​The inquiry cycle is the foundation of our state social studies standards. Students are expected to ask and answer questions, use disciplinary skills to investigate sources, and communicate conclusions. Ultimately, students will become active and engaged citizens in their communities. ​For the Inquiry Skills, we organized resources around questions; tasks; sources; and taking action​.

Questions

Instructional strategies for generating compelling and supporting questions.
Be a Citizen
The Right Question Institute

Tasks

Instructional strategies and supports for formative and summative work grounded in argumentation.

Sources

Instructional strategies and resources for using evidence from primary and secondary civic sources to construct an evidenced-based claim.
PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTIONS

Digital Public Library
  • Database that provides a large selection of primary source documents. Best used for supplementing a lesson with individual primary source documents. 

Library of Congress
  • Database that provides searchable, topic-aligned primary source sets aligned with specific civics content. Best used for creating a lesson with multiple primary source documents.

National Archives
  • Provides primary source documents alongside student resources/tools to analyze each document with. Best used to give students practice in dealing with/analyzing specific primary sources.
SOURCE ANALYSIS

Learning for Justice Read Inquire Write Stanford History Education Group

Taking Action

Taking civics out of the classroom and into students’ lives.
Be a Citizen
Generation Citizen
Democratic Knowledge Project
Facing History and Ourselves 
Mikva Challenge