| Overview | Primary | Intermediate | Middle |
SOCIAL STUDIES / Overview
It is our wish that Falk School students gain a deeper understanding of the role they play as they progress from understanding self to understanding the community, state, country, and world in which they live. The social studies curriculum’s focus on history, geography, and civics expands as students move to higher grade levels.
Primary / SOCIAL STUDIES
At the primary level, we see social studies as the study of the world in which we live, work, and play. We provide the foundation for students to advance to higher levels of social studies learning at the intermediate and middle levels. We accomplish this through discovery, inquiry and direct instruction. We teach the children to demonstrate their awareness of the self as well as the self in relation to others. We use fables, biographies, and videos to build an understanding of how historical events and other cultures affect our lives and the world in which we live.
Intermediate / SOCIAL STUDIES
At the intermediate level, we focus the child’s awareness of society by introducing traditional areas of social studies instruction such as cultural and physical geography, formal history instruction, and basic concepts of citizenship and government. We pursue these goals through inquiry based instruction and research. We expand on the primary level’s presentation of social studies as the study of the world in which we live, work, and play by conducting research-based projects, presentations, map making, and group work. At the intermediate level, we believe that process, skill, and content are of equal importance.
Middle / SOCIAL STUDIES
Our middle school level instruction expands upon the foundations established in geography, history, and government at the intermediate level while also utilizing concepts from economics and sociology /anthropology. The global economy has established an interdependent world; ours is a world of both continuity and change. Democracy is fragile in that it depends upon a virtuous and literate society making intelligent choices. Responsible citizenship is developed through an understanding of the connections among the past, present, and future: Ideas and actions (events) have consequences. An approach emphasizing inquiry, begun in kindergarten, continues through the student’s school experience. Each year’s study makes a contribution toward an expanded use of higher order thinking skills, increased content acquisition, and further development of work-study skills. A multi-text and multi-materials approach is employed in order to ensure fullness and accuracy of information. Students expand their efforts by using and producing visual organizations (maps, charts, graphs, etc.) as well as reports, presentations, and projects.
