This is Problem-Based Learning. Students don't answer questions about famous people — they step inside the problem as stakeholders, and the teacher guides rather than tells. The whole phase runs the problem-solving process named in §113.14(c)(16)(B).
Read the narrative aloud. Read it once for the story, then again for details students will need.
First reaction (not answers yet): what did you notice? What do you wonder? Keep it open — the point is to pull students into the problem.
📚 Sources: Ben's Guide · What is a community? ↗ · Nat Geo Kids · History & people ↗
Assign or let students choose a stakeholder. Each will reason from that person's point of view. Every role cares about a different kind of contribution.
You will use this library to learn. Whose name would inspire kids like you every time they walk in? Why?
You know every book and every reader. Whose story fits a place made for learning and for everyone? Show your evidence.
You believe scientists and inventors changed the world (§(c)(13)). How do you show their contribution deserves the honor?
You know the heroes of your own town and state (§(c)(11)). Why should the library honor someone from right here at home?
You love the writers and artists who gave the town its stories and art (§(c)(12)). How is that a real contribution too?
You run the vote fairly. Your job is to make sure every side is heard, the evidence is real, and one person, one vote is honored.
Build three shared columns on chart paper. This defines the problem and plans the inquiry — the first moves of §113.14(c)(16)(B).
| 💭 Hunches | ✅ Know (from the text) | ❓ Need to know |
|---|---|---|
| Our guesses about whom the library should honor and why. | Facts we can point to in the story (the library is new; the town picks one name; many kinds of people were named; the community will decide). | Questions we must answer — What did each person really do? Whom did it help? Is our information from a good source? How will the town choose fairly? |
Turn "Need to know" into the H of KWHL: How will we find out? (which sources, whom to ask). Record it — this is the class's research plan.
Groups pursue their "Need to know" questions using vetted biography sources (see the facilitator guide for suggested free sources). Students gather and compare information from primary and secondary sources: What did this person do? Whom did it help? Is the source reliable? Keep filling the Learned column of KWHL as answers come in.
Teacher-as-guide moves: answer a question with a question; point to a source, not the answer; ask "How do you know?" and "Is that a primary or secondary source?"
📚 Investigation sources: Women's History Museum · Biographies ↗ · Nat Geo Kids · History ↗ · NPS · Telling All Americans' Stories ↗ · National Archives · Lessons ↗. Full list + how-to in the facilitator guide.
From their stakeholder's point of view, each group nominates one person to honor and defends the choice with evidence. Assessment happens throughout the process, not only here (the reasoning is the point).
Groups present an 8-part nomination brief (poster, slides, or spoken):
Hold a class town meeting. Each group makes its case for its nominee. Then the class votes — just like real citizens do. Voting is a job of good citizens (§113.14(c)(9)(E)), and it shows how a community chooses and implements one solution when it cannot honor everyone at once.
Fair-vote moves: everyone hears every side first; one person, one vote; count out loud; accept the result even if it isn't your first choice. Talk about how the town could still honor other people later — a reading room, a mural, a yearly award.
📚 Sources: Ben's Guide · Citizenship ↗ · Ben's Guide · How local government decides ↗
Close the loop — the evaluate step of the problem-solving process. Discuss across roles so students hear how the same choice looked from every side.
Connect to today & to the standards: communities everywhere weigh contributions and points of view, then decide together with a vote. Name the steps students just used — that is §113.14(c)(16)(B).
Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.14; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. This scenario is a teaching fiction.