The Source Squads Process
The Source Squads Process is a collaborative learning framework for building historical literacy skills.
Through the Source Squads Process, students:
Work in carefully designed groups of three to four learners.
Collaborate to interrogate a set of historical materials through sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, and corroborating.
Assume specific roles to facilitate each step of the historical thinking process.
Are supported with prompts that ask students to annotate, discuss, and analyze while building disciplinary vocabulary and practicing skills.
Students assume roles in their groups to facilitate historical thinking.
In these “Source Squads,” each learner is given one of four Role Cards modeled after historical literacy skills: the Sourcer, Contextualizer, Close Reader, and Corroborator.
Each card contains prompts for the Squad to facilitate the annotation, discussion, and analysis of historical materials.
Using Source Squads, students benefit from a consistent and repetitive structure for reading historical documents.
Using the Source Squads Curriculum, students can use the framework to engage in a number of different events and phenomena.
By using the Source Squads Process consistently through the academic year, students become more familiar and comfortable with each step of the historical thinking process.
Source Squads is accessible to all learners.
The Source Squads Process is adaptable for any classroom. Students with higher needs could use a smaller quantity of modified documents, while AP students can interrogate a collection of unaltered texts.
Through consistent practice, encouragement, and feedback, all students can become more comfortable and grow as readers of history.