Social Studies Resources

SIX ELEMENTS OF INQUIRY FOR SOCIAL STUDIES

It is expected that during the course of the academic year students will individually and with others:

• Explain points of agreement and disagreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question.

• Explain how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how through engaging source work, new compelling questions and supporting questions emerge.

• Gather and evaluate relevant information from multiple sources representing a wide range of views, using the origin, authority, credibility, structure, and context of the source to guide selection.

• Use evidence drawn from multiple sources to develop, support, and refine claims and counterclaims.

• Using a variety media, present original arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources to authentic audiences. Critique the use of claims and evidence in arguments for credibility.

• By using disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to identify causes of local, regional, and global problems, work to assess options and develop solutions that include individual and collective action.

SOCIAL STUDIES SKILLS

Chronological reasoning requires understanding processes of change and continuity over time, which means assessing similarities and differences between historical periods and between the past and present.

• HS.SP1.1 Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.

• HS.SP1.2 Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.

• HS.SP1.3 Evaluate the significance of past events as they relate to their own lives and the world.

• HS.SP1.4 Use compelling questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.

Historical thinking involves the ability to identify, compare, and evaluate multiple perspectives about a given event to draw conclusions since there are multiple points of view about events and issues.

• HS.SP2.1 Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives.

• HS.SP2.2 Analyze the ways in which perspective shapes recorded history.

• HS.SP2.3 Demonstrate historical empathy when examining individuals or groups in the past whose perspectives might be very different from those held today.

Historical sources and evidence are materials left from the past that can be studied, analyzed, and used to develop claims about the past and answer historical, economic, geographical, and political questions.

• HS.SP3.1 Analyze the relationship between historical sources and the secondary interpretations made from them.

• HS.SP3.2 Detect possible limitations in various kinds of historical evidence and differing secondary interpretations.

• HS.SP3.3 Critique the usefulness of historical sources for a specific historical inquiry based on their author, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose.

• HS.SP3.4 Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.

Historical thinking involves the ability to analyze relationships among causes and effects and to create and support arguments using relevant evidence.

• HS.SP4.1 Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past and present.

• HS.SP4.2 Distinguish between long-term causes and triggering events in developing a historical argument.

• HS.SP4.3 Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.

• HS.SP4.4 Compare the central arguments in secondary works of history on related topics in multiple media. Critique the central arguments in secondary works of history on related topics in multiple media in terms of their historical accuracy.