Grade 3: Learning Objectives
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Knowledge: Grade 3 students should be able to-
- Define terms such as: citizenship, justice, community, government, patriotism, power, common good, nation-state, national symbols, democracy, monarchy, and dictatorship
- Explain that the world is divided into nation-states and that nation-states have different types of governments
- Identify and describe the importance of various holidays, festivals and celebrations practiced by nations and communities around the world
- Identify and explain the significance of different national symbols including flags, memorials, and monuments that represent a world community or nation
- Describe the types of governments found in different world communities and nations (e.g., constitutional democraces, monarchies, theocracies, and dictatorships)
- Explain why people in world communities form different kinds of governments to develop rules and laws to govern their citizens
- Discuss how different types of governments maintain order, provide essential services, protect their citizens, solve problems, and interact with other communities and nations
- Explain how some nations and their communities use free, fair, and competitive elections to select their representatives, judges, and governmental officials
- Describe the process used by various governments in different world communities to make rules and laws to govern their citizens
- Discuss how governments in various nations and communities provide functions that individuals and groups cannot provide
- Discuss how nations of the world attempt to peacefully resolve conflicts including the involvement of the United Nations
- Recognize pictures of important national leaders and classify them as historic or contemporary
- Explain how many nations of the world extend the rights, rules, and responsibilities of citizenship to others
- Discuss how citizens of many world communities and nations participate in their governments and volunteer to improve the quality of life for all members of their societies
- Skills: Grade 3 students will learn and practice social studies skills related to getting, using, organizing, and presenting information.
- Students should be able to get information by-
- Identifying available and appropriate sources of information about world communities and nations such as trade and textbooks, reference works, newspapers, magazines, Internet sources, pictures, photographs, drawings, maps, and globes
- Locating sources of print and nonprint information about world communities including libraries (e.g., card catalogues and indices; Internet searches); book tables of contents and appendices; museum collections; galleries; videotapes; CDs; and personal interviews
- Reading from text and trade books about different kinds of government Listening to guest speakers including people who have lived, traveled, and worked in various world communities and nations
- Interviewing people who have lived, traveled, and worked in different world communities and nations
- Viewing photographs, videotapes, DVDs, television shows, and museum exhibits that present information about diverse world communities and nations
- Listening to radio broadcasts, interviews, and audiotapes about the roles of citizenship and the functions of governments in various nations
- Studying geographic and political features on maps and globes
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Students should be able to organize information by-
- Outlining data about world governments in terms of their structures and functions (e.g., constitutional democracies, monarchies, dictatorships, theocracies)
- Filling in charts that show how people in world communities celebrate various holidays, festivals, and celebrations
- Completing tables and graphs that show the compositions of diverse populations in various world communities and nations
- Arranging pictures or photographs that show how citizens in world communities participate in their governments
- Making posters that present national symbols from diverse nations showing flags, memorials, and monuments
- Drawing graphs that show trends in voter participation in different world communities and over time
- Placing politically important historic events that took place in different world communities on a timeline
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Students should be able to present information by-
- Writing reports that compare and contrast the roles of citizens in a constitutional democracy, monarchy, theocracy, and dictatorship
- Drawing pictures of national symbols from diverse world communities and nations including flags, monuments, memorials, and buildings
- Planning ways to celebrate important holidays, festivals, and celebrations that take place in various world communities and nations
- Designing and completing a classroom display that shows the location of different world communities and/or nations and their forms of government
- Debating the strengths and weaknesses of the types of governments found in different world communities and nations
- Constructing timelines that arrange important historic events in various world communities into chronological order
- Writing letters to various national leaders about important social, economic, environmental, or political issues
- Making posters and bulletin board displays that show how the United Nations, NATO, OAS, the African Union and other world organizations attempt to peacefully resolve world conflicts
- Publishing a classroom newspaper that features ways that nations and communities of the world interact with one another including through trade, diplomacy, cultural contacts, and, at times, conflict
- Drawing maps of various world nations and communities that show their political boundaries and their location in relation to the United States
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Civic Dispositions*: Students should learn and demonstrate the following civic values and attitudes-
- Willing to listen to others points of view or positions on issues even if one strongly disagrees (i.e., civility and civil conversation)
- Willing to view and assess a problem or issue from different points of view or perspectives (i.e., perspective taking)
- Willing to put oneself into another's shoes
- Willing to allow others to express their opinions, without interruption, after expressing one's own opinion
- Willing to participate in open-ended and respectful discussions, without using name calling or verbal attacks on those who disagree with one's own position or arguments
- Willing to show respect for the rule of law
- Willing to consider other points of view or arguments before forming conclusions or making judgments
- Willing to tolerate ambiguity and resist simplistic solutions to complex issues and problems
- Willing to respect the civil rights of others
- Willing to participate in classroom, school, and community activities
- Willing to respect others' property
- Willing to demonstrate personal responsibility
(*Adapted from: Judith Torney-Purta and Susan Vermeer, Developing Citizenship Competencies from Kindergarten through Grade 12: A Background Paper for Policymakers and Educators [Education Commission of the States, 2004], p. 21; and Dialogue on Brown v. Board of Education [American Bar Association, Division for Public Education, 2003], p. 7.)
- Students should be able to get information by-
