Social Studies Curriculum Diversity Connections

The units listed below provide teachers with opportunities to teach students about the diversity of people and their cultures:

Grade 1- Pilgrim Unit (includes interactions with native peoples)

Grade 2- Children Like Me

Grade 3- Native Americans Unit

Grade 4- Maine Studies Unit

Grade 5- Explorers, Colonialism, and Revolutionary War

Grade 6- Ancient Civilizations (Egypt, Greece and Rome)

Grade 7- Geography Studies (southern hemisphere and Japan) and Early U.S. History

Grade 8- United States History and Maine Studies

Grade 9- Ancient World Cultures- Five Fundamental Themes of Geography, Anthropology, Religious Studies (monotheism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism), Regional Studies to include culture (Near East, Africa, India, China, European < Greece, Rome, Middle Ages>)

Grade 10- Modern European History- Renaissance (art, humanism), Reformation (Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicism), Exploration (cultural diffusion/ interaction/ oppression in N. and S. America), Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, Romanticism (art, music, poetry), Imperialism (cultural diffusion/ interaction/oppression in Asia and Africa)

Grade 11- U.S. History- Sectionalism/Regionalism, Immigration (case studies of immigrants, assimilation vs. separateness. Melting pot vs. salad bowl theory, immigration in Maine, 1920’s (music, dance, dress, concept of fads, Harlem Renaissance), Civil Rights Movement, 1960’s (music, women’s movement, sub cultures and literature)

Related Curriculum Examples

Integrated literature units are taught on topics such as Civil Rights, Immigration, and The Holocaust.

Music units are taught with a focus on different countries, looking at culture, literature, food, music and dance.

Primary students have a multi-cultural approach as they study holidays by season.

Maine studies unit includes appreciation of local communities heritage.