Stage F - Social Science

Descriptors

14A - Students who meet the standard can understand and explain basic principles of the United States government.

1. Define the concept of "consent of the governed."
2. Explain the importance of having a written constitution for a government.
3. Summarize the main points in constitutional documents (e.g., Declaration of Independence, Northwest Ordinance, Preamble of the United States Constitution).
4. Identify the basic similarities and differences between the Illinois and United States Constitutions.
5. Name the courts and judicial officials established to operate within the local, state, and federal governments.
6. Distinguish between the characteristics of a limited and unlimited government.

14B - Students who meet the standard can understand the structures and functions of the political systems of Illinois, the United States, and other nations.

1. Describe the characteristics of a two-house legislature.
2. Explain the reasons for having the system of checks and balances as part of the organization of the federal government.
3. Define the roles and responsibilities of top officials in Illinois State government (e.g., Governor, Sec. of State).
4. Explain the distributed and shared powers of the local, state, and federal government.

14C - Students who meet the standard can understand election processes and responsibilities of citizens.

1. Create a list of ideas that would encourage more civic responsibility among people.
2. Explain the role of a citizen in choosing leaders.
3. Illustrate how people are elected to all levels of our government.
4. Analyze historical events involving the extension or denial of political and electoral rights of various citizens or groups of people.

14D - Students who meet the standard can understand the roles and influences of individuals and interest groups in the political systems of Illinois, the United States, and other nations.

1. Summarize an individual or group's motivation for participating in the shaping of public policy.
2. Analyze actions taken by governments to improve the lives of people.
3. Analyze ways in which the media is used by political parties and interest groups to influence public opinion.
4. Explain how political parties and interest groups affect legislation.
5. Describe an historical event or period in which political parties influenced public policy.

14E - Students who meet the standard can understand United States foreign policy as it relates to other nations and international issues.

1. Identify a political tradition or custom that had its origin in another country (e.g., representative government).
2. Describe the leadership role of the United States in international organizations (e.g., the United Nations, NATO, IMF).
3. Explain the costs and benefits of an historical treaty the United States has signed with another nation or international organization.

14F - Students who meet the standard can understand the development of United States political ideas and traditions.

1. Give examples of events where people have had to fight to win their equality.
2. Illustrate conflicts over the rights and freedom of competing individuals or groups (e.g., a novel about two families from the north and south during the Civil War).
3. Compare the arguments of competing public interest groups on constitutional rights (e.g., rights of gun owners versus those who advocate greater restrictions on gun ownership).

15A - Students who meet the standard understand how different economic systems operate in the exchange, production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

1. Define productivity.
2. Demonstrate how productivity increases through the use of technology.
3. Demonstrate how education and training improve skills and increase productivity.
4. Explain that in a market economy, producers make the goods and services consumers want.

15B - Students who meet the standard understand that scarcity necessitates choices by consumers.

1. Explain that a market exists whenever buyers and sellers exchange goods and services.
2. Identify examples of people acting as consumers and as producers.
3. Illustrate the law of demand.
4. Explain that prices are determined through the buying and selling decisions made by buyers and sellers.
5. Explain that competition takes place when there are many buyers and sellers of similar products.
6. Identify markets where there is competition among sellers.
7. Identify examples of competition among buyers.

15C - Students who meet the standard understand that scarcity necessitates choices by producers.

1. Explain how price is an incentive to buyers and sellers.
2. Analyze the effect of price changes on buyers and sellers.
3. Explain that there are incentives other than price that affect people's behavior in the economy.
4. Provide examples of positive incentives (rewards) that affect economic behavior.
5. Provide examples of negative incentives (penalties) that affect economic behavior.
6. Define the law of supply.

15D - Students who meet the standard understand trade as an exchange of goods or services.

1. Define imports.
2. Define exports.
3. Provide examples of economic specialization.
4. Identify technologies that exist today that did not exist in the past (e.g., 10 to 20 years ago).

15E - Students who meet the standard understand the impact of government policies and decisions on production and consumption in the economy.

1. Describe the differences between income tax, sales tax, and property tax.
2. Identify what people would give up if governments had no power to tax.
3. Identify what goods and services various levels of government provide.
4. Identify to which level of government certain taxes are paid.

16A - Students who meet the standard can apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.

1. Distinguish between the important and insignificant details contained in an historical source.
2. Organize a series of historic maps of a region or place into an historical atlas.
3. Place a series of events from the past that are listed on a chronology or timeline and categorize them according to political, economic, environmental, or social importance.
4. Identify the times when significant events intersected using a series of chronologies organized into political, economic, environmental, and social history.
5. Compare two different interpretations of an historical figure.
6. Compare the account of an historic person or event in a textbook with an account of the person or event in another secondary source.
7. Locate on the World Wide Web multiple sources pertaining to a significant historic person or event.
8. Compare the value of primary and secondary sources.

16B - Students who meet the standard understand the development of significant political events.

1. Organize a series of political events covering the span of American history, c1500-present, into a periodization chart. (US)
2. Describe both the ideas and actions of significant political figures, events, or processes that affected the formation and development of modern political parties. (US)
3. Interpret the actions and consequences of a significant figure in United States political history (e.g., Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt). (US)
4. Interpret the causes that led to the development of a particular political organization or institution (e.g., modern political parties, interest groups, Electoral College). (US)
5. Organize a series of political events in World History into periodization charts for the ancient world, 1000 BCE-1500, 1500-present. (W)
6. Describe major events in the evolution of non-Western political systems throughout world history. (W)
7. Describe the impact that significant individuals or groups in the non-Western world had on political events (e.g., Mao, Indira Gandhi, freedom fighters). (W)
8. Compare/contrast the development of a political system and/or institution in ancient times with that of another political system and/or institution of ancient times (e.g., Greek and Roman government, Greek and Egyptian). (W)

16C - Students who meet the standard understand the development of economic systems.

1. Explain how significant economic events in the past have altered individual choices and influenced Untied States history. (US)
2. Summarize the impact of significant economic events of earlier periods of United States history on contemporary economic structure. (US)
3. Evaluate how an individual's ideas, inventions, or entrepreneurship (e.g., Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, Henry Ford) affected the economy then and now. (US)
4. Predict how technological advances may affect the United States economic system. (US)
5. Analyze how a significant economic event (e.g., industrialization, the Great Depression, and the rise of computer technology) has influenced the development of the United States economic system. (US)
6. Organize a series of economic events in World History into periodization charts for the ancient world, 1000 BCE-1500, 1500-present. (W)
7. Describe the basic economic changes that led to or resulted from turning points in world economic history after 500 CE (e.g., manorial system, industrial revolution, capitalism, information/communication revolution). (W)
8. Identify the economic aspects of significant cultural exchanges that occurred between peoples in the past (e.g., Columbian exchange, Crusades). (W)
9. Define capitalism, socialism, and communism as economic systems. (W)

16D - Students who meet the standard understand Illinois, United States, and world social history.

1. Predict the impact that a controversial figure's ideas on changing social conditions had on contemporary interest groups. (US)
2. Analyze the issues of social status and social role in the past and present. (US)
3. Describe the changes in family from one period to another. (US)
4. Trace the development of a significant social institution over time (e.g., Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, NAACP). (US)
5. Organize a series of social events in World History into periodization charts for the ancient world, 1000 BCE-1500, 1500-present. (W)
6. Describe a turning point in world social history (e.g., religious movements, abolition movement, demographic disasters, migrations). (W)
7. Compare/contrast the social structure of Western and non-Western cultures today and in the past. (W)
8. Describe the various roles of men, women, and children in the family, at work, and in the community in various time periods and places (e.g., ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, ancient China, Sub-Saharan Africa). (W)
9. Describe social changes that resulted from cultural exchange between and among different societies. (W)

16E - Students who meet the standard understand Illinois, United States, and world environmental history.

1. Organize a series of environmental events covering the span of American history, c1500-present, into a periodization chart. (US)
2. Describe how the environmental history of a place or region of the United States region has changed over time using a variety of geographic tools, including an historical atlas. (US)
3. Describe how the people of a specific region of the United States gained control over rivers or other principal physical features of their environment. (US)
4. Describe how the competition between or among different groups of people for the same land affected the environment. (US)
5. Assess the effects of a significant invention or technological innovation on the physical and cultural environment on a place or region (e.g., plow, automobile, power plants). (US)
6. Organize a series of environmental events in World History into periodization charts for the ancient world, 1000 BCE-1500, 1500-present. (W)
7. Describe how an aspect of the environmental history of a place or world region has changed or stayed the same using an historical atlas. (W)
8. Describe how the environmental history of one place or world region has changed using a variety of geographic tools. (W)
9. Describe how the people of a specific civilization gained control over rivers or other principal physical features. (W)
10. Describe how the competition between or among different groups of people for the same land affected the environment. (W)
11. Analyze the effects of a significant invention or technological innovation on the physical and cultural environment of one of the world's regions (e.g., invention of the wheel, canals, railroads). (W)

17A - Students who meet the standard can locate, describe and explain places, regions and features on Earth.

1. Demonstrate understanding of the location of various physical and human features in Illinois, the United States, and the world by sketching a map from memory of different features.
2. Interpret aerial photographs or satellite-produced images to locate and identify physical and human features (e.g., mountain ranges, rivers, vegetation regions, cities, dams, reservoirs).
3. Identify, using only a mental map, the countries through which a person would pass as they travel along a straight line route between two major cities (e.g., Paris to Moscow, Cairo to Nairobi).
4. Construct a choropleth map that shows the spatial distribution of the data (e.g., corn production in Illinois).
5. Explain how major countries in the world are connected and interrelate (e.g., trade, political alliances, humanitarian concerns).
6. Understand how parallels of latitude can be used to determine north-south direction and distance, and how meridians of longitude can be used to determine east-west direction and distance on a map or globe.

17B - Students who meet the standard can analyze and explain characteristics and interactions of Earth's physical systems.

1. Identify the causes and nature of changes in environmental stress zones (fragile environments) (e.g., the rain forests of Brazil, taiga, north slope of Alaska).
2. Describe the physical environment of the students' own region and the physical processes that act on it (e.g., weather, tectonic forces, wave action, freezing and thawing, gravity, soil building processes).
3. Describe ecosystems from local to global scales and the difference between them using photographs and other media as illustrations.
4. Explain how and why ecosystems differ from place to place as a consequence of differences in soils, climates, and human and natural disturbances.

17C - Students who meet the standard can understand relationships between geographic factors and society.

1. Compare the natural hazards that occur in Illinois with those occurring in other states to determine their intensity and effect on people.
2. Explain the concentrations of urban settlement centers with high population density using maps of Illinois and the United States.
3. Evaluate effects of technological change on transportation, communications, and resource use in Illinois, the United States, and the world.
4. Identify ways that human behavior could be changed to solve specific environmental problems (e.g., outline a plan to reduce litter and stream pollution).

17D - Students who meet the standard can understand the historical significance of geography.

1. Explain how technological developments have influenced the migration of people to and within the United States over time.
2. Analyze selected historical events to determine how they influenced the migration of people throughout the world.
3. Hypothesize about relationships between physical features and the occurrence of human activities of a particular place and how these activities changed over the years.
4. Analyze how physical features have both posed barriers and provided avenues to settlement in Illinois and the United States.

18A - Students who meet the standard can compare characteristics of culture as reflected in language, literature, the arts, traditions, and institutions.

1. Compare and contrast two or more cultures in terms of expressions of those cultures.
2. Compare a culture with one's own through the use of written, auditory, or visual materials.
3. Compare cultural differences/similarities from other parts of the world in terms of their language, literature, and arts.
4. Explain how social scientists analyze expressive culture and social discourse.
5. Identify what cultural relativism means.
6. Give an example of ethnocentrism.
7. Describe culture shock.

18B - Students who meet the standard can understand the roles and interactions of individuals and groups in society.

1. Compare and contrast the concepts of conformity and deviance.
2. Examine how the media portrays conformity and deviance.
3. Identify examples of how an individual internalizes group norms.
4. Compare formal and informal means of social control.
5. Analyze the effectiveness of a national or local social institution in addressing a social problem (e.g., DARE, MADD).

18C - Students who meet the standard can understand how social systems form and develop over time.

1. Define subsistence strategy.
2. Differentiate among pre-industrial, industrial, and postindustrial societies.
3. Describe how the change from hunter-gatherer to settled society affected social roles.
4. Explain how changes in the mode of production in a society affect educational, governmental, religious, and economic institutions.