Built around a question and its sources

Social Studies Lesson Plan Template

An inquiry plan for history, civics, geography and economics: a compelling question students will care about, the supporting questions that break it down, a table of the sources they will work with and the evidence each should yield, and the argument they will make at the end. The backward-design unit plan is the companion for the unit the inquiry sits inside.

Questions, sources, argument

2 social studies templates

Portrait social studies plan with compelling and supporting question boxes, a four-row sources table, and boxes for the argument task, informed action, vocabulary and differentiation

Word Google Docs

Social Studies Inquiry Lesson Plan — Word & Google Docs

Compelling and supporting questions, then a sources table — what students do with each source and the evidence they should find — leading to an argument task and taking informed action.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Social Studies Inquiry Lesson Plan — fillable PDF

One page, portrait. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Two-page unit plan with Stage 1 and Stage 2 boxes for goals, understandings, essential questions and evidence, then a ten-row learning plan table

Word Google Docs

Backward Design Unit Plan — Word & Google Docs

Stage 1 desired results, Stage 2 evidence, Stage 3 a ten-day learning plan with a formative check per day. Two pages.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Backward Design Unit Plan — fillable PDF

2 pages, portrait. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Specifications: US Letter, 8.5 × 11 inches. Word files are editable .docx that open in Word 2007 through Microsoft 365, including Word for Mac; the Google Docs link makes a copy in your own Drive; the PDF has real form fields and prints as plain hairline boxes when blank. Free to use in as many classes as you like, no account, no watermark.

Why it is laid out this way

About the social studies templates

Social studies has moved from covering content to doing the discipline — asking a question, reading sources, making an argument from evidence — and a plan organized by activities cannot show that. This one is organized by the inquiry arc: the compelling question at the top, supporting questions under it, and a sources table that asks, for each document, map, chart or passage, what students will do with it and what evidence they should find. If the evidence column is empty, the source is decoration.

The two boxes after the sources are the ones most often left out: the argument or summative task that the evidence builds toward, and taking informed action — what students might do with what they have concluded. The second is the civic purpose of the subject and takes a sentence to plan. Content background and vocabulary have their own boxes, since an inquiry lesson still needs the teacher to know the history.

Questions teachers ask

Social Studies lesson plans, answered

Do I need a compelling question for every lesson?

For every inquiry, not every period. A compelling question usually drives a week or two; a single lesson works on one supporting question and one or two sources. Fill the compelling question once, copy it forward, and change the supporting question and the sources table each day.

What counts as a source?

Anything students interpret rather than just read for information: a primary document, a photograph, a map, a data table, a political cartoon, a textbook passage treated as an account rather than the truth. Three sources is the usual lesson-sized set; the fourth row is the discussion that puts them together.

How does this fit a textbook-driven course?

The textbook section becomes one of the sources and the chapter question becomes the supporting question. Teachers who are required to follow a pacing guide use the sheet to turn one lesson a week into an inquiry while the rest stay as they are.