While I was working with the grade eight and nine Social Studies IRP documents this semester, I noticed something that was slightly worrying. While plenty of attention is paid to specific content areas, ensuring students will have plenty of facts, communication skills were virtually unrepresented. The only PLOs that require students to actually say anything are here:
    plan, revise, and deliver written and oral presentations Grade 8
    plan, revise, and deliver formal oral and written presentations Grade 9

There is no requirement to work in collaboratively, in groups or partnerships, no debate, or even just basic public speaking skills. I feel like an important part of learning Social Studies is being able to effectively communicate an idea, and despite the possibly pervasive influence of the Blogosphere, face to face communication is still the most effective way to this.

What do you think? Has my dramatic bias been exposed? Is it more important to stick to the cold hard facts, or is the medium the message?