In seeking a disciplinary literacy model that would enable students to express well-developed perspectives and argue contrasting views with the sound use of evidence, the authors developed a student-driven model that emphasized historical investigation, offered substance, and scaffolded reading and writing. To support their project, they created easy-to-use primary and secondary source text collection. The curricular application focuses on American Imperialism. The primary and secondary source text collection is compatible with both 8th grade and high school social studies. The teacher needs to provide significant scaffolding and structuring. The authors recommend that writing be closely connected to texts. Primary and secondary source text collections such as the one presented in this article create an inquiry bridge between disciplinary reading and analytical writing. Although this article presents only one example, teachers can use this model to develop similar activities that structure, order and scaffold student disciplinary literacies and content understanding.