Elementary
Kindergarten— Learning and Working Now and Long Ago
In kindergarten, children first begin to understand that school is a place for learning and working. Most children arrive for their first school experience eager to work and learn. Many will be working in groups for the first time. They must learn to share, to take turns, to respect the rights of others, and to take care of themselves and their own possessions. These are learnings that are necessary for good civic behavior in the classroom and in the larger society. Children can also discover how other people have learned and worked together by hearing stories of times past. In kindergarten, children should learn that they make choices and that their choices have consequences for themselves and others.
Grade One— A Child’s Place in Time and Space
Textbooks:
MacMillan/McGraw-Hill California Vistas: Family and Friends
MacMillan/McGraw-Hill California Vistas: We Learn Together
Children in the first grade are ready to learn more about the world they live in and about their responsibilities to other people. They begin to learn how necessary it is for people and groups to work together and how to resolve problems through cooperation. Children’s expanding sense of place and spatial relationships provides readiness for many new geographical learnings. Children also are ready to develop a deeper understanding of cultural diversity and to appreciate the many people from various backgrounds and ways of life that exist in the larger world that they are now beginning to explore. Children begin to develop a sense of an economy in which people work both in and outside the home and exchange goods and services for money.
Grade Two— People Who Make a Difference
Textbook: MacMillan/McGraw-Hill California Vistas: People and Places
Children in the second grade are ready to learn about people who make a difference in their own lives and who made a difference in the past. People who make a difference in the child’s world are, first, those who care for him or her; second, those who supply the goods and services that are necessary for daily life; and third, those extraordinary men and women who have made a difference in our national life and in the larger world community.
Grade Three— Continuity and Change
Textbook: MacMillan/McGraw-Hill California Vistas: California Communities
Although third graders are not ready for a formal study of history, they can begin to think about continuity and change in their own locality and nation. By exploring their locality and locating some of the features that were built by people who lived long ago, children can make contact with times past and with the people whose activities have left their mark on the land.
Grade Four— California: A Changing State
Textbook: MacMillan/McGraw-Hill California Vistas: Our Golden State
The story of California is an important one for fourth-grade students to learn. Not only is California their home; it is a fascinating study in its own right. The ethnic diversity, the richness of its culture and multiethnic heritage, the economic energy of its people, and the variety of its geographical settings make this state a creative focus of education for students in the fourth grade.
Grade Five— United States History and Geography: Making a New Nation
Textbook: MacMillan/McGraw-Hill California Vistas: Make a New Nation
This course for grade five presents the story of the development of the nation, with emphasis on the period up to 1850. This course focuses on one of the most remarkable stories in history: the creation of a new nation, peopled by immigrants from all parts of the globe a governed by institutions founded on the Judeo-Christian heritage, the ideals the Enlightenment, and English traditions of self-government. This experiment was inspired by the innovative dream of building a new society, a new order for the ages, in which the promises of the Declaration of Independence would be realized.
Grade Six— World History and Geography: Ancient Civilizations
Textbook: Holt Ancient Civilizations
In the sixth-grade curriculum, students learn about those people and events that ushered in the dawn of major Western and non-Western civilizations. Included are the early societies of the Near East and Africa, the ancient Hebrew civilization, Greece, Rome, and the classical civilizations of India and of China.
(Adapted from the California History-Social Science Framework 2005)
Middle School
Grade Seven— World History and Geography: Medieval and Early Modern Times
Textbook: McGraw-Hill Impact World History: Medieval and Modern Times
The study of world history and geography continues this year with an examination of social, cultural, and technological change during the period A.D. 500–1789. A review unit on the ancient world begins with a study of the ways archaeologists and historians uncover the past. Then, with the fall of Rome, this study moves to Islam, a rising force in the medieval world; follows the spread of Islam through Africa; crosses the Atlantic to observe the rise of the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations; moves westward to compare the civilizations of China and Japan during the Middle Ages; returns to a comparative study of Europe during the High Middle Ages; and concludes with the turbulent age of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution that ushered in the Enlightenment and the modern world.
Grade Eight— United States History and Geography: Growth and Conflict
Textbook: McGraw-Hill Impact US History & Geography: Growth & Conflict
The eighth-grade course of study begins with an intensive review of the major ideas, issues, and events preceding the founding of the nation. Students will concentrate on the critical events of the period—from the framing of the Constitution to World War I.
(Adapted from the California History-Social Science Framework 2005)
High School
Grade Ten— World History, Culture, and Geography: The Modern World
Textbook: McGraw-Hill Impact World History, Culture, & Geography: The Modern World
In this course students examine major turning points in the shaping of the modern world, from the late eighteenth century to the present. The year begins with an introduction to current world issues and then continues with a focus on the expansion of the West and the growing interdependence of people and cultures throughout the world.
Grade Eleven— United States History and Geography: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century
Textbook: McGraw-Hill Impact US History & Geography: Continuity & Change
In this course students examine major turning points in American history in the twentieth century. During the year certain themes should be emphasized: the expanding role of the federal government and federal courts; the continuing tension between the individual and the state and between minority rights and majority power; the emergence of a modern corporate economy; the role of the federal government and Federal Reserve System in the economy; the impact of technology on American society and culture; change in the ethnic composition of American society; the movements toward equal rights for racial minorities and women; and the role of the United States as a major world power. In each unit students should examine American culture, including religion, literature, art, drama, architecture, education, and the mass media.
Grade Twelve— Principles of American Democracy (One Semester)
Textbook: McGraw-Hill Impact Principles of American Democracy
In this course students apply knowledge gained in previous years of study to pursue a deeper understanding of the institutions of American government. In addition, they draw on their studies of American history and of other societies to compare different systems of government in the world today. This course should be viewed as the culmination of the civic literacy strand that prepares students to vote, to reflect on the responsibilities of citizenship, and to participate in community activities.
Grade Twelve— Economics (One Semester)
Textbook: McGraw-Hill Impact Economics
In a one-semester course in economics, students should deepen their understanding of the economic problems and institutions of the nation and world in which they live. They should learn to make reasoned decisions on economic issues as citizens, workers, consumers, business owners and managers, and members of civic groups. In this capstone course students should add to the economic understandings they acquired in previous grades and apply tools (such as graphs, statistics, and equations) learned in other subject fields to their understanding of our economic system.
(Adapted from the California History-Social Science Framework 2005)