Team+5+ESSQ

=Team 5: Essential Social Studies Questions=

Focus: To create differentiated activities and assessments related to the 5th grade social studies essential question, "How does conflict influence change?"

Rationale: Our collegial inquiry pursuit will foster better skills for our 21st century learners, they will be able to hone in on a question that they can apply to both new situations and historical events. By focusing on an essential question, the students will develop much-needed skills to pose questions and apply their knowledge of historical events to both current world events and their own personal lives. We know that the students will gain a better understanding and make more authentic connections to the social studies curriculum when the focus in instruction and assessments is primarily based on the essential questions. This will also benefit our struggling learners who have difficulty memorizing rote facts because all students will be asked to synthesize material and present their connections to the essential questions. This will allow students to demonstrate the material they do know as opposed to being penalized for the facts that they do not know.