What do students learn?
Goals & Standards
Social studies calls for critical and disciplinary reasoning in reading challenging texts, considering complex questions, and writing evidence-based arguments that take positions on important issues. This intellectual work is rooted in students’ knowledge and experiences, and relies on strong language and literacy skills. Read.Inquire.Write. draws on students’ voices and the disciplinary practices of questioning, considering multiple perspectives, evaluating evidence, and critiquing arguments while preparing students to write social studies arguments that are supported by evidence and reasoning.
Read.Inquire.Write. breaks argument writing down into three types – interpretation, critique, and counterargument – to create a progression of increasingly complex writing that builds students’ disciplinary literacy skills over time. Students spend a year working on each type of argument writing, so we share five investigations centered on each type of writing. These investigations were originally developed to be used by students in 6th grade (interpretation), 7th grade (critique), and 8th grade (counterargument), but you can adjust them for the grade level and the writing focus that you want to support.
Each type of argument writing calls for students to write claims that are supported by evidence and reasoning. The disciplinary literacy tools support the development of claims, evidence, and reasoning across all of the investigations, with slight variation by type of writing.
Claim: A position in response to a compelling or central question or problem.
Evidence: Use of sources, examples, or details to support a claim and build the argument.
Reasoning: Explanation of how evidence supports the claim and whether and how the evidence is reliable given the question or problem under consideration,
These goals align with the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards and the Common Core State Standards for Literacy. The C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards calls for reasoning and discourse, framing social studies as inquiry where students ask questions, employ disciplinary reasoning, analyze evidence, and communicate conclusions. The Common Core State Standards stresses literacy practices that are integrated into the process of disciplinary inquiry. Read.Inquire.Write. supports students in achieving these goals.
