Important Documents

*The Arizona State Content Standards are the blueprint which guides instruction in our Social Studies classrooms. This link will give you access to all of the K-12 Content Standards so that you know what students were taught in previous years and what they will be learning in their other classes.

*The Cartwright School District has created pacing guides to help teachers "map out" which concepts should be taught in a particular Quarter. This helps provide consistency for our students who move between Cartwright schools, it also makes it possible for us to create district-wide common assessments. In order to access these pacing guides you need to
1. Log in to your First Class account
2. Select "Conferences"
3. Select "Teaching and Learning"
4. Select your grade level and Social Studies

*When students engage in writing in your Social Studies classroom one key way that you can help support preparations for their success on AIMS is to have them use the 6 Traits Rubric to evaluate their work. The more that students interact with this rubric and become familiar with its components the more successful they will be when it comes to the AIMS writing assessment.

*Social Studies teachers are often called upon to support the AIMS tested areas of Reading and Math (and now Science). Rather than grasping at random Language Arts standards I'd suggest taking a look at the AIMS Blueprint which will guide you towards those most-frequently assessed skills and knowledge that will help prepare students for success.

*When planning your Social Studies lessons it is important to engage students in meaningful lessons that elevate their thinking to the highest possible level. Useful in purposefully creating challenging learning activities is this Verb Wheel Based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Check the verbs you use in your planning to make sure that you are creating cognitively demanding experiences for your students.