Despite massive efforts, the gap between students at the top and bottom of the socioeconomic scale hasn’t narrowed in 50 years—and may have increased significantly. While there’s been no shortage of attempted explanations, it was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a fundamental and pervasive root cause that no one was talking about. Elementary schools spend hours every week on decontextualized reading comprehension “skills,” like “finding the main idea,” leaving little or no time for social studies and science—especially in schools where…

Students with disabilities face distinct challenges in social studies, including complex ideas, extensive vocabulary, and a need for broad background knowledge. Since 2006, Emerging America has guided social studies teachers with strategies and tools for inclusion, grounded in inquiry-based use of primary sources

Listen to an exclusive interview with the sister and brother team of Claire and Ralph Nader! These two longtime civic leaders and advocates for social, economic, and legal justice talk with James Damico, Professor of Curriculum & Instruction at Indiana University, about Claire’s recent book, You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination, and Intellect of Tweens. In this video, Claire and Ralph cover a range of topics and questions, including: Learning about your body The Commons How to wage peace What does it mean to be smart? Historical…

Culturally responsive teaching develops students' personal agency and grounds learning in the rich context of students' lived experiences. When this happens, learning deepens and outcomes improve. How does inquiry set the stage for culturally responsive teaching?  And what strategies and tools used in inquiry promote culturally responsive teaching practice?    Panelists /*-->*/ Shanti Elangovan Founder and CEO of inquirED

Incorporating the C3 Framework and Inquiry Design Model (IDM) into a social studies methods course can be challenging. This webinar advances a particular approach for introducing to social studies teacher candidates the C3 Framework, inquiry, and IDM. Using Grant, Swan, and Lee's "Inquiry-Based Practice in Social Studies Education: Understanding the Inquiry Design Model" (2017) as the supporting text, social studies candidates themselves can engage in an IDM-modeled inquiry in order to learn about inquiry and the IDM and C3. By "IDMifying" the early part of a methods course, the foundation is…

The beginning of the 2020 school year will be unlike any other.  Now more than ever schools and districts must take into account the social and emotional needs of students and teachers. How will they respond to being back in school under restrictive protocols?  How can teachers build community if they must begin the year virtually?  What role can social studies instruction play in meeting the SEL needs of students? National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and inquirED explore these important questions. Panelists …

This webinar introduces the sociology learning goals for College, Career and Civic ready students. In the first half of the webinar, sociologists  provide an overview of the four learning goals, the assessable competencies for each of the goals, and the connections to the C3 framework. In the second half, the directors of the American Sociological Association's High School program present sample lessons.

What does it mean to teach with the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap? Join us as we, along with our iCivics EAD National Teacher Fellows, introduce our approach to EAD curriculum development. We will focus this session on curating rich and diverse primary sources that offer multiple entry points to inquiry, a priority of the EAD Roadmap.

Hold onto your cowboy hat and discover the power of country music to inspire powerful inquiries. Hear good examples ("Why Not Me?") and bad ones ("Why'd You Come In Here Looking Like That?) alongside practical frameworks. You'll smile, tap your feet, and wonder, "Why Didn't I Think Of That?" Speaker: Emma Humphries, Chief Education Officer, iCivics Inc

We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." Ben Franklin didn't know it at the time, but we was talking about teachers in 2023! Let's share stories where hanging together has made us all smarter, and helped us stay energized as educators! Speaker: Joe Schmidt, Bill of Rights Institute Director of Programs