Second Grade Social Studies Pracrtices

  • Grade 2: Social Studies Practices


    A. Gathering, Using, and Interpreting Evidence

    1. Develop questions about the community.

    2. Recognize different forms of evidence used to make meaning in social studies (including sources such as art and photographs, artifacts, oral histories, maps, and graphs).

    3. Identify and explain creation and/or authorship, purpose, and format for evidence.

    4. Identify arguments of others.

    5. Recognize arguments and identify evidence.

    6. Create an understanding of the past by using primary and secondary sources.


    B. Chronological Reasoning and Causation

    1. Retell a community event in sequential order.

    2. Understand the concept of time measurements including minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years.

    3. Identify causes and effects using examples from his/her family life or from the community.

    4. Identify change over time in his/her community.

    5. Identify events of the past, present, and future in his/her community.

    6. Recognize and identify patterns of continuity and change in his/her community.


    C. Comparison and Contextualization

    1. Identify similarities and differences between communities.

    2. Identify similarities and differences between his/her community and other communities.

    3. Describe an event in his/her community.

    4. Recognize the relationships between geography, economics, and history in his/her community.

    5. Describe a historical development in his/her community with specific details including time and place.


    D. Geographic Reasoning

    1. Ask geographic questions about where places are located and why they are located there using geographic representations such as maps and models. Describe where places are in relation to each other and describe connections among places.

    2. Distinguish human activities and human-made features from “environments” (natural events or physical features—land, air, and water—that are not directly made by humans).

    3. Describe how his/her actions affect the environment of the community; describe how the environment of the community affects human activities.

    4. Recognize a process that applies to population and a resulting pattern.

    5. Describe how human activities alter places in a community.


    E. Economics and Economic Systems

    1. Explain how scarcity necessitates decision making; identify the benefits and costs of decisions.

    2. Describe the resources used to produce goods and provide services in the local community.

    3. Describe the role of banks, saving, and borrowing in the economy.


    5. Identify goods and services that government provides; explore the concept of taxes.


    F. Civic Participation

    1. Demonstrate respect for the rights of others in discussions and classroom debates regardless of whether one agrees with the other viewpoint.

    2. Participate in activities that focus on a classroom, school, or community issue or problem.

    3. Identify different political systems.

    4. Identify the role of the individual in classroom, school, and community participation.

    5. Show respect in issues involving differences and conflict; participate in negotiating and compromising in the resolution of differences and conflict.

    6. Identify situations in which social actions are required.

    7. Identify the governor of New York, the president of the United States, and the school principal and their leadership responsibilities.

    8. Identify rights and responsibilities within the classroom, school, and community.