Culturally Responsive Social Studies Curriculum
TrueFiktion comics take students on a journey through time to discover the stories of everyday people shaping U.S. history while learning to think critically about current-day social issues.
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Textbooks filled with dates to memorize and stories of unrelatable historical figures don’t stand a chance against the highly visual and addictive social media content kids are used to consuming.
TrueFiktion is a portal through time. Our comics make history more palpable, relevant, and engaging.
History is often told from a dominant view that lacks cultural nuance and fails to provide regular people with agency. TrueFiktion makes the untold stories from the perspective of marginalized people accessible to increasingly diverse classrooms across America.
Avoiding chapters of our history can deprive us of learning about the resilience and perseverance of marginalized people. Our comics center the narratives of historically marginalized people.
Some teachers might not know how to use comic books to teach history or social studies. We provide support through professional development on the psychology of reading comics and how to use them for student learning.
Some teachers might be unfamiliar with comics and need to learn how to utilize them to teach history or social studies. We provide support through how-to guides, webinars, and pedagogy.
TrueFiktion comics are an academically engaging resources that engages students with the past, teaches them to think critically about the present, and prepares them to shape the future.
Whether you are well-versed in or new to implementing culturally responsive education, we can support your teachers in learning and teaching social studies.
Teaching inclusive narratives in history can be challenging when you don’t have the right resources or support. Each of our comics comes with everything you need to confidently introduce it into a history or social studies program.
Our comic books can be purchased individually to fill your child’s gaps in history knowledge and prepare them to have thoughtful conversations about social issues.
— Zaretta Hammond, Author of Culturally Responsive Learning
During our call, we will ask you how we can support your teachers in their practice and recommend specific books from our catalog or professional development.
If you can’t find what you need in our existing catalog, we work with your students, teachers, and local historians to create a comic book about characters and events that feel relevant to your students.
Your educators will feel equipped and supported to broach sad, unfair, and sometimes violent chapters in history in an engaging and academically rigorous way.
Testimonials
– Molly Mitchell, historian, University of New Orleans
– Abigail Henry, history teacher at Mastery Charter School
— Molly Mitchell, historian, University of New Orleans
— Brian Knowles, Manager of African, African American, Latino, Holocaust, and Social Studies
— Samuel, High School History Teacher
TrueFiktion comic books make it easy to add diverse and inclusive teaching units to the scope and sequence of your history or social studies curriculums.
Our comics are academically rigorous resources that illustrate lesser-known moments of U.S. history, highlight the resilience of marginalized groups, and make history relevant to current social issues.
• World-class artwork
• Verified primary sources
• Standards-aligned workbooks
• Educator skill enhancement
Our process uses a design-thinking methodology to engage your students and teachers in creating an inquiry-based comic highlighting a local historical moment with national significance.
• Curriculum audit
• Historical research
• Design Thinking for kids
• Co-Design workshops
We offer a wide variety of in-person and online professional development workshops. Learn how to use comic books to talk about difficult moments in history, develop your inquiry-based teaching competencies and acquire design thinking skills. We can also develop custom workshops for your educators and make them hyper-relevant to the TrueFiktion comic books you plan to integrate into your district.
At TrueFiktion, we believe that diverse and inclusive narratives benefit the entire classroom. Research shows that students who develop a positive sense of racial and ethnic identity are more interested in befriending people of different backgrounds. Kids from marginalized communities feel empowered by representation, and students who connect with experiences beyond their own develop empathy and critical thinking.
TrueFiktion focuses on whole child development through storytelling. Our historical comic books help your students develop their sense of empathy and prepare them to solve the problems of the future.
When we create an original comic book for a community, our process involves dialoguing with your teachers and students and consulting with knowledgeable pillars of your community, such as local archivists, historians, and more. This collaborative process ensures buy-in from a multitude of stakeholders.
More importantly, TrueFiktion’s co-design process ensures that your students learn about the stories they yearn for. You likely won’t have to worry about a co-designed comic book being banned. Why would a parent want to ban something the students have had an active role in creating? Learn more about co-designing a historical comic book.
TrueFiktion’s comics are academically rigorous and challenging. They are a great way to engage all levels of readers while increasing their level of overall comprehension and drawing inference context and visual data.
Each comic uses art to teach complex historical concepts and is written to align with C3 and ELA standards.
We offer professional development and create resources for teaching staff about the psychology around comics and addressing challenging moments in history in the classroom. Each of our comics comes with specific professional development webinars or in-person training that fully prepares teachers to engage students with on the TrueFiktion stories selected for their district.
There is no going back to when kids aren’t consuming hours of on-demand micro-content on YouTube or TikTok. They are already conditioned to crave visual content. To transform the classroom into an exciting and engaging place, you must include more visual, interactive, thought-provoking, and imagination-awakening elements in your learning materials.
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