Architecture of Grace

Social Studies

Every band, one door. The new nation and the three branches are open and whole; the world, the map and the century after are named as rooms still being built.

Open In the workshop

Grades K–2

Every room on this band is open: me, my family, my class; rules and fair choices; maps of the room and the town; then and now; needs, wants and work; and the symbols and stories of our country — each with read-aloud cards, a hints sheet, a three-level practice quiz and a lab.

6 units open · 0 in the workshop

The course

Social Studies, Grades K–2

4 units, 8 chapters, numbered lessons — each with a reading, key words, a source or the numbers, and three checks. Chapter reviews, unit tests, a word match and a writing task.

Course contents
Me, My Family, My School
Civics and History
Who I Am and Who I Live With; Rules at School and at Home.
Open the unit
Our Community
Civics and Economics
Neighbors, Helpers and Jobs; Needs, Wants and Money.
Open the unit
Maps and Places
Geography
Where Things Are; Land, Water and Weather Where We Live.
Open the unit
Then and Now, and Our Country
History and Civics
Long Ago and Today; Symbols, Holidays and Being a Citizen.
Open the unit

More rooms on this band

Me, my family, my class
Who I am, families of every kind, my class, alike and different, helping, jobs, my day, the room map — read-aloud cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: sort home/school/both, label the room, order my day, graph family sizes.
Open
Rules and fair choices
What a rule is and why, safe and learn, the same rule for everyone, who makes rules at home, school and town, laws, the helpers, what fair means, taking turns, voting, when a rule is broken — read-aloud cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: sort fair/not fair, order how a class makes a rule, label the six helpers, argue why a rule is good.
Open
Maps: where things are
The view from above, the title, symbols and the key, the compass rose and the four directions, near and far, maps of the room, the school, the town and the globe — read-aloud cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: label a compass rose, label the school from above, order the route to the library, sort what belongs on which map.
Open
Then and now
Long ago and today, the clues that tell us about the past, school, travel, light and water, food and fun then and now, what stayed the same, timelines, a grandparent's story — read-aloud cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: sort then/now, order a family timeline, label a classroom from a hundred years ago, tag a grandma's story.
Open
Needs, wants and work
Needs and wants, goods and services, the jobs that make and give them, why people work, earn, save, spend, trade, and choosing one thing means giving up another — read-aloud cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: sort needs/wants, sort twelve jobs by good or service, order earn–save–spend for a kite, graph what a class wants to be.
Open
Symbols and stories of our country
The flag and its stars and stripes, the eagle, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the White House, the Pledge and the anthem, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, Washington, Lincoln and Dr. King, Illinois's own symbols — read-aloud cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: label the flag, order six holidays January to November, sort symbol/story, tag the Pledge for what each part means.
Open
Every dayTen daily lines for this band — pick the grade.K12

Grades 3–5

Every room on this band is open: Illinois and its regions, the first peoples, explorers and a new nation, government at three levels, money and markets, and maps of the country — each with study cards, a hints sheet, a three-level practice quiz and a lab.

6 units open · 0 in the workshop

The course

Social Studies, Grades 3–5

5 units, 11 chapters, numbered lessons — each with a reading, key words, a source or the numbers, and three checks. Chapter reviews, unit tests, a word match and a writing task.

Course contents
Illinois: Land and People
Geography and History
The Prairie State; Illinois Then and Now.
Open the unit
The First Peoples of North America
History and Geography
Nations Across the Continent; Encounter and Change.
Open the unit
Colonies to a New Nation
U.S. History
Thirteen Colonies; Revolution and Constitution; The Young Nation Grows.
Open the unit
Government: Local, State, National
Civics
What Government Does and Who Decides; Rights, Responsibilities and Illinois.
Open the unit
Money, Markets and Regions
Economics and Geography
Producers, Consumers and Choices; Regions of the United States.
Open the unit

More rooms on this band

Communities and Illinois
Our town, our county, our state — and how each is run — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: label the map of Illinois, sort town/county/state, order the state's story, explain why Chicago grew.
Open
The first peoples
Cahokia, the Illiniwek, the Potawatomi, the Three Sisters, the French, the treaties, Native peoples today — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: label the village, order the story, sort then/now, argue from Cahokia's evidence.
Open
Explorers, colonies, a new nation
Columbus to the Constitution — the thirteen colonies, taxes without a vote, the Revolution, the Declaration, the Bill of Rights, and who was left out — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: order 1492 to 1791, label the colonies, sort cause/effect, read the Declaration line by line.
Open
Government: local, state, national
Who decides what, and how a citizen takes part — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: sort the jobs, label the buildings, order an Illinois bill, tag the Preamble.
Open
Money, markets and choices
Goods and services, needs and wants, earning, spending, saving, budgets, prices, scarcity and opportunity cost — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: sort goods/services and needs/wants, graph a $20 budget, argue a choice with its opportunity cost.
Open
Maps and regions of the United States
Title, key, compass, scale, grid; physical vs. political; the five regions and their mountains, rivers and oceans; where Illinois fits — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: label the regions, label a map's parts, sort physical/political, drive Chicago to Los Angeles stop by stop.
Open
Every dayTen daily lines for this band — pick the grade.345

Grades 6–8

Every room on this band is open: the new nation and the three branches — sixteen activities, a quiz room and a test-prep unit — and now the world before 1500, the world's regions, and Reconstruction to the present, each with cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab.

17 units open · 0 in the workshop

The course

Social Studies, Grades 6–8

5 units, 12 chapters, numbered lessons — each with a reading, key words, a source or the numbers, and three checks. Chapter reviews, unit tests, a word match and a writing task.

Course contents
The First Civilizations
World History
From Hunting to Farming; Mesopotamia and Egypt; Indus, China and the Early Americas.
Open the unit
Classical Worlds
World History
Ancient Greece; Rome: Republic to Empire; India, China and the Silk Roads.
Open the unit
Faiths, Empires and Exchange
World History
Islam, Byzantium and Africa; Mongols, Medieval Europe and the Americas.
Open the unit
Geography of the World
Geography
Reading the World; People, Resources and Trade.
Open the unit
Citizens of Illinois
Civics
The Constitution and Illinois Government; Rights, Courts and Taking Part.
Open the unit

More rooms on this band

The course

U.S. History, Grades 6–8

Ten units, 29 chapters, 338 numbered lessons — each with a reading, key words, a source or the numbers, and three checks. Chapter reviews, unit tests, a word match and a writing task.

Course contents
Early Encounters
Beginnings–1650
First peoples, Cahokia, the voyages, the Columbian Exchange and the Pueblo Revolt.
Open the unit
English Settlement
1585–1763
Roanoke, Jamestown, Plymouth, the thirteen colonies and how they grew.
Open the unit
A New Nation
1763–1791
Taxes and protests, the Revolution, the Articles and the Constitution.
Open the unit
The Early Republic
1789–1844
Washington to Jackson: the first parties, Jefferson, the War of 1812, mills and steamboats.
Open the unit
Pushing National Boundaries
1821–1860
Jackson, removal, Texas, the trails west, reform and the Gold Rush.
Open the unit
Civil War and Reconstruction
1846–1877
A broken nation, the war year by year, emancipation, Reconstruction and its end.
Open the unit
America on the Move
1860–1920
The West, industry, immigration, cities and the Progressive Era.
Open the unit
Twentieth-Century Crises
1914–1945
The Great War, the twenties, the Depression, the New Deal and World War II.
Open the unit
Postwar America
1945–1973
The Cold War, the suburbs, civil rights, Vietnam and expanding rights.
Open the unit
America in a Changing World
1969–Present
Watergate to the present: new politics, new technology, a changing nation.
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More rooms on this band

A More Perfect Union, 1787–1865
Eight activities on the era — order the story, whose voice, the map of a growing nation, back it up — with the era at a glance.
The roomTest prep
The three branches
One card each: the courts, Congress, the presidency — with the era's cases folded in.
The courtsCongressThe presidency
The Constitution
The blueprint, rights in writing, how a bill becomes a law, the Illinois constitution, and one page that puts it all together.
BlueprintRightsThe bill roadIllinoisAll together
The quiz room
Every social studies quiz on one island: word-bank papers in the format the class sits, and four charts to fill in and print.
Open
The world before 1500
Rivers, empires, trade routes, and the ideas that traveled them — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: label a river-valley city, put eight moments on one rail, sort the routes, read Hammurabi's Code like a judge.
Open
The world's regions
Physical and human geography, continent by continent — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: sort physical from human, label a landscape, order the continents, graph the world's people.
Open
Reconstruction to the present
Rebuilding, industry, the wars, the movements, and now — cards, hints, a three-level quiz and a lab: order the century, sort the amendments, read the 14th Amendment, graph the Great Migration in Chicago.
Open
Every dayTen daily lines for this band — pick the grade.678

Grades 9–10

World history in two halves, human geography, and civics — rights, power and participation.

4 units open · 0 in the workshop

The course

Social Studies, Grades 9–10

5 units, 13 chapters, numbered lessons — each with a reading, key words, a source or the numbers, and three checks. Chapter reviews, unit tests, a word match and a writing task.

Course contents
World History: Empires and Exchange
1200–1750
Networks of Afro-Eurasia; The Atlantic World; Empires and the State.
Open the unit
Revolutions and the Modern World
1750–1914
Political Revolutions; The Industrial Revolution; Nationalism and Imperialism.
Open the unit
The Twentieth-Century World
1914–Present
The World Wars; Cold War and Decolonization; Globalization and Today.
Open the unit
Human Geography
Geography
Population and Culture; Cities, Resources and the Environment.
Open the unit
Civics: Rights, Power and Participation
Civics
Foundations of American Democracy; Rights, Liberties and the Citizen's Tools.
Open the unit

More rooms on this band

World history: empires and exchange
From the first cities to the age of contact.
Open
World history: revolutions and the modern world
Political, industrial, and the century of world wars.
Open
Human geography
Population, migration, culture, cities, and the maps that show them.
Open
Civics: rights, power, participation
The Constitution in practice, the courts, elections, and a citizen's tools.
Open
World Religions: the traditions in their own words
How to read a sacred text, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism.
Open
Every dayTen daily lines for this band — pick the grade.9–10

Grades 11–12

United States history in three parts, government, economics, and a capstone inquiry built on primary sources.

6 units open · 0 in the workshop

The course

Social Studies, Grades 11–12

5 units, 11 chapters, numbered lessons — each with a reading, key words, a source or the numbers, and three checks. Chapter reviews, unit tests, a word match and a writing task.

Course contents
U.S. History: Industry to the Progressive Era
1865–1920
The Gilded Age; Progressives and Empire.
Open the unit
U.S. History: World Wars and the Cold War
1920–1973
Boom, Bust and the New Deal; World War II; The Cold War at Home and Abroad.
Open the unit
U.S. History: Civil Rights to Today
1954–Present
The Movement; From the 1970s to the Present.
Open the unit
Government and Economics
Civics and Economics
The Three Branches in Practice; Markets, Money and Policy.
Open the unit
Capstone: Inquiry from the Sources
Inquiry
How Historians Work; An Inquiry of Your Own.
Open the unit

More rooms on this band

US history: industry to the Progressive Era
Railroads, cities, immigration, reform.
Open
US history: the world wars and the Cold War
Depression, war, the home front, the long standoff.
Open
US history: civil rights to today
The movements, the courts, and the questions still open.
Open
Government
Institutions, federalism, the Bill of Rights in the courts, how policy is made.
Open
Economics
Markets, money, the Fed, trade, and personal finance.
Open
Capstone: an inquiry from the sources
Pose the question, read the documents, build the timeline, argue the answer.
Open
World Religions: comparison and inquiry
Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, Sikhism and Jainism, and a capstone from the sources.
Open
Every dayTen daily lines for this band — pick the grade.11–12

The engines

Every activity here is one of these kinds. The open ones work now; the three “in the workshop” are still being built for this subject.

Study cards, hints and a practice quiz
Open · A More Perfect Union, test prep
Tap-to-reveal cards, a hints sheet, a quiz at three levels — independent and supported counted honestly.
Ten daily lines
Open · Daily Drafts, K–8
A short sheet every morning, drawn until it holds, reviewed on the spot.
Walk the process
Open · the bill road, the courts
A bill's road, a case's path through the courts — every turn a choice, every wrong turn explained.
Word-bank papers
Open · the quiz room
Fill-in-the-blank in the format the class actually sits, every word spent exactly once.
Fill the chart
Open · the quiz room
Separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism — tap or drag each item to its column, print blank or finished.
Sort, choose, put in order
Open · the band worksheets
Tap-or-drag blocks that check on the spot.
Anchor charts
Open · every Room
A board the class fills in together and prints.
Timeline builder
Open · the Lab tab on a unit page
Place events on a year rail, then say what one caused.
Source annotator
Open · the Lab tab on a unit page
A primary source with a margin: mark who is speaking, to whom, and why.
Map-label
Open · the Lab tab on a unit page
Drag each name onto the map — a state, a river, a route — and check.
For the teacher

<b>This page is a map.</b> It saves nothing about a student and sends nothing anywhere. Each door opens an activity page; a finished activity sends its one summary row to your Sheet, under the name the student typed, and nothing else leaves the device.

<b>Hand out one band.</b> Add the band to the address and the page opens there: <b>/social#6-8</b>. Every door has a short address too — <b>Show on the board</b> prints it large enough for the back row.

<b>In the workshop means not built yet.</b> A unit with that mark has no page behind it and no link, on purpose. When one opens, it appears here with a real door.