Incorporating hip-hop lyrics into the social studies classroom increases curricular relevance and fuels engagement by centering student knowledge and lived experiences.

Rather than fight student use of artificial intelligence for schoolwork, we can incorporate techniques like lateral reading to teach learners how to fact check information from the chat bots.

Teaching high school history with picture books can enliven social studies content, advance students’ higher-order thinking skills, and help facilitate differentiated instruction.

In this article, the authors share how a third-grade teacher supported students in crafting and researching their own inquiry questions using a process known as the Question Formulation Technique to scaffold students’ development of supporting questions. Hughes and Heckart provide the reader with suggestions and resources for supporting student-initiated inquiry. 

In this article, the author examines how the New York State Social Studies Resource Toolkit  supports argument discourse in social studies and then explores a primary teacher’s curricular and instructional decisions regarding the development of children’s argumentation skills. The study provides insights into how teachers can involve some of our youngest students in authentic, inquiry-based social studies learning that fosters argument discourse.

In today’s “datafied” society, social studies teachers must provide instruction in data literacy to ensure that students become informed, competent citizens.  

The College, Career, and Civil Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards guides teachers to initiate complex inquiries by sparking students' disciplinary literacy and critical analysis of rich sources. With effective scaffolding and engaging content, elementary students can explore and contextualize complex historical topics. In this article, the authors present the findings of a fourth grade study in which students examined primary sources and trade books about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, and issues that affected the African American community. They…