This recourse guide is one of a series of units on the theme Communities Around the World for grade 3. Background material on Paris, France is given for the teacher describing urban characteristics, French culture, and the physical site of the city. Objectives and goals related to concepts, generalizations, skills, and attitudes to be developed…

This guidebook for the teacher of geography or social studies includes teaching and learning suggestions. The major theme is teaching geography using one's local area as the prime resource. The four sections in the guidebook deal with: 1) Relating Geographic Concepts to the Local Community gives quick, non-technical explanations of some of the…

This paper, presented in 1971 at the National Council for Social Studies Conference in Denver, advocates structuring elementary and secondary social studies programs around social intelligence in the Deweyan sense rather than building them around ideology. Too often programs espousing an ideology are touted as the best approach toward solving…

An outline of the knowledge and skills to be taught at grade three in order to meet the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) social studies objectives is provided. Material is divided into three parts. Following an introduction, a one page description overviews the curriculum topic for grade three, communities, and specifies the major…

This article focuses on open schools or schools without walls, those experiments within the public school system involving a reconceptualization of the role of the school in the educational process. A brief review of the free school movement (those experiments outside public schools) is also included. The stated goal of the open school is to help…

The focus of this book is on the exposition of the principles of the Parkway Program. The program is worthy of description for several reasons: 1) the renovation of our educational system must have a high priority, and the program suggests a possible direction; 2) the story of Parkway is a case study of what happens when an educator sets out to…

Designed for inclusion in an eighth grade course on U.S. history or civics, this unit introduces local students to the history of Alexandria (Virginia) through a study of its buildings and urban growth. By examining factors which have changed the community (technology, transportation, economic influences) as well as the relationship between…

This ethnic studies unit for secondary grades offers students an opportunity to become familiar with a metropolis and its components as they relate to the ethnic and racial composition of its populous. The aim is for students to gain an understanding of the various contributions made by the composite ethnic groups to a city; to be aware of the…

As part of Project Adventure, a specific unit within a 12-week Colonial History course taught at a Massachusetts high school was designed to: involve students with each other, their community, and local history; add a significant social and experiential dimension to the course; use a unique system of student evaluation and grading; and be…

Understanding the Early Years (UEY) is a national initiative that provides research information to help strengthen the capacity of communities to make informed decisions about the best policies and most appropriate programs to offer Canadian families with young children. This report focuses on the results of the community mapping study, conducted…