Social studies professional development on using comics to drive critical thinking

Handing a teacher a new resource doesn't mean they know how to teach with it — especially when inquiry-based pedagogy and unfamiliar historical content are both new at the same time.

TrueFiktion's professional development shows teachers how to use comics to support inquiry, builds their content knowledge of untold history and primary sources, and introduces the learning science behind it all — so they leave not just aware of it, but ready to use it.

Social studies professional development using TrueFiktion comics

Past Presentations

It is becoming increasingly challenging to engage students in inquiry.

Teachers don’t have to avoid these topics - they need the right support. Our professional development helps teachers explore complex history with clarity, nuance, and care so that students understand the world they live in.

- We will cover techniques to use comics to engage students in inquiry. Through the PD, we will review key primary and secondary sources. We will provide an overview of how to connect comic images to sources and standards. We will introduce teachers to new content knowledge of historical themes of untold history stories.
- PD on learning science theories and how to implement them into classroom pedagogy. We will use comics to discuss a wide range of learning science principles that can help students progress. We will spend time examining case studies of how learning science shows up in the classroom and in comics.
- We show you how to research your local history. We will help you craft interview guides and provide techniques for researching your local history. We show you how to conduct design thinking workshops to help decide on the key themes and direction of your story. Then we will move to a writing workshop on crafting historical fiction stories and comics. We also provide an overview of the narrative structure and process for making comics.