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The Best Inquiry Based Social Studies Lessons on the Web

By: peacefieldhistorycomment

As you begin to learn about inquiry-based Social Studies education, you might find the quality pre-written inquiries are hard to come by.  In the post, I’ve collected the best that the internet currently has to offer.  

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1. Who Built America?

This website is specifically focused on Social History, so their inquiries have a specific Social History focus.  With that said, I really think their inquiries address specific time periods with comprehensive detail.  Each inquiry has several formative lessons, and a summative activity.  I do wish that the summative activities were more closely tied with the evidence discussed in the formative tasks, however, I think they could be modified easily.  The lesson plans are written for both junior high and high school classrooms.  The lesson materials are provided in downloadable handout form, which is really helpful.

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2. C3teachers.org

This website recently released a bunch of inquiries for Social Studies at all grade levels (K-12), and for all categories of Social Studies curriculum.  I’ve only used a few of the inquiries thus far, and I’ve found them to be of varying quality.  The annotated inquiries have actual handouts to provide to students, and these are really well done.  The other inquiries just have a series of documents.  Some of the inquiries provide a real variety of documents (pictures, maps, readings, and data), and others… don’t.  I’ve found that I often have to edit the documents to make them more reasonable for the reading level.  Still, the

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 3. Investigating U.S. History

This website has a ton of historical resources for each inquiry.  They seem more geared more towards high school classrooms.  They’re also web based, so any handouts would need to be created by the individual teacher.  Still, they have tons of creative ideas and possibilities.  They also have taken the time to write out a classroom procedure for the teacher to follow.  

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4. The Stanford History Education Group

This website only provides specific lessons, and they are not organized into Units.  Still, if you’re still just dipping your toes into the idea of inquiry learning, this is a great place to start!  They have 71 lessons for U.S. History, and 37 lessons for world history.  They really model the skills necessary for historical thinking.  I first started my path

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5. zoomin.edc.org

This website provides quite a few inquiry based lessons (all U.S. History).  The documents are provided to the students on the web, with the text supports built right in.  This lessons are highly linked with common core skills – as students work through the documents, they answer formative assessment questions.  Although I think these lessons are targeted to middle school students, I could see them working with lower level high school students also.  The summative assessments look to be all essays.  They also provide a teachers guide with great questions for student discussion. 

I’m still developing my own inquiries to fill in the gaps.  I’ll be adding some to teacherspayteachers.org, and some I’ll offer here for free.  Make sure to subscribe to my blog feed so that you’re aware when they’re released.  

Do you know of a website that has a good supply of Social Studies inquiries that I missed?  Have you used any of these resources?  How have they helped you develop your Social Studies curriculum?  Please let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to my list!


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Peacefield History is filled with all topics teaching and history related. Follow me for trends in education, teacher tech tips, history related reading, and other more general musings.

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I’ve been legitimately reading lately, so I thou I’ve been legitimately reading lately, so I though I would post my faves on here as I go through them. I’ve been trying to tackle the pile on my night stand, but the description for this book stood out, so it magically jumped into my Kindle.

This story was written about a hundred years ago, but it doesn’t read that way. It tells the story of two women - both Black. One was able to pass for white and join white society, and one wasn’t. 

I really enjoyed this story and the writing felt really modern. There’s a movie based on the story coming out soon, and I think it could really expand on the topics from the book. It’s only 2 dollars on Amazon, but that makes sense, as it’s really a novella. It only took about a hour of my time, but I’d argue it was worth it. 

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After today she'll be quoted everywhere, but I cou After today she'll be quoted everywhere, but I couldn't help myself. What a beautiful message, what a speaker. @Amandascgorman spoke for America today.
I had a small win this Friday, and I needed it thi I had a small win this Friday, and I needed it this week. I told my AP students that I was excited about this quiz idea, and they laughed. Honestly, there’s not much to look forward to in a pandemic, and if an exciting quiz is it, well so be it. 

I took the idea of hexagonal review and turned it into a quiz. It was assigned in Google Slides, and I could see the minute they start editing, and the minute they finished. This also worked remotely, and it even worked for my students who have iffy internet. Zoom in to read the directions, and let me know if you have questions. (My Kardashian example is an inside joke with my AP kids.) 

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You are watching an insurrection. This is domesti You are watching an insurrection. 
This is domestic terrorism. 
This is not a representative Democracy. 

Period.
𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴???? ⁣ 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴???? ⁣
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I don't think we should be first on the list by any means... however, when I see teachers from other states getting that coveted shot in their arm, I wonder when it will be our turn. ⁣
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I just want some information.⁣
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This post might be two days late, but that's becau This post might be two days late, but that's because I'm all about finding "balance" this year. Balance between...⁣
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work/life⁣
school/home⁣
plenty/simplicity⁣
productivity/relaxation⁣
the past/ the future⁣
growth/contentment⁣
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I can over think everything at every moment of the day. This year, I just want to live and savor the days instead. (This might just be because I'm 40 now, but I see those days as they pass, and they are fast y'all.)⁣
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to those who celebrate in this season! I’m just trying not to eat ALL the spinach and artichoke dip that I made... #selfcare #thedipistheselfcare
My students have been playing "For Crown or Colony My students have been playing "For Crown or Colony?" over the past week, and I needed a new way to make sure that they were understanding/paying attention to what they were learning from the game. I wanted this check-in to be quick, easy to mark, and with minimal clicking on my part. @Padlet came to my rescue. Here's how I set it up.⁣
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1. I posted a question with directions. My post was the only item visible on the page.⁣
2. Student didn't have to log in, they just created their own posts and added their names at the top. ⁣
3. To prevents students from copying each other, I make the posts require approval. This way, I could see all the posts, but they could not. I could provide a check next to their names as I gradually approved the posts. ⁣
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This worked. Students would review the posts the next day to see how their interactions with the game differed. It was easy and quick, and we all need more of that this year. I hope you're thriving and not just surviving right now in your classroom!⁣
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Allison⁣
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#socialstudiesteacher #socialstudies #teachinghistory #TpT #teacherspayteachers #hybridlearning #teacherlife #middleschoolsteacher #teachersfollowteachers #historyteacher #distancelearning #iteachhistory #distancelearning #cooperativelearning #padlet #missionus #forcrownorcolony  #iteachmiddleschool
So basically today was about how much I look like So basically today was about how much I look like my Bitmoji. 🤷🏻‍♀️ #greatkidslongyear #iteachmiddleschool #socialstudiesteacher #iteachhistory #hybridteaching #socialstudies #bitmoji #teachersofinstagram
I'm EXHAUSTED, but I'm starting to figure out how I'm EXHAUSTED, but I'm starting to figure out how this hybrid learning thing works. (It probably helps that I have the sweetest kids under the sun this year!) Since I've had a couple nights of actual sleep, I decided to blog about some of the ideas I've had for cooperative learning this year. It's definitely more difficult, but it's not impossible. (Especially since I've fallen in love with Google Breakout rooms.) Click the link in my profile to learn more!
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I had a bit of a lightbulb go off with this experience. We're often tasks with "summing things up" at the end of every lesson. With this lesson, I made it about the PROCESS. Thinking, critical thinking, doesn't always lead to an immediate resolution. My students still learned, despite not having a summation.⁣
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This is not my lesson. I've blogged about it previously, and all the resources are there. Click the link in my profile to grab them.
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