Explore major questions in civics and history while building the skills needed to analyze primary sources.
DBQuest guides students through the examination of major questions in civics and history utilizing primary sources. With each document, it challenges students to dig into the text itself and find the relevant information through document-based supporting questions.
Whether you’re a social studies teacher looking for fun ways to support literacy skills or an ELA teacher interested in digital writing tools, DBQuest is for you!
Topics
Documents
Images
Video
Maps
African American History
America at War
Civics & Government
Civil Rights
Economics
Founding Documents
Human Enslavement
Native Peoples
Voting & Suffrage
Women in History
Alignments
History
Alignment to state and Common Core standards can be found on iCivics.org.
Use evidence from informational texts to support analysis and answer questions.
Identify each type of source and its purpose.
Analyze a variety of texts, images, and videos.
Draw on several sources and consider questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
Teacher Experience
Teach with DBQuest as a 1:1 assignment, or as a whole class activity.
Each module is supported with the following instructional materials: Teaching Guide & Tips, Classroom Printables, Anticipation & Reflection Activities, Evidence Guide, Overview Reading and Extensions
Student Experience
The tool takes students through the same four steps for each source:
Rate the document for usefulness and determine perspective.
Identify and analyze the text and visual elements that assist with answering the questions.
Address the supporting questions in your own words.
Summarize your findings as a response to the Big Question.
Solve and create American history and civics challenges to explore Library of Congress primary sources—and look closer.
Eagle Eye Citizen is a freely available resource designed to help middle and high school students think critically about civic participation, Congress, and American history using primary sources from the Library of Congress.
An interactive learning tool using primary sources to explore how our government works. Help students understand separation of powers, voting rights, federal budget, state’s rights, and more.
An interactive learning tool using primary sources to explore how our government works. Help students understand separation of powers, voting rights, federal budget, state’s rights, and more.
Engaging Congress teaches students the key concepts of representative government and citizenship. In each module, students focus on different civics concepts by analyzing a variety of primary sources. Each component of this learning tool, primary sources, content videos, mini-games, can be used on its own or as a part of a thematic module. The variety of primary sources (maps, charts, photos, documents) can be adjusted to meet the needs of all learners. Use Engaging Congress for in-person, hybrid, or remote learning. Students can play individually or in groups. Help prepare your students to be engaged and informed citizens.
Topics
Documents
Images
Video
African American History
America at War
Citizenship
Civics & Government
Civil Rights
Economics
Founding Documents
Human Enslavement
Journalism
Voting & Suffrage
Women in History
Alignments
NCSS Standards
C3 Framework
State and Common Core standards information at engagingcongress.org
Private i History Detectives: HISTORICAL INQUIRY FOR ELEMENTARY CLASSROOMS
K-23-531+ min
Take inquiry-based learning to the next level. Students become history detectives using primary sources as evidence to solve historical mysteries.
Invite your students to become history detectives. Private i History Detectives is an inquiry-based curriculum featuring primary sources from the Library of Congress and other collections. With this curriculum, students dive into historical questions framed as mysteries to develop skills in primary source analysis and claim-based reasoning. Private i History Detectives comprehensive slideshows focus on scaffolded primary and secondary source analysis. Each unit includes printable PDFs and digitized student handouts available online through iCivics’ FREE Kami integration.
Topics
Documents
Images
Maps
African American History
America at War
Civics & Government
Civil Rights
Community & Family
First Freedoms
Founding Documents
Human Enslavement
Native Peoples
Symbols & Traditions
Women in History
Alignments
Alignment to state and Common Core standards can be found on iCivics.org.
Learning Objectives
The student will be able to:
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion
Make observations and ask questions
Gather evidence and draw conclusions
Make logical inferences based on text evidence
Examine primary and secondary source material
Evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and relevance of a variety of sources
Teacher Experience
Materials are available as printable PDFs or digitized student handouts available online through iCivics’ FREE Kami integration.
Available materials include slide shows, handouts for students, embedded lesson plans, and resources for teachers.The slideshows are adaptable to meet your classroom needs.
Walk through the slide show and Teacher Resources first to acquaint yourself with the development of the mystery.
We recommend beginning with the "Introduction to Inquiry" mystery for your grade-band as a starting point for students
Student Experience
Students act as history detectives to solve a mystery by exploring primary and secondary sources with the Private i History Detectives Team.
All mysteries include a big mystery question, vocabulary, primary sources from the Library of Congress and other repositories, and inquiry activities.
Students will have the opportunity to activate prior knowledge, investigate, support a claim with evidence, and reflect on content learned.
Inquiry-based activities allow all students entry points to engage in higher-order thinking.
Journalism in Action is an interactive learning tool exploring the history of journalism in society using historical primary sources.
Journalism in Action is an interactive learning tool exploring the history of journalism in society using historical primary sources. Journalism in Action was designed to help middle and high school students examine the role of a free press in different moments in United States history.
Through fun, interactive activities, students inquire, ask questions, and make their own judgments using news articles, broadcast segments, political cartoons, and photographs curated from the databases of the Library of Congress.
Topics
Documents
Images
Video
America at War
Citizenship
Civics & Government
Civil Rights
First Freedoms
Journalism
Labor & Work
Women in History
Alignments
C3 Framework
Common Core ELA History
Social Study Standards
ISTE Standards
Learning Objectives
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source
Provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions
Evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources
Communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.
Teacher Experience
Explore the history of journalism in the U.S. through Library of Congress primary documents.
Employ interactive features such as historical journal annotation, magnifying tools, and turning historical documents and images into social media posts.
Make an account for students to track answers, or use without an account.
Use all or part of our ten historical case studies, which cover topics from the Revolutionary War to Immigration to Watergate.
Student Experience
Explore the history of journalism in the United States!
Learn the ways the goals and techniques of journalists have changed over the centuries.
Use fun, interactive features including making your own social media posts based on historical records.
Imagine how journalists of the past would cover the controversies of today.
KidCitizen offers a growing set of interactive episodes that engage K–5 students with primary source photographs to explore Congress & Civic Engagement.
KidCitizen offers a growing set of interactive episodes that engage K–5 students with primary source photographs to explore Congress & Civic Engagement.
Each KidCitizen episode focuses on one or more related photographs from the Library of Congress, with topics ranging from Community Helpers to how Congress works.
The episodes capitalize on the active and social nature of young children’s learning, using primary sources for rich demonstrations, interactions, and models of literacy. The hands-on activities make academic content meaningful, build on prior experiences, and foster visual literacy and historical inquiry.
Teachers can also create and share their own episodes using the KidCitizen Editor.
Analyze and collect evidence from primary sources.
Engage in primary source inquiry, using critical literacy skills to address challenging topics.
Teacher Experience
Choose from 9 episodes that focus on historical thinking and inquiry-based learning with primary sources.
Easily access episodes from kidcitizen.org on any device.
Introduce the initial episode as part of whole class or small group guided instruction, then allow for independent revisits.
Find implementation ideas as well as suggested children's literature to support cross-curricular connections in the teacher’s guide that accompanies each episode.
Create your own episodes with the cloud-based KidCitizen Editor and share them with students.
Student Experience
Use visible thinking strategies to progress through phases of careful observation, analysis, drawing conclusions based on collected evidence, and reflection that propels the students into further inquiry.
Engage in incremental learning and authentic interaction with a primary source.
Build conceptual knowledge and develop increasingly complex historical-thinking skills
Receive guided mentorship from in-game character, Ella, who assists children in interpreting the past and simulates the collaborative conditions that optimize students’ construction of knowledge and meaning.
Relive the suffrage movement, learn about key events and figures, and explore primary documents to learn all about the fight for women's right to vote.
Relive the suffrage movement, learn about key events and figures, and explore primary documents to learn all about the fight for women's right to vote.
In Voices for Suffrage, students use primary sources to explore, replay, and engage with the women’s suffrage movement. Students will learn about the tactics, arguments, key people, and historical events that led to women gaining the vote and they’ll have fun doing it.
Topics
Documents
Images
Maps
Civics & Government
Voting & Suffrage
Women in History
Alignments
NCSS Standards
Learning Objectives
Analyze primary sources and extract information from them in order to answer questions or form a narrative.
Learn more about the important people, places, and events related to the movement and the eventual ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Learn how to use search terms, filters, and tags to locate content in a large database.
Teacher Experience
Use as a research tool when developing suffrage-related lesson plans using the included primary sources and other content.
Assign any of the Guided Tours or game chapters to be reviewed/played by students which can then be followed up with written questions or an in-class discussion.
Find resources to learn more about the Inquiry Design Model, the C3 Social Studies Framework, and working with Primary Sources (https://voicesforsuffrage.com/resources)
Student Experience
Voices for Suffrage is a great research tool for students when completing suffrage-based assignments or projects.
Guided Tours and the They Persisted game are fun ways for students to interact with the content.
The scrapbook format allows students to click through artifacts such as pins and flyers to learn how they contributed to the movement.
Exploring the movement by engaging with timelines, navigating guided tours around key themes, and exploring a database of information and sources.
Replay the movement: put yourself in the shoes of a suffragette, join a party, and find out how you might respond to key events guided by primary sources.
