Platinum Social Sciences
Grade7 Teaching Plan
About the Platinum Social SciencesGrade 7 Annual teaching plan
The Annual Teaching plan provides a suggested plan for covering content in Social Sciences Grade 7. Thiscan be used as a starting point for your own individual planning.
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Grade 7 Teaching Plan: Geography
Topic 1: Map Skills
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: Local maps and streets maps / Unit 1 Finding home, school and places of interest on a map of the local area
Unit 2 Using an index and grid to locate places in a street guide
Unit 2 Using an index and grid to locate places in a street guide / 2 hours
2: Sketch maps and explaining routes / Unit 1 Sketching maps to show the route from one place to another
Unit 2 Determining and showing compass directions on a local sketch map
Unit 3 Explaining a route verbally / 3 hours
Programme of Assessment: Project / Sketch map of the local area / 1 hour
3: Distance and scale / Unit 1 Line scales and word scales
Unit 2 Different scales for different maps – small andlarge scale maps
Unit 3 Measuring indirect distances on a street map(string and a line scale)
Unit 4 Calculating distances on maps (direct andindirect routes) / 4 hours
4: Current events / Unit 1 Places in the news on a world map
Unit 2 Latitude and longitude of places in the news
Revision and assessment / 3 hours
Geography Teaching Plan: Term 2
Topic 2: Volcanoes, earthquakes and floods
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: Structure of Earth / Unit 1 Core, mantle and crust
Unit 2 How the crust moves: Introduction to tectonic
plates and plate movement / 3 hours
2: Volcanoes / Unit 1 Volcanoes – location around the world
Unit 2 Why volcanoes occur / 1 hour
3: Earthquakes / Unit 1 Location of earthquakes around the world
Unit 2 Causes of earthquakes
Unit 3 Effects of earthquakes
Unit 4 Why some communities are at higher risk than others
Unit 5 Reducing the impact – preparing for and responding to earthquakes
Unit 6 Case study of the 2010 Haiti earthquake / 4 hours
4: Floods / Unit 1 Causes of floods
Unit 2 Effects of floods
Unit 3 Why some communities are at higher risk than others
Unit 4 Reducing the impact – preparing for and responding to floods
Unit 5 Case study of a flood / 4 hours
Revision and assessment / 3 hours
Geography Teaching Plan: Term 3
Topic 3: Population growth and change
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: Population concepts / Unit 1 Birth rates, death rates and population growth rates
Unit 2 Infant mortality rates
Unit 3 Life expectancy / 3 hours
2: Factors affecting birth rates and death rates / Unit 1 Disease
Unit 2 Economic status
Unit 3 Family needs, attitudes and beliefs
Unit 4 Conflict and wars
Unit 5 Government policy / 4 hours
3: World population growth / Unit 1 Pattern of world population growth from 1 AD to
present day
Unit 2 Developments that have affected population
growth / 6 hours
Revision and assessment / 2 hours
Geography Teaching Plan: Term 4
Topic 4: Natural resources and conservation in South Africa
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: Natural resources / Unit 1 Natural resources on Earth – including water, air, forests, soil, animal and marine life
Unit 2 Use and abuse of selected examples / 3 hours
2: Management of resources / Unit 1 Concept of conservation – including reasons for conservation
Unit 2 Conservation areas (including marine reserves)
Unit 3 Community conservation projects – examples
Unit 4 Eco-tourism – examples / 5 hours
3: Water in South Africa / Unit 1 Who uses South Africa’s water (pie graph of water users)?
Unit 2 Availability of water and requirement in South Africa
Unit 3 River health and the care of catchment areas
Unit 4 Disappearing wetlands and why conservation is necessary – case study
Unit 5 Responsible use of water resources – agricultural, industrial and domestic users / 4 hours
Revision and assessment / 3 hours
Grade 7 Teaching Plan: History
History Teaching Plan: Term 1Topic 1: The kingdom of Mali and the city of Timbuktu in the 14th century
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: Trade across the Sahara Desert / Unit 1 Camel caravans as the means of transport
Unit 2 Goods including salt brought from Europe
and North Africa into Mali where they were exchange
Unit 3 Spread of Islam across North Africa and into
West Africa via traders: 9th century
Unit 4 Sources of information about the past / 2 hours
2: The kingdom of Mali / Unit 1 Mali at the height of its power under Mansa Musa 14th century
Unit 2 Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca
Unit 3 Construction of the Great Mosque / 3 hours
3: The city of Timbuktu / Unit 1 Why the city of Timbuktu flourished
Unit 2 Leo Africanus’ eyewitness stories of his travels
Unit 3 Timbuktu as a trade centre on the trans-
Saharan caravan route
Unit 4 Timbuktu as a centre of learning / 3 hours
Revision and assessment / 3 hours
History Teaching Plan: Term 2
Topic 2: The Trans-Atlantic slave trade
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: West Africa before the European
slave trade / Unit 1 Slavery in West Africa / 1 hour
2: The nature of slavery in West
Africa before the Europeans / Unit 1 What was slavery like in West Africa?
3: Slavery in the American South / Unit 1 Plantations: tobacco, rice, sugar cane and cotton
Unit 2 Reason for using slave labour / 3 hours
4: The impact of the Trans-Atlantic
slave trade on slaves / Unit 1 What it was like to be a plantation slave in the
American South / 2 hours
5: The impact of the Trans-Atlantic
slave trade on economies / Unit 1 West Africa, America and Britain / 1 hours
Revision and assessment / 4 hours
History Teaching Plan: Term 3
Topic 3: Colonisation of the Cape 17th–18th centuries
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: Revise from Grade 5 / Unit 1 Indigenous inhabitants of the Cape in the 17th century
Unit 2 Where African farmers were settled / 2 hours
2: Dutch settlement / Unit 1 Reasons for the VOC (DEIC) permanent settlement at the Cape: 1652
Unit 2 Results of the arrival of the Dutch
Unit 3 Slaves at the Cape
Unit 4 Free burghers; Dutch and French Huguenot immigration to the Cape
Unit 5 Expanding European frontiers
Unit 6 Land dispossession and consequences for the indigenous population / 10 hours
Revision and assessment / 3 hours
History Teaching Plan: Term 4
Topic 4: Co-operation and conflict on the frontiers of the Cape
Colony in the early 19th century
Sub-topic / Units / Time Allocation
1: Arrival of the British and the
expanding frontiers of European
settlement / Unit 1 The British at the Cape in 1795 / 7 hours
2: The Eastern frontier of European
settlement / Unit 1 Frontier wars on the eastern frontier of
European settlement
Unit 2 Soldiers and officials
Unit 3 British immigration
Unit 4 Abolition of slavery 1836
Unit 5 Boers migrate and move into the interior:
Great Trek
3: The northern frontier of European
settlement / Unit 1 Expanding trade relationships on the northern
frontier of European settlement
Unit 2 Kora and Griqua: traded manufactured goods,tobacco and pack oxen from the Cape
Unit 3 The southern borders of the Tswana world:traded ivory, hides, skins and furs, iron and copper
with Kora and Griqua
Unit 4 Missionaries and traders / 5 hours
Revision and assessment / 3 hours
How Platinum Social Sciences helps you with assessment
The Learner’s Book has an exemplar ‘seen’ Programme of Assessment for each term. ThisTeacher’s Guide contains the ‘unseen’ Programme of Assessment (POA). You may photocopythe POA in this Teacher’s Guide for your learners.
Programme of Assessment
The Programme of Assessment is designed to spread formal assessment tasks in all subjects in aschool throughout a term.
Senior Phase
Continuous assessment 40%
Year-end examination 60%
Grade 7Term 1 / History / Task / Continuous assessment
40%
Geography / Project
Term 2 / History / Task/Test
Geography / Task/Test
Term 3 / History / Task
Geography / Task
Term 4 / History / Examination / Year-end examination
60%
Geography / Examination
Grade 7 / Exemplars and
Memoranda / Programme of Assessment
and Memoranda
LB
pages / TG
pages / TG pages
Term 1 / History / Project / 13–14 / 29 / —
Geography / Task / 126 / 96 / 144 / 158
Term 2 / History / Test / 50 / 208 / 50 / 126 / 134 / 152
Geography / Test / 152 / 212 / 105 / 127 / 146 / 159
Term 3 / History / Task / 76 / 66 / 137 / 153
Geography / Task / 181 / 114 / 149 / 160
Term 4 / History / Examination / 215 / 129 / 139 / 154
Geography / Examination / 219 / 132 / 150 / 161
Formal assessment and exam preparation
There are a variety of activities within each unit which assist in consolidating the contentcovered. There are also activities at the end of each topic to test knowledge gained and skillslearnt. The additional Term 2 Exemplar Test and Term 4 Exemplar Exam papers for bothHistory and Geography in the Learner’s Book will be useful to the learners in their exampreparations. The Programme of Assessment and all memoranda are on pages 134–163 of thisTeacher’s Guide.
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