Veteran classroom teachers Jonathan Bassett and Gary Shiffman have identified the Four Questions that define the thinking skills central to history and its affiliate academic disciplines, together called social studies, and have figured out how to teach students to answer those questions well. The Four Question Method gives educators a way to integrate content "coverage" - through storytelling! - with practice in the thinking skills that real people use when they examine the human world thoughtfully. This inquiry method helps teachers to plan more effectively, and students to learn more effectively. It provides guidance for writing research essays. And it transfers: students who learn with the Four Question Method are practicing the skills they will use as they encounter and make their own history. Book jacket.