Second Grade - History/Social Studies

Diverse group of people embracing each other

Overview

Sedcond-grade students in SFUSD engage in an average of 45 minutes (through both integrated and stand-alone units) of social studies instruction from 4-5 days a week. There will be 3-5 week stand-alone units that alternate with Science units during the year. These units prioritize building an understanding that our extended communities are interconnected.

Our North Star

Provide opportunities for students to deepen their self-identity through the exploration of diverse family structures and histories in the greater community including their own. Explore the ways that communities influence each other and the environment through the transportation and exchange of resources. Analyze how different communities (rural, suburban, and urban) influence each other and share resources by examining maps and determining transit routes. Deepen their understanding of the development of laws/policies in the larger community.

Diverse group of people embracing each other

Examine the ways that individuals can influence larger systems and create change when things are unfair and unjust. Determine ways students can work together to build a better community rooted in the SFUSD Humanizing Values (knowledge of self, solidarity, and self-determination) and core concepts of Ethnic Studies.

Priority Standards

What students will know, what students will do, and what thinking skills students will develop to apply and transfer History/Social Studies/Ethnic Studies understandings that endure within the discipline, leverage deeper understandings, and/or support readiness for success at the next grade level. 

In second grade, students focus on these critical areas:

Family hugging

Our Families: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going

Students explore their family histories and learn more about their location in history. They examine the diversity of families and learn about the lives and historical struggles of their own families and those of their peers. Concepts of immigration are researched through each family’s unique history. Solidarity is developed as students connect with peers by understanding their family’s similarities and differences. Students will also use this unit to look at maps of the country and the world as we explore the places that our families have been throughout our history.

California Map

California Communities Work Together

Students will develop an understanding of how both climate and geography affects food production. They will explore the ways that we have altered the land in order to grow and transport food across the state through maps, primary and secondary sources. They will also examine their role as a consumer in the complex economic system in our state through the links between markets, producers and transportation systems. They will analyze the historical power structure between those that work in food production, distribution and consumption through biographies from the farmworker’s movement. They will develop an understanding of the interdependence of rural, suburban and urban communities.

aerial view of capitol

Systems, Laws, and Changemakers

Students will investigate the ways that laws are passed and how they connect to their lives. They will be introduced to the 3 branches of government. Students will delve deeper into how individuals can create, change and take action in their community. They will examine biographical stories of individuals that have taken action in their communities to create or change laws throughout the history of the United States. Students will evaluate different laws or the contributions of individuals to determine what they find historically significant. Students will synthesize what they have learned to reflect on their own values and how they can influence their community at large.

Instruction: Signature Elements

Below are signature elements of SFUSD History/Social Studies instruction that students should experience regularly throughout second grade as they develop as historians & social scientists.

Community Responsive Teaching

Adapt lessons, units, etc to reflect and honor the experiences and community of your students. Making humanizing connections to personal/community/cultural experiences

Inquiry

Students engage in authentic cycles of inquiry: developing questions & planning inquiry, applying disciplinary tools & concepts, evaluating sources & using evidence, and communicating conclusions & taking informed action.

Historically Responsive Literacy

Create lessons that use various resources (visual, oral, and written) that represent a wide range of diverse people that contribute to our communities

Taking Informed Action

Students take action in their community based on the information they have gathered throughout their inquiry. (Check out the next two and a half minutes of the video for an explanation.)

Materials

Beyond the 2nd Grade Unit Overview, there are no required materials.

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Units

Units for Second-Grade History/Social Studies/Equity Studies are currently in development. See below for guidance and examples of how you might structure your own units. (Click here for the same information below in an easy-to-read format: Overview and Examples for 2nd Grade Units)

Unit Design

Incorporation of the Four Dimensions of the Inquiry Arc Across the Three Bends of a Unit

Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries Applying Disciplinary Tools and Concepts Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action
A compelling question supported by Investigation questions Investigate the ideas, tools, and concepts of 
  • Geography
  • History
  • Civics
  • Economics
 Gather evidence from reliable sources Do something with the knowledge and skills acquired
Inquiry Investigation Informed Action

 

Units

Here are some practical examples. Each class may go on a slightly different path (culturally/community-relevant), but are still likely headed in the same general content-driven direction. Students engage with a compelling question. Students learn more through exploring media (books, videos, etc), interviews, field trips, etc..(historically responsive literacy). Students generate new questions based on what they learned, explore more (inquiry), and eventually and/or during the process create artifacts that represent their learning and/or contribute to their community in some fashion (informed action).

Unit Title Inquiry Possible Investigations Possible Informed Actions

Do this first:

2 week Launch Seesaw Lessons

 

Our Families: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going (example)

Background article to read  before teaching:

This article addresses the many ways we can explore the concept of family with children

 

Do this first:

2 week Launch Seesaw Lessons

Compelling Question:

How do our family stories influence who we are and our  communities today?

This should lead to investigative questions from the students. Here is a possible way to elicit those questions:


Think, Puzzle, Explore
 

*Be sensitive to family diversity and privacy and respect the wishes of students and parents who prefer not to participate. - CDE Framework, page 48 

  • Students investigate their own family history or someone else’s and find out the reasons the family lives in the community
  • Students research their family’s (or their chosen family’s) geographical origins (could be neighborhood, city, state or country) and plot them on a map
  • Students investigate the motivations of why people  immigrate, move or choose to stay in a community
  • Students share a family story with their classroom community followed by small discussions on how our families are unique (including race, traditions, language…etc.)
  • Talk about their own and others’ families in safe, caring ways and make a family portrait 
  • Interview the elders in our families or neighborhood and find out what brought them to our current community.
  • Brainstorm the meaning of family to the members of our classroom community
  • Read stories about different kinds of families
  • Read stories about how children can learn different aspects of themselves by spending time with elders
  • Look at several different kinds of maps and find places that are important to our chosen family history (maps, atlas, globe, city map, state map, national map, world map…etc.)
  • Plot on a general timeline the different places that our chosen families or specific family members  have lived (different countries, states, cities or neighborhoods)
  • Define and discuss the values that are held by our families
  • Create a book of family stories that can live in the classroom or school library. 
  • Create a bulletin board mural showing the many diverse families in our school community.
  • Create a classroom map that shows all the different places we come from and how we have all come together in our city.
  • Make a class video that is compilation of students discussing what makes their family unique and special in our community
  • Create a personal family history timeline either online or on paper with photos or drawings and captions
  • Make posters of their family histories to share with their classmates and the school at large. 
  • Create a Family Gallery
Unit Title Inquiry Possible Investigations Possible Informed Actions
California Communities Work Together (example)

Compelling Question:

How do communities depend on the environment and each other to get what they need?

This should lead to investigative questions from the students. Here is a possible way to elicit those questions:
Get some images of people in neighborhoods/schools and do a See Think Wonder
  • Research the places that our food comes from throughout the state
  • Differentiate the differences between rural, suburban and urban communities and how the are interdependent
  • Determine how goods and services are transported or shared between different communities
  • Identify the natural resources that are found throughout our state and how climate and landforms affect their availability.
  • Analyze the ways that supply and demand in cities determine what is grown in rural areas. 
  • Use maps of California to plot different urban, suburban and rural areas.  
  • Students pick 2-3 local food items found in their local grocery store and research their origination
    • Students determine the most common transportation route used to get the products in the store
  • Research the production of food and who picks the food that ends up on our tables
  • Discuss the ways that food scarcity affects our community in the urban environment Background information about Food Deserts in SF
  • Create a class/grade level model of different buildings, landmarks in San Francisco
  • Create 3 different models of communities (rural, suburban and urban) with roads and building to show how they are interconnected
  • Create a store that sell products from California
    • Figure out what resources will be used and where in the state they are located
    • Determine the best way to transport said goods to our area
    • Map the most efficient route for transport
    • Write up a plan for getting the products to the store
  • Students focus on a food/product that is grown/made in the state and write a report of how it ends up in their home/school, including either a map showing the transportation route or a timeline from the beginning of production to consumer purchase.
  • Create a virtual Food Drive at your school
  • Write persuasive letters to community leaders to address the food deserts in our city/state.
Unit Title Inquiry Possible Investigations Possible Informed Actions

Systems, Laws and Changemakers

(example)

Compelling Question:

How can we participate and work to change things in our community for the better?

This should lead to investigative questions from the students. Here is a possible way to elicit those questions:
Instead of sharing ideas, have them come up with questions and stop and jot as a class between mingle sessions
Mingle Pair Share | Inquiry Lesson Plan Strategy
 

 
  • In small groups create proposals to change something in our community
  • Write a persuasive letter to a government official asking for a specific change of policy
  • Write a short biography of a community leader that they admire and share with their classmates
  • Students pick a “hero(ine)” that reflect their family and their family values and create a biographical display, slideshow or short video
  • Have students pick a community leader that inspires them and create a presentation for the class 
  • Students work as a class to create their own country and create laws,  maps with landmarks, etc.
  • Create a portrait of a hero(ine) with a short biography and create a bulletin board to share with the school
  • Create a video to teach about the people we have learned about and how they have changed unfair laws or work to help our community

 

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Planning Guide

Many elements of second-grade History/Social Studies can and should be integrated across the day and year. That being said, three periods of roughly five weeks are set aside each trimester for more intensive History/Social Studies learning. Through these units, Second-grade students will learn ...

1st Trimester 2nd Trimester 3rd Trimester
Our Families: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going California Communities Work Together Systems, Laws and Changemakers
~5 weeks of 4 lessons per week ~5 weeks of 4 lessons per week ~5 weeks of 4 lessons per week

 

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Reflection Questions

  1. How are students' developmental needs, communities, and experiences being reflected and honored, or how could they be?
  2. What opportunities do you see for developing equitable access & demand, inquiry, collaboration, and assessment for learning?
  3. What are the implications for your own practice? What strengths can you build upon? What will you do first?

This page was last updated on August 21, 2023