I love the C3 Framework. I think I might have been the first teacher to have publicly come out in favor of them. It’s easy to be excited about new things, though. Recently, as the C3 has become less new, I’ve thought more and more about a conversation I had with a professor whose thinking and work on social studies curriculum and assessment I most respect. When the C3 first came out, she worried about standards fatigue. We’ve been working on standards for a generation, she said; we need tools that are actually useable in classrooms. Her words have rung more true with me as time went on; as excitement for the new fades, we need an ever-expanding C3 toolbox to keep momentum going.
Two years after the C3 Framework’s release, we now have the first massive wave of those tools. The fruits of the New York Social Studies Toolkit project are largely complete, and available for all teachers to use and adapt on c3teachers.org. When fully published, the toolkit will consist of six model inquiries for each grade across all social studies disciplines. This work was led by a true collaboration between the New York State Department of Education and the senior writers of the C3. Most significantly, these inquiries are authored by New York State teachers drawing on the real experiences of their classrooms, and were refined with feedback after being tested in classrooms across our state. I was humbled to be the 11th grade writer, though could not possibly take credit for any of the finished products, which were the result of a collaborative process with all involved.
These inquiries are in many ways unlike any other curriculum product I’ve seen. While publishers often brag about “teacher-proof” curriculum, I have often joshed that these inquiries are “admin proof.” They cannot simply be handed to a teacher who is told to do them. There is no scripting. These are in many ways minimalist sketches of a sequence of lessons that demand adaptation and decision-making by thoughtful, professional teachers.
The inquiries are designed in many ways like an accordion; a basic version of each one could be done in a few periods, but all contain enough depth to be extended to a full multi-week unit through using the suggested resources or through additions teachers will make themselves.
Perhaps my favorite smart feature is that they are all available as both PDFs and Word documents. If you like what you see, you can just print out the PDF and all the documents you need for students are there to be copied. If you have ideas for improvement, you can directly change the word document for yourself (and when you do improve these, please share what you did with a blog post here!).
And, oh wow, are the websites pretty.
All six of the 11th grade US History inquiries are rooted in the work I do in my New York City classroom which has as diverse a group of students, in all ways, that one will find throughout the country. With each inquiry, we hoped to show different models of inquiry beyond the content to elevate common practices, and perhaps push others towards some new ones, in order to help teachers meet the needs of their students.
The Constitution inquiry is perhaps the most conventional, seeking to engage students in a civic investigation of the justness of the Constitution. The Civil Rights asks students to think deeply about what it takes to make social and political change while offering two models for student research.
The Immigration, World War II, and Johnson/Reagan inquiries each focus on a particular mode of historical thinking; continuity and change, causation, and comparison, respectively. These ones may be particularly useful for teachers of AP classes in which those skills are emphasized. Of all the inquiries, I am most excited to use the Immigration one this year. Its compelling question, “Is Anything New about Today’s Immigration Policy Debate?” could not have better anticipated the Trump campaign’s success.
I’m most proud of the Emancipation inquiry, as it provides a model of the two components I’m currently trying to elevate in my teaching: the use of historical scholarship, particularly where there is disagreement within it, and helping students to grapple with and articulate significance.
I hope teachers will find these useful, and I am excited to see the next wave inspired by them.
