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…

Some important concepts and strategies can help social studies educators teach civics in an inclusive manner when not all students in the classroom are formal citizens.

A teacher of second-grade students in an economically disadvantaged and racially and linguistically marginalized elementary school, shares her experience carrying out an inquiry-focused lesson about Indigenous People’s Day.  

The authors argue that with the continued marginalization of social stud- ies in the elementary classroom, integration has become a popular and effective method for the inclusion of social studies content in the daily curriculum. Using controversial issues, they highlight a model for this integration with a focus on children’s literature.

Examining selected digital historical records can highlight for students how their emphases, distortions, or omissions can influence perceptions of events.

Many elementary and middle school students are confronted by media messages constantly. They receive messages not only from family and friends, but from television and social media outlets.1 The media messages about current events are often politically biased, polarized in nature, and potentially inaccurate, especially on social media platforms. Teachers can model how to evaluate media for potential biases, showing students that just because something is political does not mean it should be off limits for discussion. This article draws upon experiences from both a sixth grade social studies…

By encouraging deliberation, collaboration, and production in the classroom, teachers can build a culture of trust that leads to successful social studies inquiries.

The one-page blueprint known as the Inquiry Design Model helps teachers outline essential elements of inquiry-based instruction and enables them to plan inquiry experiences for students.

Launched with only 15 teachers to support implementation of the C3 Framework, today C3 Teachers is a network of thousands dedicated to moving social studies in new directions. 

By merging disciplinary inquiry and critical inquiry, the C3 Framework has helped teachers engage students in developing deep content knowledge about issues relevant to their lives.