ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the culminating product of those professional development sessions, planning and coaching conferences with teachers, and site visits to watch inquiry-based, primary source lessons with students. It focuses on history content and skills through student exploration of the story of United States history. The book aims to use the National Center for History in the Schools standards for United States history as the source for specific content standards. It provides many different types of primary sources to engage students. Some of the most common are photographs, cartoons, maps, and political writings. The lessons each follow a similar structure focused on students doing inquiry—thinking and reading like a historian. The concept of “thinking like a historian” frames the way the lessons are created with a historical question, analyzing the evidence, creating a hypothesis, and using the specific evidence to support the hypothesis.
