Social Studies

Social studies should help students make sense of the world and their place within it. From elementary to high school, our compelling, standards-aligned programs are developed by respected authors to support critical thinking and inquiry, using rich primary and secondary sources that encourage students to ask thoughtful questions, consider diverse perspectives, and draw informed conclusions. By connecting the past to the present, students build disciplinary thinking skills as historians, geographers, and economists while exploring essential questions and real-world issues.

Our flexible approach meets diverse learning needs and teaching styles, offering differentiated scaffolds, multilingual supports, and adaptive tools that personalize learning – making the most of every instructional moment dedicated to social studies. Supplemental digital resources deepen engagement and allow teachers to integrate local content, current events, and hands-on activities.

Let’s foster a generation of informed, curious, thoughtful, future-ready citizens.

Social studies should help students make sense of the world and their place within it. Across every grade and every domain, teachers need high-quality, trusted social studies content they can rely on to foster prepared, thoughtful citizens.

Our engaging, standards-aligned social studies programs are developed by respected authors and experts to ensure every lesson supports critical thinking and inquiry. Through rich primary and secondary sources—from interviews and articles to poems and photographs—students analyze evidence, consider diverse perspectives, and draw informed conclusions. With purposeful scaffolds and cross-curricular connections, our resources help every learner engage deeply with history, culture, and civic life, preparing them to think critically and act thoughtfully as future-ready citizens.

IMPACT Social Studies helps maximize instructional time by helping students see how social studies connects to the world around them. Cross-curricular connections strengthen understanding of societal structures and global perspectives, while empowering learners to apply their knowledge across math, science, and English Language Arts (ELA).

Our 6-12 social studies programs all focus on primary and secondary sources, empowering students to gather evidence, draw conclusions, communicate understanding, and take informed action. There are up to three Inquiry Activity Lessons in every topic covering a wide range of voices and perspectives, provided by excerpts from interviews, magazine articles, poems, song lyrics, photographs, and much more.

With seamless alignment to the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, IMPACT Social Studies places inquiry at the heart of its instruction. Each of the C3 Framework dimensions is threaded throughout the IMPACT instructional model, ensuring that students receive engaging, relevant, standards-aligned content every step of the way.

When first published in 1947 by the great historian John Hope Franklin, the book From Slavery to Freedom represented a defining moment in the scholarly treatment of Black people in the American heritage.

The AP edition is in lock-step alignment with the AP Framework and enriches student understanding of essential content and AP skills by emphasizing prominent themes throughout.

Fostering informed, inquiring learners means helping students connect the past to the present so they can make sense of their world through the lens of history. Our social studies approach centers on inquiry: inviting students to ask thoughtful questions, investigate multiple perspectives, and analyze high-quality primary and secondary sources to uncover deeper understanding. Through engaging, age-appropriate content and activities—from rich texts and media to games—students develop the disciplinary thinking skills of historians, geographers, and economists. By linking historical study to current events and real-world issues, they not only build knowledge and critical-thinking skills but also discover their role as thoughtful, informed citizens in an ever-changing world.

Provide every student with the disciplinary tools and strategies to think like a historian, geographer, economist, and as an informed world citizen. IMPACT Social Studies builds a solid foundation in these essential domains of social studies with a spiraled, developmental approach and coherent units of study—actively engaging students with a rich variety of informational texts, primary sources, media, and activities.

Empower your students to discover their role in the community, the nation, and the world with trusted, age-appropriate content.

Every IMPACT Social Studies lesson is yours to customize with games, videos, projects, and hands-on activities that make learning fun, engaging, and unforgettable.

Engaging resources such as Kahoot! quizzes, videos, songs, graphic novels, interactive maps, and more immerse students in the learning experience and help them build the knowledge and critical-thinking skills they need to thrive in our ever-changing society.

Link past to present to help students make sense of their nation and world through the lens of history. Our 6-12 social studies programs employ an inquiry-based approach that incorporates current events to spark informed action and empowers students to recognize how history relates to them.

Across every grade level, IMPACT Social Studies and 6-12 social studies programs organizes content around inquiry-driven chapters anchored by compelling Essential Questions such as, “Why does it matter where we live?” These questions spark curiosity, encourage reflection, and guide students in forming and expressing their own opinions as they explore the core concepts of each chapter. Lesson Questions carry the inquiry forward, helping students build the knowledge and context needed to address the Chapter Essential Question—prompting them to dive into historical concepts and discover unique perspectives through the analysis of rich primary and secondary sources.

Reaching every learner means giving educators the flexibility and support to teach in the ways that work best for their students and make the most of every limited instructional moment. Our approach to social studies flexes to meet diverse learning needs and make the most of every instructional moment, offering differentiated scaffolds, leveled readers, and comprehensive supports for multilingual learners—including a full Spanish version of core elementary content—to ensure equity. Teachers can choose from flexible pacing options, a variety of print and digital resources, and adaptive tools that personalize each student’s learning journey. Whether through inquiry, discussion, or independent exploration, teachers have the tools to reach every learner and help them grow into informed, active citizens.

IMPACTO ensures Spanish speaking students can access a high-quality, intellectually rich, and engaging social studies curriculum through authentic Spanish translations available in both print and digital formats. Scaffolded strategies promote biliteracy by supporting language transfer and building meaningful connections between English and Spanish.

Middle school social studies teachers can support every student with additional strategies to choose from. Look for labels in the Teacher Edition such as differentiated instruction, multiple strategies to support social and emotional learning, culturally responsive connections, and many more. Culturally Responsive Connections in the Teacher Edition provide support for creating a culturally responsive climate in any classroom.

SmartBook, integrated into our 6-12 social studies programs, allows for adaptive, personalized learning to supporting student where they are in their learning journey by assessing their skills and knowledge while they read and pointing them to specific content to help them with concepts.

In our US History program, teachers choose between a variety of learning resources to engage students in thought-provoking and personalized learning opportunities. Teacher and Student Editions come in Full Survey or Early Years in both print and digital form.

Social studies comes alive when students can explore content in ways that are relevant, engaging, and tailored to their needs. Our core and digital supplemental resources provide multimodal, standards-aligned instructional moments that can fit into even the tightest schedule, ranging from interactive texts and primary sources to multimedia and gamified experiences Teachers can integrate local content, current events, and culturally relevant perspectives while differentiating instruction to meet every learner where they are. By combining essential questions, inquiry-based investigations, and interactive tools, these resources help students make meaningful connections between history, geography, civics, and the world around them, fostering critical thinking, engagement, and a deeper understanding of the past and present.

Promote student engagement and drive deeper learning in social studies with Actively Learn. This award-winning digital program offers a wide range of culturally relevant, standards-aligned content for core topics in history, geography, economics, civics, and government.

Bring social studies to life with our free, award-winning app, McGraw Hill AR. It can supplement any core curriculum by stimulating engagement through interaction, exploration, and multisensory experiences.

Discovery through curiosity starting with essential questions, unique primary & secondary sources, and gamification with Kahoots!

Featured Core Programs

IMPACT
Grades K–5
With inquiry-based learning, flexible teaching tools, and multimedia resources, this program helps build critical thinking skills and fosters a deeper understanding of history, civics, economics, and geography. Explore materials aligned with state standards to ensure students meet academic goals while developing global awareness and active citizenship.
Networks
Grades 6–12
Discover a dynamic, student-centered social studies curriculum that helps teachers prepare students to be successful in college, careers, and civic life.

Featured Advanced Placement Programs

Program Name
Grades K–5
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Program Name
Grades K–5
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Program Name
Grades K–5
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Program Name
Grades K–5
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AP®, Advanced Placement®, and Advanced Placement Program® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse these products.