November, 2011-- Historical Method & Historical Thinking

Understanding Historical Method (in a nutshell)

Tier One:  Building a Personal and Intimate Connection to the Past by...

• Seeking personal connections to history
• seeing history as the story of people and their voice, rather than dry, disconnected events

During our training time, we used a template called, "Understanding by Design-- Backwards Design Process" that was shared by Bobbie Hansen, (created by Wiggins and McTighe).  For an hour or more, I worked to fit all of our great ideas into the model before us, and in the end, found it to be a bit more labor intensive than I liked, and not as user-friendly for sharing.  I think that two of the challenges I had were in sticking to teaching to one objective, and in formulating relevant questions/responses.  Our original idea of incorporating Persuasive Writing with our Social Studies content standards began to take on a much wider, more complex look and feel.   Much of the information used with this planning model seemed redundant to me.  I guess it is just a personal preference, and, like most things, becomes easier with time and use.  I am thankful that Yvonne and Bobbie are both so flexible and have given each group the authority to plan and create utilizing the resources that each feels most comfortable with.

Although we'll stick with the outline for teaching skills for both writing and for history, I think that we'll use a simpler, less complicated lesson plan than the one we originally co-created.
 
Historical Thinking:
I've reviewed the "historical thinking" notes and content from our previous trainings, to see how we were utilizing resources over time, and how each new phase of our training was able complement our prior knowledge of both subject matter and strategic teaching. 

This new information from Bobbie Hansen regarding the personal connections we'd like our students to make to history and also the integration of Language Arts standards is a good fit with many of the practices and resources that many of us seem to have already put into place.

In my classroom, for example, I've utilized Cicero on a number of occasions.  The Columbian Exchange presented by Dr. Bauer and by Anthony Fitzpatrick was a made a more primary focus of  my instruction, and it enabled my students to make cause/effect analyses, and to connect with  explorers, as well as the native people in a more meaningful way.  I've enjoyed using art/images to analyze perspectives, and find that students really love this alternative.  Lastly, using the SPECs model to analyze documents, pictures, etc., has been a useful tool, directing our focus and sharping our analysis skills.    Viewing history in this way directs our study and also promotes the personal connections (uncovering the 5 W's) to people and events.