1. 6 Historical Thinking Points

2. 6 Historical Thinking Points
Historical Significance
Primary Sources
Continuity and Change
Cause and Consequence
Historical Perspectives
Ethical Dimensions

3. Historical Significance

4. Historical significance
Two descriptions of HS:
An event or person of the past that results in an important change for many people over a long period of time.
The event or person teaches us about issues in history and our lives today

5. Historical significance in my life
Task: Make a timeline / list of events that have happened in your life. Then, highlight the most important events.
How do you decide what’s important?
Something that resulted in big changes for you over a long period of time
Something that helps us to understand you as a person
And / or
Something that affected people around you

6. Historical significance: Mrs. T’s Timeline example
• March 2, 1984: Born • 1980s s: Elementary School at A.E. Wright • 1990s: Middle School at Leila North • : - High school at Maples collegiate – Got a dog • : University of Winnipeg -Worked part time jobs • 2008-present: History and English teacher • August 2015: Got married -Trip to London, England and Ireland What is “historically significant” in Mrs. T’s life?

7. Historical significance
Task: After finding HS in your life, go through the examples and determine how significant the events were:
Indigenous soldiers in WWI
Confederation
Canadian Olympics
Expo 67
Shipwreck Investigations
The Early Chinese Canadians
Use the criteria as a guideline. Write answers on loose-leaf.

8. Primary sources

9. Primary Sources What is a Primary Source?
A Primary source is a document or piece created at the time or soon after a historical event.
Primary sources are often first-hand accounts and give an “inside view” of what happened
Note: Oral histories and memoirs are primary sources, even if they are created long after the historical event.

10. Primary Source Examples
Oral histories
Memoirs and autobiographies
Photographs
Speeches
Diaries
Newspaper articles
Art / Sketches
Maps
Letters
Artifacts (a button, a coat, a pen, etc.)
Creative works
Government documents

11. Primary sources in my life

12. Primary sources in my life
Primary Evidence to show I was here:
Birth certificate
Marriage certificate
School report cards / transcripts
Driver’s license
Pictures of me (selfies?)
Social media pages
Old schoolwork
Phone
Passport
My signature
Pay stubs
Bank accounts, credit cards, etc.
Journal
Letters I sent
All my stuff (clothes, etc.)
Health card (doctor’s records)
Videos
Social Insurance card
Will
Receipts
Trip itineraries
House title, insurance records

13. Secondary Sources What’s a Secondary Source?
A secondary source explains the primary source.
Often secondary sources are written / recorded many years after a historical event
Some secondary sources have reproductions of primary sources in them (example: Shaping Canada textbook)
Secondary sources may give opinions (bias) on a past event or on a primary source

14. Secondary source examples
Textbooks
Biographies
Encyclopedias
Movies about historical events
Review or critique of a speech, movie, etc.

15. Primary source checklist
How to tell if it’s a Primary Source
Was it created at the time of the event, or soon after?
Was it created by someone who saw or heard the event themselves?

16. Primary Source Questions to Ask
What was the purpose of the document / piece?
Who was the intended audience?
What historical facts can we determine from it?
What events were occurring at the time?
Is the document biased? Give examples
How does this help you understand the past better?

17. Continuity and change

18. Continuity and change
Students sometimes misunderstand history as a list of events.
Once they understand history as a mix of continuity and change, they reach a better understanding.
There were lots of things happening at any given time in the past.
Example The decade of the 1910s in Canada:
There was change in many parts of life, but not much change in government. If students say “nothing happened in 1911,” they are thinking of the past as a list of events.

19. Continuity and change
Some parts of life changed more quickly in some time periods than others.
Turning points help us to identify change.
Change does not always mean progress.
Chronology (a timeline of when things happened by date / year) can help us understand Continuity and Change.

20. Continuity and change: questions to ask
Compare this time period to an earlier time: what changed and what stayed the same?
For whom did conditions change?
Why did conditions change?
What were some specific “turning points” that
represent major change?
Was this a dramatic and quick change or did it happen slowly and in stages?

21. Continuity and change Tasks:
Identify Continuity and Change in your life “timeline”
Discuss: If you could preserve or change on practice or feature of life in your community, what would it be? Explain.

22. Cause and consequence

23. Cause and consequence Human beings cause historical change
Constraints come from:
the environment,
geography,
historical legacies,
other people who want other things.
Actions often have unintended consequences

24. Potential Consequences
Cause and consequence
Consider a car crash:
Potential Causes
Skill of the driver
Distracted driver
Violation of driving rules
Condition of the cars involved
The weather
Road signage
Traffic lights, etc.
Potential Consequences
Demerits or suspended license
Harm to driver and others

25. Cause and consequence: Questions to Ask
What specifically triggered this event?
What were the immediate consequences or results of this event?
What groups or people were most affected by these immediate results?
Did the immediate results of this event lead to
further consequences?
Which people or groups were involved?
What were the long-term consequences of this
event?

26. Cause and consequence Task:
Identify examples of Cause and Consequence in your life.
Find Cause and Consequence in Manitoba’s entry into Confederation.
Why did the Red River Resistance happen? (Cause)
Why did Manitoba become a province? (Consequence)

27. Cause and consequence: MB Entry into confederation
Role Played (short or long term)
Consequence / Result
How much of an effect this had
Rupert’s Land “up for sale”: Metis living there were not consulted
Short term decision with long term consequences
The gov’t of Canada bought Rupert’s Land
The Metis resisted
Gov’t would not negotiate at first = Red River Resistance
Eventually gov’t agreed to grant rights = Prov. of MB in 1870
Long term: Riel as leader (Northwest Resistance, etc.)

28. Historical perspectives

29. Historical perspectives
Taking historical perspectives means understanding the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional settings that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past.
At any one point, different historical figures may have acted on the basis of conflicting beliefs and ideas.
Therefore, understanding different perspectives is key to taking historical perspectives.

30. Historical perspectives
Taking historical perspectives requires evidence in order to be able to make inferences about how people felt and thought.
We cannot imagine how a person felt without finding out what was happening at the time.
Example: Louis Riel (used to be considered a traitor)
Any particular historical event or situation involves people who may have diverse perspectives about that event or situation.
Therefore, understanding multiple perspectives of people in history is key to understanding the event.
Understanding HP does not mean that you necessarily agree with their behaviors and actions.

31. Historical perspectives: Questions to Ask
Why did this person/these people act the way she/he/they did?
What feelings could this person have felt?
What was going on in history when this decision was made?
What were the beliefs/values of this society/people at the time?
Imagine yourself in that person’s place. How would you have responded to the historical situation?

32. Historical perspectives
Tasks:
Imagine someone is studying your life 50 years from now. What Historical Perspectives would they see? Explain.
Read “The Voyages of Champlain, May 27, 1603” account. Answer the questions on HP.
-Note: You may need to find out some background on Samuel de Champlain. Check the Canadian Encyclopedia.

33. Ethical dimensions

34. Ethical dimensions
What does “Ethics” mean? What is Right, what is Wrong?
Are we obligated to remember the fallen soldiers of the First World War?
Do we owe reparations to the First Nations victims of Aboriginal residential schools, or to the descendants of those who paid the Chinese Head Tax?
In other words, what responsibilities do we have based on historical crimes and sacrifices of the past?
We should learn something from the past that helps us to face the ethical issues of today.

35. Ethical dimensions: Questions to Ask
What ethical questions does this event, action, or development raise?
What were the values or beliefs of people at the time when this event took place?
If this event were to take place today, how would people react?

36. -Prime Minister Stephen Harper Official Apology
Tasks:
Think of an ethical situation from your past and explain why it was an issue
Discuss:
It is often said that we learn from mistakes of the past. Do you think this is true?
Consider an example that contradicts this statement. Why do you think the same error would have been repeated?
Examine the historical example: Residential Schools. Answer the Ethics questions.
-Prime Minister Stephen Harper Official Apology