THE STUDY AND WRITING OF HISTORYTHE STUDY AND WRITING OF HISTORY What is history? How the course works, Vocabulary, Preventing PlagiarismWhat is history? How the course works, Vocabulary, Preventing Plagiarism

WHAT IS HISTORY?WHAT IS HISTORY? History is the record of human activities; – the term is usually reserved for those actions considered to be significant for their impact upon societies of that time or later – Early histories were often the stories of important people (political leaders, royalty, explorers, military generals) – There are other types of history too: social history (learning about people’s interactions), micro-history (learning a bigger history through looking at one item), economic history, living history (yes, you CAN play dress up as an adult!) History is a method of inquiry used by historians while investigating, and analyzing the past Historiography is the writing about history, or the study of that writing

WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY? Personal connection To understand the society, people and places of the past and current Understand and change the society we currently live in Learn from important moral and behavioural experiences

USING SOURCES TO STUDY HISTORYUSING SOURCES TO STUDY HISTORY Primary Source Letters, speeches, or reports written by participants or eye-witnesses. Other primary sources include artifacts unearthed by archaeologists, videotapes, recordings and photographs. Secondary Sources Books and articles about events or persons written by individuals investigating or analyzing that topic Oral History These are the histories of people from their own mouths, or recordings (audio or video) of their statements

USING SOURCES TO STUDY HISTORYUSING SOURCES TO STUDY HISTORY All historians must be careful when studying history – but no matter how hard we try, we always bring a bit of ourselves to the topic Bias A predisposition to support a certain view making it difficult to be objective or impossible to judge fairly. Ethnocentrism The belief that one’s own group is superior, leading to the judging of others by the standards of one’s own culture

PREVENTING PLAGIARISMPREVENTING PLAGIARISM When you need to cite: – Quotation: no matter how long or short the words, if someone else wrote or said them, you need to cite them. – Paraphrase: if you are re-stating someone else’s thoughts in your own words, you must still cite. – Summary: when you gather a bunch of information and boil it down to the bare minimum, it needs to be cited. – Facts/Information/Data: if it is not common knowledge, cite it

HOW THIS COURSE IS SET UPHOW THIS COURSE IS SET UP This course has 5 clusters (units), each with a series of Essential Questions (3-4 per unit) – Meant to be thought-provoking to guide student understanding by helping compile thoughts, and course content into bigger ideas. They require you to make choices, decisions and judgements that can be supported by evidence or criteria. – They’re open-ended… they don’t have one “correct” response and might have no correct response (they may even lead to more questions!) – Can’t be answered with a “yes” or “no”, or even with a single sentence

HOW THIS COURSE IS SET UPHOW THIS COURSE IS SET UP Examine these two questions: 1.When did Canada enter the First World War? What happened at the Battle of Vimy Ridge? What was the Conscription Crisis? 2.To what extent did Canada respond effectively to the First World War? Could a Conscription Crisis ever happen again in Canada? Did participation in the First World War do more harm or good for Canada? How are these questions similar? How are they different?

HOW THIS COURSE IS SET UPHOW THIS COURSE IS SET UP These questions require you to think like a historian, not a fact-recalling robot As you assess and interpret sources of history, six Historical Thinking Concepts can help sort your ideas: – Establishing historical significance – Using primary source evidence – Cause and consequence – Identifying continuity and change – Taking a historical perspective – Considering the ethical dimensions of history

HOW THE TEXTBOOK WORKSHOW THE TEXTBOOK WORKS Table of Contents Coloured page borders = each cluster Figures and their captions Bolded words = glossary Index = the best thing ever invented that students never remember to use