Middle School Social Studies Adoption

Social Studies Adoption Committee wants, needs, your input: please inspect the candidate text books and supporting materials and provide your feedback and preferences. 

These are the social studies text books middle school students will have for many, many years. So, even if your student is in early primary grades, they will still be affected. Now is the time to speak up!

Viewing continues until June 18th 2015.  All instructional materials are available for viewing at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellent AND at 5 middle school libraries:

Hamilton Int'l
Washington
Madison
Aki Kurose
Eckstein

If your students happen to be at those middle school, urge them to pop by the library and check out the texts and leave feedback. Their input matters! If you visit the school, be sure to stop in at the office first to register as a visitor. They can direct you to the library.

(Note: 6th graders study ancient civilizations, 7th graders study world history, and 8th study US history to 1900)

Grade
Title
Publisher
Website
Logon Username/email
Password
6 & 7
Discovering Our Past: A World History (picture of king with crown and beard on cover)

McGraw Hill
Seattless
Ss2015
6 & 7
World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance (picture of King Tut on cover)
Holt McDougal
RSEATTLE
D2v6s3d4
6
History Alive! The Ancient World
TCI
www.teachtci.com and click on ‘teacher sign in’ on top right hand corner of page
seattle
7
TCI
www.teachtci.com and click on ‘teacher sign in’ on top right hand corner of page
seattle
8
United States History: Beginnings to 1877 (picture of Liberty Bell on cover)
Holt McDougal
My.hrw.com
RSEATTLE
D2v6s3d4
8
Discovering Our Past: A History of the United States (picture of Abe Lincoln on cover)
McGraw Hill
Seattless
Ss2015
8
History Alive!
TCI
www.teachtci.com and click on ‘teacher sign in’ on top right hand corner of page
Use email Seattleusi1@teachtci.com


    

Comments

Anonymous said…
Why is this only available in schools & the JSCEE - and therefore presumably only during school or working hours, when most people are at work? With the math adoption, they had the books available in a few libraries, which meant it could be looked at evenings & weekends as well. I would be interested to go look at these, but am not necessarily prepared to take time off work for it.

Sounds like, as usual, they are going through the motions rather than actually seeking input.

Mom of 4
Anonymous said…
@Mom of 4

Inspect the materials from ANY place, at ANY time, with an internet connection and a computer. That is what the table is for: how to access all textbooks plus other instruction materials online. Don't have a computer? Go to any public library.

Email your feedback and comments directly to Kathleen Vasquez, at kavasquez at seattleschools dot org



Leave Feedback
Anonymous said…


Hello?



Not sure how to interpret the quietness of this thread.


For all those who PASSIONATELY jump on the threads that are about advanced learning (pro or con) or special education, THIS is your chance to apply your voice in an arena that counts: this is the dog chow are kids are going to be fed. So, show up. On-line or in person. Review the books. Pick the one which you want in our children's hands. Arm-chair quarterbacks, your team is calling, you are needed on the actual field, so get up off the bench. Now.

PUT-UP or...
Anonymous said…
Our school doesn't use the social studies book and thank goodness for that. Teachers cover requirements with materials and pacing plans they've built up over years, thus avoiding the nightmare that is SPS text adoption and book distribution. King County Library and discretionary funds used for supplemental materials are our school's friend. And call us crazy but the newspaper is an excellent up to date provider of source material.

"circumvent"
Anonymous said…
@ "circumvent"
To which school are you a referring and what do you like the most about what your school is using? Having both a middle schooler and an elementary school kid, I am dismayed that "resources" seem to be copied sheets of paper and handouts. Some may call this flexibility and may take it so far as to call this a means of differentiating but I call it an unfunded mandate. But I am very interested in what parents feel is working, whether via worksheets or texts. Everyone is handwaving about curriculum (It's not just about MATH!) but if nobody is viewing it, then we get what we get. My guess is that perhaps parents also feel like their feedback isn't ever actually taken by SPS or that we are not sure how to judge whether something is appropriate/good or not. I fall into both of these categories but...I am planning to review this week.
SPS Tired

Anonymous said…
I have posted in the past about math curriculum, but feel unqualified to judge social studies curriculum. I have subject matter expertise, but not a sense of what the best order is for students, or what the general curriculum should be. These all seems pretty dumbed down to me(at least missing my area- civics, but that is high school, right?), but are they? I have a sense that they be missing a lot, but are they supposed to just be an overview? I feel like I know what a kid should know math-wise when they enter a rigorous mathematically involved college program and can work backwards from that to get middle school and elementary curricula, but I am not as sure for social studies. I guess with my sense that these are a bit basic- which ones are the best to add extensions to? Anyone know?

I also generally think writing is weak in SPS so want whichever one requires the most writing, but I also can't tell which one that is and assume it's teacher dependent.

-sleeper
Anonymous said…
Leave feedback - thanks. I saw the websites, but did not know who to send any comments to.

mom of 4
Anonymous said…
My children have had multiple teachers that think teaching out of a textbook is somehow beneath them, or not "higher level learning." I want to scream that higher level thinking and "making connections" can't be done in a vacuum of information. Students need to learn basic facts. Despite the teachers having access to what I thought were decent texts, they barely got used in the classroom. My children did lots of group projects and presentations, but only skimmed the surface of the content that should have been covered. My child was almost in tears last night realizing that the year is about over and very little has been learned - "They wasted a whole year of my life doing stupid stuff. Why can't they just teach us things?"

When I hear anecdotal feedback that teachers have been able to do wonders without a text, I really am skeptical. We just haven't experienced it. What about new teachers that haven't had years to craft a well thought out curriculum (the case in most of the classes my children have experienced)?

On one hand, I think a well chosen text is important, and will make an effort to review the materials, but on the other hand, I don't know how it will translate to improving classroom learning when teachers are seemingly under no obligation to use the texts (yet, when it came to CMP and EDM, you almost wanted the teacher to avoid using the adopted texts).

-rambling on
Anonymous said…
@ Put-Up, I'm one of those who is often arguing for more rigor in the HC program, particularly at the middle school level. But here's my current thinking:

I've had a lot of communications with district staff on this issue, including the AL office and the SS Program Mgr. In particular, I've been pushing the idea that they need to get HCC SS teacher feedback during the adoption process, since few--if any--of those on the adoption committee who are identified to have AL experience are actually HCC middle school teachers. I was pleased to learn that Janine Madaffari from the AL dept will in fact be convening interested HC teachers who are NOT on the adoption committee, so they can review the SS materials and weigh in on the texts. Assuming she can find any interested teachers, his is an important step (since they do not have to adopt the same curricula for all groups). I hope they do something similar with SpEd and ELL teachers, if those populations are similarly underrepresented on the adoption committee.

I'm not convinced that parent feedback on the curricula, however, will make that much of a difference if teachers don't like the curricula and want to use them. It takes a lot of work to learn a new curriculum and revise your lessons and assignments to reflect it, and it'll probably take even more effort to identify new supplemental materials appropriate for use with the many different populations that need something in addition to the new texts. Since teachers aren't required to use whatever curricula we adopt, there's a good chance the new books will just sit on shelves like the old ones do now. This is especially true if we pick a book the parents like but the teachers don't. I don't quite get it why a district-adopted curriculum can be optional, but apparently that's the way of SPS. It seems teachers are going to do what teachers are going to do... If they can find among these possible adoptions a set of MS SS materials they actually like and are likely to follow, I think that's great. I will support their choices. Quite frankly, following any of the texts up for adoption will be an improvement over the anything-goes, no-text-needed approach we have now, whereby a lot of material gets missed completely.

If the teachers think we have a winner, let's go for it. But if they are lukewarm--on either the process or the end result--why bother?

A less optimistic and more resigned
HIMSmom
Allen jeley said…
I read your article and its give us good info about social study and its tell us how to teach the middle class student thanks for sharing good info personal statement writer .

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