Indiana Social Studies S.3.5
The Standard
Identify the major agents of socialization and evaluate the role each plays (family, play group, peer group, school, mass media, job, religion, total institutions, including re-socialization).
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify how family, play groups, peer groups, school, media, jobs, and religion shape behavior. They compare those influences and explain how life in a tightly controlled institution can replace old habits.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can tell the difference between learning roles through play and picking up habits from friends. Given a scenario, they can explain which influence shaped a behavior and how entering military boot camp might change an old routine.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may confuse learning roles through play with pressure from friends. They may think media only means TV or that socialization ends in childhood. They may call any strict school a total institution or assume people change old habits only in prison.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A teen learns slang from friends and punctuality at work, then stops sleeping late during military boot camp. Name the three agents, compare what two taught, and identify the habit that changed.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Pairs label eight scenario cards by agent: family dinner, playground game, friend chat, classroom, news clip, work shift, worship, prison intake.
Ask students to write: 'Which shapes a teen's language more, friends or online videos? Give one example and explain your choice.'
Play agent bingo: read 'learns game rules at recess' and 'copies a friend's slang'; students cover matching squares and defend each choice.
Print a local job posting; students underline two expected behaviors and explain where people might learn each before starting work.
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Printable S.3.5 Worksheet
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Related Standards
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Identify the goals of socialization (transmission of culture including values inculcation, self-control, and social control, appropriate role behavior, skills a...
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- S.5.2
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- S.7.2
Identify basic social institutions and explain their impact on individuals, groups, and organizations within society and how they transmit the values of society...
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