Fostering Curiosity and Openness
In 2014, Americans Who Tell the Truth (AWTT) honored Samantha with the Samantha Smith Challenge (SSC) – a dynamic educational program for middle and high school students designed to build a bridge between the classroom and the world. Issues come alive when students are able to connect with AWTT portrait subjects who have actually fought for the same causes students identify. The project supports students in creating projects that work towards social change or understanding that benefits democracy
This is a resource that can help teachers foster student inquiry in their classrooms. It can be used as a guide, providing hands on steps, to help students develop an inquiry approach to learning.
This project asks students to pick an event from their community (local to global) and track it for one month gathering information on all the different aspects, view points and voices. Then present a written synopsis to the teacher followed by a presentation to the rest of the class, culminating in a class wide generation of areas of connection and contention. They then write an argument based on that topic.
This site provides lessons and ideas to bring inquiry into the classroom. You can browse by subject and there are also lessons to help teach social justice topics.
The Historical Scene Investigation Project (HSI) was designed to bring primary sources into the classroom. Promoting students in raising questions and seek evidence by examining the historical documents for themselves, comparing the multiple points of view of those on the scene at the time.
This site provides DBI style lessons with applicable primary sources.
This assignment was used an Extenstion or Enrichment assignment for students that needed or wanted a challenge while reading Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate. The whole class was introduce to 10 current refugee crises around the globe as well as a list or refugee crises throughout history. Students could then choose one of the crises (or another of their choosing) to follow in the news. Students were given a tracker, list or reliable sources to use, and a final reflection sheet to connect it to the class novel.
This resource takes students through a story about a cat that bakes a cake and leads to a meaningful conversation with no "perfect" answer of what is fair? This resource can be used for a variety of purposes and it works to build classroom discussion skills around topics not everyone will see eye to eye on.
~Created by Colin Kohlmeier (Boise State Writing Project)