Alabama Social Studies SS24.HS.7
The Standard
Construct and refine a research question to address an aspect of the subject that is not well-known or has not been widely reported, basing the question on their examination of literature and historiography of the subject.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students compare what historians have written about a topic and notice whose experiences or actions get little attention. They write a research question about that gap, then narrow it after checking what sources are available.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can point to a gap in two accounts of the same event. They can turn a broad question into one that names a group, place, and time and can be answered with available sources.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat any unfamiliar topic as a gap without checking what historians have already written. They may write a question so broad that no set of sources could answer it.
How to Assess It
- Give students two short accounts of the Montgomery bus boycott, one focused on leaders and one on riders. Ask them to identify a missing perspective and write, then narrow, a research question about it.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Print two textbook accounts of the Montgomery bus boycott; students highlight different claims and list people missing from both.
Ask students to write: “Whose experience is missing from these accounts, and what source might help us learn about it?”
Give pairs cards with broad and narrow boycott questions; have them sort the cards and revise one broad question.
Compare a local newspaper article with a town history page; students write a question about someone neither source mentions.
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Printable SS24.HS.7 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.HS.8
Utilize various historical methods to acquire information on the selected subject and relate findings to the research question created.
- SS24.HS.6
Compare historical methods utilized for research and evaluate how these methods yield information regarding the selected historical subject.
- SS24.HS.4
Locate and utilize a variety of primary sources related to the selected historical subject.
- SS24.HS.2c
Apply the concept of historiography through contrasting how various historians have interpreted the historical subject.
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