Professional Learning Networks (PLN)

SECONDARY AND ELEMENTARY:

Thinking Maps for Historical Inquiry, Investigation, and Research and to Support Disciplinary Literacy

Rachael Yaden, WEP Project Facilitator

• This professional learning session equips educators to use the eight Thinking Maps as consistent visual tools for historical inquiry, investigation, and research. Teachers will explore how Thinking Maps can scaffold the full inquiry process—from activating prior knowledge and developing research questions to sourcing and analyzing documents, organizing evidence, examining multiple perspectives, establishing chronology, evaluating historical causation, and transferring understanding to new contexts.

• Participants will apply the Circle Map to activate prior knowledge, source information, and develop research questions; Bubble and Double Bubble Maps to describe historical concepts and compare perspectives; Tree Maps to classify evidence and organize themes; Brace Maps to analyze the parts and features of historical documents; Flow Maps to establish chronology and trace historical developments; Multi-Flow Maps to investigate causes, effects, and historical significance; and Bridge Maps to develop analogies and transfer historical understanding. Through these applications, educators will strengthen students’ historical thinking, research, and evidence-based reasoning while providing a common visual framework that supports inquiry across grade levels and content areas.

SECONDARY: Building Historical Arguments Through Evidence and Inquiry 

Debra Cullen, SREB Consultant

This professional learning session equips educators with strategies for helping students move from historical inquiry and evidence analysis to well-supported historical arguments and disciplinary writing. Teachers will explore how Thinking Maps can provide a visual framework for organizing evidence, identifying relationships, comparing interpretations, and developing increasingly sophisticated historical reasoning.

Participants will integrate Thinking Maps with Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER), Document-Based Questions (DBQs), and Inquiry Design Models (IDMs) to help students construct defensible claims grounded in historical evidence. Particular attention will be given to using Bridge Maps and other Thinking Maps to support the transition from visual organization to disciplinary writing, helping students explain relationships, synthesize evidence from multiple sources, address differing perspectives, and communicate historical understanding effectively.

The session emphasizes a coherent progression from inquiry and evidence analysis to argument development and historical writing, providing educators with practical strategies for strengthening students’ historical thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and written communication.

ELEMENTARY:  Working Nine to Five (or 1850-1864): Using Tools to Explore Overlapping Timelines in Civil War History

Alison Critchfield, Literacy Expert and Keith Lyons, WEP Grant Facilitator

SECONDARY:  Civil Discourse, Critical Inquiry, and Historical Thinking in the Age of AI 

Debra Cullen, SREB Consultant

This professional learning session prepares educators to help students critically evaluate information, engage with multiple perspectives, participate in evidence-based civil discourse, and apply historical understanding to contemporary civic contexts. Teachers will explore Structured Academic Controversies and deliberative discussions as frameworks for helping students listen to competing viewpoints, evaluate evidence, support claims, respond thoughtfully to alternative perspectives, and participate productively in discussions of complex historical and civic issues.

Participants will also examine the growing role of artificial intelligence in historical research and inquiry. Educators will develop strategies for helping students evaluate AI-generated historical content, identify inaccuracies or unsupported claims, and verify information using credible primary and secondary sources. Thinking Maps will be used to organize, evaluate, compare, and synthesize information while supporting reflection before, during, and after discussion.

The session will emphasize ethical and responsible AI use while reinforcing the disciplinary practices essential to historical thinking, including sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, evidence evaluation, and disciplinary writing. Teachers will also explore how inquiry and civil discourse can extend into civic action projects that empower students to use historical knowledge and evidence to take informed action in their schools and communities.

ELEMENTARY:  If I Could Turn Back Time:  Mapping Timeline Continuums of people, Places, Events, things to Inspire Writing

Alison Critchfield, Literacy Expert and Keith Lyons, WEP Grant Facilitator

SECONDARY:  From Inquiry to Action: Designing Powerful Social Studies Learning for Civic Engagement 

Rachael Yaden, WEP Project Facilitator

• This professional learning session empowers educators to design meaningful social studies experiences that move students from curiosity and investigation to evidence-based conclusions and informed civic action. Using the C3 Inquiry Arc and Inquiry Design Model (IDM) as a framework, teachers will explore how compelling questions, credible sources, disciplinary thinking, and authentic assessment can transform historical learning into opportunities for deeper understanding and civic engagement.

• Participants will examine how Thinking Maps can serve as visual scaffolds throughout the inquiry process—supporting questioning, source analysis, comparison, chronology, causation, evidence organization, and argumentation. Teachers will develop strategies that help students investigate complex historical and contemporary issues, construct and communicate evidence-based arguments, and demonstrate historical thinking beyond simple content recall.

• The session culminates in designing learning experiences that connect historical understanding to relevant contemporary issues and provide students with authentic opportunities to communicate conclusions and take informed action. By intentionally connecting inquiry, historical thinking, and civic engagement, educators will create powerful social studies learning that prepares students to think critically, engage thoughtfully, and participate responsibly in their communities.

ELEMENTARY:  Time Marches On:  Using Timelines to "(Re)construct" Knowledge Through Inquiry and Vocabulary

Alison Critchfield, Literacy Expert and Keith Lyons, WEP Grant Facilitator