We heard loud and clear from our teacher members and participants in our K-12 professional development program, that neighborhood-based resources for elementary students are needed. So we are thrilled to announce the newest addition to the Clarice Smith Neighborhood History program.
Thanks to generous donor support, free, downloadable, brand-new lesson plans and activities aligned to the District of Columbia Social Studies Standards, as revised and approved in June 2023, are now available through our Teaching DC Neighborhoods resource guide!
This curriculum is for Grades 1-3, with extension activities for Grades 4-5. It includes five Common Core and DC Social Studies standards-aligned lessons. Although designed in a sequence, each part can be taught individually if teachers need to be selective about the standards they will address. Lessons include the following components: outline, standards, lesson plan, vocabulary, and graphic organizers. Graphic organizers are scaffolded to account for different grade and ability levels, so educators have various options for identifying the most appropriate resources. Take a look!
To create this curriculum, we worked with Cody Norton, an experienced elementary classroom teacher in Washington, DC, across pre-kindergarten, first grade, and third grade, primarily as a Language Arts and Social Studies teacher in dual language classrooms with language learners. Cody is currently a PhD student in the Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership department at the University of Maryland, College Park. Thanks to the educators who reviewed the documents in their various iterations to get us to this point!
The downloads live on our Teaching DC Neighborhoods resource guide, which we launched the guide this past summer to collate resources that can be used to explore all neighborhoods across the city (such as real estate atlases and street photography collections). The guide also includes location-specific resources for four neighborhoods: Barry Farm, Deanwood, Foggy Bottom, and Southwest, with special thanks to graduate interns Claire Bents and Phillip Warfield for their resource research. The guide is a live resource and more neighborhoods will be added as we continue to develop it.
The Clarice Smith Neighborhood History program is a donor-funded DC History Center initiative that provides resources for K-12 educators so their students can use tools of history to explore their school’s neighborhood and where they live. As they learn more about areas they know and those they haven’t yet explored, the city itself becomes a classroom.
If you’re a K-12 educator, we’d love to hear how these resources support your efforts – and how else the tools of history can make the city’s past come alive for your students. Reach out to us at education@dchistory.org.