Investigate Ancient World History & Write Critiques
Ancient World History Investigations: Critique
What type of argument writing will students work on?
Five World History investigations prepare students to write Critiques of other people’s interpretations of historical or social issues in letters to contemporary audiences. Critique tasks call for students to write arguments that critique a current interpretation of a historical or social issue made by someone else. Writing tasks set a purpose for each investigation, whether trying to understand the concept of reliability in the Silk Road investigation or trying to understand the perspective of people in the past in the Hammurabi investigation. Each investigation creates a process for social studies inquiry and writing across five days that begins with making connections to students’ lives and extending their incoming knowledge. Check out the Writing Progression page on our website to learn about the different styles of argument writing that are supported by RIW investigations.
Write Critiques: Students make an argument against an interpretation. Students read sources and interpret them to critique an argument that someone else has made about an issue. This is a stepping stone toward writing rebuttals in Counterarguments.
Investigate Ancient World History: Whether trying to make sense of the perspective of people in the past in the Hammurabi investigation, the concept of reliability in understanding the ancient Silk Road, or the strengths of the Inca Empire and Athenian democracy, students consider concepts of justice, power, and the credibility of sources. Students will write Critiques of other people’s interpretations of historical issues in letters to contemporary audiences, connecting past and present.
How do I structure each investigation?
What's in an investigation?
Each investigation is designed around a compelling question, a text set of primary and secondary sources that offer multiple perspectives modified for reading level, and a writing task with a real-world audience and purpose. Materials for each investigation may include:
- slides to guide instruction;
- a detailed teacher guide;
- a planning tool to support teacher decision-making;
- a video of students’ thinking about the material;
- a video overview of the investigation;
- a student packet of materials;
- sort cards to use in weighing the evidence;
- audio files of us reading the sources aloud;
- accommodated materials for bi/multilingual learners in English, Arabic, and Spanish.
- samples of student writing scored using our argument writing rubrics;
We have learned from our partners that adjusting and adapting these curriculum materials to suit their context is important to supporting students’ learning with Read.Inquire.Write. Therefore, all of our files for use with students can be freely downloaded and edited with proper attribution (they may not be sold or used for profit).
One way to organize an investigation in the classroom
