Act Now! - Inquiry Civics for Grades K-12, Wells, Fall 2025

Course Description

Experts say that our country is experiencing a Constitutional Crisis.  Serious questions are being raised by the actions of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches of government. Participants in this course will learn how to build an engaging, inquiry based social studies unit based on the C3 Civics Standards that will lead to a student’s deeper understanding of how our government is designed to work and whether the dramatic changes we see today are Constitutional and how students of all ages can take actions to be civically engaged.

Audience: K-12 teachers and curriculum leaders with a Bachelor's Degree

Course Goals & Objectives

Course Goals:

• Provide a thorough overview of the C3 Civics Framework and its Inquiry Arc.
• Provide an overview of the structure of our Government.
• Present the key features of inquiry based social studies lessons: questions, tasks, sources, and presenting arguments.
• Support participants as they design an inquiry based Civics Lesson.

Course Objectives: Participants in this course will demonstrate their ability to do the following:

• Develop an understanding of the C3 Civics Framework and its Inquiry Arc
• Develop an understanding of the roles of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of our government.
• Identify and understand the role of questions, tasks, sources and the presentation of strong arguments in an inquiry based Civics Lesson.
• Demonstrate an overall understanding of inquiry based Civics instruction by developing a unit that will be taught in the participant’s classroom.

Course Schedule:

Week One:

• Describe your Compelling Question Due: Oct. 19

Week Two:

• Describe the summative argument task for your compelling question. Due: Oct. 26th

Week Three:

• Describe the supporting questions for your inquiry. Due: Nov. 2nd

Week Four:

• Describe the task that you added to your inquiry and explain how you would scaffold the source for this task. Due: Nov. 9th

Week Five:

• Share a draft of your IDM Due: Nov. 16th

Week Six:

• Make revisions to your IDM based on instructor and peer feedback Due: Nov. 23rd

Instructor

David Wells, M.Ed.

David has been a Vermont teacher, principal and superintendent for over thirty years.  He believes in making classrooms safe and engaging for students with plenty of project-based learning.  When he is not teaching at Vermont State University, you can find David spending time with his grandchildren or restoring vintage typewriters!

Required Texts

Costs of required texts, if any, are not included in the course tuition.

Wasserman and Fullmer, The Basics of American Politics: 17th Edition, 2023

https://a.co/d/jbZS9ai

Swan, Lee & Grant, Inquiry Design Model: Building Inquiries in Social Studies, 2018

https://members.socialstudies.org/store/inquiry-design-model-building-inquiries-in-social-studies/2156/

National Council for the Social Studies (2014) C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards

https://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/2022/c3-framework-for-social-studies-rev0617.2.pdf

Krizan, P. (2022). So we “want” kindergarteners to argue? Developing argumentation skills in the kindergarten classroom. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 35(1), 26–31. Retrieved from https://www.socialstudies.org/social-studies-and-young-learner/35/1/so-we-want-kindergarteners-argue-developing-argumentation

Hughes, R. E., & Heckart, K. (2023). Asking their own questions: Supporting student-initiated inquiry in third grade. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 35(4), 27–32. Retrieved from https://www.socialstudies.org/social-studies-and-young-learner/35/4/asking-their-own-questions-supporting-student-initiated

Pitts, B., Pontius-Vandenberg, J., & Guido, D. (2023). A framework for using notable social studies picture books in high school. Social Education, 87(3). Retrieved from https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/87/3/framework-using-notable-social-studies-picture-books-high-school

C3 Web Resource:  http://www.c3teachers.org/

iCivics Web Resource: https://vision.icivics.org/

For additional course information

David Wells
802-461-6905

For additional registration information

Center for Schools Team

(802) 468-1325

Register Now!