Module Introduction

This module was implemented in an 8th grade classroom at the beginning of the school year. This module introduces students to reading texts closely with a historical lens. Students are introduced to the skills of sourcing and corroboration as they analyze various interpretations of a current event with which the students are familiar. This module uses the event of the race riots in Ferguson, Missouri to support students in constructing evidence-based arguments about the complex, interrelated causes of the event based on close reading and analysis of varying perspectives about the event.

In the culminating task for this module, students construct a causal map depicting multiple causes of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri as well as compose a final essay. Students are introduced to historical framework categories (social, political, and economic) and organize the multiple causes of the event according to these categories in their causal maps.

Essential Question:
• What were some of the causes of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri?