Historical Thinking

Historical Thinking

What is History? History is an account of the past. • Accounts/narratives differ depending on one’s perspective. • We rely on evidence to construct our accounts of the past. • We must question the reliability of each piece of evidence. • Any single piece of evidence is insufficient. • We must consult multiple pieces of evidence in order to build a plausible account.

Sourcing Before reading the document ask yourself: • Who wrote this? • What is the author’s point of view? • Why was it written? • When was it written? (A long time or short time after the event?) • Is this source believable? Why? Why not?

Imagine the Setting (Contextualizing) • What else was going on at the time this was written? • What was it like to be alive at this time? • What things were different back then? What things were the same? • What would it look like to see this event through the eyes of someone who lived back then?

Cross-Checking (Corroboration) • What do other pieces of evidence say? • Am I finding the same information everywhere? • Am I finding different versions of the story? (If yes, why might that be?) • Where else could I look to find out about this? • What pieces of evidence are most believable?

Close Reading • What claims does the author make? • What evidence does the author use to support those claims? • How is this document supposed to make me feel? • What words or phrases does the author use to convince me that he/she is right? • What information does the author leave out ?

Historical Reading Skills Questions Students should be able to . . . Prompts Sourcing (Before reading document • What is the author’s point of view? • Why was it written? • When was it written? • Is this source believable? Why? Why not? • Identify author's position on historical event • Identify and evaluate author's purpose in producing document • Predict what author will say BEFORE reading document • Evaluate source's believability/ trustworthiness by considering genre, audience, and author's purpose. This author probably believes… I think the audience is… Based on the sourcing information, I predict this author will… I do/don’t trust this document because… Contextualization • What else was going on at the time this was written? • What was it like to be alive at this time? • What things were different back then? What things were the same? • Use context/background information to draw more meaning from document • Infer historical context from document(s) • Recognize that document reflects one moment in changing past • Understand that words must be I already know that ____ is happening at this time… From this document I would guess that people at this time were feeling… This document might not give me the whole picture because … Close Reading • What claims does the author make? • What evidence does the author use to support those claims? • How is this document make me feel? • What words or phrases does the author use to convince me that he/she is right? • What information does the author leave out? • Identify author’s claims about event • Evaluate evidence/reasoning author uses to support claims • Evaluate author’s word choice; understand that language is used deliberately I think the author chose these words because they make me feel… The author is trying to convince me…(by using/saying…) Corroboration • What do other pieces of evidence say? • Am I finding different versions of the story? Why or why not? • What pieces of evidence are most believable? • Establish what is true by comparing documents to each other • Recognize disparities between two Accounts This author agrees/ disagrees with… This document was written earlier/later than the other, so…

Lunchroom Fight Imagine that you are the principal of a school and you just found out that there was a fight in the lunchroom during lunch. You’ve asked many students and teachers who witnessed the fight to write down what they saw and who they think started the fight. Unfortunately, you have received many conflicting accounts that disagree not only as to who started the fight, but also as to who was involved and when the fight even started. It’s important to remember that NO ONE is just plain lying.

Partner Up & Answer 1. Why would there be different stories of the event if no one is just plain lying? 2. What are the different types of people who might have seen this fight? (e.g., friends of those involved versus people who don’t know the kids who were fighting; those who were fighting versus those who were witnesses; adults versus kids) 3. What might make one person’s story more believable or plausible than another person’s?

a. Why might people see or remember things differently. b a. Why might people see or remember things differently? b. Who has an interest in one kid getting in trouble instead of another kid? Who was standing where? Could they see the whole event? c. The plausibility of the stories themselves (e.g., issues of exaggeration and how the stories fit into what is known about the students’ prior histories). Is the story believable, trustworthy? d. Time: Do stories change over time? How might what we remember right after the event differ from what we remember a week later? Does time make the way someone remembers something more or less trustworthy? e. Physical Evidence: what kinds might have an effect on what you believe: bruises, missing objects, etc.

Why??? All of these things apply to history: How events are interpreted, remembered, explained, and judged to be trustworthy. Studying history involves considering people’s perspectives and biases; evidence; trustworthiness. Similar to the principal, historians trying to figure out what happened in the past.

Ticket Out the Door What are some of the skills we covered that you already practice everyday?

Snapshot Autobiography Why Study History???? Day 2 Snapshot Autobiography

1) Take an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and fold it “accordion” style (like a letter you’d mail), so that it forms 3 panels, or counting front and back, you should have 6 panels. 2) The first panel is the cover for your Snapshot Autobiography. • Give your autobiography a title (for example, “Snapshots from the life of Kathy”) • You need to illustrate. (Color & no stick figures) 3) On the back panel write a brief “About the Author” section: include your name, place and date of birth, and anything else you want people of know about you. You may include a self-portrait if you like. 4) This leaves four panels. In the first of these panels, write about your birth. In the other three panels, you are going to write about important events that have shaped you as a person. This means that you are selecting a total of three important events (besides your birth) from your life. • For each these three events, write a narrative (story) describing what happened. Make sure you describe it from start to finish: pretend that someone who doesn’t know you will be reading your story and trying to understand it. Be sure to include details! • Illustrate each event with a small, hand-written picture.

1. Why did you choose certain events and not others 1. Why did you choose certain events and not others? What made some events more important, or memorable than others? 2. Was it difficult to select events? Why or Why not? 3. What types of evidence would be necessary to “prove” that your selected event actually happened?

Why Study History???? This is exactly what history is like. History is what happened in the past, just like the events in your life. Our work this session is to figure out how we can gather enough evidence to get the clearest picture possible of what happened in the past.

Why Study History???? Day 3 Evaluating Sources

Who should you believe?? What makes one account more trustworthy than another?

Historical Question #1 Who was present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Source #1: Hollywood movie about the American Revolution made in 2001. Source #2: Book written by a famous historian who is an expert on the American Revolution, published in 1999. Which do you trust more? Why?

Historical Question #2 What was slavery like in South Carolina? Source #1: Interview with former slave in 1936. The interviewer is a black man collecting oral histories for the Federal Writers’ Project. Source #2: Interview with former slave in 1936. The interviewer is a black man collecting oral histories for the Federal Writers’ Project. Which do you trust more? Why?

Historical Question #3 What was the layout of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz? Source #1: Interview with 80 year-old Holocaust survivor in 1985. Source #2: Map of concentration camp found in Nazi files. Which do you trust more? Why?

Historical Question #4 Why were the Japanese Americans put in internment camps during WWII? Source #1: Government film explaining internment from 1942. Source #2: Government report on Japanese Internment from 1983 based on declassified government documents. Which do you trust more? Why?

Historical Question #5 Did American soldiers commit atrocities during the Vietnam War in 1969? Source #1: Sworn testimony by American Sergeant in Congressional hearings in 1969. Source #2: Speech by American General touring the United States in 1969. Which do you trust more? Why?

Historical Question #6 What happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn? Source #1: High school history textbook from 1985. Source #2: Newspaper account from the day after the battle in June 1876. Which do you trust more? Why?

*Though you were asked to choose one source over the other in this lesson, you would ultimately need to corroborate their sources with additional evidence in order to adequately answer these historical questions. Answers*

Historical Question #1 Who was present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Source #1: Hollywood movie about the American Revolution made in 2001. Source #2: Book written by a famous historian who is an expert on the American Revolution, published in 1999. Which do you trust more? Why? Source 2: Historians base their accounts on multiple primary and secondary documents and extensive research. Hollywood films have no standards for historical accuracy.

Historical Question #2 What was slavery like in South Carolina? Source #1: Interview with former slave in 1936. The interviewer is a black man collecting oral histories for the Federal Writers’ Project. Source #2: Interview with former slave in 1936. The interviewer is a black man collecting oral histories for the Federal Writers’ Project. Which do you trust more? Why? Source 1: Audience shapes the stories we tell. We can imagine that even in 1936, a former slave would be wary of criticizing slavery to a white government official. That is not to say that Source 1 is necessarily accurate; we can imagine a former slave might exaggerate accounts or possibly not remember details so well. Of the two sources, however, Source 1 will probably be more trustworthy.

Historical Question #3 What was the layout of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz? Source #1: Interview with 80 year-old Holocaust survivor in 1985. Source #2: Map of concentration camp found in Nazi files. Which do you trust more? Why? Source 2: Human memory is notoriously unreliable. A map of a concentration is technically an “objective” source. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the map perfectly mirrored the layout of the camp.

Historical Question #4 Why were the Japanese Americans put in internment camps during WWII? Source #1: Government film explaining internment from 1942. Source #2: Government report on Japanese Internment from 1983 based on declassified government documents. Which do you trust more? Why? Source 2: Any government film created in 1942 to explain internment would be propaganda. The declassified evidence in the Congressional report makes Source 2 more reliable.

Historical Question #5 Did American soldiers commit atrocities during the Vietnam War in 1969? Source #1: Sworn testimony by American Sergeant in Congressional hearings in 1969. Source #2: Speech by American General touring the United States in 1969. Which do you trust more? Why? Source 1: Sworn testimony is the gold standard of evidence. Although testimony can be corrupted by lying, coercion, and the shakiness of human memory, in this instance Source 1 is more reliable than a public speech by a General whose reputation is on the line.

Historical Question #6 What happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn? Source #1: High school history textbook from 1985. Source #2: Newspaper account from the day after the battle in June 1876. Which do you trust more? Why? Neither: Textbooks from the 1980s tended to overlook and/or neglect the experiences and accounts of Native Americans. On the other hand, a newspaper account from 1876 would likely have lacked credible evidence about the battle and/or have been biased towards Custer and his men.