High School Social Studies Delaware Standards

Students will examine the structure and purposes of governments with specific emphasis on constitutional democracy.

Students will analyze the ways in which the structure and purposes of different governments around the world reflect differing ideologies, cultures, values, and histories.

Students will understand the principles and ideals underlying the American political system.

Students will examine and analyze the extra-Constitutional role that political parties play in American politics.

Students will understand that the functioning of the American government is a dynamic process which combines the formal balances of power incorporated in the Constitution with traditions, precedents, and interpretations which have evolved over time.

Students will understand the responsibilities, rights, and privileges of United States citizens.

Students will understand that citizens are individually responsible for keeping themselves informed about public policy issues on the local, state, and federal levels; participating in the civic process; and upholding the laws of the land.

Students will develop and employ the civic skills necessary for effective, participatory citizenship.

Students will develop and employ the skills necessary to work with government programs and agencies.

Students will understand the process of working within a political party, a commission engaged in examining public policy, or a citizen's group.

Students will analyze the potential costs and benefits of personal economic choices in a market economy.

Students will demonstrate how economic choices are made in a market economy in which markets and the actions of the government influence the production and distribution of goods and services.

Students will examine the interaction of individuals, families, communities, businesses, and governments in a market economy.

Students will develop an understanding of how economies function as a whole, including the causes and effects of inflation, unemployment, business cycles, and monetary and fiscal policies.

Students will understand different types of economic systems and how they change.

Students will analyze and evaluate how the selection of broad social goals influences the quality of life of citizens living in a wide range of economic systems.

Students will examine the patterns and results of international trade.

Students will analyze and interpret the influence of the distribution of the world's resources, political stability, national efforts to encourage or discourage trade, and the flow of investment on patterns of international trade.

Students will develop a personal geographic framework, or "mental map," and understand the uses of maps and other geo-graphics.

Students will identify geographic patterns which emerge when collected data is mapped, and analyze mapped patterns through the application of such common geographic principles as:<ul><li>Hierarchy (patterns at a detailed scale may be related to patterns at a more general scale)</li><li>Accessibility (how easily one place can be reached from another)</li><li>Diffusion (how people or things move in certain directions at certain speeds)</li><li>Complimentarity (the mutual exchange of people or goods among places usually occurs over the shortest possible distances)</li></ul>

Students will apply the analysis of mapped patterns to the solution of problems.

Students will develop a knowledge of the ways humans modify and respond to the natural environment.

Students will understand the Earth's physical environment as a set of interconnected systems (ecosystems) and the ways humans have perceived, reacted to, and changed environments at local to global scales.

Students will develop an understanding of the diversity of human culture and the unique nature of places.

Students will understand the processes which result in distinctive cultures, economic activity, and settlement form in particular locations across the world.

Students will develop an understanding of the character and use of regions and the connections between and among them.

Students will apply knowledge of the types of regions and methods of drawing boundaries to interpret the Earth's changing complexity.

Students will employ chronological concepts in analyzing historical phenomena.

Students will analyze historical materials to trace the development of an idea or trend across space or over a prolonged period of time in order to explain patterns of historical continuity and change.

Students will gather, examine, and analyze historical data.

Students will develop and implement effective research strategies for investigating a given historical topic.

Students will examine and analyze primary and secondary sources in order to differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations.

Students will interpret historical data.

Students will compare competing historical narratives, by contrasting different historians' choice of questions, use and choice of sources, perspectives, beliefs, and points of view, in order to demonstrate how these factors contribute to different interpretations.

Students will develop historical knowledge of major events and phenomena in world, United States, and Delaware history.

Students will develop an understanding of modern United States history, its connections to both Delaware and world history, including:<ul><li>Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)</li><li>Development of an industrialized nation (1870-1900)</li><li>Emergence of modern America (1890-1930)</li><li>Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)</li><li>Postwar United States (1945-early 1970s)</li><li>Contemporary United States (1968-present)</li></ul>

Students will develop an understanding of recent and modern world history and its connections to United States history, including:<ul><li>Intensified hemispheric interactions (1,000-1,500 AD)</li><li>Explorations, contact, and interactions across the world (1450-1770)</li><li>Revolutions, ideologies, and technological change (1750-1914)</li><li>The 20th Century world (1900-present)</li></ul>