Congratulations to   Lisa Landers  who today published an album of Focused C3 IDMs related to the Georgia Civil Rights Historical Marker Trail.  These IDMs will be of interest to anyone teaching the Civil Rights Movement, working with Historical Markers in their own locality or teaching about the C3 Framework and IDMs.

In this Social Education article from 2018, the C3 team explained the purpose of the Focused IDM and compared it to the original longer version.  In summary:

In these new focused inquiries, there is still a compelling question to be answered by an evidenced-based argument, but the question is narrower in scope and the argumentative task is condensed to a single claim and counterclaim. Instead of 3–4 supporting questions with the attendant formative tasks and disciplinary sources, there are only 1–2. Staging the compelling question has always been a limited exercise, so it remains as is in a focused inquiry. The end of the blueprint, which can stretch out if desired, features either an extension or an action opportunity, but not both. Overall, the focused inquiry shrinks the instructional demands to one class period.

Read more about it here.

Check out the Georgia Historical Marker Album by Lisa Landers.

We are excited that our project has finally begun! This free professional development opportunity has been well received so far, and will surely provide an impactful and meaningful learning experience for educators and non-educators alike! 

As project leader, I would love for you to share this opportunity with everyone you know in the Western Region. I welcome your thoughts and interest questions! 

The MSCSS 2020 Conference this week in Townson, MD  Social Studies/History    c3 IDM   was really exciting for Gay and me.  Our session was standing room only and our supply of 50 folders with handouts were not enough!  There was lots of teacher-to-teacher interaction and questions about TPS. It was a non-partisan way to start a discussion about presidents and presidential elections by looking at the leadership attributes and political issues faced by the four presidents who were once memorialized in stone. 

We shared a two page C3 IDM Who Will Win My Vote Blueprint with the participants that is now published as a full 25 page inquiry on the C3 Inquiry With Library of Congress Resources Hub.   

Here's a link to our Google Slide presentation: http://bit.ly/2STjGqK. 

This presentation will be presented as a poster session at NCHE 2020 in Cleveland!  We hope to see you there!

If you have

1. Used the Library of Congress' Case Maker website (https://mycasemaker.org) during the course of the 2018 /2019 school years AND,

2. You will be at the NCHE conference in March,

we will provide a $100 Amazon gift card for 15 minutes of your in-person feedback at NCHE.

We were excited to present one of our older C3 IDMs that has been significantly revised at the NCHE 2019 Conference.  The conference theme was Exercising Power: Individuals and Institutions.  This IDM focuses on two individuals (Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall) who initiated one of the earliest grassroots movements by starting the Audubon Society in Boston and mobilizing women to boycott the fashion industry use of migratory bird breeding feathers. 

There are two reasons that this inquiry is important.  For us at TPS Eastern Region, it is important because it documents the vast number of primary sources that have been digitized and added to loc.gov since we first wrote this in 2015.  The number of newspaper articles about this movement as well as political cartoons had doubled. (Or perhaps we just got better at searching!) 

The second reason that this inquiry is important is that it addresses a political concept, grassroots, that is playing a major role in politics today.  The IDM which asks students to analyze past primary source and apply what they learn to the present so they can take informed civic action is a perfect fit.

Check out our IDM inquiry on the Inquiry with Library of Congress Resources C3 Hub and the NCHE 2019 Presentation.

Congratulations to Lisa for publishing another IDM in the Georgia Historic Society Series for civic education.  This one, How Far Does the President’s Power Reach?, is also based on the theme “The United States Constitution: Ensuring Liberty and Justice for All”. 

This IDM uses a Library of Congress political cartoon, "King Andrew the First", for Setting the Stage of the inquiry. It ends with an NPR article that proposes 3 alternative descriptions of presidential power.  This is a timely and timeless inquiry going back to the creation of the US Constitution and ending with a look at the President's power in contemporary USA.

This IDM will be spotlighted in the C3 November newsletter! Barbara Kirby Sue Wise

Lisa Landers John Lee

SOOO much good stuff in the latest C3 Teachers Newsletter!! Are you subscribed, yet?

If so, you likely noticed that the recent edition highhlighted the Inquiry with Library of Congress Resources Hub, where the first step in Teaching with Primary Sources inquiries is always the Library of Congress! Check it out: http://www.c3teachers.org/inquiry-with-the-library-of-congress-hub/ 

And congratulations to Georgia Historical Society!! New classroom-ready inquiries based on the 7 articles of the US Consititution will be published August through February.

The first Compelling Question is, "What is the right balance between security and personal freedom?" http://www.c3teachers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/GHS-Balancing-Liberty-with-Security.pdf 

...and if you haven't yet subscribed, do so here: http://www.c3teachers.org/c3-teachers-newsletters/; it's a great resource!  

6 - 8 Social Studies/History C3 IDM   EasternRegion Georgia

Lisa Landers Jena Sibille Ann Canning Barbara Kirby John Lee

The C3 website features 15 IDMS created by TPS-ER facilitators and class participants. Sources at the Library of Congress have provided inspiration for the development of these inquiries. All 15 inquiries may be found in the C3 Organizational Hub called “Inquiry with Library of Congress Resources Hub”. 

 http://www.c3teachers.org/inquiry-with-the-library-of-congress-hub/

You may view or download these IDMS as a guest or you can join c3teachers and create your own IDM in the IDM generator. 

First, let me say Welcome to all of you who recently joined our C3 Group.  Our membership has now reached 124!  I hope you will respond to existing posts or start your own new discussions.  I am eager to hear your thoughts about using C3 with Primary Sources and TPS strategies.

TPS is aligned with three of the components in the C3 Inquiry Design Model (IDM), Featured Sources, Formative Tasks, and the Summative Task. Once a teacher has decided on a compelling question for a student inquiry, the next step is to find featured sources that will support students in answering that compelling question. TPS search strategies for loc.gov digital archives is a great place to start looking for featured primary sources. The third step is to decide on a formative task that will structure the students’ interpretation of the primary sources. The Library of Congress Analysis Tool works well as a C3 formative task. The fourth step is to design a summative performance task in which students write or present an argument based on evidence from different perspectives. We have found that the Teacher Page Blogs, Collection Connections and the numerous articles written by Library staff to accompany the Digital Collections and Exhibits at loc.gov are invaluable in identifying multiple sources as evidence that represent different perspectives on a given subject. 

In 2016, TPS-ER facilitators John Lee, David Hicks and Ann Canning taught an online PD course, “Designing C3 Inquiries with Library of Congress Political Cartoons”. John Lee demonstrated an IDM he created from a Library of Congress Herblock Exhibit on Peace in the Middle East. Participants then worked in teams to create their own IDMs with featured primary sources, formative tasks and summative tasks. 

Here’s a link to that online class and the related  IDMS.http://tps.waynesburg.edu/documents/1250-participant-projects-and-workshop-content-c3-fall-2016/file

Most social studies teachers appreciate the approach of the C3, welcoming the deeper emphasis on inquiry, making and supporting claims with evidence, and following through to meaningful expression and civic action. Yet for many reasons, few states or school districts have adopted the C3 as is. 

I am eager to hear how schools and districts are using the C3 to inform teaching, especially where that affects using primary sources. 

How does implementation of the C3 impact struggling learners? 

3 - 5 6 - 8 9 - 12 Social Studies/History Special Education Bilingual Education/ESL Standards English Learners