Indiana Social Studies IS.1.34
The Standard
Conduct historical research that incorporates information literacy skills such as forming appropriate research questions, evaluating information by determining its accuracy, relevance and comprehensiveness, interpreting a variety of primary and secondary sources, and presenting their findings with documentation.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Historical Thinking
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students ask a focused question about a past event. They compare records from the time with later accounts, checking claims, relevance, and missing views. They present an answer with cited evidence.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can turn a broad topic into a question that available sources can answer. They check claims against other records and explain what the sources leave out. They support an answer with evidence from both source types and cite each source.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat an old newspaper as automatically accurate or assume a textbook covers every point of view. They may mistake a later description for a firsthand account or provide a link without identifying the source they used.
How to Assess It
- Hand out a 1911 Triangle fire newspaper clipping and a textbook paragraph. Ask students to write a focused question, judge each source's accuracy and relevance, name a missing perspective, and answer with two cited details.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs copies of a 1911 Triangle fire newspaper report and a later museum summary; have them label source types and circle claims to verify.
Ask, 'How might a factory worker and a newspaper editor tell different stories about the Triangle fire?' Have students write two reasons.
Run a source audit: teams sort four short excerpts into useful, needs checking, or missing context, then defend one choice.
Show a social media claim about the Triangle fire; students check it against a dated newspaper report and a museum page.
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Printable IS.1.34 Worksheet
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