In this article, the authors explain how to use the "evidence on the U" strategy support deep and complex thinking i elementary students, and give examples of scaffolding activities that gradually place much of the responsibility for learning on the students themselves over the course of a year. They also describe how this teaching strategy supports the goals of social studies education in the elementary grades and beyond.

Even without in-person field trips, photographs stored online can stimulate enriching investigations of historic places.

We can disrupt inequity in the classroom by generating a more expansive understanding of what and who counts as worthy.

Strategically designed word walls can help students build the vocabulary needed to ask and explore important questions in the social studies.

Pauli Murray was an activist, legal scholar, author, and she was also queer. Her impact on the civil rights and women’s rights movements cannot be overstated. The authors present the reader with the potential for elementary teachers to disrupt and “unmute” curricular silencing by shifting focus to Pauli Murray’s story and work in the civil rights movement.  In this C3 inquiry, students explore ways Pauli “pushed for the promise” of America, revealing a more diverse citizenry within the social studies curriculum.

Re-imagine social studies to be inclusive of underrepresented groups who are long-overdue to become normalized in "standard" social studies courses. By exploring the racial perceptions of current educators and how they experienced learning about race, we can investigate how racial optics may or may not influence our own curricular choices. Speaker: Julie Muhlenfeld-Johnson, New Market, Alabama

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…

Preview a chapter from a forthcoming NCSS methods text that integrates Library of Congress resources with the C3 Framework. Explore how to support inquiry into family diversity with young learners.

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.