Second Grade

Social Studies Practices

Culture: Students explore how collaboration and respect for others is necessary to achieve and maintain a functioning society.

Economics: Students will analyze the United States in economic terms, including producers and consumers, supply and demand, imports and exports, and why budgets are important.

Geography: Students will examine the geography of the United States in relation to the world, explore physical and political geography of the United States and Tennessee while continuing to learn that maps communicate useful information.

Government and Civics: Students will explore the concept of the U.S. constitutional republic by learning about rules, authority, and national monuments and symbolsin order to develop an understanding of the role of citizens and the U.S. government.

History: Students will analyze significant individuals, utilize chronological sequences, and explore primary and secondary sources.

Gather information from a variety of sources, including:

Critically examine a primary or secondary source in order to:

Organize data from a variety of sources in order to:

Communicate ideas supported by evidence to:

Develop historical awareness by:

Develop geographic awareness by:

Compare and contrast beliefs, customs, ceremonies, and traditions of various cultures represented in the United States.

Distinguish how people from various cultures in the students’ community and nation share principles and common goals.

Examine different types of producers and consumers in the United States.

Recognize major U.S. industries and their products, including agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, and transportation.

Explain why and how industries and/or businesses in the United States advertise to sell a product or service.

Define the concepts of supply and demand.

Differentiate between imports and exports.

Describe how imports and exports help to meet the needs of people in the United States.

Explain that budgets can be used to ensure needs are met and financial goals are achieved.

Compare how maps and globes depict geographical information in different ways.

Recognize the differences between physical and political maps.

Use legends, the compass rose, and cardinal and intermediate directions to determine locations on physical and political maps.

Identify and locate on a map the four hemispheres, as defined by the boundaries created by the equator and prime meridian, including the locations of North and South America in the Western Hemisphere.

Compare physical features of the earth, including:

Recognize that the United States is part of the North American continent, and identify the U.S. land and water borders including Canada, Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Locate on a map the following cities and physical features in Tennessee:

Locate on a map the eights states that border Tennessee (i.e., Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri).

Recognize that the United States has a constitution, which is the basis for our nation’s laws.

Recognize that Tennessee has a constitution, which is the basis for our state’s laws.

Identify the three branches of U.S. government (i.e., Legislative, Executive, and Judicial), and their popular names (i.e., Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court).

Recognize that our nation makes laws and that there are consequences for breaking them.

Identify the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens (e.g., voting, paying taxes, following laws).

Identify the ways one becomes a U.S. citizen (e.g., by birth or naturalization).

Identify principles of the American constitutional republic, including equality, fair treatment for all, the right to vote, and respect for the property of others.

Identify well-known national monuments and symbols (e.g., Liberty Bell, White House, Statue of Liberty, bald eagle, National Mall memorials), and examine their significance.

Define and identify primary and secondary sources.

Examine the significant contributions of historic figures.

Analyze and interpret events placed chronologically on a timeline using terms including years, decades, and centuries.

Printed materials (e.g., literary texts, newspapers, political cartoons, autobiographies, speeches, letters, personal journals)

Graphic representations(e.g., maps, timelines, charts, artwork)

Artifacts

Media and technology sources

Oral History

Summarize significant ideas and relevant information

Distinguish between fact and opinion

Draw conclusions

Recognize author’s purpose and point of view

Compare and contrast two sources

Recognize differences between two accounts

Frame appropriate questions for further investigation

Demonstrate an understanding of ideas

Compare and contrast viewpoints

Predict outcomes

Illustrate cause and effect

Sequencing past, present, and future in chronological order

Understanding that things change over time

Identifying geographic symbols on maps and globes

Understanding relationships between people, places, and resources

Continent

Island

Peninsula

Plain

Plateau

Valley

Cities—Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville

Rivers—Cumberland, Mississippi, Tennessee

Mountain Range—Appalachian Mountains, including the Great Smoky Mountains