allotted 4 sixth grade and 4 sev-

enth grade slots for training.

Teachers who attended the all

day workshop received free ma-

terials from the Southern Center

for International Studies. These

resources included 2 books and

DVDs for the sixth grade (Latin

America and Europe) and 3 for

the seventh grade (Africa, South-

east Asia and Southwest Asia).

Now that training has con-

cluded we are working on com-

piling more teacher resources for

middle school social studies

teachers. Thank you to all of the

teachers who have shared valu-

able websites or teacher created

materials. Please submit your

suggestions to Shaun Owen.

We have had a very busy and

productive year in middle grades

social studies. The revised cur-

riculum was approved by the

State Board of Education on

August 14, 2008, after a 60 day

public review period. Every

comment was considered by the

educator committees and advi-

sory panel when revising the

curriculum.

After approval, a group of

sixth and seventh grade teachers

began an intense week of Frame-

work and Curriculum Map revi-

sions. Dr. Cranshaw and Shaun

Owen spent the week developing

Teacher Notes and GPS Revised

Curriculum training. These re-

sources are posted on Georgi-

astandards.org.

The first sixth and seventh

grade revised GPS training took

place in Perry, GA. After several

months of conducting one day

workshops, the final training was

completed December 12th.

Twenty-two different training

sessions were conducted

throughout Georgia in venues

ranging from colleges to aquatic

centers, fairgrounds, museums,

board offices, etc. More than

1,700 middle school teachers

were trained on the revised

curriculum.

Each middle school was

Teachers who attended the

revised 6th and 7th grade revised

GPS training received Southern

Center books and DVDs. These

are excellent resources that

provide background information

and a multitude of activities.

Don’t forget to check the SCIS

update pages which include les-

sons, charts, statistical informa-

tion, and activity resources.

Thank you to GPB for funding

the videos and video segments

referred to as Discovery Educa-

tion United Streaming. Educa-

tors across GA have raved about

this resource for years. To ac-

cess the clips go to GPB.org,

then GPB Education, then GPB

Education Streaming,

Middle School resources

available on GPB Education

Streaming:

Full Videos– 2,534

Video Segments– 22,881

Articles– 1,715

Images– 14.821

Lesson Plans– 114

Speeches– 24

Writing Prompts– 188

Eighth grade teachers, check

out the newly updated Georgia

Studies website on GPB.

Georgia Standards home-

page.(georgiastandards.org)

Training Wrap-Up Information

Government

Facets

2

Federal,

Unitary,

Confederation

2

Autocratic,

Oligarchic, and

Democratic

2

DOE Teacher

Resources

3

Submit Your

Ideas

4

Teacher Notes

& Unit Frame-

works

4

Teacher Resources

G E O R G I A D E P A R T M E N T

O F E D U C A T I O N

6-8 Social Studies News J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

Training

Update

Teaching

Resources

Government

Facets

Government

Explained

DOE Resources

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

P A G E 2

Unitary, Confederation, and Federal

Autocratic, Oligarchic, and Democratic

The Facets of Government Government! It can be

confusing because much like

history, there can be many

layers and things don’t always

fit into a nice, neat category.

For example, the State of Israel

is classified as a parliamentary

democracy while Canada is

classified as a constitutional

monarchy, a parliamentary

democracy and a federation.

Most countries have their

form of government listed in

their official country name.

For example, Brazil’s conven-

tional long form name is the

Federative Republic of Brazil

and its government type is a

Federal Republic. This is not

always accurate as North

Korea’s official name is the

Democratic People’s Republic

of Korea and its government

type is a Communist state one-

man dictatorship (CIA World

Factbook).

Countries do not design

their government systems to

fit into categories. Therefore,

a government may have as-

pects of more than one sys-

tem. Sources that attempt to

categorize may sometimes

conflict. For example, Switzer-

land may be listed as a Federal

system (Forum of Federations)

on one site and a Confedera-

tion on another (Center for

Civic Education– Constitution

Day lesson). China may be

listed as a Unitary system on

one source and a Federal sys-

tem on another (Scholastic/

Grolier Online).

Rather than focus on classi-

fying a country’s government,

teachers should focus on the

characteristics of government

systems.

ment. People who try to

speak out against the govern-

ment are often silenced

through use of power.

In an oligarchy, a small

group exercises control.

Communist countries are

mostly oligarchies. The citizen

has a very limited role in gov-

ernment.

The elements dealing with

autocratic, oligarchic and de-

mocratic types of governments

focus on how citizen participa-

tion is determined.

In an autocracy, where

most dictators maintain their

position via inheritance or

military power, the citizen has

little, if any, role in the govern-

In a democracy, supreme

power is vested in the people

and exercised by them directly

or indirectly through a system

of representation usually in-

volving periodically held free

elections.

central government and con-

federation would be on the

other end with state/regional

authorities holding most of the

power, creating a much

weaker central authority.

A federal system is in the

middle with power being di-

vided between the central

government and regional gov-

ernments. Some powers re-

side with the central govern-

ment, some powers reside

with the regional governments,

and some powers are shared.

Thank you to Ed Flowers,

Ware County Middle School

teacher in Waycross for the

visual representation of these

three systems (left nav). The

size of the circles represents

the amount of power and the

arrows represent the direction

the power flows.

The elements dealing with

unitary, confederation and

federal systems focus on the

ways in which government

systems distribute power– the

relationship between the na-

tional or central government

and the smaller governmental

divisions (states, provinces,

counties and cities).

On a continuum, unitary

would be on one end, with all

key powers being held by the

6 - 8 S O C I A L S T U D I E S N E W S

Georgia Department of Education Resources

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

There are a multitude of resources

available to Georgia Educators,

which will help in teaching the re-

vised GPS curriculum.

Teacher Notes– (6th and 7th

grade) A frequent question is “to

what depth am I supposed to teach

this topic?” We have developed

Teacher Notes which address all

three regions and each of the four

domains. The explanations state

the depth and breadth at which

each element should be taught.

We have also provided sample

assessment questions for many of

the elements, which were teacher

developed or taken from the OAS

database. More government infor-

mation and sample questions have

been added to the teacher notes

and the notes will have them

posted on GSO in the near future.

If you would like an electronic copy

before that time, you may email

Shaun Owen.

Unit Frameworks- (6th, 7th, 8th

grade) The frameworks have been

revised in 6th and 7th grade due to

the revised curriculum. There are

11 units in 6th and 7th grade and

13 units in 8th grade. The first and

last units are the same in 6th, 7th,

and 8th: Connecting Themes/

Enduring Understandings

(introducing conceptual teaching)

and the personal finance. Each

Framework unit consists of eight

parts: Elaborated Unit Focus, Stan-

dards/Elements, Enduring Under-

standings/Essential Questions, Bal-

anced Assessment Plan (various

assessments geared towards the

standards and elements that are

selected response, teacher observa-

tion, student constructed response,

dialogue and discussion, and infor-

mal observation), Sample Perform-

ance Task, Content and Product

Rubrics to evaluate the Sample

Performance Tasks, Resources

(hyperlinked) and Attachments

(activity sheets that correlate to the

Balanced Assessments and Sample

Performance Tasks).

Curriculum Maps– (6th, 7th, 8th

grade) How do you know you have

taught all of the standards and ele-

ments before the end of the year?

Each standard and element has

been grouped into units, which also

include correlating enduring under-

standings. This is not the same

thing as a pacing guide as no time

frame has been set by the DOE for

teaching each unit. However, many

systems have created their own

pacing guides.

OAS (Sample Assessment Question

Database)- (6th, 7th, 8th grade)

The online assessment questions

have been aligned and revised to

correlate to the updated 6th and

7th grade GPS. Since many ques-

tions were removed due to the

change in the curriculum, the data-

base is smaller than usual. We will

continue to add to the database to

build up a larger bank of questions.

The questions have been submitted

to OAS and should be online soon.

Webinars via ElluminateLive!- Have

you participated in an online webi-

nar? The social studies department

(K-12) has dozens of online training

sessions based around particular

topics. If you cannot participate in

the live sessions (where you can

ask questions of the moderators

and hear from other educators)

then you can listen to the recorded

sessions at a later time. During the

live and recorded session you will

receive downloadable files of the

presentation handouts/

PowerPoints. Dr. Cranshaw and

Shaun Owen presented a govern-

ment webinar on November 13th.

If you would like to listen to the

presentation, go to recordings. We

will have more sessions in the fu-

ture on economics, geography and

history. If you have ideas for topics

you would like to see presented,

please email Shaun Owen.

Videos-

Teaching Unit 1– Middle and High

School

Teaching Unit 1– Elementary

School

The Concept Wall Explained

Using a Middle School Framework

Using a High School Framework

Teacher Suggested

Websites for

Government &

Civics

BBC

PBS

CIVICED

NYTIMES

USGOV

GPB

CIA

KIDSGOV

EDGOV

MRDONN

Contact: Dr. William Cranshaw

Program Manager

wcransha@doe.k12.ga.us

Phone: 404-651-7271

Fax: 404-656-5744

Contact: Shaun Owen

Program Specialist (6-12)

sowen@doe.k12.ga.us

Phone: 404-657-0313

Fax: 404-656-5744

The mission of the GADOE Social Studies Department is to provide outstanding service to Georgia’s K-

12 teachers. We are committed to helping teachers acquire the knowledge, training, and resources to

effectively implement the Georgia Performance Standards. This newsletter seeks to provide the addi-

tional support to Georgia’s Middle School educators.

If you are an educator with an outstanding resource, unit, or lesson to share, please contact Shaun

Owen and I will gladly include you and your ideas in our next newsletter. This will provide help to thou-

sands of teachers statewide and serve as a nice addition to your portfolio.

www.gadoe.org www.georgiastandards.org

* Standards/Elements

* Enduring Understandings

* Descriptors

* Depth and Breadth to teach

each standard/element

* Sample Questions

* Elaborated Unit

Focus

* Standards & Ele-

ments

* Enduring Under-

standings & Essen-

tial Questions

* Balanced Assess-

ment

* Sample Perform-

ance Task

* Content and

Product Rubric for

the Sample Per-

formance Task

* Resources

(hyperlinked)

* Attachments

GCEE

GCSS

GGA

NCES

NCSS