Making Inquiry Possible The Seventh Annual IDM™ Summer Institute will be ONLINE July 19-20, 2021! Sponsored by C3 Teachers and National Council for the Social Studies, the IDM Summer Institute is back! This is our 7th year helping teachers learn about the Inquiry Design Model  (IDM) and designing inquiries. This institute will be conducted online this year. And it will be an experience! After a year like none other, we are reminded of the power of inquiry. The pandemic, the struggle for racial justice, a generational presidential election, and the insurrection at the Capitol—all of this…

Learn. Connect. Advocate. National Council for the Social Studies presents its first virtual Summer Leadership Institute (SLI). Come engage and learn from social studies leaders and educators across the country. SLI 2020 aims to help you develop an advocacy plan on the grassroots and national level and help influence the future of social studies education. You will be empowered to advocate for social studies and create transformational change for the profession and within your own district, affiliated council, organization or community.   Registration is free for…

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus Disease 2019 (abbreviated as COVID-19) as a pandemic. National Council for the Social Studies is providing this landing page as a resource for social studies educators, administrators, and professionals to stay informed on the latest updates from the U.S. Department of Education, the current containment status of the pandemic, prevention tips, school closures, and teaching resources for classroom or virtual usage. Please bookmark and check this resource page daily for updates and share it with your network. 

NCSS welcomes manuscripts from members interested in publishing in one of our periodicals—Social Education, Middle Level Learning, or Social Studies and the Young Learner. We are looking for substantive articles and lesson plans in any of the social studies disciplines. Some topics that might be especially interesting are: My Favorite Lesson Plan My Best Day as a Social Studies Teacher How I Teach My Students Civil Discourse The Best Civic Engagement Initiative My Students Took Finding Time to Make Formative Assessments Fostering a Global Mindset Teaching about Climate Change Social…

Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John G. Roberts, Jr., closed out the 2010s and welcomed the 2020s with powerful words in his 2019 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary: “Civic education, like all education, is a continuing enterprise and conversation. Each generation has an obligation to pass on to the next, not only a fully functioning government responsive to the needs of the people, but the tools to understand and improve it.” (4)  Chief Justice Roberts describes the Judicial Branch’s use of its resources to support civic education nationwide, with numerous examples…

By implementing a few key strategies, we can promote the successful integration of refugees into our schools.

Two Words in Need of Redemption John Hergesheimer Lewis & Clark: An Interdisciplinary Expedition Kristy Brugar The Compromise of 1790: A Capital Simulation David L. Ghere Book Review: York's Adventure with Lewis and Clark by Rhoda Blumberg Paul Horton Furious and Formidable: A Lewis & Clark Bestiary

Lookout Point: Abolitionists Among the Founding Fathers Kevin Brady Runaway Slave Advertisements: Teaching from Primary Documents Tom Costa and Brooks Doyle Teaching About Immigration, Past and Present Susan Pass Facts about Our Immigrants

Lookout Point: Teaching History in a Post-Industrial Age Ann Bianchetti Workin' on the Railroad: African American Labor History Rebecca C. Maher A Union of Railroad Workers Sets the Pace A. Phillip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum Laying Track Over the Sierra Nevada U.S. National Park Service Diary of a Railroad Construction Engineer A. N. Ferguson Train Schedules, Standardization, and The Day of Two Noons Steven S. Lapham This Hammer'll Be the Death of Me: The Railroad's Hazardous Early Years