Making Discoveries While Exploring New Sources

We recently embarked on our first Social Studies inquiry with seventh graders, using the new Frameworks, and were very pleased with the natural engagement and student learning.

The essential question posed to our students was, "What makes an individual worthy of national recognition?"and coincided perfectly with Columbus day (it was almost like we planned it!).  To begin the unit, students had an animated conversation about Christopher Columbus' historical significance and his treatment of Native Americans.  These two ideas became our guiding, or supporting, questions for the research of other explorers.

Students were then launched into search strategies, using both books and databases, to discover what
they could about their assigned explorer's historical significance and treatment of Native Americans.  Mini lessons, such as how to determine relevant information and citation skills, were embedded during this phase of the project.  These lessons focused on important information literacy skills, while students learned about critical social studies content.  Both were being done effectively simultaneously.

After just a few days of digging into library resources, students were ready to gather that information in a shared Google Doc, which then allowed them to return to our original question and consider "What makes an individual worthy of national recognition?" in the context of this project.  Students were asked to look at example argument stems and then form their own argument for why one of the explorers on their list was worthy of recognition- they were encouraged to consider forms of recognition beyond national (local, state, etc.) and weigh the two supporting ideas of significance and treatment of Native Americans.

Once students had formed their own argument stem they were ready to create their own product to share that point of view with the class.  The natural form this took was a campaign poster, which they would then briefly share with the class.  Again their were information literacy skills embedded through this phase, including responsible use of images and how to appropriately breakdown your argument for this product.

There were many important lessons packed into this engaging project, and the entire thing was implemented in only a week and a half!