Thinking Like an Historian An introduction to AP World History

Historical Thinking Skills Chronological Reasoning Comparison and Contextualization Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence Historical Interpretation and Synthesis

Skill Type I: Chronological Reasoning 1. Historical Causation Compare causes and/or effects Distinguish between short and long term effects Analyze and evaluate the interaction of multiple causes and/or effects Assess historical contingency by distinguishing among coincidence, causation, and correlation, as well as critique existing interpretations of cause and effect

Cause or Effect?

Skill Type I: Chronological Reasoning 2. Patterns of Continuity and Change over Time Analyze and evaluate historical patterns of continuity and change over time Connect patterns of continuity and change over time to larger historical processes or themes

Changes? Continuities? Hong Kong, 1960s Hong Kong 2010s

Changes? Continuities?

Just a Few CCoTs for WHAP World religions Political systems The environment Diets Technology Transportation Trade Class systems Rights/freedoms Language Family/kinship Education Ideology Labor systems Demography/population Standard of living Manufacturing Communication

Skill Type I: Chronological Reasoning 3. Periodization Explain ways that historical events and processes can be organized within blocks of time. Analyze and evaluate competing models of periodization of world history.

What’s the Frame for the Periods? Period 1, … to 600 B.C.E. Period 2, 600 B.C.E. to 600 C.E. Period 3, 600 C.E. to 1450 Period 4, 1450-1750 Period 5, 1750-1914 Period 6, 1900 to present Why not 1901, 1912, or 1914? When will the eventual Period 7 begin? 1989? 1991? 2001?

Skill Type II: Comparison and Contextualization Compare related historical developments and processes across place, time, and/or different societies, or within one society Explain and evaluate multiple and differing perspectives on a given historical phenomenon

Compare & Contrast Labor Systems Slavery Sharecropping

Skill Type II: Comparison and Contextualization Explain and evaluate ways in which specific historical phenomena, events, or processes connect to broader regional, national, or global processes occurring at the same time Explain and evaluate ways in which a phenomenon, event, or a process connects to other, similar historical phenomena across time and place.

Contextualization

Skill Type III: Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence 6. Historical Argumentation Analyze commonly accepted historical arguments and explain how an argument has been constructed from historical evidence Construct convincing interpretations through analysis of disparate, relevant historical evidence Evaluate and synthesize conflicting historical evidence to construct persuasive historical arguments

Skill Type III: Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence 7. Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence Analyze features of historical evidence such as audience, purpose, point of view, format, argument, limitations, and context germane to the evidence considered Based on analysis and evaluation of historical evidence, make supportable inferences and draw appropriate conclusions

Skill Type IV: Historical Interpretation and Synthesis Analyze diverse historical interpretations Evaluate how historians’ perspectives influence their interpretations and how models of historical interpretation change over time

Skill Type IV: Historical Interpretation and Synthesis Draw appropriately on ideas and methods from different fields of inquiry or disciplines Combine disparate, sometimes contradictory evidence from primary sources and secondary works in order to create a persuasive understanding of the past Apply insights about the past to other historical contexts or circumstances, including the present

Thematic Learning Objectives Theme 1: Interaction Between Humans and the Environment Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures Theme 3: State Building, Expansion, and Conflict Theme 4: Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems (ECON) Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social Structures (SOC)

Which Thematic Objective(s)? Analyze similarities and differences in techniques of imperial administration in TWO of the following empires. • Han China (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) • Mauryan/Gupta India (320 B.C.E.–550 C.E.) • Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E.–476 C.E.) Compare the emergence of nation-states in nineteenth-century Latin America with the emergence of nation-states in ONE of the following regions in the twentieth century. • Sub-Saharan Africa • The Middle East Compare the historical processes of empire building in the Spanish maritime empire during the period from 1450 through 1800 with the historical processes of empire building in ONE of the following land-based empires. • The Ottoman Empire OR • The Russian Empire Theme 3

Which Thematic Objective(s)? Compare the effects of racial ideologies on North American societies with those on Latin American/Caribbean societies during the period from 1500 to 1830. Analyze the social and economic transformations that occurred in the Atlantic world as a result of new contacts among Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas from 1492 to 1750. Analyze continuities and changes that resulted from the spread of Islam into ONE of the following regions in the period between circa 800 C.E. and circa 1750: • West Africa • South Asia • Europe Analyze continuities and changes along the Silk Roads from 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E.

Kinds of Sources Primary Secondary Written Oral tradition Artifacts Audio/Visual Secondary

Dealing with Sources Use OPVL Key questions O-rigin P-urpose V-alue L-imitation Key questions What kind of document is it? Who wrote it? For whom and why? Where was it composed and why?

An Experiment: What Resources Are Available to the Researcher? Autumn, 2015, a journalist for the Detroit Free Press does a story on the UAIS. A historian from the year 2100 writes a history of the UAIS’s early years. After discovering and excavating the ruins of the UAIS, a Chinese historian from the year 3000 decides to research education in the early 21st century United States.