What is the Social Studies ePLC?

The Social Studies ePLC (online Professional Learning Community) for 8th Grade gives 8th Grade Social Studies teachers access to webinars and resources to help them understand big-picture concepts within each major topic of study. Front-loading their planning time with lead4ward’s ePLC allows teachers to spend constructive time within their PLC designing engaging experiences and planning targeted lessons that develop students’ historical-thinking skills.
Teachers often struggle to translate the volume of TEKS standards and Social Studies content into manageable chunks of instruction, often feeling the pain of the “forest or the trees” dilemma. While we must pay attention to the historical details in the TEKS (the “trees”), we must also help students see the big ideas and make connections (the “forest”) or they will struggle with issues of recall and relevance.

The Social Studies ePLC includes two webinars for each major topic of study, addressing the content/process TEKS as well as the questions students often miss from the released STAAR tests.

As a bonus, participating teachers receive access to the digital Field Guide for the course of their subscription.

Pre-recorded webinars, available starting in August

Content and Process Webinars 
  • Content broken down into the small components (subclusters) with a concept map to discuss content connections
  • Process-based, engaging instructional ideas for each subcluster, including stimuli and analysis opportunities (from 29B)
 
"Investigating the Questions" Webinars
  • Focus on the interesting items from the released STAAR tests (using lead4ward IQ documents)
  • Discussion of stimuli, data distribution, learning errors and their impact on instruction

8th Grade Webinar Topics 

  • Exploration and Colonization
  • American Revolution
  • Constitution
  • Early Republic
  • Age of Jackson
  • Westward Expansion
  • Industrialization
  • Reform
  • Civil War
  • Reconstruction
The Social Studies ePLC - 8th Grade 2018-19 service year is August 1, 2018 - July 31, 2019.