What Does Inquiry in Social Studies Look Like?

1. Emersion stage

1.1. To "hook" kids into a topic.

1.2. Teachers "sell" the topic to the kids

2. Current Events

2.1. Researching current events

2.2. Gathering persepctives

2.3. Researching perspectives

3. Audience outside of the school

3.1. Projects that focus on events in the community

3.2. Projects that help kids make connections to their communities

3.3. Kids making a difference and having a voice in their communitiies

4. Passionate Teachers

4.1. Pursuing inquiry themselves

4.2. What are you passionate about?

4.3. What tasks are students doing? Would you want to do them?

4.4. Kids are producing sophisticated work that is worth doing

5. Behaving in the Discplines

5.1. Acting like .. a journalist, a historian, a scientist, etc.

6. Benchmarks in Historical Thinking

6.1. Significance, use of primary sources, change, historical perspectives, ethics

7. Foundations of Inquiry

7.1. Authenticity and Academic Rigour

8. Academic Rigour

8.1. Students working in ways that mirror discplines

8.2. Habits of thinking - dispositions we want to develop in students

9. Authenticity

9.1. Real world connections

9.2. Wrestling with issues and controversies

10. Being globally minded

10.1. Having multiple perspectives

11. Explore and Research

11.1. Students ask questions and make inquiries

12. Inquiry Rubric

12.1. Authenticity

12.2. Academic Rigour

12.3. Assessment

12.4. Life Skills

12.5. Appropriate Use of Technology

12.6. Active Exploration

12.7. Connecting with Experts

12.8. Elaborated communication

12.9. Compassion