Common Core in the Social Studies Classroom Dan Marzo
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a rapidly approaching idea in education
which will shape and mold the United States into the global education foreground. In the
upcoming years, the entire nation will be placed under a common set of standards along with
individual state standards to prepare our nation’s youth for college level learning as well as those
students who will enter the workforce directly after high school. Behind this idea was the
National Governors Association Center for Best Practice and the Council of Chief State School
Officers. Teachers, school administrators, and experts in the field of education joined these two
groups in order to lay the framework for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. ("New
york state:," 2011)
The Common Core Standards are taken from many of the highest performing states
around the country as well as countries around the world so that the children of America are able
to compete in many different areas of study with people throughout the world. Perhaps the most
important aspect of the Common Core is the ability for students to relocate anywhere throughout
the United States and be able to pick up exactly where they left off at their previous educational
experience because of the fact that this is a national program. The standards will be used to
reach all students no matter their post-high school plans and are as follows: are aligned with
college work and expectations, clear understandable and consistent, include rigorous content and
application of knowledge through HOTS (High Order Thinking Skills), build on strength and
lessons of current state standards, are informed by other top performing countries to be able to
prepare students for the global market, and are evidence-based. Perhaps in the future more
standards will be added as both states and the nation reflect on the original years of the Common
One of the essential ideas that teachers and administrators will have to emphasize through
the Common Core Initiative is the idea of cross-curricular learning in all subjects. Students will
now be asked to integrate English into a biology classroom, math into a social studies classroom,
and reading skills into a math classroom. This may be a challenge to many teachers and
administrators, but if one truly stops and considers this thought, they will realize that their
classrooms touch on cross-curricular ideas already. Along with the Common Core integrating
multiple subjects into the already jam-packed curriculum seen in many school districts, the
Common Core will deepen the standards and divide them into subgroups of the overall subject’s
standards. For instance in a social studies classroom, the first three standards are grouped
together under the Key Ideas and Details section, standards four, five, and six are grouped
together into the Craft and Structure section, seven, eight, and nine are listed as the Integration of
Knowledge and Ideas section, and standard ten is grouped alone under the Range of Reading and
Level of Text Complexity standard. ("Common core standards," 2011)
By using these standards, a social studies teacher could do a number of projects,
activities, and other exercises to reach multiple subjects especially English. One example that
could obviously be seen in teaching English in an American History class is the reading of Walt
Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Because these poems speak about Whitman’s time on the
battlefield in the American Civil War, the students would come to understand some major ideas
about a soldier’s life, battle, as well as the thought processes after fighting has concluded. By
understanding pieces of one of the most pivotal times in American History through reading
perhaps the most essential literary work of the time would help students reach the ultimate goal
Another useful idea which could be used to integrate English into a social studies
classroom would be to have the students choose between The Red Badge of Courage, Ragtime, Across Five Aprils, or other historical novels which would give the reader great insight into the time being studied either in American History or throughout the world. The teacher could make
questions about each of the books both on the ideas of literacy, English, and social studies.
In regards to the understanding of math in a social studies classroom, it becomes more
difficult, but essential and possibly nonetheless. Math is seen almost weekly if not daily in a
social studies class through graphs, maps, pie charts, as well as in the areas of economics. A
social studies teacher attempting to combine math and social studies together could do a project
as simple as having students analyze pie graphs of the number of soldiers lost in World War I for
the countries involved along with a list of resources used by those countries. Furthermore, the
students could take the data from the two different sources and anticipate which of the countries
involved would have been able to last the longest as the war dragged on.
While many older teachers who are accustomed to their own way of teaching may not
agree with or want to use the Common Core Standards, I truly believe that America on the hole
will see test scores increase and better student achievement through this program. Each state will
be required to compete at the highest level due to the fact that all will be using the same
standards. By having teachers infiltrate the ideas of multiple subjects into their classrooms,
students will understand that they never truly get a break from any one subject and may see
multiple instances of the same subject in any given day. Conversely, some believe that the
Common Core Standards will not raise student learning and is in need of extensive research
before it is implemented as a national education program. William J. Mathis cites Gerald Bracey
across states will, in fact, cause increased student learning.” Mathis also mentions Grover
Whitehurst and his 50-state analysis of the relationship between standards and performance.
Whitehurst could not find a relationship between state or national standards, but this does not say
that a nationwide program such as the Common Core Initiative would be different. (Mathis,
References
Common core standards initiative: preparing america's students for college and career. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards/history-social-studies/grades-9-10/
Mathis, W. J. (2010). The “Common Core” Standards Initiative: An Effective Reform Tool? Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved [date] from http://epicpolicy.org/publication/common-core-standards
New york state: common core standards overview. (2011, November 1). Retrieved from
