Literacy Strategies & Resources

11-Sentence Paragraph

This strategy takes the traditional 5 paragraph essay approach and condenses it to 11 sentences. This allows students to practice writing claims and supporting those claims with evidence and elaboration.

7Cs of Critical Historical Analysis

What it is:
A Graphic Organizer for Building Critical Thinking Skills

• A means to build critical thinking skills in students which embeds social justice principles and concepts
• A scaffolded way to develop deep analytical skills, language, and writing while using primary and secondary sources
• An opportunity to have students practice speaking and listening as individuals and in collaboration
• An opportunity to develop vocabulary
• An opportunity to develop writing in smaller chunks that lead to longer writing
• A way to begin students’ connections to action civics and community projects
• A way to infuse common core reading, writing, and speaking skills into daily activities

How to Use It

• Teachers can begin by using one square and scaling or adding more questions as students get familiar with the process
• Teachers have the ability to edit the questions and scaffold the activity to conduct whole group modeling, small group jigsaws, and or have students work individually.
• As students build their critical thinking skills, teachers can increasingly focus on questions around power and the impact on current issues in the communities they teach.

Watch Lead Facilitator, Amparo Chavez-Gonzalez walk you through the 7Cs strategy in the video below.

 

Thinking Like a Change Maker

This framework helps students explore the Activist Dimension of historical thinking, focusing on how individuals and groups organized and mobilized to create social change. Activism has deep roots in American history, beginning with Patriots like Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty, who organized protests, boycotts, and public actions in defense of colonial rights. Activism is a tradition that has shaped American democracy—whether in struggles for independence, abolition, labor rights, or civil rights.

By examining social movements such as the Patriot Movement of the 1770s, the Abolition Movement, labor organizing during the Gilded Age (such as the Knights of Labor and the Pullman Strike), the Selma March, the Black Panther School Breakfast Program, and Black Lives Matter, students analyze how activists built movements, raised public awareness, confronted obstacles, and made lasting impacts. This work encourages students to think critically about the methods used to pursue justice and consider how activism remains central to addressing today’s social issues.

Character Analysis

The Character Analysis is a literacy strategy that asks students to explore a particular historical actor in a thoughtful and critical way by analyzing their life, choices, actions and beliefs. The Character Analysis strategy works best as a means for students to explore historical perspectives of a particular era or for a particular unit. For example, during a unit on Imperialism, a teacher can teach students about the various resistance movements such as the Mau Mau Rebellion, the 1900 Asante War of Resistance, and the Italia-Ethiopian War by asking them to consider how different groups in Africa fought for liberation and how effective these struggles were. By introducing the Character Analysis at this point the teacher assigns students do complete a Character Analysis on some of the historical actors involved in these resistance movements such as Menelik II and Yaa Asantewaa.

The Character Analysis is driven by historical inquiry. Before using this strategy the teacher needs to consider what inquiry question students will be answering from the perspective of their assigned historical actor. In this example the inquiry could be “How did some Africans resist Imperialism, and were these movements successful?” The Character Analysis can also be written in the first person, in which case the inquiry shifts to, “How did you resist Imperialism, and was your movement a success?” In addition to answering the inquiry question, students will also need to write about the historical characters life and life-shaping events, their hopes, dreams, and/or goals, and some of the problems they struggled with in their personal life, or systems of oppression they encountered. All of this requires that teachers provide students with secondary sources, or primary sources, or vetted biographies. We recommend combining a secondary source that provides a short biography paired with a primary source that gives insight to students as to how their assigned historical actor would respond to the inquiry question. Exploring Historical Perspectives is one of the historical thinking concepts introduced in the “Big Six”. This concept helps students understand the people of the past by considering their historical context (Guidepost 3), inferring how people felt and thought in the past (Guidepost 4), and exploring diverse perspectives on the events in which they are involved as a key to understanding historical events (Guidepost 5). The Character Analysis provides students the opportunity to develop this type of conceptual thinking.

Character Analysis Slides

The “4 I’s of Oppression”

This handout is based on the 4 I’s of Oppression framework developed by John Bell, which helps us better understand how oppression operates across different levels of society. Rather than seeing oppression as only individual acts or isolated events, this framework allows us to examine how power, inequality, and injustice function through multiple, interconnected systems.

The 4 I’s include:

• Ideological Oppression: The core beliefs and ideas that one group is superior to another.
• Institutional Oppression: The way these ideas are embedded in laws, policies, institutions, and systems.
• Interpersonal Oppression: The ways oppression shows up between people in their daily interactions, behaviors, and language.
• Internalized Oppression: When individuals absorb and accept oppressive ideas and apply them to themselves or others within their own group.

Document Based Inquiry Poster

Document-Based Inquiry (DBI) is a collaborative strategy that helps students analyze primary and secondary sources, corroborate evidence, group sources by theme, and develop a thesis. It is inspired by the Document-Based Question (DBQ) essay, which is one of the most rigorous tasks in history education. The DBI scaffolds the process to make it more accessible. In small groups, students examine a curated set of sources and discuss how each one supports, contradicts, or adds complexity to a prompt.

We recommend pairing the DBI Poster with our 11-Sentence Paragraph strategy, which guides students in transforming their analysis into a structured written response. This strategy also works well with any of our source sets.

X-Ray Personality Profile

The X-Ray Profile is an individual or team art piece that operates in metaphor. Generally done based on the information, ideas, and philosophy of an individual, they can also be done for a time period, group of people, geographic space, or idea. This art piece can be one of either pure research, based on teacher provided material or a blend. I generally go with the blended approach, providing students with substantial materials then asking students to do detailed, focused research. There are several tasks which need to be completed for this art piece and I ask student to divide up who will “facilitate or lead” each task. It is assumed that all students will participate in all aspects of the art piece but I’ve concluded that at least one student needs to be responsible for each part to be sure that it is brought to fruition beautifully. Designed by former Roosevelt High School Teacher, Brian Gibbs

HAPP-y Speaking & Listening Strategy

HAPP-Y Investigator Roles

The HAPP-Y Strategy helps students analyze primary sources while practicing speaking, listening, and evidence-based discussion. Students are assigned investigator roles to examine a document through five key lenses:

• H – Historical Context: When and where was the document created? What was happening at the time?
• A – Audience: Who was the intended audience? How might that affect the message?
• P – Purpose: Why was the document created? What was the author’s goal?
• P – Point of View: What biases or perspectives does the author bring?
• Y – Why is it significant: How does this document help answer the historical question?

Students use guiding questions and sentence frames to prepare, share, and discuss their findings, allowing them to build historical arguments together while developing academic speaking and listening skills.

Created by Christopher Lewis and Jennifer Yoo-Brannon, the HAPP-Y Strategy supports inquiry, literacy, and student-centered historical thinking.

Critical Analysis of a Claim

The Critical Analysis of a Claim strategy helps students strengthen their historical thinking and argumentation skills by teaching them how to critique, challenge, and build alternative claims using evidence from primary and secondary sources.

In this strategy, students:

• Critique: Identify problems or weaknesses in a historical argument or claim.
• Counter Evidence: Gather and cite specific evidence from multiple sources that challenges the original claim.
• Counterargument: Use that evidence to develop an alternative argument or interpretation.

This approach supports students in weighing multiple perspectives, analyzing the strength of evidence, and constructing well-reasoned historical arguments based on sourced material.

Adapted from the Read.Inquire.Write. project (University of Michigan), this strategy is part of UCLA History-Geography Project’s broader inquiry-based approach to teaching history.

Prove It!

The Prove It strategy supports students in building strong, evidence-based historical arguments by guiding them through the process of answering a historical inquiry question, much like constructing a geometry proof. Students develop a thesis statement supported by at least four reasons, each backed by citations from both primary and secondary sources.

Teachers provide students with a curated set of sources to investigate possible evidence, giving students a common foundation for analysis. This structured approach helps students connect historical sources to larger themes and build well-supported claims. As students work collaboratively to develop their thesis statements, they refine their ability to analyze documents and use evidence in writing.

Rooted in the work of Peter Seixas and Carla Peck, the Prove It strategy recognizes that the ability to work with evidence must be systematically taught. The strategy is effective across grade levels, helping both middle and high school students strengthen their historical reasoning, writing, and argumentation skills.

The Big 6+1

The Big 6 are historical thinking concepts designed by the late Peter Seixas and Tom Morton. We believe that these concepts can serve as a link between content and inquiry questions. We recommend using these concepts to guide your planning, design strategies, and help students develop a historical consciousness. In 2020, we added a 7th dimension, “The Activist Dimension”, hence the “+1”

Inquiry Design Model Unit Template for History-Social Studies

This IDM is a inquiry-driven unit planning guide created by the folks at C3. We have remixed the IDM to include planning around culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy.

Inquiry Design Model Unit Template for Ethnic Studies

This IDM is a inquiry-driven unit planning guide created by the folks at C3. We have remixed the IDM to include planning around culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy and connections to the ESMC’s Guiding Values & Principles.

Source Set: How have AAPI Communities Resisted Oppression?

This Source Set includes primary and secondar sources highlighting various struggles against oppression within the AAPI Community. We recommend pairing this with our DBI Poster Strategy

Source Set: How do we repair past racial injustice?

This Source Set explores various arguments related to Reparations for the Black community. We recommend pairing this with our DBI Poster strategy.

Source Set: In What Ways did Black Angelenos Build Community & Resist Racism During the 17th-19th Centuries?

This Source Set explores early Black Los Angeleno history. We recommend pairing it with our DBI Poster strategy.

Source Set: What were the experiences of Japanese and Korean Immigrants in 1900s Riverside?

This Source Set consists of 7 primary sources centering the lives and experiences of Japanese and Korean immigrant communities in Riverside, California. We recommend pairing this with our DBI Poster Strategy.

What was life like for Mexican families who lived in Culver City 100 years ago?

This Source Set centers the city of Culver City and the lives and experiences of its Mexican community. Pair this with our DBI Poster strategy and/or our 7C’s of Critical Historical Analysis.

How have different groups created, built and/or sustained community in and around Fillmore?

The California History-Social Science Framework

Content. Inquiry. Literacy. Citizenship. This framework guides educators as they design, implement, and maintain a coherent course of study to teach content, develop inquiry-based critical thinking skills, improve reading comprehension and expository writing ability, and promote an engaged and knowledgeable citizenry in history and the related social sciences. T he subject areas covered in this framework offer students the opportunity to learn about the world and their place in it, think critically, read, write, and communicate clearly. History, civics and government, geography, and economics are integral to the mission of preparing California’s children for college, careers, and civic life. These disciplines develop students’ understanding of the physical world, encourage their participation in our democratic system of government, teach them about our past, inform their financial choices, and improve their ability to make reasoned decisions based upon evidence. Moreover, these disciplines play a vital role in the development of student literacy because of a shared emphasis on text, argumentation, and use of evidence. Important shifts in instructional practice have occurred since this document was last updated. Thus this framework seeks to bring up to date the state of these important areas of study. Achieving these goals is a shared responsibility. History–social science teachers are encouraged to collaborate with their colleagues in other disciplines to ensure that all students achieve the common goal of readiness for their future as literate, informed, and engaged citizens.

Inquiry Questions from the California History-Social Science Framework

This handy resource includes all the inquiry questions found in the HSS Framework, broken down by grade level.

The California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum

The Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum will focus on the traditional ethnic studies first established in California higher education, which has been characterized by four foundational disciplines: African American, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x, Native American, and Asian American and Pacific Islander studies.4 The focus on the experiences of these four disciplines provides an opportunity for students to learn of the histories, cultures, struggles, and contributions to American society of these historically marginalized peoples, which have often been untold in US history courses. Given California’s diversity, the California Department of Education understands and knows that each community has its own ethnic make-up and each demographic group has its own unique history, struggles, and contributions to our state. Therefore, under the direction of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the guidance of the IQC, this model curriculum has been written to include information on the foundational disciplines in ethnic studies, and affords local educational agencies the flexibility to adapt the curriculum to address the demographics and diversity of the classroom. The adaptations should center on deepening or augmenting rather than scaling down any of the four disciplines.

Guiding Values and Principles of Ethnic Studies & Eight Outcomes of K–12 Ethnic Studies Teaching

Given the range and complexity of the field, it is important to identify the key values of ethnic studies as a means to offer guidance for the development of ethnic studies courses, teaching, and learning. The foundational values of ethnic studies are housed in the conceptual model of the “double helix,” which interweaves holistic humanization and critical consciousness.18 Humanization includes the values of love, respect, hope, and solidarity, which are based on celebration of community cultural wealth.

Reclaiming Local Histories: A Collaboration between UCLA History-Geography Project & UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project

This 4-part series was hosted by the UCLA HGP and UCBHSSP during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The four workshops explored the following inquiry questions: How have communities in California explored their past and determined steps of reparation? How can we reclaim the histories of our local communities? How might we share what we learned with students? What might transitional justice look like in my community? Click the link for the slides and resources shared during this series.

Mapping Indigenous LA

Uncovering multiple layers of indigenous Los Angeles through digital storytelling & oral history with community leaders, youth and elders from indigenous communities throughout the city.

Local History Research Guide

Use this document to help you find local history resources.

Calisphere

Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Discover over two million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.

The collections in Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.

Lost LA

“Lost LA” explores the past through the region’s archives, where photos, documents, and other rare artifacts unlock the untold history behind the fantasy of Southern California. Hosted by writer and public historian Nathan Masters of the USC Libraries, each episode of “Lost LA” brings the primary sources of history to the screen in surprising new ways. Much of L.A.’s past is lost to history, but through the region’s archives, we can uncover the inspiring dreams and bitter realities that built the modern-day metropolis.

Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America

In the 1930s the federal government created redlining maps for almost every major American city. Mapping Inequality lets you explore these maps and the history of racial and ethnic discrimination in housing policy.

Redlining was the practice of categorically denying access to mortgages not just to individuals but to whole neighborhoods.

Between 1935 and 1940, an agency of the federal government, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, graded the “residential security” of thousands of American neighborhoods. By “security,” they meant the relative security or riskiness of those areas for banks, saving and loans, and other lenders who made mortgages.

For each of these cities, they produced maps showing those grades. Neighborhoods they deemed “best” and safe investments were given a grade of A and colored green. Those that were deemed “hazardous” were given a grade of “D” and colored red.

In most cases they also generated an “area description” for each of these neighborhoods providing descriptions of the houses, the sales and rental history, and of the residents.

If those residents were African Americans or, to a lesser extent, immigrants or Jews, HOLC deemed them a threat to the stability of home values and described their presence as an “infiltration.”

Redlining was legal and practiced for decades. It dramatically affected the relative wealth—as well as the health—of different racial groups in America. Its impact is still with us today.

A People’s History of the IE

Experience history from the ground up, in the voices of those who have lived it. We are a community archive & mapping project documenting historic communities of color, working people, and LGBTQ+ individuals in Riverside and San Bernardino.

Teaching California: Bringing Archives into the Classroom

On this website you will discover classroom-ready resources to help teach California’s History-Social Science Framework. Our inquiry sets include curated collections of primary sources, teacher and student notes, activities, and other tools that will help guide you through a research-based approach to improving student reading, writing, and critical thinking.

The History Blueprint: Sites of Encounter: How Did Sites of Encounter Change the Medieval World?

The Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World unit introduces students to the connections between regions and peoples in Afro-Eurasia (the “world”) between 1000 and 1500 (the “medieval” period.) Following recent world historical scholarship about connections between cultures in and around the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea, the lessons immerse students in sites of encounter – Sicily, Quanzhou, Cairo, Mali, Majorca, and Calicut – where merchants, travelers, and scholars exchanged products, technologies, and ideas. These exchanges also sparked new ideas and cultural productions, which then diffused outward from the site of encounter. Without denying that cultural encounters were often marked by conflict, our approach focuses on the shared norms and practices that made exchanges possible. To make these abstract ideas more understandable to students, the lessons begin with the study of concrete objects – maps, ships, astrolabes, silks, and spices – exchanged or produced at the sites of encounter. In the first lesson, Norman Sicily, a major site of exchange between the Muslim and Christian worlds, students will examine the world map al-Idrisi and his team of Muslim, Jewish and Christian mapmakers drew for Christian king Roger II. For Quanzhou, students will analyze excerpts from the travel narratives of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta and the technology of the sea-faring junk; for Cairo and Calicut, they will examine descriptions of the cities written by travelers from different cultures, along with local accounts, art and architecture. Between the major lessons, there are mini-lessons on the Mongol Empire, the voyages of Zheng He, and the Black Death. This unit also provides detailed instructions to support student analysis of a number of relevant primary sources, including texts written by Ibn Jubayr, Geoffrey Malaterra, Al-Bakri, Al-Umari, James I of Aragon, Benjamin of Tudela, Al-Maqrizi, Ramon Llull, Zhao Rugua, Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Ma-Huan; letters from the Cairo Geniza and the Venetian archives; visuals of maps by Al-Idrisi and Cresques Abraham, Ming dynasty porcelain, and silk-making machinery. Throughout the unit, students focus on an engaging and historically significant question: How did sites of encounter change the Medieval World? In addition to teaching students about the medieval world, this unit teaches students how to read, write, and think historically, analyze historical evidence from primary and secondary sources, and make interpretations. Students will practice Common Core reading and writing skills, especially identifying the perspective and point of view of a source, integrating information from visual and written sources, identifying evidence from sources, using that evidence to support an argument or interpretation, and communicating that argument in well-conceived sentence, paragraph, essay, or explanation. They will also practice geographical skills through interactive map exercises using the World Trade Circles Map, which is based on Janet Abu-Lughod’s interpretation of the 13th-century world system.

The History Blueprint: The Cold War: Why and How was the Cold War Fought?

The ideological, diplomatic, military, and cultural struggle that started between the Soviet Union and United States went through a number of phases as people and countries in the post-World War II era struggled to define what freedom would mean for them. This unit of study contains two strands – one for 10th-grade world history students and one for 11th-grade U.S. history students. The first path through the Cold War focuses on the origins of the world-wide conflict; the newly emerging nations that had been colonies before World War II, and then after the war had to choose whether to align themselves with the United States or Soviets; the international conflicts that arose as a result of those alliances; and finally the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The second path through the Cold War teaches students about the roots of the conflict; the ways in which the American government imagined and implemented anti-communist policies abroad and at home; the effects of the Cold War on individual Americans; the war as it came to Vietnam; and finally the end of the Cold War. This unit also provides detailed instructions to support student analysis of a number of relevant primary sources, including addresses made by Churchill, Stalin, Truman, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Gorbachev, and dozens of ordinary citizens that experienced the turmoil and daily life of the Cold War. The unit concludes as it begins with a focus on an engaging and historically significant question: Why and how was the Cold War Fought? In addition to teaching students about the Cold War, this unit teaches students how to read, write, and think historically, analyze historical evidence from primary and secondary sources, and make interpretations. Students will practice Common Core reading and writing skills, especially identifying the perspective and point of view of a source, integrating information from visual and written sources, identifying evidence from sources, using that evidence to support an argument or interpretation, and communicating that argument in well-conceived sentence, paragraph, essay, or explanation.

The History Blueprint: The Civil War: Was the Civil War a war for Freedom?

This unit of study focuses on the events leading to the war, the perspectives of those who fought in or lived through the war, and the effects of the war on individual citizens and the nation. More specifically, this unit addresses the causes of the Civil War, the perspectives of Northerners, Southerners, and abolitionists, and the critical battles of the war. This unit also provides detailed instructions to support student analysis of a number of relevant primary sources, including five of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. The unit concludes as it begins with a focus on an engaging and historically significant question: Was the Civil War a War for Freedom? In addition to teaching students about the Civil War, this unit teaches students how to read, write, and think historically, analyze historical evidence from primary and secondary sources, and make interpretations. Students will practice Common Core reading and writing skills, especially identifying the perspective or point of view of a source, integrating information from visual and written sources, identifying evidence from sources, and using that evidence to support an interpretation.