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Housing history affects every community. With the Unvarnished teaching resources, we invite you and your students to discover and share the local dimensions of national patterns, and see them through the wide lens of American history.
The four Inquiry modules below are based on the C3 Inquiry Design Model and support National Council on Social Studies and Common Core Standards for Literacy in History and Social Studies, Grades 6-12. Each module investigates a compelling question about housing history and guides students to explore supporting questions. Activities engage students in historical thinking, providing opportunities to use primary sources, build historical reasoning, make comparisons, practice chronological thinking, and develop research skills. Inquiries (and the activities within them) can be used singly, or combined into a full unit of study.
Common Core Standards for Literacy in History and Social Studies
This introductory document offers a complete overview of the Inquiry modules along with suggestions on teaching the troubling history of racial residential segregation in ways that support all students.
View Overview (~150kb PDF)
This document is a letter to teachers.
View Tips Letter (~77kb PDF)
Inquiry OneWhy Do We Live Where We Live?
Students consider the meaning of “home” through vision boards and ranked-choice organizers, and discover what people value in a place to live. Then, working with oral histories, they discover how constraints play a role in housing decisions and analyze forces that combine to generate housing patterns.
View Inquiry One (~300kb PDF)View Slides (~30kb PDF)Student Articles (Coming Soon)
Inquiry TwoHow Did the U.S. Become So Segregated?
Students interrogate the concept of “segregation” from the 1890s to today, building a timeline to organize key events. They practice reading historic images to develop a one-page research project on a specific fair housing story, and explore legal and policy tools that have separated American communities.
View Inquiry Two (~200kb PDF)View Timeline (~100kb PDF)View Image Bank (~21MB PDF)Student Articles (Coming Soon)
Inquiry ThreeHow Has Housing Discrimination Impacted Us?
Using maps and primary documents, students discover how redlining, deed restriction, and zoning policies have had long-lasting effects on American residential patterns. Then, they roleplay zoning and planning decisions that guide community development.
View Inquiry Three (~6MB PDF)View Slides (~6MB PDF)View Maps (~2MB PDF)Student Articles (Coming Soon)
Inquiry FourWhat Can People Do About Housing Discrimination?
Students delve into original research to discover local housing history. Using systems mapping, they identify potential barriers and find entry points to change. They profile fair housing leaders, and design an infographic to represent a contemporary housing issue. Finally, they debate the question of housing as a human right.
View Inquiry Four (~800kb PDF)View Slides (~300kb PDF)Student Articles (Coming Soon)
Please see the Unvarnished Resource List for even more resources to use for your own background and/or your classroom.