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Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies: An Interactive Professional Development Tool Why teach data literacy in social studies? Not only is data literacy required by state standards and included in standardized assessments, it is important for understanding core social studies disciplines. This module addresses the role that data visualizations play in social studies standards, assessments, and texts. It also provides links to resources that can be used to support data literacy as a component of disciplinary literacy. What kinds of data visualizations will students encounter in social studies? Information can be visualized in multiple ways, from bar graphs to scatterplots, choropleth maps to distribution maps, timelines to time series. Designers can choose from an array of graphical elements such as points, lines, or icons used to represent data, and multiple aesthetic attributes such as color, shape, and size. Furthermore, designers can apply multiple combinations of titles, legends, and explanatory text to provide context for a data visualization. Given the almost dizzying array of data visualizations students may encounter in social studies, it is helpful to place them in categories related to the types of questions they will help us answer. How do students learn with data visualizations? Reading data visualizations in print and online social studies texts can improve students' overall comprehension and quality of reasoning. And there is evidence to suggest that reading data visualizations helps students better understand historical and geographic context, multiple causation, and change over time — all important concepts for students to grasp in social studies subject areas. However, students may face significant challenges in trying to make sense of different kinds of data visualizations. This section provides insight into both benefits and challenges of reading timelines, maps, and graphs and charts. How should students analyze data visualizations in social studies? The challenges that data visualizations present, coupled with their prevalence in social studies texts, standardized assessments, in online social studies resources, and as sources of information in society, suggest that teaching with and about data visualizations in social studies is essential. This module provides guidance for how teachers can support students' data literacy for social studies. Index of Lesson Plans This page contains a list of the minimal manuals and lessons found on this website. Minimal manuals are designed to be adapted to different grade levels and do not have a grade designation associated with them. Lesson plans are organized according to the school level for which they are designed. However, many of these lessons can be adapted for different grade levels.

Michigan K-12 Standards for Social Studies: 3rd Grade Michigan History

This page shows primary sources data visualizations that can be linked to the the Michigan Social Studies Standards for 3rd-grade Michigan history. To see data visualizations connected to a particular expectation, look for standard codes that are highlighted with a little icon next to them. If you click on the code, the page will shift to show you primary source data visualizations that are related to the particular expectation.

HISTORY

H3 The History of Michigan (Through Statehood)
Use historical thinking to understand the past.

3.0.1 Identify questions historians ask in examining the past in Michigan.

3.0.2 Explain how historians use primary and secondary sources to answer questions about the past.

3.0.3 Describe the causal relationships between three events in Michigan’s past.

3.0.4 Draw upon traditional stories and/or teachings of Indigenous Peoples who lived and continue to live in Michigan in order to better understand their beliefs and histories.

3.0.5 Use informational text and visual data to compare how Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Peoples in the early history of Michigan interacted with, adapted to, used, and/or modified their environments.

3.0.6 Use a variety of sources to describe interactions that occurred between Indigenous Peoples and the first European explorers and settlers in Michigan.

3.0.7 Use a variety of primary and secondary sources to construct a historical narrative about daily life in the early settlements of Michigan (pre-statehood).

3.0.8 Use case studies or stories to describe how the ideas or actions of individuals affected the history of Michigan (pre-statehood).

3.0.9 Describe how Michigan attained statehood.

3.0.10 Create a timeline to sequence and describe major eras and events in early Michigan history.

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