mastering-wrc

The purpose of this book is to review and reinforce what students learn in grade six and seven social studies. The first part of the book will help students improve their study and social studies skills. They will learn techniques to help them remember important information. They will also learn other important skills -- how to read maps and graphs, how to answer test questions, how to write essays, and how to work effectively in a group.

Mastering World Regions and Civilizations can be used as a supplement to your existing text or as a primary classroom resource, capable of being supplemented by other materials. It will help your students successfully achieve a synthesis of all the social studies topics taught in Grades 6 and 7 and help them transfer what they know into higher test scores. The text is written in a student-friendly manner that is easy to use for both teachers and students, with clear, insightful explanations, and a plethora of historical maps and illustrations. The book's interactive format organizes the standards, benchmarks, and grade-level indicators into a form students can easily follow. The book makes use of the latest educational research, including recommendations of the National Research Council in How People Learn.

The opening unit presents the required benchmarks for Social Studies Skills and Methods as well as special test-taking skills needed for the OAT. Students learn how to work effectively in groups, to conduct research, to compare different perspectives, and to write a bibliography. They also learn how to read maps, tables, graphs and flow charts. Students are further trained in how to attack each type of multiple-choice question on the OAT metacognitively through the unique “E-R-A” approach- in which students examine the question, recall what they know and then learn to apply what they know to select the best answer. Finally, students are provided with three easy-to-follow steps for writing successful short answers and extended responses.

Ohio’s Academic Content Standards are meaningfully clustered around the social studies benchmarks. Each standard is completely covered, with a complete review of related benchmarks and grade-level indicators. Information is organized logically around social studies skills and methods, geography, history, and social science.

Each Unit Opener serves as an advance organizer, letting students know the most important material to be covered in that unit. There is also a word wall with the most frequently used social studies terms and concepts found in the unit.

★▋Applying What You Have Learned sections stimulate students to think about and apply what they have just learned. These sections are geared to reinforce the benchmarks.

★▋What You Should Know sections close each content chapter. This feature reinforces the major ideas of the chapter. Each of these sections focuses on concepts, facts and people articulated in the Ohio Social Studies Benchmarks.

★▋Study Cards are found at the end of each content chapter. These study cards highlight the most essential information in the chapter. Students are encouraged to copy the cards as well as to make their own cards to review and reinforce key concepts, facts, and relationships.

★▋Each chapter is followed by a Checking Your Understanding feature with both guided and independent practice. These questions are just like those students will find on the actual Grade 8 OAT.

★▋Each unit concludes with a Concept Map, helping students to visually organize and review each standard and to see various relationships more clearly.

★▋Testing Your Understanding sections at the end of each unit provide additional multiple-choice, short-answer, and extended-response questions.

★▋A Complete Final Practice Test has the same distribution of questions and level of difficulty as the actual test. Every question in the book is fully identified by its standard and benchmark.

Teacher’s Guide and Answer key available here.