Teaching History Effective Strategies

What is historical thinking? o Order o The past affects us today What do historians do? o They look at the past to figure out what happened, why it happened and how it affects us today. Why study history? o Students that understand their history understand why we have rights, understand what those rights are, and understand that life is not as easy as it seems. o People in history provide lessons in courage, diligence, achievement o Provides identity o Good Citizenship o Learn important skills o Learn from the mistakes of the past o Understand people and societies o Understand Change o Remedy for selfishness o Distinguish the educated from the uneducated.

Historical Thinking: Chronological Thinking Distinguish between past, present, and future time Identify the temporal structure of a story or historical narrative Establish temporal order in their own narratives Measure and calculate calendar time Interpret data presented in time lines (create time lines) Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration (continuity and change) Compare alternative models of periodization (eras)

Examples: Given students things that go in order have have them go into order. Ideas: After teaching students about past, present, and future they can order the effects that they have/will experience. Monday was Sarahs birthday, today is Tuesday, in a few days is Halloween.

Historical Comprehension Identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative and assess its credibility Reconstruct the literal meaning of a historical passage Identify the central question(s) the historical narrative addresses Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations Read historical narratives imaginatively Appreciate historical perspectives Draw upon data in historical maps Utilize visual, mathematical, and qualitative data Examples: Human Statue or Give pictures, have them guess the term that goes along with it. Ideas: We would learn about the person together as a class, then we could talk about how to create an image in support of the person. Together the students create an image that defines the person and why they are important in history.

Historical Analysis and Interpretation Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas Consider multiple perspectives Draw comparisons across eras and regions in order to define enduring issues Distinguish between unsupported expressions of opinion and informed hypotheses grounded in historical evidence

Compare competing historical narratives Hold interpretations of history as tentative Hypothesize the influence of the past Examples: Take an example of the school day, talk about what started conflict, what caused the problem, and what was the result. Then talk about what was some backgrounds of the conflict and side effects of the broken arm. Ideas: Compare culture, music, clothes, etc.

Historical Research Capabilities Formulate historical questions Obtain historical data from a variety of sources Interrogate historical data Contextual knowledge of the time and place Employ quantitative analysis Support interpretations with historical evidence Examples: giving clues to try to guess country. Ideas: After learning about different cultures use pictures clues to figure out what the answer is. Basic decision skills

Historical Issues Analysis and Decision-Making Identify the issue or problem in the past Look at the factors that created the problem (antecedents) Look at similar problems from the past Evaluate alternative courses of action Formulate a position or course of action on an issue

Evaluate the implementation of a decision Examples: Ideas:

Watch video Add bullet points beneath the following outline Multiple Accounts & Perspectives Students need to work with multiple accounts No single account shows how complex the past is

Analysis of Primary Sources Learning how to read, contextualize these sources. Different stories on the same topic. Ask questions on what the two eye witness had to lose or gain to understand what was really going on.

Sourcing Origins, who wrote the source, who was it to. Date of source Closer to the true story.

Understanding Historical Context Understanding who was he talking to, what time was he speaking Space and time

Claim-Evidence Connection Tell stories and questions History is supported by evidence.

How do these five areas fit with what we just talked about? Go back through the notes you just took

List activities that could be used with each of the five above

Role Playing Teacher centered instruction Keeping it sticky: Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story