What is the Social Studies ePLC?

The Social Studies ePLC (online Professional Learning Community) gives 8th Grade Social Studies and US History teachers access to webinars, resources, and other teachers across the state that 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.

Overview

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 SS ePLC includes two webinars for each major topic of study, addressing the content/process 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.

Two Webinars for Each Major Topic of Study (TEKS Cluster)

Content and Process Webinars 
  • Pre-recorded webinars, available starting in August
  • Concept map of the TEKS Clusters and discussion of content pieces
  • Content broken down into smaller components (subclusters)
  • Process-based instructional ideas for each subcluster, including stimuli and analysis opportunities (from 29B)
  • Initiate planning instruction with the lead4ward planning guide 
 
"Investigating the Questions" Webinars
  • Pre-recorded webinars, available starting in August
  • Focus on the “interesting items” students miss from the released STAAR tests (using lead4ward IQ documents)
  • Discussion of stimuli, data distribution, and learning errors