NYCDOE: Passport to Social Studies - grade K, unit 2
Note to Teachers: To help with remote and hybrid learning, digital materials for this unit are available on the NYCDOE TeachHub. Access these materials by following these instructions.
This is the second unit of the kindergarten scope and sequence, titled: Self and Others: Individual Development and Cultural Identity. It was developed by a team of NYCDOE staff and teachers, in collaboration with scholars of the humanities and social sciences as well as museum curators. Students will immerse themselves in the topic by discussing focus questions, reading and analyzing a rich collection of diverse primary and secondary sources, examining artifacts, and interpreting images, such as paintings and photographs, and maps.
At each stage of early childhood development, children make sense of the world by observing their social and physical environments. Although children have not yet developed a strong identity or a concept of time and a context for historical thinking, their natural curiosity for knowledge is a driving force that prompts them to investigate and draw conclusions about their environment. In a way, children are natural learners of social studies, and because social studies content in the primary grades is organized around big ideas that come from topics related to identity formation or self, family, community, and country, the Kindergarten unit sets the tone for broader social learning necessary for the upper grade levels. Concepts and topics of representative lessons in this unit include: engage students in civic participation to help them acknowledge and appreciate the diversity of their friends and classmates; understand the traditions and symbols of the United States to develop a shared culture and identity, and celebrate the differences and similarities between people and cultures, including language, religious customs, and cultural identity.
To evaluate student mastery of content knowledge, cognitive processes, and critical thinking skills, this unit includes formative assessments, and a performance-based assessment activity, which has students demonstrate knowledge about the following concepts: ways people are the same and different, ways people change over time, and national symbols.
Please note: the complete set of NYCDOE K-8: Passport to Social Studies Core Curriculum materials include a wide-range of trade books and primary documents, in addition to this unit of study. In order to support rigorous social studies instruction and student inquiry, we recommend that teachers integrate these resources into their daily instruction and assessment plans.
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