M/J Civics, Advanced   (#2106020)

Version for Academic Year:

Course Standards

General Course Information and Notes

General Notes

The primary content for the course pertains to the principles, functions, and organization of government; the origins of the American political system; the roles, rights, responsibilities of United States citizens; and methods of active participation in our political system. The course is embedded with strong geographic and economic components to support civic education instruction. 

Honors and Advanced Level Course Note: Advanced courses require a greater demand on students through increased academic rigor.  Academic rigor is obtained through the application, analysis, evaluation, and creation of complex ideas that are often abstract and multi-faceted.  Students are challenged to think and collaborate critically on the content they are learning. Honors level rigor will be achieved by increasing text complexity through text selection, focus on high-level qualitative measures, and complexity of task. Instruction will be structured to give students a deeper understanding of conceptual themes and organization within and across disciplines. Academic rigor is more than simply assigning to students a greater quantity of work.

Mathematics Benchmark Guidance – Social Studies instruction should include opportunities for students to interpret and create representations of historical events and concepts using mathematical tables, charts, and graphs.

Special Notes:
Additional content that may be included in the Grade 8 NAEP Civics assessment includes:

  • Distinctive characteristics of American society
  • Unity/diversity in American society
  • Civil society: nongovernmental associations, groups
  • Nation-states
  • Interaction among nation-states
  • Major governmental, nongovernmental international organizations

The NAEP frameworks for Civics may be accessed at http://www.nagb.org/publications/frameworks/civicsframework.pdf

Instructional Practices
Teaching from well-written, grade-level instructional materials enhances students' content area knowledge and also strengthens their ability to comprehend longer, complex reading passages on any topic for any reason. Using the following instructional practices also helps student learning:

  1. Reading assignments from longer text passages as well as shorter ones when text is extremely complex.
  2. Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
  3. Asking high-level, text-specific questions and requiring high-level, complex tasks and assignments.
  4. Requiring students to support answers with evidence from the text.
  5. Providing extensive text-based research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).

Literacy Standards in Social Studies
Secondary social studies courses include reading standards for literacy in history/social studies 6-12, and writing standards for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects 6-12. This course also includes speaking and listening standards. For a complete list of standards required for this course click on the blue tile labeled course standards. You may also download the complete course including all required standards and notes sections using the export function located at the top of this page.

English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Social Studies. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success. The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL’s need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/ss.pdf

General Information

Course Number: 2106020
Course Path:
Abbreviated Title: M/J CIVICS ADV
Course Length: Year (Y)
Course Attributes:
  • Class Size Core Required
Course Type: Core Academic Course
Course Level: 3
Course Status: Course Approved
Grade Level(s): 6,7,8

Student Resources

Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this course.

Original Student Tutorials

Math Models and Social Distancing:

Learn how math models can show why social distancing during a epidemic or pandemic is important in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Castles, Catapults and Data: Histograms Part 2:

Learn how to interpret histograms to analyze data, and help an inventor predict the range of a catapult in part 2 of this interactive tutorial series. More specifically, you'll learn to describe the shape and spread of data distributions.

Click HERE to open part 1.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Moving MADness:

Learn how to calculate and interpret the Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) of data sets in this travel-themed, interactive statistics tutorial. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

It Can Be a Zoo of Data!:

Discover how to calculate and interpret the mean, median, mode and range of data sets from the zoo in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Where Have All the Scrub-Jays Gone?:

Investigate the limiting factors of a Florida ecosystem and describe how these limiting factors affect one native population-the Florida Scrub-Jay-with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Yes or No to GMO?:

Learn what genetic engineering is and some of the applications of this technology. In this interactive tutorial, you’ll gain an understanding of some of the benefits and potential drawbacks of genetic engineering. Ultimately, you’ll be able to think critically about genetic engineering and write an argument describing your own perspective on its impacts.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Arguing Mars:

Practice identifying and examining the evidence used to support a specific argument. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several short texts about the exploration of Mars to practice distinguishing relevant from irrelevant evidence. You'll also practice determining whether the evidence presented is sufficient or insufficient.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Problem-Solving Tasks

Electoral College:

Students are given a context and a dotplot and are asked a number of questions regarding shape, center, and spread of the data.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

Buttons: Statistical Questions:

Students are given a context and a series of questions and are asked to identify whether each question is statistical and to provide their reasoning. Students are asked to compose an original statistical question for the given context.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

Puppy Weights:

Using the information provided, create an appropriate graphical display and answer the questions regarding shape, center and variability.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

Tutorials

Shapes of Distributions:

In this video, you will practice describing the shape of distributions as skewed left, skewed right, or symmetrical.

Type: Tutorial

Statistics Introduction: Mean, Median, and Mode:

The focus of this video is to help you understand the core concepts of arithmetic mean, median, and mode.

Type: Tutorial

Statistical Questions:

Discover what makes a question a "statistical question."

Type: Tutorial

Virtual Manipulatives

Box Plotter:

Users select a data set or enter their own data to generate a box plot.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

Histogram Tool:

This virtual manipulative histogram tool can aid in analyzing the distribution of a dataset. It has 6 preset datasets and a function to add your own data for analysis.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

Parent Resources

Vetted resources caregivers can use to help students learn the concepts and skills in this course.