WS/FCS
Unit Planning Organizer
Subject(s)
Grade/Course
Unit of Study
Unit Title
Pacing
Social Studies
9th Grade
Historical Thinking Skills (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4)
Unit 1:Thinking like a Historian
3 days (Block)
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Conceptual Lenses
Historical Thinking
Perspective
Primary Source Analysis
Continuity and Change
Unit Overview
Students will be able to decode and analyze historical documents (primary sources, secondary
sources, maps, charts, artwork). Students will be able to read, analyze and evaluate historical
arguments; apply and compare historical models, and construct arguments based on historical and
modern sources.
Points of focus in this unit include the skills and tools that historians use to understand and write
about history. Students will develop a understanding of:
 Timelines, and use of significant periods, dates and cause and effect
 Differentiate primary and secondary sources
 Identify and interpreting bias
 Analyze data in historical maps
 Access to and availability of reliable historical resources
Unit Enduring Understanding(s)
1. Chronological thinking is the foundation of
historical reasoning—the ability to examine
relationships among historical events and
to explain historical causality.
2. The study of history is subject to an
individual’s interpretation of past events,
issues, and problems. There is usually no
one right answer, one essential fact, or
one authoritative interpretation that can be
used to explain the past.
3. Formulate historical questions by
deconstructing a variety of sources, such
as historical narratives and passages,
including eyewitness accounts, letters,
diaries, artifacts, photos, historical sites,
art, architecture, and other records from
the past
Unit Essential Question(s)
1. How do historians use chronological
thinking to interpret and create timelines?
2. How do historians understand history from
maps, graphs and primary sources?
3. How do historians compare and analyze
historical narratives to identify issues,
causes and effects?
3. How do historians use research to
interpret, analyze and combine data into a
cohesive narrative?
Essential State Standards
Priority Objectives
Supporting Objectives
WH.H.1.1 Use Chronological thinking to:
1. Identify the structure of a historical narrative or
story: (its beginning, middle and end)
2. Interpret data presented in time lines and
create time lines
WH.H.1.2 Use Historical Comprehension to:
1. Reconstruct the literal meaning of a historical
passage
2. Differentiate between historical facts and
historical interpretations
3. Analyze data in historical maps
4. Analyze visual, literary and musical sources
WH.H.1.3 Use Historical Analysis and
Interpretation to:
1. Identify issues and problems in the past
2. Consider multiple perspectives of various
peoples in the past
3. Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and
multiple causation.
4. Evaluate competing historical narratives and
debates among historians.
5. Evaluate the influence of the past on
contemporary issues
WH.H.1.4 Use Historical Research to:
1. Formulate historical questions
2. Obtain historical data from a variety of sources
3. Support interpretations with historical evidence
4. Construct analytical essays using historical
evidence to support arguments.
“Unpacked” Concepts
(students need to know)
WH.H.1.1 Use Chronological thinking to:
1. the structure of a historical narrative or story: (its
beginning, middle and end)
2. data presented in time lines and create time lines
WH.H.1.2 Use Historical Comprehension to:
“Unpacked” Skills
COGNITION
(students need to be
(RBT Level)
able to do)
WH.H.1.1
WH.H.1.1
1. Identify
1. Identify
2. Interpret
2. Understand
WH.H.1.2
WH.H.1.2
1. the literal meaning of a historical passage
2. between historical facts and historical interpretations
3. data in historical maps
4. visual, literary and musical sources
1.Reconstruct
2. Differentiate
3. Analyze
4. Analyze
1.Create
2.Analyze
3.Analyze
4.Analyze
WH.H.1.3 Use Historical Analysis and Interpretation
to:
1. issues and problems in the past
2 multiple perspectives of various peoples in the past
3. cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation.
4. competing historical narratives and debates among
historians.
5. the influence of the past on contemporary issues
WH.H.1.3
1. Identify
2. Consider
3. Analyze
4. Evaluate
5. Evaluate
WH.H.1.3
1. Identify
2. Apply
3. Analyze
4. Evaluate
5. Evaluate
WH.H.1.4
1. Formulate
2. Obtain
3. Support
4. Construct
WH.H.1.4
1. Create
2. Analyze
3. Apply
4. Create
WH.H.1.4 Use Historical Research to:
1. historical questions
2. historical data from a variety of sources
3. interpretations with historical evidence
4. analytical essays using historical evidence to support
arguments.
Unit “Chunking” &
Enduring
Understandings
Essential Factual
Content
Timeline/ Chronology
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Atlas
Map
Political map
Physical map
Cardinal directions
BC/AD: BCE/CE
Cause & Effect
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Cause & Effect
What is History?
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Political
Economic
Social
Technology
Culture
Primary Source
Secondary Source
Context
Theory
Model
Research
Analysis
World Map
Determining Bias
&Historical Theory
Suggested Lesson
Essential Questions
H
What is geography?
G
C
&
G
E
X
How is time
measured?
What makes an event
significant?
How do historians
evaluate the past?
X
How do context and
perspective effect
interpretation of past
events?
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Sub Concepts
HISTORY
GEOGRAPHY
CIVICS &
GOVERNMENT
ECONOMICS
C
CULTURE
Language Objective EXAMPLES
Historical Thinking and Geography Skill Resources
○ “Straight Ahead”
□“Uphill”
∆“Mountainous”
Historical Thinking
Geography Skills
.
General Unit Resources
SAS Curriculum Pathways
 #2000 Interactive Map
 #370 Prehistory: Landmark Discoveries
 #578 Prehistoric Cave Art
Learn 360
 Learning about Maps and Globes
 Globalization in the Media (discusses bias)
 Word Power-Biased
Bridging World History Bridging World History
 Unit 1: Maps, Time, and World History
 Unit 2: Memory and History
Textbook “Historian’s Toolbox”
Textbook Ancillary “Historian’s Toolbox”
Wikipedia “What is History?”
Sennacherib’s Prison primary resource document