Thursday, January 30, 2014
Historical Thinking Matters
Visit the website Historical Thinking Matters
Review the web site thoroughly, noting both student and teacher modules (4)and teacher materials & strategies. Choose one of the modules (The Spanish American War, The Scopes Monkey Trial, Social Security, Rosa Parks)and study it carefully. Be ready to present the module you chose to our class on Feb. 6.
Respond to the class blog by answering how Historical Thinking Matters facilitates and inspires student learning and creativity (first NETS standard).
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HTM is a useful website to explore key topics in American History. It is also a website that clearly demonstrates a useful model of how to curate original source materials and integrate other digital media and digital media tools for effective lesson planning. One unique method I thought extremely useful were the “Think Alouds” located under Teacher Resources and Student Work. On the one hand these videos demonstrate to teachers what effective reading strategies and sample methods of assessment might look like. On the other hand, they also reinforce the learning effectiveness of using original source materials and historical documents. Watching the students read these sources highlights how they are closely reading and questioning the passages as they learn to dissect information. The students are creatively asking the critical questions and thinking about the historical narrative across texts.
ReplyDeleteStudents did seem to learn to ask: “What else was happening at that time? What was the political, economic, social, and cultural climate? How was the event shaped by the personalities and interests of the people involved?”
I was very impressed by this example. I wonder how many hours did it take to produce. There are four topics. Each has at least five different ways to “teach” the lesson, and additional resources for continued learning. Imagine trying to do every unit in a High School history class with this method. Incredible.
Another fun tidbit- I contacted the lead professor at Stanford. HTM took three years to curate, prototype and deliver as a final product; there were between 5-10 people working full time on the project at any given time and their budget was half a million dollars. Just to give you some perspective.
ReplyDeleteReady, Set, Go!
Thanks for doing that bit of research, Alysia. It's always interesting to learn what resources were put into digital tools. This kind of knowledge could be really useful if one were ever put in charge of a school tech program with limited resources.
DeleteWow, that is interesting and good to know! Makes me feel better about my own weak attempts to develop compelling curriculum :-)
DeleteSuper interesting, thanks for sharing!
DeleteVery insightful! Thank you for taking the time to share this information. This definitely conveys just how much time, money, and other resources are needed to create a site of such high caliber.
DeleteHistorical Thinking Matters is a fantastic site and I will definitely use it if I become a high school history teacher. The introductory flash multimedia thing would be an excellent way to start off a class at the beginning of the year. It clearly lays out how historical thinking is fundamentally different than how history is often taught. (I'm thinking of the all too common method of teaching history that has given rise to the old chestnut that history is "just one damn thing after another.")
ReplyDeleteI looked in depth at the unit about the Spanish American War. I have to say that although I am quite a history buff, I learned more about that war in the 15 minutes spent on the website than I did in my entire life up to that point. The introductory video combined with the interactive features in the inquiry section added up to a very compelling look at the topic. I give it 4 stars. Now all they need to do is expand it to cover about 100 more topics.
Historical Thinking as used by these lessons is really about teaching critical thinking skills which are skills that can be applied to any discipline or topic. Students in these examples are more like investigators or detectives evaluating a historical event from different perspectives and from various pieces of "evidence" or primary sources. Coming up with good questions is a very creative process and requires deeper thinking and giving students an open-ended question to analyze is much more interesting (and useful) than having them memorize facts about an event.
ReplyDeleteSpanish American War Module:
ReplyDeleteI loved how interactive the modules were! Not only were there videos, but there were audio files, pictures of political cartoons, text from primary resources, excerpts of songs, and guiding questions with hints. It reminds me of the video we watched in our first session of the student who expected his textbook to do all the things this website does.
From a teacher perspective, the content and resources of how the pages are laid out in a very intentional order paves the way for curiosity and scaffolds the learner's understanding. Personally, the alternative webquest activities to "deepen" and "broaden" inquiries related to the topic were a fun perk that works to challenge and encourage students to look into the content more. I looked into the "broaden inquiry" category because it listed "The Philippines" and the first link took me to a page FULL of links to links of documents relating to American Foreign Policy between 1898-1914.
Drawing inspiration from all the resources on the module, a fun extended activity to assess student understanding in class could be a fun offline presentation! This could be anything from creating a video montage, a stop motion animation reenactment, a modern day take on the position of an article, an in-class debate, or even a personal take on a political cartoon. So many ideas that can bring online learning into an interactive and engaging experience.
This is a great resource for history teachers. I don't even think the students need to get on the computer for this. A teacher could print out the materials and have them read from paper and still do the entire module the same way. It's very nicely curated (as Alysia mentioned, half a million dollars can get you four great lesson plans).
ReplyDeleteI read through the module on the Scopes trial and was pleased to see that they took the questions beyond creation vs evolution and asked what else was going on that made the issue complicated. Even if a teacher doesn't want to use their module as it's set up, if you follow the history search they provide (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/search.php) there are lots of primary sources including cartoons, poems, songs and articles. Primary/secondary materials from the era are so much more fascinating than listening to a lecture or reading a book.
This website is designed to help students become critical thinkers. Critical thinkers open-minded, look at all of the evidence and different points of view, and will change positions when reason leads them to do so. This website provides the students with engaging artifacts to help guide their thinking.
ReplyDeleteHistorical Thinking Matters is a great website designed for high school students to step outside the realm of the traditional model of lecturing / memorization and learn to analyze historical evidence as a historian would. After reviewing the module on the Scopes Trial, I was extremely impressed at all of the resources that are offered to students – I like that the historical artifacts ranged from political cartoons to diary entries to historical research. The audio and video clips of historians analyzing the documents and providing historical context made it extremely helpful to walk through the questions one should be asking when it comes to sourcing / contextualizing / close reading / corroborating history. This method makes the process of learning so much more engaging than delivering a set of facts for students to memorize and tested on (information they will most likely lose soon after). It becomes an activity for them to investigate and come to their own conclusions, encouraging critical thinking and individual learning.
ReplyDeleteEncouraging critical thinking and individual learning is such an important goal for educators in secondary education! This site enables the student to look at a variety of sources/information, investigate them, and then come to their own conclusions. I think that if I were to teach high school students, I would most definitely integrate this site into the history curriculum!
DeleteThe site is aptly called “Historical Thinking Matters”; I would like to highlight the term ‘Thinking’ in the title. The site prompts students to think and behave like historians. The activities in these lessons give students “missions” and to complete the missions they need to think like historians, question, interrogate, investigate and critically analyze primary sources and authentic documents. Students are given the opportunity to experientially learn about history. It is like opening the black box of history books, which to me is far more interesting and exciting than to memorize and recall information!
ReplyDeleteIt is like the adage that is quoted in education that goes, “ Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” I cannot imagine how we can make students more involved in history than to give them tools to become historians and send them out on missions collecting, investigating, questioning, and analyzing original documents utilizing various media tools.
Students are asked to read documents like historians to form informed conclusions about the past rather than just reading about it from an assigned textbook. This makes them critical consumers rather than passive recipients of information. I could never imagine our history teacher prompting us to challenge the information in the textbook. Students learn to source and contextualize information; two important skills to make meaning and develop deep understanding of information. The lessons build on students previous knowledge and challenge this knowledge by making them question how they know what they know and where did they learn about it. The activities in the lessons are very well designed and accompanied by worksheets to scaffold and guide students in their investigations.
I am cognizant of the amount of work, time and the budget that went into designing this website. It’s an ambitious endeavor and model for sure but not an impossible one!
When students are provided the opportunity to experientially learn about any subject matter, they will not only exhibit retention but thorough analysis of the material. Specifically in history where memorization and recall can seem redundant and irrelevant, I agree that this site is engaging and enticing for students as well as teachers!
Delete"Historical Thinking Matters" also known as HTM is an enticing and outstanding teaching aid for educators. The website focuses on key concepts in U.S. History specifically four historical modules: Spanish American War, Scopes Trial, Social Security, and Rosa Parks. HTM’s index page is easy to navigate and has an attractive web design/format. This site is clearly designed to teach high school students an innate historical understanding from the inside-out. It goes beyond rote memorization to ignite critical thinking skills and spark creativity. Educators are equipped with the necessary resources to teach U.S. History. Tabs such as “inquiry” and “webquest" teach students how to read primary sources, critique, and construct historical narratives.
ReplyDeleteI focused on the Social Security module. Initially, I was intrigued by the 3:02 minute Youtube video. The video provided illuminating insight into the 1930s, the Great Depression, and the birth of Social Security in the United States. I enjoyed how the Youtube contained background music. The music gave an alluring yet calming effect and assisted in the focus of spoken content. The Youtube ends with the question, “What does Social Security reveal about the 1930s?”. The concluding question prompts the student to form their own reasoned conclusions based on the historical facts provided. The student can then continue by following steps one through three. Number one is “Investigate”, number two is “Review Your Textbook”, and number three is to “Begin With A Warm-Up Activity or Begin The Inquiry”. I found all three materials very useful in learning the module. The source index is also a useful tool in citing information. Critical thinking skills transcend to all subject matters. Many may lack thinking about history in a critical context. As an educator new to the field, HTM’s “Teacher Materials and Strategies” can help me assist students in learning historical thinking skills and also understand common mistakes other educators have made when teaching this subject.