Creating photoblogs in the social studies classroom builds on students’ interest in using images to convey messages while teaching important media literacy skills.

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

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

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…

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.

When teachers create lessons that include historical sources, it’s important to pay attention to source choice and source attribution. 

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.