It was so rewarding to be a part of the state-led effort to create the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards to enhance social studies education. Teachers at my school are already including the C3 in their new units and assessments, including our media teachers who immediately saw the connection of C3 to their instructional units that involve students creating their own Public Service Announcements (PSA) to promote sustainability and anti-bullying messages. Other teachers saw how C3 ties directly into their students’ National History Day Projects. My principal pointed out quite happily how the C3 is a bridge to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
As an elementary teacher for the past 12 years, I have designed curriculum for myself and for others using social studies as the center of interdisciplinary units in the hopes of making social studies come alive in my classroom for my students. When 5th graders beg to stay in for recess to work on their social studies projects, something has gone right in the social studies classroom. When they take what they have discovered and ask if they can attend a local town hall meeting to speak, something has gone right in the social studies classroom. Student engagement is at the heart of the C3 Framework. As such, the C3 validates teachers who get students immersed in their own questions, their own exploration of ideas, and their own application of learning.
I am proud to have helped create this document that provides a pathway that promotes this type of learning environment. I was a part of the Teacher Collaborative Council who were tasked with providing regular feedback during the C3 drafting process. I also served as a member of the editorial committee where we focused on the grade level appropriateness, wording, and alignment of the K-12 indicators. I felt valued as a teacher on this project. Not only did the lead writers ask for our input on grade level appropriateness and content, but they listened to our suggestions, both large and small, and made important changes to the final product.
We need more C3 experiences between educators across a range of contexts—from various grade-level, geographic, and pedagogical contexts. The C3 project was exactly that type of collaborative effort—our own Continental Congress that ends with a product as powerful as the C3.
