First-grader students engaged in a guided historical inquiry about Abraham Lincoln. The teacher carefully intertwined historical content, close reading, critical thinking, and text-based writing during Reading, Writing, and Social Studies classes. Students scrutinized secondary sources, which were largely biographies of Lincoln, to build their…

First graders engaged in an extended historical inquiry. Close readings of secondary and primary sources evoked rich class discussion. Scaffolding directed students' scrutiny of secondary sources for historical gaps; they ably detected source and intent within the primary sources. Students articulated newly constructed understandings through…

History is alive! That is one of the important messages that teacher Barbara Knighton communicates to her students as she develops engaging stories about changes in farming, government, clothing, or transportation, using timelines as her basis. In this article, the authors describe how Knighton constructs social studies units for her first and…