students will be asked to identify key words and concepts related to research questions and locate and access information by using text features. Additionally, students will demonstrate facility with note-taking, organizing information, and creating bibliographies. Students will distinguish between primary and secondary sources as well as evaluate and verify the credibility of the information found in print and non-print sources. Equally important is that students use additional sources to resolve contradictory information.
Major Enduring Themes - The term “major enduring themes” is used in several places in the Social Studies Standards. This term refers to general topics or issues that have been relevant over a long period of time. Using a consistent set of themes can serve as a framework within which other concepts, topics, and facts can be organized. It can also help students make connections between events within and across historical eras, and use history to help make informed decisions. The Civics and Government, Personal Finance and Economics, Geography, and History Standards all include performance expectations that address individual, cultural, international, and global connections. It will be up to the School Administrative Units to determine whether they use these performance expectations as an opportunity to integrate across the disciplines of the social studies or address them separately. The “enduring themes,” some of which overlap, include:
- Freedom and Justice
- Conflict and Compromise
- Technology and Innovation
- Unity and Diversity
- Continuity and Change Over Time
- Supply and Demand
Spiraling K-12 - A course of study in which students will see the same topics throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning. The Social Studies Standards and performance expectations have been created in order to reflect a progression of increasing complexity from K-5 and between the 6-8, and 9-diploma grade spans.