In a TCI classroom, learning comes alive! Each program includes a variety of flexible lesson options—classroom activities, video activities, and reading activities—so you can pick the engagement style that works for your students.
Engage your students in meaningful social studies lessons that allow them to develop critical thinking skills while building a deep understanding of the world around them.
From video-based Geography Challenges to Lesson Games, our programs leverage multimedia resources to draw students in and get them thinking deeply about social studies. Students interact with multimedia, from videos to songs to audio tracks.
TCI’s unique, student-centered approach gets students thinking, talking, and asking big questions. Dynamic hands-on activities inspire students to explore history and actively participate in class.
Classroom activities, video activities, and reading activities—flexible lesson plans provide three options to fit your approach to teaching. Each option provides opportunities to develop social studies and literacy skills and assess student learning.
Each unit in History Alive! has an optional Inquiry Project that outlines an inquiry-focused pathway through the unit. Students develop questions, use disciplinary sources to build arguments, communicate their conclusions with evidence, and then take informed action.
Literacy instruction is built into the Student Text, Interactive Student Notebook, and Activities. Students engage with—and respond to—relevant primary sources, civic literacy texts, and informational content.
Prepare students to become informed, civically engaged members of their communities. Students have meaningful civil discussions and build empathy by reading and learning about various perspectives.
Our programs provide the comprehensive teacher support and standards-aligned content you expect, but what makes TCI unique is engagement that works.
TCI’s philosophy is grounded in the goal of creating inclusive classroom communities in which students learn about the world through multiple perspectives and make connections to their own lives.
Accuracy and diversity drive TCI’s curriculum-development process. Our programs are guided by state standards, as well as a commitment to highlighting multiple perspectives and diverse viewpoints in the curriculum. This includes examining multiple perspectives and integrating important primary sources. TCI has an extensive editorial and scholarly review process to ensure that our content is both fair and accurate.
TCI’s Cooperative, Inclusive Classroom provides the foundation for our approach to active learning. This involves creating a classroom environment where all students are valued and have a voice. In this classroom, teachers build meaningful connections with students and act as facilitators for student learning. Teachers also set norms that allow for civil discourse and the respectful expression of viewpoints and perspectives.
Making personal connections to content is at the heart of TCI’s approach to teaching. Each lesson begins with a preview activity that helps students build background knowledge and make connections to upcoming content. Lessons include opportunities for students to take part in authentic learning assignments in which they are encouraged to apply their personal voice and interests to demonstrate what they have learned.
The TCI approach to Social Studies Curriculum Resources and Programs integrates proven teaching strategies, engaging content, and meaningful technology to excite students and foster their love of learning.
| View Standards Correlations | TCI and Inquiry |
TCI’s content also supports students in learning the citizenship skills they need to actively participate in their schools and communities. This includes a Citizenship Toolkit that provides concrete lessons that help students channel their energy and passion in productive ways.
TCI’s programs are designed with one primary goal: to help students master the essential skills and knowledge. To this end, every unit includes primary sources and activities to make the lessons more inquiry-based and to help your students develop critical-thinking skills.
TCI’s standards-aligned social studies curriculum meets the criteria for national frameworks such as the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework. It also aligns with state standards across the United States, all so that teachers can focus on what they do best—teaching.
Active learning is at TCI’s core; every lesson utilizes at least one of our six unique hands-on classroom strategies. TCI activities get students excited and curious; students are inspired to ask questions and conduct purposeful research. They make written and oral arguments, support claims with evidence, and take informed action when appropriate.
Many fiction and nonfiction literary genres—representing diverse groups and viewpoints—are embedded throughout the program. Writing assignments are aligned to strengthen students’ literacy skills and support cross-disciplinary instruction. ELA/ELD standards are reinforced throughout the activities and notebook prompts.
Students “do democracy” through civic discourse and by engaging with their local communities. They build empathy by reading and learning about various perspectives.
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