1. How can you think like a Historian?
“Not to know what happened before one was born is always to be a child.”
Cicero 100 B.C.
By PMcElhaney (Point Loma High)
From Sam Wineburg’s Historical Thinking and Other Un-Natural Acts

2. How do Historians Reconstruct the Past?
What do they do?
Why study history?
History serves as a bank of examples for contemplating present problems.
What tools do they use?

3. Historians use the following tools to investigate and reconstruct the past.
Historical Imagination
Multicultural Perspective
Point of View
Compare and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Analyzing
Distinguishing Fact From
Opinion
Evaluating
Political History
Social History
Military History
Comparative History
Economic History
Interpretation
Bias/Subjectivity
Evidence
Primary Source
Artifact
Context
Objective; Objectivity
Historiography
Frame of Reference
Credibility

4. Define As Many of these as possible.
Historical Imagination
Multicultural Perspective
Point of View
Compare and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Analyzing
Distinguishing Fact From
Opinion: Evaluating
Political History
Social History
Military History
Comparative History
Economic History
Interpretation
Bias/Subjectivity
Evidence
Primary Source
Artifact
Context
Objective; Objectivity
Historiography
Frame of Reference
Credibility

5. One Pager
TERM: Definition of term across the top of page (write neatly)
Create a visual depiction of the term.
This can be a diagram, image, chart, graph, or symbols
In your own words write a brief explanation of how this term may be useful for students of history.

6. Think like a Historian, Look for:
the author’s intention.
bias
evidence
argument
sources
Context of the period the document was written

7. Contextual Thinking: Context of a document or event offers clues that help understanding.
When, Where, How?
What proceeded?
What followed?
Why the document or event took place
Who wrote or said it
To whom was it written?
What purpose?
What intent?
What Consequence?

8. A.C.A.P.S. is a great strategy.
To understand documents and the meaning they hold, analyze them according to this method:
Author
Context
Audience
Purpose
Significance

9. How about a S.P.R.I.T.E.? S. Social P. Political R. Religious
I. Intellectual
T. Technological
E. Economic

10. Questions Kids should ask themselves:
How is the past different than today?
What is the significance of this event, person, place, or document…?
What can the modern generation learn from the past?

11. Kids need to
Read aloud and think aloud through the Historical Process.
Think about people, places, and events in the past through the eyes of someone living in the past.
balance present minded thinking with thinking in the past
Make connections and draw conclusions.

12. “Just the Facts”? Facts by themselves are meaningless.
Facts are only important when we give them meaning.

13. Skilled Readers of History
Talk to themselves as they read-
The conversation ranges:
Meaning of the text
Author’s purpose, message, and personality/background-
Think about why the author says what he says and what he means by saying it.

14. Contextual Thinking
or thinking about events through the perspective of the period it unfolded.

15. Context of an event or document includes:
When, Where, How
What proceeded?
What followed?
Why the document or event took place
Who wrote or said it
To whom was it written or said
What purpose
What intent
What consequence

16. Students of History Need to:
Talk to each other
Write term papers
Discuss the significance of topics they study
Debate
Get into the mind of the people who lived history!
Search for cause and motive
Investigate- values, perspectives,
Students need to embrace beliefs not their own and argue them with zest.