Learn about integrating skill-based curriculum design and project-based assessments into history classrooms. We will discuss the rationale behind this approach, examine an example unit that uses daily assignments to develop historical thinking skills, and explore a project-based end-of-unit assessment. Participants will leave with practical ideas they can adapt for their own classrooms, followed by time for questions and discussion.
Social studies classrooms are full of stories, questions, arguments, patterns, and change over time—and quantitative data can help students see all of those more clearly. In this session, we will look at how graphs, charts, maps, tables, and other data displays can deepen student thinking, strengthen evidence-based reasoning, and make social studies instruction more inquiry-driven.
Participants will explore a few practical classroom strategies for using quantitative data with students, including ways to help them notice patterns, ask better questions, make comparisons, and support claims with evidence. The session will also make the case for why data literacy belongs in every social studies classroom—not as an add-on, but as a powerful tool for helping students understand the world.
After a full year of teaching U.S. History with almost no traditional textbook, we learned a lot about what happens when primary sources become the central student text. Our course was organized around open-ended questions and a true inquiry approach, asking students to investigate, interpret, and build historical understanding from evidence.
In this session, we will share what we tried, what worked, what surprised us, and what we plan to change moving forward. Participants will leave with practical ideas, honest lessons learned, and possible entry points for bringing more inquiry and primary-source work into their own history classrooms.
Social studies classrooms are full of stories, questions, arguments, patterns, and change over time—and quantitative data can help students see all of those more clearly. In this session, we will look at how graphs, charts, maps, tables, and other data displays can deepen student thinking, strengthen evidence-based reasoning, and make social studies instruction more inquiry-driven.
Participants will explore a few practical classroom strategies for using quantitative data with students, including ways to help them notice patterns, ask better questions, make comparisons, and support claims with evidence. The session will also make the case for why data literacy belongs in every social studies classroom—not as an add-on, but as a powerful tool for helping students understand the world.
