Conducting Authentic Historical Inquiry

Book excerpt: Engaging students with primary sources fosters inquiry, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning skills, all of which are vitally important to success in school and beyond. Simply inserting primary sources into the classroom is not enough. This resource uses the best of emerging Internet applications (Web 2.0) to capture the interest of today’s students who have grown up using diverse technologies and multiple applications such as podcasts, social networks, social bookmarks, digital curation, and blogs. Readers will learn about the SOURCES Framework, an innovative approach for scaffolding inquiry-rich social studies instructional practices. Filled with multiple classroom-ready examples that seamlessly integrate Web 2.0 applications, the authors provide readers with the tools and confidence to create instructional opportunities to engage learners in authentic historical inquiry. The goal is to give students the skills and knowledge necessary to think critically, engage with sources, and create authentic, evidence-based narratives. Book Features: Offers effective and engaging methods for teaching with primary and secondary sources while seamlessly integrating emerging technologies. Fosters critical thinking skills and deductive reasoning skills while allowing instructors an opportunity to personalize learning environments. Provides students with opportunities to authentically construct historical narratives, replicating methods utilized by historians. Introduces an innovative framework for teaching with primary and secondary sources. Includes web links to make it easy for the reader to see examples and resources and video walk-throughs related to many of the Web 2.0 tools.