Meeting the immense amount of material in the 7th and 8th grade NYS social studies core curriculum is definitely a challenge, even though the History of America and NYS is divided between the 2 years.

Another one of the challenges is that it is vague. If a teacher tries to follow the NYS 7th and 8th grade core curriculum as it is written, much research needs to be done to put it all together in the correct way. This can be very time consuming and for a new teacher, close to impossible.

If you need an example, compare the NYS 7th and 8th grade social studies core curriculum to the GA Framework. Here is a link to one section of the GA Framework: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Frameworks/GSO%20Frameworks/SS_Gr_8_Unit_3_11-16-09_PRchgs.pdf

and NYS 7th and 8th grade social studies core curriculum:

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/pub/sscore1.pdf

You can easily see which one is more realistically covered in one year. I believe that a good curriculum is somewhere between the two. I think that GA’s could be more challenging and include more of US History and I believe that the NYS 7th and 8th grade core curriculum can be decreased quite a bit and simplified.

Don’t worry though NYS teachers, there is help for you out there! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico is based on the NYS Social Studies core curriculum and it differentiates instruction for you. Check it out!

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico