Get Inquiry Inspiration from Trade Books!
Imagine sparking curiosity about history, geography, and culture while building literacy skills through engaging narratives! Trade books—rich in storytelling and grounded in real-world events—offer a perfect platform for interdisciplinary learning. By pairing compelling texts with inquiry-based exploration, students enhance their comprehension and critical thinking and connect deeply with the people, places, and ideas that shaped our world. Let’s explore how to weave these stories into meaningful, cross-curricular adventures!
See our Article on trade book inquiries from Social Studies and the Young Learner
Trade Books Beget Inquiry: Anatomy of a New IDM Blueprint for Elementary Classrooms
by Kathy Swan, Laura Darolia, and Nick Stamoulacatos
Check out these trade book inquiries below
When should I speak up?
The trade book, Speak Up (2020), written by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Ebony Greenby, takes students through a collection of relatable scenarios that offer opportunities for children to “speak up” to make things better. In this K-1 inquiry, we use the trade book to consider the compelling question, “When should I speak up?” Students learn how fictional children speak up in the story and then learn the stories of actual child activists who have spoken up in big ways.
See the Inquiry Here
Why should people walk tall?
The Walk (A Stroll to the Polls) takes readers along as Granny and her granddaughter, both Black Americans, set out on foot to cast their votes. Along the way, community members join them, creating a large group who arrives at the polls together to, as Granny says, “stand up and say what’s on our minds.” For Granny, this walk is sacred. We use this trade book to engage students in the compelling question, “Why should people walk tall?”
See the Inquiry Here
How can we solve big problems?
The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale tells the story of Kanzi, an Egyptian American Arabic elementary school student who can’t find books with characters who look like her in her school library. Rallying around this injustice, Kanzi and her classmates decide to have a bake sale to raise money to buy the books that were banned to keep them accessible. We use this trade book to engage the students in the inquiry’s compelling question, “How can we solve big problems?”
