In these short TED-style talks, Washington social studies educators share their thinking and experiences with colleagues in Washington state and around the world.

These 10-15 minute videos from the 2022 Conference for Social Studies provide inspiration and practical ideas for improving teaching practice. Talks are organized into the following tracks:
* Assessing Historical Thinking
* Bringing Context to World Events
* Crafting Inquiry
* Literacy
* Taking Informed Action

These videos are free for online viewing.

Social studies is a vital component of education in Washington state. The Office of Superintend¬ent of Public Instruction (OSPI) envisions “all students prepared for post-secondary pathways, careers, and civic engagement.” Additionally, the National Council for the Social Studies states, “The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an inter¬dependent world.”

Students who receive quality instruction in social studies are engaged in learning that promotes inquiry and thoughtful civic participation. With this in mind, we are pleased to introduce OSPI’s updated Washington State K–12 Learning Standards for Social Studies. Our hope is that you will find these standards to be rigorous, thoughtful, inquiry-driven, and organized for easy accessibility.

Use this rubric to review lessons and units with respect to the Washington State Social Studies Learning Standards and the Washington ELA and Literacy in History/Social Studies Standards. 

Washington state has developed a set of civics assessments that are multi‐stepped tasks or projects aligned to specific state standards, which target skills and knowledge necessary for engaged, informed citizenship.

This resource provides a description and links to the original materials for a multi-day unit created by teacher-librarians at Highline Public Schools. The unit shows 9th grade students how to access, analyze, evaluate, and cite information sources.

This unit engages students in a variety of activities that analyze and reflect on the role of social media in our everyday lives. This includes options for collaborative group work, reading nonfiction articles, a design challenge and presentations to communicate ideas. The unit also includes a formal writing assessment option that aligns with the Common Core State Writing Standards. Activities can be adapted or combined in a variety of ways to support student reflection and analysis. These lessons were piloted in 9th grade English classes but are suitable or a range of secondary students. 

This unit on American Indians: By studying the regions of the United States and the cultures that live in each region, students are able to compare/contrast within regions and across regions how tribes used their environments, and their cultural and other contributions to American life.

Note that the emphasis here is on broader groups of tribes for each region with some instruction on specific tribes representing each region. In no way is this case study approach to learning about one tribe meant to be generalized to all tribes of that region. We understand that each tribe was and continues to be unique in its culture, practices, lifeways, and traditions.

The WSCSS K-8 Conference was about culturally responsive teaching in Social Studies classrooms. Listen to recorded sessions from Washington educators.

These resources are available for free online viewing.

With the help of two climate experts, this video discusses how the social cost of carbon is calculated, how it should, perhaps, be calculated, and why the effort to quantify this value is necessary despite its imperfections.

In Washington, a stand-alone high school civics course is required by a new state law.

A statewide sub-committee of OSPI's Social Studies Cadre and Walter Parker, Professor of Social Studies Education, University of Washington, drafted this list of resources in hopes that it will be useful to schools needing to create such a course or update an existing course. It is a work-in-progress.

This unit is focused on the examination of a single topic, in this case, the Native Americans of the inland Northwest and conflict that arose when other non-native people started to settle in the northwest, and to specifically address the native populations that lived in the inland northwest. The materials were created to be one coherent arc of instruction focused on one topic. The module was designed to include teaching notes that signal the kind of planning and thinking such instruction requires: close reading with complex text, and specific instructional strategies or protocols are described that support students’ reading and writing with evidence are described in enough detail to make it very clear what is required of students and how to support students in doing this rigorous work. Materials include summative assessment of content and process, central texts, key resources, and protocols that support and facilitate student learning.

How does the media influence peoples’ opinion of the government during a national crisis? Students will read several articles on a current (or historical) national crisis and write an argumentative essay analyzing how the media influences the opinion of the people toward the government during a national crisis using relevant evidence from both current and historical resources.

This is a Teacher's Guide for The State We're In Washington: Your guide to state, tribal and local government. These quides are developed by members of the Washington State Social Studies Cadre.

Chapter 4 focuses on the significant amount of change the state of Washington experienced from 1900 to 2000. The resources here may be implemented separately or together to guide students toward a deeper understanding of the content therein and to develop important social studies skills.

During these lessons, students will explore how and why policies are made at varying levels of government and society.  Particular attention will be paid to policies that impact peoples’ health and well-being, especially mental health and substance use, misuse, and abuse.

Civics is the study of our national government, constitution, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Topics in the Puyallup Civics course include democracy and other forms of government; legislative, executive, and judicial functions; the political process; and foreign and domestic policies. The course also includes a summary of Washington State History and local native sovereignty.

This model course reflects 2018 Washington state legislation regarding the High School Civics Course requirement - RCW 28A.230.094.

This course is by Puyallup School District - only submitted by Barbara Soots.

Students will learn about the environmental justice movement from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries through reading about key movements in time.

Of the three branches of our government, many believe that the most important is the one directly elected by "We the People": the legislative branch, represented by the two houses of the U.S. Congress at the Capitol building. Join a group of middle schoolers on a tour of Washington, D.C. as they learn about the Constitution and what it means to be "We the People." The "We the People" videos are produced in collaboration with the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

An integrated language arts and social studies unit designed to develop student’s literacy skills while giving them an understanding of the general purpose of government, the structure and processes of Washington’s state government, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The unit culminates with an optional mock legislature simulation that has students write and argue for a bill.

This is a Teacher's Guide for The State We're In Washington: Your guide to state, tribal and local government. These quides are developed by members of the Washington State Social Studies Cadre.

Chapter 2 of the State We're In: Washington explores the design of today's democracy. The resources here may be implemented separately or together to guide students toward a deeper understanding of the content therein and to develop important social studies skills.