How to Build a Unit

 

The "inquiry arc" of the C3 Framework involves four dimensions that are included in every unit:

1. Developing questions, 2. Applying disciplinary concepts and tools, 3. Evaluating sources and using evidence, and 4. Communicating claims and taking informed action. Even with very young children, these components aligned with a backwards design approach to unit planning produce a rich and rigorous social studies curriculum. This should be deeply connected to math and literacy practices and integrated as fully as possible throughout the school day. Social studies inquiry provides motivation and opportunities for students to develop their literacy and math skills in the pursuit of solving real world problems, gaining knowledge, and deepening understanding.

QUICK LINKS:

• What is inquiry?

• What is inquiry worth doing?

• How do I pose good questions?

• How do I know kids are learning?

• Plan daily activities

 

 

Use the graphic below as a step-by-step guide to plan your own social studies inquiry.

 Choose a Topic

Before you begin planning, click on each box below to understand what kinds of inquiries are most important for young people—and what criteria to keep in mind as you are choosing resources and activities to include in a unit.

 

(This link will take you to the Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies)

(This link will take you to a page that discusses the 6 elements of Social Justice Education)

(This link provides a PDF featuring "Educating the “Good” Citizen: Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals)

 

 Develop Questions for Topic

Inquiry units have two types of questions: compelling questions and supporting questions. Click on each box below to read more about what makes good inquiry questions.

 

 

 

 Create Assessments

It will be tempting to start planning lessons, but identifying how students will answer the compelling question (i.e., summative assessment) and what opportunities there will be to check for understanding (i.e., formative assessment) comes first. Click on each box below for more information about this important step in the inquiry unit planning process.

 

 

 Gather Resources and Engage Students

Once you know what the unit's compelling and supporting questions are and what assessments you want kids to successfully complete, you have a much better sense of which resources will be most helpful and relevant. Both primary and secondary sources should be incorporated into every unit. Keep in mind that students at every age level are capable of engaging with primary sources (e.g., photographs, documents, maps, cartoons, recordings, artwork, etc.). In fact, primary sources are often easier to access for children who are just learning to read and write whether because of their age, their ability, or learning of an additional language. 
 
Children's literature is an especially powerful secondary source. There are several good curated booklists and book awards that are thoughtful about author identity, accuracy, and content like Teaching for Change, Pura Belpré Book Award, Carter G. Woodson Book Award, American Indians in Children's Literature, and the Cooperative Children's Book Center. There is also a Facebook group of elementary teachers sharing ideas for inquiry, justice-oriented social studies at the elementary level where people post and respond to requests for resource suggestions every day. It is called CRESST: Critical Resources for Elementary Social Studies Teachers. 
 
Lastly, consider utilizing the resources in the families of your students and the school's surrounding community as "texts" for students to engage with as they seek to find answers to their questions. This teachers' guide to local culture includes lots of ideas for how to tap into your neighborhood and community for rich social studies resources. Click here for the kids' guide. Local museums throughout the state are happy to work with educators and some even have traveling artifact boxes like the African American History Museum of Iowa.
 
Regardless of the source type, be sure that you are considering how to be inclusive of multiple perspectives or "counter narratives" that center the voices of people whose voices have not traditionally been included in the curriculum as well as issues of power and inequality. Be very careful with ideas shared on Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers as they often reinforce inaccurate and problematic lessons. Click here for a guide about how to filter online curriculum resources. 
 
Note we did not recommend textbooks as a resource. These are often written in ways that are excruciatingly boring or inaccurate. If and when you use them, be judicious in how you use them, whether it is to teach decoding of informational text or to have students examine it for problematic narratives. 
 

ENGAGE STUDENTS 

The activities you plan for students should give them opportunity to explore, learn from, and question the sources you have gathered as they seek to answer the supporting and compelling questions. Direct instruction, lecture, and textbook read aloud should be used sparingly as these are often instructional practices that disengage and frustrate young people. Instead, consider strategies like: 
As you engage students in analyzing primary sources through these different strategies, these graphic organizers from the National Archives are very helpful. Another great resource with specific prompts for students is Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking. Several websites have searchable archives for instructional activities that have been tested or researched, including the National Council of Social Studies publications Social Education and Social Studies & the Young Learner, The Critical Social Educator, Rethinking Schools, and the Zinn Education Project. 
 
For sample units to see how this can all come together, check out this civics inquiry for elementary students.