Wisconsin Standards for Social Studies Rollout
A number of workshops and resources will be available to educators and districts to help switch over to the newly updated social studies standards. DPI follows a three-year suggested rollout plan for new standards; for social studies, Year 2 Curriculum Work will go from Summer 2019 through the 2019-20 school year. All resources and workshops developed by DPI will reflect this year of understanding.
Thank you for your patience as I work to get the resources finalized and posted. I have added dates below to reflect the due dates I have set for myself. You can find my planning spreadsheet here.
Please consider joining the state Social Studies listserv, which goes out about every other week during the school year. That is the first place I will post resources.
Webinars have moved to their own page!
A resource from the WebbAlign portion of the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services (WCEPS, at UW-Madison) outlines summary definitions and examples of Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) specifically for social studies.
Essential Questions tied to the Wisconsin Standards for Social Studies
One of the first resources I was asked about when the revised standards were adopted in May of 2018 was the Essential Questions document I had made for the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards in Social Studies. There was a LOT of interest in having a new document with EQs supporting the new standards. I'm happy to say this work is finally complete!
Essential Questions tied to the Wisconsin Standards for Social Studies
Two-page printable resource with the EQs and the specific standards to which they align.
Sometimes having a new vocabulary can be confusing. I've had some feedback regarding the terms used for questions, and made a short Powtoon to explain the differences.
Wisconsin Social Studies Crowdsourced Scope & Sequence
One of the questions I get asked most often is "But what is being taught in social studies across the state in 7th (11th, 3rd, etc) grade?". There is no state-wide scope and sequence, and there is no required scope and sequence - or required class/course (for any subject) at the state level. That means that even the ever-loved "Wisconsin History is required in 4th grade" is not true. All curricular scope & sequence decisions are made at the local/district level at this time. (For more information on what is required by state law in regards to Social Studies, visit the Laws & Statutes page)
DPI does not collect information on district scope & sequences, either. Yet, many educators and districts want to know this information. With this, the Wisconsin Social Studies Crowdsourced Scope & Sequence document was born. What is crowdsourcing? In general, it means that a large group of people enter their own information with the goal of finishing a project - in this case, obtaining a snapshot of what is being taught in social studies across the state.
EVERY public school, and any private school that chooses to be included in our database are pre-populated into the spreadsheet. All you'd need to do is go in, find your school, and add what information you know! Note that this means, of course, that the information provided is self-reported data and may be inaccurate in places.
Want to put your own information in the document, and see what others have already contributed? See the Instruction page here, which has a link to the spreadsheet.