What Do You Already Think? — Social Sciences Years 1–3
Subject adaptation · Years 1–3 · Social Sciences · Field-Based STEM · Tony Jones
Even the youngest learners arrive with something already decided. Context Triage at Years 1–3 names that arriving knowledge, tests it against a question, and makes the first act of inquiry a genuine thinking act rather than a finding task.
1Look and listen
2Sort what you find
3Keep what helps, question what might not
4Tell us what you decided
Strategy — Context Triage
Before the inquiry activity opens, share a short set of images, words, or spoken statements relevant to the inquiry focus. Three to five items is sufficient for Years 1–3.
Ask students to sort each item into one of three categories: does this help us answer our question, does it not help, or are we not sure? The sort is completed orally, through drawing, or with physical cards students can move.
Hold a brief class discussion on one item from the not-sure pile: why are we not sure, and how would we find out? This question is the most important step — it converts uncertainty into an inquiry need.
The sorting activity is the first step of the inquiry, not a warm-up separate from it. The teacher records which items went where and the reasons students gave.
Year-Band Practice
Years 1–3 · Oral and physical sortContext Triage at this level is primarily oral and physical. Students sort cards or images and the teacher records their reasoning. "I put this in not sure because I don't know if it belongs in our town" is a complete and assessable response — the reasoning is the evidence.
Years 1–3 · Transition to Years 4As students move toward independent writing, the sort can shift from physical cards to a simple three-column page: helps, does not help, not sure. The categories are the same. Only the medium changes, and the transition can happen gradually across the year.
Years 1–3 · Connection to inquiryThe not-sure pile at the end of the sort is the entry point for the next inquiry step. Students who place something in not sure have already identified a genuine inquiry need. Treat that moment as a research question, not a gap to be corrected.
Implementation Notes
Decision checkpointThe keep, cut, and question categories must be connected to the specific inquiry question, not to general interest. "I like this picture" is not a reason to keep it. "This shows people helping each other in our community" is. Prompt students toward task-connected reasoning from the first sort.
Teacher judgement noteThe not-sure category is the most valuable outcome of the sort. A child who says "I am not sure if this one helps" is exercising exactly the evaluative judgement the inquiry process is designed to develop. Name that aloud when it happens so the whole class hears it valued.
Related frameworksContext Triage (core) · Sorting Information Before It Becomes a Claim · Evidence Overlay
