Social Studies

This year in our fourth grade classroom, we will be field testing Investigating History, an innovative new history curriculum being developed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in collaboration with Educurious, an educational nonprofit based in Seattle, Washington, and a team of co-design teachers from across Massachusetts. 

The curriculum is designed to be fully aligned to the Massachusetts state history standards and to develop students’ knowledge of history while engaging them in the work that real historians do. Through Investigating History, our students will learn to ask their own questions about historical events; make sense of images, texts, and artifacts from the past; and connect their learning to real-life issues and current events. 

The Investigating History units we are field testing this year will cover the following topics from the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework:

• • North America: Geography and Map Skills

  • Ancient Civilizations of North America

  • United States Regions: Past and Present

  • The Expansion of the United States Over Time