Nurturing Historical Thinking

Nurturing Historical Thinking

• Document Analysis/Socratic Seminar

• Persistent Issue: What should society do to promote fairness and justice for people who live within its jurisdiction?

• Focus Question: Were Reconstruction policies the most appropriate means for the government to establish freedom and

equality for former slaves following the Civil War?

Nurturing Historical Thinking

What does it mean to be free?

How would the authors of this document answer?

Nurturing Historical Thinking

• Socratic Seminar Discussion

PurposeTo enlarge our understanding of ideas, issues, and values in this text

Norms• Don’t raise hands• Address one another, not the discussion leader• Use the text to support opinions

Nurturing Historical Thinking

How would you describe the authors’ feelings about the government and their relationship to the government?

Nurturing Historical Thinking

“This is not the condition of really free men.”

Nurturing Historical Thinking

Soule document

What does Soule want the ex-slaves to understand about freedom?

Nurturing Historical Thinking

Did the new policy give freedmen a genuine opportunity for freedom?

Connecting the Past to the Present

What is required to be “really free” in our society?

Median Family Income (in thousands of dollars per year)

$19.7

$35.7

$42.5

$25.4

$47.1

$31.6

White Black andothers

White Black White Black

1962 1990 2000SOURCE: U. S. Census Bureau

NOTE: All figures are converted to 2003 dollars using the Cost-of-Living Calculator from the American Institute of Economic Research

Home Ownership

64.4%

42.7%

71.8%

47.3%38.4%

67.5%

White Black andother

White Black White Black

1960 1992 2002SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, Census Bureau, Labor Dept., Nat. Center for Health Statistics SOURCE: U. S. Census Bureau

Families Below the Poverty Level

22.7%

9.9%

30.4%

8.8%

48.1%

14.9%

White Black only(1959)

White Black White Black

1960 1992 2001SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, Census Bureau, Labor Dept., Nat. Center for Health Statistics SOURCE: U. S. Census Bureau

Unemployment rate

4.9%

10.2%

6.5%

14.1%

5.1%

10.2%

White Black andother

minorities

White Black White Black

1960 1992 2002SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, Census Bureau, Labor Dept., Nat. Center for Health Statistics SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Comparison of Economic Indicators

Life Expectancy (in years)

63.670.6

76.169.1

77.471.7

White Black andother

White Black White Black

1960 1990 2000SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, Census Bureau, Labor Dept., Nat. Center for Health Statistics SOURCE: National Vital Statistics Report

High School Graduate and Above

43.2%

20.1%

81.1%

67.7%

83%

72%

White Black White Black White Black

1960 1992 2000SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, Census Bureau, Labor Dept., Nat. Center for Health Statistics SOURCE: U. S. Census Bureau

Comparison of Economic Indicators - continued

Connecting the Past to the Present

What does it mean to be free?

Negative Freedom Positive FreedomFreedom from restraint Resources necessary for achieving

one’s potential

PIH Curriculum Design Principles

1. Scaffolded Instruction

2. Authenticity

3. Multiple Intelligences

4. Effective Collaboration

Why is PBHI Hard to Do? Nurturing Historical Thinking

• Building a Model of the Problem Landscape

Historical thinking• What seems to be true?

• How do we know?

Dialectical reasoning• What is the good?

• What different arguments are made about the “good”?• What do I believe?

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

Nurturing Historical Thinking

Scaffolding: Wise PBHI Practice

1. Establishes relevance of tasks

2. Explicitly introduces the Central Question and the unit purpose

3. Sets tasks within the context of the overall unit purpose

4. Places events within larger historical contexts

5. Models historical thinking and critical reasoning

6. Provides feedback & support for student reasoning

7. Probes & challenges student thinking

8. Encourages students to empathize & consider multiple viewpoints

9. Gets closure; helps students link knowledge to larger unit questions

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

•Historical thinking: Rich, divergent knowledge

• Declarative knowledge

• Conceptual knowledge

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Challenging Epistemological assumptions: What is history?

• It’s not “fact work”

• History as an argument

• Recognize that subtexts exist

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Challenging Epistemological assumptions: What is history?

• Confront with irreconcilable accounts

• Hyperlinks that direct traffic

• Challenging Assumptions: Hyperlinked accounts

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Challenging Epistemological assumptions: What is history?

• Confront with irreconcilable accounts

• Hyperlinks that direct traffic

• Modeling and scaffolding reasoning

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Historical Thinking: Rules of the Road

• Procedural & strategic knowledge

• Metacognitive knowledge

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Historical Thinking: Rules of the Road

• Historical Heuristics• Sourcing• Contextualization• Corroboration

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Historical Thinking: Rules of the Road

• Historical Heuristics• Sourcing:

When evaluating historical documents,look first to the source before reading text

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Sourcing: • Primary or secondary source?• Public or private document?• When written?• Purpose for document?• Biases the author might take?

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Historical Thinking: Rules of the Road

• Historical Heuristics• Contextualization:

When trying to reconstruct historical events,pay close attention to when they happenedand where they took place.

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Contextualization: • Under what conditions did events occur (geography) weather, etc.)• What precedes and follows events?• How long did they last?• Time lapsed between event and recording by witness• What does document leave out? What does it assume?

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Historical Thinking: Rules of the Road

• Historical Heuristics• Corroboration:

Whenever possible, check important detailsagainst each other before accepting them asplausible or likely

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Historical Thinking: Rules of the Road

• Hard Scaffolds

• Document Analysis Scaffold

• Contextual Cues

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Historical Thinking: Rules of the Road

• Soft Scaffolds

• Anticipatory set

• Probing for subtext

Nurturing Historical Thinking

Scaffolding: Wise PBHI Practice

5. Models historical thinking and critical reasoning

6. Provides feedback & support for student reasoning

7. Probes & challenges student thinking

8. Encourages students to empathize & consider multiple viewpoints

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

TF-4: 5:05

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Anticipatory set: - Empathy TF-4: 5:05

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

CC-11: 1:59

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Anticipatory set: - Positionality CC-11: 1:59

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

Nurturing Historical Thinking: How do we help students “read” historical evidence trails?

• Probing for subtext: - Positionality/Bias CC-12: 3:53

Selecting historical documents: The “Goodness” Factor

* Is the language accessible to adolescents?* Is the subject vivid and memorable?* Is there “human interest” in the document?* Can the document be excerpted without distorting its

meaning?* Can it be related to documents already covered in the

curriculum?

Wineburg, 1991

* When used with other documents does it confront students with competing perspectives that convey the complexity the phenomenon?

Selecting historical documents: The “Standards” Factor:

Grade 5: Standard 4- Explain effects of European exploration upon European society and Native Americans.

Grade 8: Standard 14 – Describe key aspects of pre-Columbian cultures in the Americas.

Grade 9: Standard 2- Describe the role of mercantilism and imperialism in European exploration and colonization.

Grade 10: Standard 1- Contrast effects of economic, geographic, social, and political conditions before and after European explorations of the 15th -17th centuries on Europeans, American colonists, and indigenous Americans.