Middle School Social Studies
Bend-La Pine Schools' middle school students take three full years of Social Studies. Teachers take a comparative and conceptual approach to the social studies curriculum in order to help students develop important thinking skills. Teachers focus on the essential skills that develop and progress across the grade levels.
Bend-La Pine Schools is committed to implementing the adopted state standards. Guidance from the legislature gives teachers a focus on content. Important bills that impact our instruction are SB13 (teaching on Indigeous People of Oregon), SB 664 (teaching on the holocaust and genocide) and HB 2845 (teaching about ethnic studies).
These standards give teachers clear guidelines on the content of their classrooms. Additionally, teachers use the Literacy in Social Studies standards that provides guidelines for how students engage social studies content.
Teams of teachers within Bend-La Pine Schools have done a careful study and reorganization of the standards to create the Social Studies curriculum. Priority standards can be found by clicking on the grade level below. These standards are not exhaustive of all the standards covered in the course, teachers have committed to instruction on the priority standards during the student’s school year.
Students study primary (documents from history) and secondary (contemporary summaries and analysis) sources to gain a rich understanding of the human experience over the millennia.
The adopted curriculum is TCI History Alive!. Not all of Oregon’s state standards are covered in the district curriculum, requiring teachers to use supplemental materials. When paired with the district adopted curriculum, these supplementary materials enable our students to enjoy a robust and well-rounded learning experience.
