Putting the C3 Social Studies Framework into Action for Secondary Students: Facilitating Meaningful Learning Through an Inquiry Approach

Since its release, the C3 Framework for Social Studies has charged educators with teaching Social Studies differently. C3 promises a vision of social studies where students get to learn social studies by engaging in the practices and ways of thinking central to the discipline. The paradigm shift is both exciting and fundamental – impacting how we teach, plan, assess, and view our role as teachers.

In this two-day workshop, participants will have the opportunity to learn about and experience the instructional shifts and conceptual models inherent in the C3 Framework through authentic examples of student and teacher work. You can expect to leave with a deeper understanding of the framework, examples of application, and your own inquiry planning around units, questions, lessons, and assessments.

CONNECT & ENGAGE

What does a classroom built around inquiry principles feel, sound, and look like? We will pursue this question by experiencing a staging activity that models how questions, concepts, and content can be used to build a bridge connecting student and academic relevance in setting the stage for inquiry. Then, we’ll look at the planning behind the experience, considering the shifts that might be required of us as instructors and designers to facilitate inquiry learning.

LEARN

Knowing what an inquiry classroom could look like isn’t the same as making it a day-to-day reality. How can we plan for coherent inquiry lessons and units? What skills, knowledge, and dispositions do we want to see students demonstrate and master? How might we assess those things through all four dimensions of the C3 Framework?

Exploring these and other questions can help us deliver on the promise of an inquiry approach. Participants will dive deeper into the research and mental models that support the C3 approach as well as authentic examples of student and teacher work.

REFLECT & APPLY

At each stage in our investigation into what makes inquiry work, we will have the time, space, and structure to make meaning through the application of learning.

Participants should come with a class, unit, lesson, topic, or question in mind that they would like to develop or hone through the application of inquiry practices.

OUTCOMES

Participants will experience an inquiry approach to social studies as both learners and teachers. They will leave with a deeper understanding of the C3 Framework itself as well as how it might be applied to their own classes both instructionally and curricularly.

Please bring your laptop/tablet to this session.