Social Studies 10 Course Outline

Social Studies 10 Course Outline 

Ms. von Bremen 

Blog address:  http://vonbremensocials.blogspot.ca/    

Email address:  kvonbremen@s19.bc.ca 

The goal of Social Studies is to help you become active and informed citizens.  This includes having an opinion on issues and have the ability to back up ideas with strong evidence.  These things take practice and experience and that is what class is for. 

In Social Studies 10 we will look at a number of ideas and topics through six historical thinking concepts which include: 

-Historical Significance 

-Evidence 

-Continuity & Change 

-Cause & Consequence 

-Perspective 

-Ethical Judgement 

Through the above lenses we will explore and examine some of the following topics: 
      1.    Government in Canada. 

2.    Canada Post War Era & 1920’s 

3.    Great Depression 

4.    Lead up to WWII 

5.    WWII

6.    Cold War Era & Canada

7.    French Canadian Relations and Canadian Identity, multiculturalism & Nationalism

8.    Canada to present day

Political & Economic ideologies: 

-political spectrum 

-First Nation's peoples traditional organizational relationships within community and to the land 

-social welfare programs 

Development, structure & function of Political institutions (focus: Canada): 

-forms of government 

-levels & branches of government in Canada and First Nations self-government 

-electoral systems 

-Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 

-Indian Act 

-overview of Judicial System

Canadian Identity: 

-First Nations identity 

-immigration & multiculturalism 

-nature of Canadian identity 

Canadian Autonomy: 

-international relations & foreign policy:  WWI, Paris Peace & League of Nations, WWII 

-Canadian constitutional issues 

Domestic conflict and cooperation 

                -Conscription Crisis

            -Quebec and concept of distinct society

Human-environment interactions  

-standard of living and inequalities 

-demographics 

-land and resources 

-climate change 

Discriminatory policies and injustices in Canada (and around the world) 

-women's rights 

-racism 

-union movement

Truth & Reconciliation

                  -effects of Residential School System & Indian Act

Economic development and Canada's role in the global economy 

-fundamental economic concepts 

-relationships between environment & economy 

-free trade and economic organizers 

****Please note there is a mandatory Issues (Argumentative) Paper/Project that must be completed to a satisfactory level including development of a thesis and development of an argument bases on stake holders, plus proper bibliography and footnotes in order to receive a grade and credit for this class. 

What you need to be successful: 

-a good attitude 

-come to class prepared and ready to work 

-bring texts, notebook & writing utensils 

-participate and be present in class 

-be respectful of yourself and others 

-complete homework and assignments to the best of your ability 

-ask for help 

-turn off and put away cell phones/music devices, unless they are being used for educational purposes under the teacher’s direction. Responsible use in an educational form! 

Late Assignments: 

“Stuff happens”. If you are reasonable, I will be reasonable. Bottom line: I’m a reasonable person however once an assignment has been handed back the maximum mark you may receive is 50%. Plagiarism and Cheating will result in a zero, a serious conversation and sometimes a learning opportunity. 

Assessment: A little up in the air with the new reporting order but here is an idea.

Assignments – 50% 

STAR marks – 10% participation 

Tests & Quizzes - 40% 

Final Assessment = 20% of final grade (this will be skills based and less so on content) 

Historical Significance

 What is Historical Significance?

        -events, people or developments that brought about major change

*important to remember that what is historically significant to one person/group etc may not be historically significant to another

What are historically significant events in your life?  List five.
How did you decide - what criteria/factors did you consider?  (Idea of judgement based on criteria and this will change depending on who is considering the event.)

Activity:
Draw a diagram showing the most significant events, people or developments in the world/Canada/Revelstoke (or a part of the world).

-it can be a kind of flow chart if you like
-use pictures, icons, words, colour
-arrange it so it makes sense to you

15 minutes and be ready to explain it after



significance scale
• Global: Most everyone in the world should know about it
• National: Most everyone in the country where it occurred should know about it
• Regional: Most everyone in the region or who belongs to a specific group(s) should know about it
• Individual: Only the descendants and family of the people involved need know about it
• Not at all significant: No one needs to remember it

Look at two events and fill out sheet on these events.

Video example of Historical Significance:
http://tc2.ca/teaching-resources/have-you-seen-the-free-resources-in-our-special-collections/thinking-about-history.php

Add to ideas sheet.
Rate Historical Significance.

Ethical Judgement

History isn't always perfect as we know.  Historians and students need to decide if what happened in the past was right and fair.  Were the actions of certain people fair or unjust.  Ethical judgements look at the effects of actions or decisions on people.


Another working definition from "TC2"may be:

Ethical judgments are attempts to assess the appropriateness of past actions and our current responses to them, remaining mindful of present values and sensibilities and considering fully the norms of the time.

• ethical judgments may be positive or negative
  
• ethical judgments can be directly stated or implied
  
• ethical judgments should consider interests and perspectives of all key groups
  
• ethical judgments of the past must be sensitive to historical context
  
• the quality of ethical judgments depends on adequacy of the evidence
  
• to determine whether an ethical judgement is defensible requires evidence in light of criteria
  
  http://tc2.ca/uploads/sections/thinking_about_history/ethical_judgment_secondary.pdf
  
  
   Is History fact or judgement?
  
  Sometimes the language is what gets us:
  
  For example:
  
  
  
  • Muslim terrorists killed 3000 innocent people when they bombed the World Trade Center in New York City.
    
  • Thirty freedom fighters from Saudi Arabia crashed a plane into a building in New York City as a protest
    against the unlawful actions carried out in the Middle East by imperialist Western regimes.
    
  • Three thousand people died when thirty men from Saudi Arabia crashed a plane into a building in New York City.
    
    
    How do we get out fact from judgement?
    
    0. In order to determine which statement is most defensible, explain to students that they must consider the following criteria to judge the quality of their ethical judgment:
       
    • Interests and perspectives of all key groups are considered
      
    • Beliefs at the time are considered
      
    • Adequate relevant evidence is consulted
      
      http://tc2.ca/history.ph

    
    

  Summary of concept:
• Ethical judgements are assessments about the appropriate treatment of others
• Not all historical judgements are ethical judgements
• Ethical judgements in history focus on judging whether past actions were justified, assigning historical responsibility, and attributing contemporary accountability
• Ethical judgements can be explicit or implicit
• Ethical judgements help us make sense of and understand the past and the present
• Ethical judgements require sensitivity to both historical and contemporary ethical standards

Cause & Consequence

Cause & Consequence are fairly easy concepts to understand.  Essentially you are looking for clues to try and determine what happened in the past and why.  Cause and consequence look specifically at what influenced the events to occur and then what the spin offs of that event are.  How & Why certain conditions and actions led to others!

The cause can be many things:  conditions, ideologies, institutions, beliefs, circumstances, actions, prior events.

Just as in everyday life (and history) things that happen can have immediate, underlying and/or long-term consequences and these can vary in importance.  In order to determine the importance of the events one has to provide evidence to support your claims (think Napoleon report card!).  

www.TC2.ca recommends using the following criteria to help you:

0. Determining the importance of causes
   
• Evidence of a causal connection. Is the cause clearly connected with the event and not just a coincidence? If this factor were removed, how likely is it that the event would still have occurred?
  
• Degree of influence. To what extent did the cause contribute to the direction and intensity of the event or make other causes more or less important?
  
• Absence of alternative explanations. Is there no reason to suspect that some other factor, closely aligned with the suggested causal factor, can explain the outcome?
  
  
  Determining the importance of consequences
  

  • Depth of impact: How deeply felt or profound was the consequence?
    
  • Breadth of impact: How widespread were its impacts?
    
  • Duration of impact: How long-lasting was the consequence? 
    
    
    
  
  

Continuity & Change

As we continue to learn about the six historical thinking concepts we now move onto continuity and change.  We will continue to look at historical significance with the French Revolution as well but will focus on continuity and change as well.

Continuity is the idea of things staying the same, being consistent or stable over time.

Change is the opposite of continuity, idea of things changing, transforming or becoming different over time.

Here is an example:
http://tc2.ca/teaching-resources/have-you-seen-the-free-resources-in-our-special-collections/thinking-about-history.php

Essentially it is evaluating change over time using ideas of progress and decline.
Asking the questions of:
What has changed over time versus what has stayed the same?
Were the continuities and changes positive? or negative?
How rapid or slow were the changes?
Did any of the changes mark turning points in history?

(How are lives and living conditions alike over time and how have they changed?)
Significant/dramatic change =turning points in history.

Create two lists, one of constants in your life and one of changes when you look at your life from Kindergarten until now.

Consider the statement:  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

How did you arrive at your criteria for determining important constants and changes?


Criteria for an important change:
• Substantial effect: Dramatic difference in the way things function
• Relatively permanent: Lasting condition or development
• Widespread: Effects are broadly felt across society/ time period
Criteria for an important constant:
• No substantial deviation: Little or no difference in the way things function
• Important aspects: The similarities are found in significant aspects of life
• Widespread: Similarities are broadly present across society/time period

(from: http://tc2.ca/uploads/sections/thinking_about_history/continuity_and_change_elementary.pdf)