Enrich Document-Based Instruction

Transcription

1 Enrich Document-Based Instruction Encourage students to be history detectives Analyze sources from a variety of perspectives Investigate key historical topics Visit go.hrw.com Keyword: Historian For more information, call 800.HRW.9799 To order online, visit Copyright 2006 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON, HOLT, ONE-STOP PLANNER, and Owl Design are trademarks licensed to Holt, Rinehart and Winston, registered in the United States of America and/or other jurisdictions. Printed in the United States of America / 20M A holt, rinehart and winston 800.HRW.9799

2 Toolkit Highlights HOLT Reading Like a Historian: World History Toolkit Names, facts and dates: this is what history has become for a lot of students. But the funny thing is that when you ask historians what they do, an entirely different picture emerges. They see themselves as detectives searching for clues to a puzzle that can never entirely be solved. Reading Like a Historian: World History Toolkit includes: Professional Essays by Dr. Sam Wineburg focus on historical issues and questions Teaching Strategies show teachers how to ask their students questions utilizing investigative techniques: Reviewing sources Seeking corroboration Exploring causality Thinking contextually Evaluating opinions Recognizing prior assumptions Primary and Secondary Sources that reflect a variety of perspectives Transparencies provide a visual source for each topic A Classroom Poster that motivates students and reinforces historical investigation Online Presentation Resources Dr. Sam Wineburg, Professor of Education, Stanford University Online resources to develop student presentations include: Links to approved Web sites for student research on historical topics Web Activities including: How to analyze an artifact How to analyze written sources How to analyze historical maps How to analyze works of art How to analyze an infographic How to analyze a photograph How to analyze a political cartoon The Holt Researcher database of primary and secondary sources The Holt Grapher software that allows students to enter data and create a variety of charts and graphs The World Atlas Presentation Scoring Rubrics Visit go.hrw.com Keyword: Historian Toolkit Highlights Investigate historical topics: 1. Religion in Ancient India 2. Fall of Rome 3. Art of the Islamic World 4. Europe s Crusader Culture 5. China During the Ming Dynasty 8. French Revolution F E A T U R E D T O P I C 9. The Enlightenment 10. Age of Imperialism 11. World War I 12. World War II Sampler Table of Contents: Toolkit Highlights Professional Essays Teaching Strategies Reading Like A Historian Activity Answer Key Classroom Poster Contributors/Reviewers Transparency pocket 6. Northern Renaissance 7. Voyages of Discovery 13. The Cold War in the Developing World

3 HOLT Learning to be a History Detective Without thinking, history is meaningless. But when you add thinking an ingredient only you can provide the past springs to life. That is what reading like a historian is all about. Professional Essay Dr. Sam Wineburg When I asked Kevin, a 16-year-old high school junior, what he needed most to do well in history class, he had little doubt: A good memory. Anything else? Nope. Just memorize facts and stuff, know em cold, and when you get the test, give it all back to the teacher. What about thinking does thinking have anything to do with history? Not really. It s all pretty simple. Random stuff happened a long time ago. People wrote it down. Others copied it and put it in a book. Poof history. I was saddened but not surprised by Kevin s answers. I ve spent nearly twenty years studying how high school kids learn history. Over the years I ve met many Kevins, students whose teachers had sucked the life out of history so much that all that was left was a grim list of names and dates one random fact after another. Be a History Detective Names, facts, and dates: this is what history has become for a lot of students. But the funny thing is that when you ask historians what they do, an entirely different Dr. Sam Wineburg is a Professor of Education at Stanford University, where he directs the only doctoral program in History Education in the nation. In our Reading Like a Historian: World History Toolkit, Dr. Wineburg s professional essays provide strategies for teaching students to become history detectives. picture emerges. They see themselves as detectives searching for clues to a puzzle that can never be entirely solved. Traced back to its earliest meaning, the word history (Greek, istor) is about inquiry. To engage in inquiry means trying to figure things out, asking questions open to debate. Inquiry is about as far from mindless memorization as you can get. Even when historians are able to piece together the basic story of what happened in the past, rarely do they all line up in agreement about what an event means or what caused it. Historians argue amongst themselves about the past s meaning and what it has to tell us in the present. The past may be over, but history is a moving target. Facts and their Meaning Where do facts fit into this picture? Facts are important but hardly the whole story. To historians, history is an argument about what facts mean. If history already happened, you might ask, what s there to argue about? It turns out, a lot. Was the French Revolution a fight against tyranny or an attempt by the wellbred to enhance their social position? Was the Cold War really a conflict of democracy over communism, or was it simply a struggle between two superpowers for dominance? Was the Enlightenment era really so enlightened? Could the World Wars have been prevented? Weighing the Evidence Different opinions swirl around these questions, and other matters of unsettled history. But while everyone is entitled to an opinion, not every opinion is entitled to being believed. In history, a persuasive opinion is backed up by evidence. It is evidence that distinguishes a solid interpretation from someone just shooting off at the mouth. To find evidence in history, we can t talk to the dead. What we can do is examine what they left behind their diaries, letters, telegrams, secret memos and, in the modern era, their tape recordings and computer records. This is what historians mean when they talk about reading primary sources. These sources are considered to be primary most important, appearing in the first position, essential because they are written by the people we are trying to understand. Their words come to us directly, without being filtered by someone else. The Role of Thinking Any textbook offers an interpretation of history, but not the final word. It does its best to combine perspectives but, like any book, it can never escape the fact that it was written by human beings living in a particular time and place. As such, it records our unrecognized assumptions, biases, and blind spots. Your goal and your students goal in reading like a historian is to treat with skepticism any account claiming to present the story of the past. You should question it, evaluate the evidence it offers for its assertions, and read it carefully more carefully than you ve ever read a historical account before. The thread connecting all of these goals is the very thing that escaped Kevin: the role of thinking. Kevin s right. Without thinking, history is meaningless. But when you add thinking an ingredient only you can provide the past springs to life. That is what reading like a historian is all about. Professional Essay

4 Teaching Strategies HOLT Teaching Questioning Strategies Teaching students to read like historians cannot be done overnight. Reading Like a Historian is a new way of reading and it is also a new way of thinking. One powerful approach is known as cognitive apprenticeship. This approach has three parts. First, the teacher begins by modeling questioning and reading techniques. As the teacher reads, he or she thinks aloud, showing the student the thought processes that a good reader possesses. Then, as the student begins to read independently, he or she imitates the investigative strategies the teacher modeled. Much as a trade apprentice learns from an expert of the craft, the student-apprentice learns from the teacher-expert how to Read Like a Historian. Following a three-part approach, the Reading Like a Historian World History Toolkit provides step-by-step teacher strategies for: Strategy 1: Previewing Text In this first step of teacher modeling, you will begin to preview text with your students. Thinking is an invisible process; students often believe that expert readers can simply get things more quickly and easily. This modeling procedure is designed to make an expert reader s thought process visible to students. The goal is to encourage students to determine what evidence they expect the source document to provide, and to give students the confidence to use their existing knowledge about the topic to understand the document. Using an overhead transparency or handouts, you should begin by reading the document aloud. As you read, pause to ask the preview questions below about the document, thus modeling for the class the thought process of the expert reader. If students are unable to answer the questions, you may choose to provide answers or hints. Students will have plenty of opportunities to preview documents on their own in the guided and independent practice stages. The purpose of this strategy of reading, questioning, and answering is to provide a conceptual model of interacting with documents that students will later use on their own. What do you already know about this topic? Encourage students to look at the title and other clues. Ask the questions: How does this topic fit into a time and place in history? What was happening during this period? Does this reading relate to any big issues you have studied in this class? (contextualizing) Teaching Strategies Who is the author? Direct students to look at the attribution line. Ask the questions: What do you know about this author? Might he or she have any particular beliefs or biases? When was this document created? Why might this document have been created? Was it created as a private record or a public record? (sourcing) Teacher modeling Guided student practice Independent student practice

5 Reading like a historian Activity Document- Based Activity Reading like a historian ACtivity

6 Reading like a historian Activity Reading like a historian ACtivity

7 Reading like a historian Activity Reading like a historian ACtivity 10 11

8 Answer Key Reading like a historian TranspaRency 12 13

9 HOLT Bring Reading Like a Historian to life in your classroom Classroom Poster The classroom poster motivates students to think like history detectives by: Reinforcing key investigative strategies Reviewing sources Seeking corroboration Exploring causality Thinking contextually Evaluating opinions Recognizing prior assumptions Providing classroom opportunities for discussion Classroom Poster 14 15

10 HOLT Contributors/Reviewers Contributor Sam Wineburg, Ph.D Professor and Chair Curriculum and Teacher Education Professor of History (by courtesy) Stanford University Stanford, California Reviewers Steve Goldberg NCSS Board of Directors Social Studies Department Chair New Rochelle High School New Rochelle, New York Susan Ramírez, Ph.D Penrose Chair of History and Latin American Studies Texas Christian University Fort Worth, Texas Peter Stearns, Ph.D Professor of History and Provost George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia Includes transparencies to provide a visual source for each topic