D1.4.9-12: How Supporting Questions Drive an Inquiry and New Questions Emerge

Overview

Lesson Procedure

70-85 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes
3. Guided Practice20 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-15 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a time you looked something up and came away with a better question than the one you started with. What was the first question, and what was the better one?"

   Take three or four examples. Point out the pattern: the first question sent the student to a source, and something in the source (a surprising number, a name, a gap) produced the better question. D1.4.9-12 asks students to explain that process in an inquiry: how supporting questions (the narrower questions that sources can answer) contribute to answering a compelling question, and how careful work with sources produces new questions of both kinds.

2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes

   Part 1: Two things to explain.

   • How supporting questions contribute. A compelling question is too large to answer directly. Each supporting question isolates one part of it, points to the kind of evidence that part needs, and produces one piece of the eventual claim. A good explanation says what part each supporting question covers and what its answer adds.
   • How new questions emerge from source work. Sources do not only answer questions. A number that does not match another source, a perspective the researcher had not considered, a gap the source admits, or a new group of people affected can each produce a new supporting question, and sometimes a new compelling question. "Engaging source work" means reading closely enough to notice these.

   Diagram 1 tracks both moves for today's case.

   Part 2: The case. The topic is a vehicle for the skill. Congress chartered the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company in 1865, a bank created mainly for formerly enslaved people, and it closed in 1874. The starting compelling question is: Who was responsible for the failure of the Freedman's Savings Bank? The inquiry draws on economics (banking and risk), civics (a charter from Congress and who oversaw it), history (Reconstruction) and geography (branches across the South). The class begins with three supporting questions:

   1. What did the bank's managers decide in the years before it failed?
   2. Who was supposed to oversee the bank, and did they?
   3. What happened to the depositors' money?

   Source 1 is a history page by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal agency that supervises national banks. Source 2 is an article in Prologue, the National Archives' magazine, about the bank's surviving records. The founding dates above come from Source 2, which says the act was "signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1865" and that "the Freedman's Bank closed" on June 29, 1874; those sentences are outside the excerpt printed here. The OCC page also says Congress "chartered the Freedman's Savings Bank" on March 3, 1865.

   1At first, all went well. With the Freedmen’s Bureau helping to publicize bank, it attracted millions of dollars from tens of thousands of depositors. The accounts they established were small—the vast majority ranged between $5 and $50. Yet these small deposits were emblematic of the historic rise of a class of black property owners.

   2The bank was quick—perhaps too quick—to acquire the tangible symbols of success. It established dozens of branches throughout the country, which attracted new deposits but also depleted its resources. It built a splendid headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the southeast corner of Lafayette Square where the Treasury Annex now stands. The building filled Douglass’s heart with pride. With its “magnificent brown stone front, its towering height, its perfect appointments, and the fine display it made in the transaction of its business,” he wrote, “it was a sight I had never expected to see.” But it had cost more than $200,000 to build and furnish—a dubious expense for an institution that, within a few years of its founding, was already experiencing problems.

   [...]

   3Some of those problems stemmed from the volatile post-war economy, which saw decline, expansion, and then contraction again, culminating in the Panic of 1873. The contraction pushed down the yield on government securities, which formed a primary component of the bank’s investment portfolio, and reduced the return to depositors. It was ostensibly for their benefit that a new management team at the bank urged Congress to relax the terms of its charter, allowing it to make loans backed by real estate.

   4Congress went along. After all, access to funds for housing and related purposes, then as now, was a matter of compelling public policy. Unfortunately, history has repeatedly shown the error of expanding bank powers without increasing official oversight and risk management.

   [...]

   5The Freedman’s Savings Bank’s depositors had no such safeguards because the bank’s charter explicitly subjected it to Congress, not the OCC. This oversight proved episodic, and what there was of it was often tainted by political considerations. That is why the Congress had seen fit to create the OCC as an independent agency funded not by appropriations, but by fees paid by the banks it supervised.

   6By 1873, as the national economy spiraled downward, the bank’s condition turned critical. Congress asked the OCC to assess the bank’s prospects, providing a special appropriation to conduct emergency examinations. In February 1873 and 1874, OCC examiner Charles Meigs reported on the growing precariousness of the bank’s position. In part because no one had been watching carefully over the bank’s affairs, its officers had fallen victim to their own inexperience and to the machinations of the likes of Henry Cooke, who served on the bank’s board while also serving his family banking business, using the assets of the former to benefit the latter.

   [...]

   7The bank’s closing did more than shatter the dreams of Douglass and others with high hopes in its future. It left 61,144 depositors with losses of nearly $3 million. After years of waiting, depositors only recouped a share of what was owed them. It was a bitter conclusion to a venture launched with great promise.

   Part 3: Model the analysis on Source 1. Think aloud through the examples below. For each, say which supporting question is at work and whether it is contributing an answer or producing a new question.

   • Contribution: supporting question 1 (Source 1)

     What did the managers decide before the bank failed?

     Result: Source 1, paragraph 2: the bank "established dozens of branches" and built a headquarters that "had cost more than $200,000 to build and furnish." Paragraph 6: a board member, Henry Cooke, used "the assets of the former to benefit the latter," meaning his family's bank. Contribution: the managers are part of the answer, through overexpansion and a conflict of interest.

   • Contribution: supporting question 2 (Source 1)

     Who was supposed to oversee the bank, and did they?

     Result: Paragraph 5: the charter "explicitly subjected it to Congress, not the OCC," and that oversight "proved episodic." Paragraph 4: Congress relaxed the charter to allow "loans backed by real estate." Contribution: Congress is part of the answer too, both for loosening the rules and for weak oversight.

   • A new supporting question emerges (Source 1)

     Paragraph 3 says some problems "stemmed from the volatile post-war economy," culminating in "the Panic of 1873."

     Result: None of the three starting questions asks about forces outside the bank. Close reading produces a new supporting question: "How much of the failure came from the Panic of 1873, which no one at the bank controlled?" Its answer could reduce the share of blame on any person.

   • A new supporting question about the source itself (Source 1)

     Paragraph 4 says "history has repeatedly shown the error of expanding bank powers without increasing official oversight," and paragraph 5 praises the OCC's independence.

     Result: The author is a bank regulator, and its lesson is that banks need regulators. That is a reasonable view, but it is a perspective. New supporting question: "How do historians who are not bank regulators explain the failure?" Engaging source work includes asking who is telling the story.

   Point out that Examples 3 and 4 did not come from the starting questions. They came from reading the source closely. That is the second half of the standard.

3. Guided Practice20 minutes

   Pairs read Source 2 with two colors of sticky notes. On one color they write what the passage contributes to the three starting supporting questions. On the other they write every new question the passage raises, and label each one "new supporting" or "new compelling." Then they compare Source 2 with Source 1 and look for any place where the two do not match. Words to know: a dividend here is a partial repayment to depositors after the bank closed; a passbook is a depositor's record of the account; genealogical research is research into family history.

   1The closure of Freedman's Bank devastated the African American community. An idea that began as a well-meaning experiment in philanthropy had turned into an economic nightmare for tens of thousands African Americans who had entrusted their hard-earned money to the bank. Contrary to what many of its depositors were led to believe, the bank's assets were not protected by the federal government. Perhaps more far-reaching than the immediate lost of their tiny deposits, was the deadening effect the bank's closure had on many of the depositors' hopes and dreams for a brighter future. The bank's demise left bitter feelings of betrayal, abandonment, and distrust of the American banking system that would remain in the African American community for many years. While half of the depositors eventually received about three-fifths of the value of their accounts, others received nothing. Some depositors and their descendants spent more than thirty years petitioning Congress for reimbursement for losses.(7)

   [...]

   2The surviving records of twenty-nine branches of the Freedman's Bank are reproduced on National Archives Microfilm Publication M816, Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874. This publication reproduces fifty-five volumes of signatures of and personal identification data about thousands of depositors who maintained accounts with the bank. While the amount of information collected by each branch varied, the records generally show the name of the depositor; account number; age; complexion; date of application; place of birth; place raised; occupation; spouse; children; names of parents, brothers, and sisters; remarks; and signature. Some of the earlier volumes contain the names of former owners or mistresses and the plantations where depositors resided. [...]

   [...]

   3[...] Between 1875 and 1883, the commissioners and the comptroller of the currency declared five dividend payments, amounting to 62 percent of what was actually owed to depositors. To receive dividend payments, depositors had to mail in their passbooks with their return address to Washington. Of the 61,131 depositors eligible to receive the dividends, only 29,996 sent in passbooks. Most of these depositors were holders of large accounts. Many small depositors—some 31,000—never requested their dividends. [...]

   [...]

   4To encourage deposits and to convince the African American community that their money was in safe hands, Freedman's Bank officials used a number of methods and tactics. Passbooks and other bank literature contained numerous slogans and poems "on temperance, frugality, economy, chastity, the virtues of thrift & savings." Bank advertisements frequently included the names of prominent government officials, such as Abraham Lincoln and Oliver Otis Howard, often to the point of misleading depositors into believing that their deposits were backed by the federal government. Depositors were constantly reminded during public meetings and other bank-sponsored gatherings that the bank was under the charter of Congress, and thus under its complete protection. One writer remarked, "Small wonder that most freedmen never knew that the only power Congress had over the Bank was the right to inspect the books if it wished—which it didn't."(10)

   Teacher key.

   • Contributions to supporting question 3 (the money): paragraph 3 says payments totaled "62 percent of what was actually owed," and that "only 29,996 sent in passbooks" out of "61,131 depositors eligible." About half the depositors (29,996 of 61,131 is about 49 percent) were repaid in part, which matches paragraph 1: "half of the depositors eventually received about three-fifths."
   • Contribution to supporting question 2 (oversight): paragraph 4 quotes a writer who says Congress's only power "was the right to inspect the books if it wished," which agrees with Source 1, paragraph 5.
   • New supporting questions: "Why did so many depositors believe the federal government protected their money?" (paragraph 1, "Contrary to what many of its depositors were led to believe," and paragraph 4 on advertisements naming Abraham Lincoln). "Why did about 31,000 small depositors never request their dividends?" (paragraph 3). And from comparing sources: Source 1, paragraph 7, says the closing left "61,144 depositors," while Source 2, paragraph 3, counts "61,131 depositors eligible." Are these two different counts, or one count reported differently? The gap is only 13, but checking it is real source work.
   • New compelling questions: paragraph 1's account of "betrayal, abandonment, and distrust" suggests "What does a government owe people who trust an institution it charters?" (civics). Paragraph 2's description of the records, which list depositors' parents, children and birthplaces, suggests "What can the Freedman's Bank records tell us about families in the first years after slavery?" (history). The second is a different inquiry altogether: the sources moved the class from causes to legacy.

   Note for discussion: Source 2, paragraph 2, says some early registers contain "the names of former owners or mistresses and the plantations where depositors resided." These are the people who had enslaved the depositors: "owner" and "mistress" (a woman enslaver) are the records' words, and many historians today write "enslaver" to make clear that people were never rightly property. The registers also record each depositor's "complexion," a category the clerks used to describe people. Read these entries as evidence about slavery and its aftermath: for family historians they can connect a depositor to records from before emancipation. Discuss them through document analysis only, never role-play.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Each student writes a one-page inquiry update with three parts: (1) for each of the three starting supporting questions, two or three sentences on what Sources 1 and 2 contribute; (2) the two new questions the student thinks matter most, with the passage that raised each; (3) a revised compelling question, or a defense of keeping the original, with reasons. The revised question may stay about responsibility or move to a new direction; the grade depends on the reasoning, not the choice.

5. Closure5-15 minutes

   Exit ticket: "Name one question you are asking at the end of this lesson that you could not have asked at the start. What in the sources produced it?"

   Teacher note on the sources: Sources 1 and 2 are federal government publications, quoted exactly with omissions marked [...]. They agree on the main story: rapid growth, a looser charter, weak oversight, the Panic of 1873 and heavy losses for depositors. Source 1 is written by a bank regulator and draws a regulator's lesson; Source 2 is written for researchers using the records and emphasizes the depositors. The page does not ask students to assign blame to any present-day group or institution. Sources 3 and 4 are invented scenarios.

   Quiz passage. Questions 9-16 of the quiz use Source 3, an invented student's inquiry log. Homework passage. The homework uses Source 4, three invented documents.

   1Jordan, an invented eleventh grader, kept this log for an inquiry on the compelling question "Should the invented town of Lindale build a new reservoir?" Every source and number in this log is invented.

   2Supporting question 1: How much water does Lindale use, and is that changing? Source: the town water report. Finding: use has grown about 2 percent a year for ten years, and the old reservoir supplied every summer except the drought summer of 2022, when the town limited lawn watering.

   3Supporting question 2: What would a new reservoir cost, and who would pay? Source: an engineer's estimate to the town council. Finding: about $30 million, paid by raising water bills.

   4Supporting question 3: What would the reservoir change on the land? Source: the county map of the proposed site. Finding: the lake would cover 40 farms in Birch Hollow, and the map labels a small cemetery inside the flooded area.

   5Jordan's notes after reading: The map raised two questions I did not have before: "Who are the families buried in the Birch Hollow cemetery, and what do their descendants want?" and "Has Lindale ever flooded a valley before, and how did that go?" I am also starting to think my compelling question is too narrow. Maybe it should be "How should a town weigh its future water needs against the people who would lose their land?"

   1These three short documents about the invented town of Ashby are invented for this homework. A class used them for the compelling question "Why did Ashby rebuild its downtown in brick after the fire of 1903?"

   2Document A, a city council record, June 1903: The council voted 5 to 2 that any new building on Main Street must have brick or stone outer walls. The two members who voted no said the rule would cost too much for small shop owners.

   3Document B, a newspaper editorial, July 1903: "The fire spread from the livery stable to the bank in under an hour, because every building between them was wood. Brick will cost more, but another fire would cost us everything."

   4Document C, a letter from a shop owner to her sister, October 1903: "I could not pay for brick, so I have moved my shop to Elm Street, outside the new rule. Three of my neighbors have done the same. Main Street will be handsome, but it will not be ours."

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 1, paragraph 1, says that among the accounts "the vast majority ranged between $5 and $50." Which new supporting question does this detail best raise?

   AWhat did losing a small account mean for a family? BHow many branches did the bank open by 1871? CWho designed the headquarters building in Washington? DWhen did Congress create the Freedmen's Bureau?

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 1, paragraph 7, says the closing "left 61,144 depositors with losses of nearly $3 million." About how much did each depositor lose on average?

   AAbout $490 BAbout $5 CAbout $49 DAbout $4,900

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 1, paragraph 6, says OCC examiner Charles Meigs "reported on the growing precariousness of the bank's position" in February 1873 and 1874. Which new supporting question does this raise?

   AHow did the bank choose its first president? BWhat did the reports say, and did anyone act? CHow large was the bank's Washington building? DWhich branch opened first, and in what city?

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   An invented class asks "Was the 1920s highway good for the town of Greenfield?" A supporting question about jobs finds that gas stations opened but farm stores closed. What does this finding contribute?

   AA full answer: the highway was good for the town BNothing, since jobs are not part of the question CA reason to drop the compelling question DEvidence that the effects differed by business

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   An invented researcher asks why a town's factory closed in 1900. The owner's letter blames a fire; a newspaper says the factory had just lost its biggest customer. Which new question emerged from this source work?

   A"Why did the factory close down in the year 1900?" B"Who owned the factory at the time it closed?" C"Fire or lost customer: which mattered more?" D"When did the factory first open for business?"

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   An invented researcher studying a 1919 strike reads a company letter calling the strikers "a few troublemakers," then a newspaper reporting that 3,000 workers walked out. What is the best new supporting question?

   AHow many workers did the company employ in 1919? BWhat did the strikers say they wanted? CWas the newspaper published in the morning? DWho owned the company before 1919?

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What makes a new question a compelling question rather than a supporting one?

   AIt is longer and uses more formal words BIt came from a primary source, not a secondary one CIt is arguable and frames a whole inquiry DIt can be answered with one number from a source

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does the D1.4.9-12 standard say new questions emerge "through engaging source work"?

   ABecause close reading produces new questions BBecause the teacher should supply all new questions CBecause sources always answer every question asked DBecause new questions should be asked before reading

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 3, what part of the compelling question does supporting question 2 cover?

   AWhether the town truly needs more water BIts cost and who would pay for it CWho lives on the land the lake would cover DHow the town handled the drought of 2022

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which finding in Source 3 most weakens the case that Lindale must build a reservoir soon?

    AWater use has grown about 2 percent a year BThe new reservoir would cost about $30 million CThe old reservoir met every summer but one DThe lake would cover 40 farms in Birch Hollow

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What feature of the county map produced Jordan's new questions?

    AIt showed a mistake in the engineer's estimate BIt disagreed with the town water report's numbers CIt was older than the other two sources DIt showed affected people no question had named

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Jordan writes, "Has Lindale ever flooded a valley before, and how did that go?" What kind of new question is this?

    AA supporting question about past cases BA compelling question that replaces the original CA question that restates supporting question 3 DA question unrelated to the compelling question

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Why is Jordan's revised question, "How should a town weigh its future water needs against the people who would lose their land?", a compelling question?

    ABecause it can be answered by the engineer's estimate BBecause it names a specific town and a specific valley CBecause people can weigh these values differently DBecause it is a question Jordan asked at the very start

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    If Lindale's water use grows about 2 percent a year, about how much more water will it use after ten years?

    AAbout 2 percent more BAbout 12 percent more CAbout 20 percent more DAbout 22 percent more

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which new supporting question would best test the drought finding in supporting question 1?

    AHow often have droughts like 2022 happened in the area? BWho first proposed building a new reservoir in Lindale? CHow did residents feel about the limits on watering? DWhat did the engineer charge for writing the estimate?

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Using Source 3, explain how Jordan's supporting questions contributed to the inquiry and how new questions emerged. Give one example of each and cite the paragraphs.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    A weak sample answer to fix. A student wrote: "Jordan's new questions show that the first compelling question was wrong, so the first supporting questions were a waste of time." Explain what is weak about this sample, then rewrite it.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write one new supporting question about the Freedman's Savings Bank that is not on this page, name the passage in Source 1 or 2 that would lead a researcher to it, and say which part of the inquiry it would serve.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Two sources give slightly different numbers for the same thing. Give two possible reasons, and explain how a researcher could check which applies.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Describe an inquiry from another course (science, English, or another social studies class) in which reading a source changed the question you were asking. Explain which feature of the source changed it.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D1.4.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.