Historical Thinking:
Changing Classrooms for Changing Times
Note to the Reader:
I have taught 8 th grade U.S. history for 8 years now. I knew at the end of the May 2014
school year that if I did not do something drastic in my classroom that I would not be
teaching much longer. I felt I had hit a brick wall. I thought maybe it was what I taught,
where I was at, or even the age of the students. I put in for a transfer to the high school
and did not get the job. I knew after the interview, I was no where near prepared to
teach high school. In June, the people that I am closest to were honest with me, and
told me that I was the only one that had the control and power in my own classroom. If
I was tired of the way I was teaching, to change it. If I was tired of having the same
state test scores to change what I was doing. This resonated with me and I acted bigger
than I thought I ever would. When Historical Methods started I chose my classroom as
my research topic, to be accountable for the changes I was making in my classroom.
Whether successful or not, I had to put these changes into place and stay with it,
because now I had a media project due. My biggest fear has been; are these changes
too drastic, and yes…are the students going to test well if I turn my classroom over to
them and me work as their facilitator? This was scary for me, because I make small
(emphasis on small) changes each year, but nothing of this magnitude. The results have
proved positive beyond my wildest dreams, and I am now having the best year I have
ever had teaching 8 th grade U.S. history. I am thankful I did not get the job at the high
school. It forced me to reevaluate my choices, and make a change for my students, to
create an environment of success that my students have so far, loved.
Education Week Teacher
Education Week Teacher
According to historical thinking advocates, lecture has a
time and place in the classroom. However, a classroom built
around lecture can be considered dull, and an easy way to
package information, instead of making the students do
the work themselves. In these types of classrooms, experts
say, that students copy information from a PowerPoint, or
overhead. This creates a classroom where students are not
engaged with the information. Engaging the information
means using the information to create arguments and
come up with solutions. Here is an example of a lecture
centered classroom. (This video is used in many of my staff
development meetings)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Bruce A. Lesh, “Why Don’t You Just Tell Us the Answer?” Teaching Historical Thinking in Grades 7-12 (Portland Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2011) 125-126
There are many different definitions on how to create historical
thinkers, but the idea in all of them is the same: To use sources in the
classroom to create curiosity, asses evidence (historical inquiry), and
develop a response to an effective historical question.
What is Historical Thinking?
Stanford: History Education Group
Disciplinary concepts for
Historical Thinking lessons:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Causality
Chronology
Multiple Perspectives
Contingency
Empathy
Change and Continuity over Time
Influence / Significance / effect
Contrasting Interpretations
Intent / Motivation
Causality:
This is going to be a study of why things happen.
Usually at the end of chapters in textbooks the
summary questions stress causality, or having
students study why things happen . This
encourages students to focus on an interpretation
of who or what caused an event.
Chronology:
When students put things in chronological order
they are able to create an argument for
causality.
Multiple Perspectives:
This is when a teacher presents to students an array
of documents from a single event. It is important to
keep the documents narrow to the time period.
Diaries, government documents, or pictures for this
type of lesson create an interpretation of the
people’s thoughts that lived during this time period.
If you provide films, textbooks, or things more
current you run the risk of students trying to
interpret different historiography and this not the
purpose of multiple perspectives.
Contingency:
Something dependent of a possible outcome.
Teaching contingency helps students learn to
how to predict a future outcome.
Empathy:
The understanding of the way people in past
institutions, social practices, or actions saw things.
Empathy means trying to make sense of past
actions and the reasons for them. It is not trying to
become another person such as roleplaying
activities in the classroom
*Empathy ask questions such as “Why did an
individual or group of people . . . act in a certain
way?” (Lesh, 155)
Change and Continuity over Time:
This allows students insight into how and why the
telling of historical events change over time. (How
have historians changed their views on historical
events)
Influence / Significance / Effect:
Once an investigation of an event takes place,
students are then able to formulate ideas, arguments
and conclusions about the influence, significance and
the effect it had on the time period and how it effects
the world today.
*What are the limitations and opportunities made
possible by past decisions?
Contrasting Interpretations:
When students are provided multiple perspectives
they realize that history is not just a set of correct
answers but a rich landscape of historical
interpretations. They learn that historical
interpretation is also subject to change depending of
the days issues and as new information is uncovered.
Intent vs. Motivation:
Intention is the will you have to do something. *EX:
I want to do a sport.
Motivation is the inside voice that pushes you to do
it. *EX: I want to do a sport because I want to be fit.
Students look for intent and motivation to historical
figures while completing their investigations. It is
sometimes hard to distinguish between the two.
The Historical Thinking Model:
1. A focused content driven question (questions, not
answers, should drive instruction)
2. Initiate the investigation (access prior knowledge,
provide background information)
3. Conduct the investigation (have relevant and
conflicting sources)
4. Report interpretations and class discussion (share
various interpretations and ideas
5. Debrief student investigations
6. Assess student comprehension
1. Focus Content Driven Question:
The question should be though provoking, and help
deepen a student’s understanding of the content.
Question should be central to the curriculum of the
teacher.
Example Question:
(Early Republic Unit – John Adams Presidency)
Do Presidents have the right to suspend civil (individual)
liberties in times of war and crisis in the United States?
2. Initiate the investigation:
Hook the student's attention and then access prior
knowledge (3 parts)
Part 1:
Bellringer – Project Sedition Act and answer these
questions:
What is this document saying? Does it violate the
Constitution? Defend your answer with proof.
2. Initiate the investigation: CONT.
Part 2:
Have students in groups of three read one part
of a civil liberties timeline then discuss the
common theme. In their groups they come up
with the common themes from these
summaries, then discuss as a class whether it is
appropriate to suspend individual liberties when
the United States is in crisis.
2. Initiate the investigation: CONT.
Part 3:
Hand out the Graphic Organizer. Read the
background information on John Adams Presidency.
Summarize the background information, then write
it in the middle triangle. As a group, then as a class,
they will discuss their background knowledge and
what was carried over from Washington’s
Presidency. When they discuss as a class, lead class
with appropriate questioning
3. Conduct the investigation:
1. Now go back and discuss the bellringer. What were some
of the answers and talk about whether it is Constitutional.
(By this time the students know the Bill of Rights and the
Supreme Court’s job. They should be able to defend their
answers.
2. Hand out the primary sources (the laws passed during
Adam’s presidency) and have the students divide them
up. Once they have finished reading, summarizing and
putting the information in the chart, they share their info
for the other students to fill in their charts.
4&5 Report and debrief interpretations
Class discussion, share various interpretations and
ideas
Go over documents and notes as a class.
6. Assess student comprehension:
Here the students wrote an essay using the
information they had for Adam’s presidency. They
will give opinions and defend their answers based on
classroom notes, discussions, primary sources, and
background knowledge.
My Classroom: Critical Thinking Boards
“I know you think that but where is the
evidence to support your answer?”
Text, Context, and Subtext:
These are the themes that are throughout the lesson.
Specific questions should be asked in order to guide
the information the students are processing .
Bruce A. Lesh, “Why Don’t You Just Tell Us the Answer?” Teaching Historical Thinking in Grades 7-12 (Portland Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2011) 39
Text:
1. What is visible/readable?
2. What information is provided by the
source?
Ibid,. 39
Context:
1. What was going on during the time period?
2. What background information do you have
that helps explain the information found in
the source?
Ibid,. 39
Subtext:
Ask questions about the following:
1. What is between the lines?
2. Author: Who created the source, and what do
we know about that person?
3. Audience: For whom was the source created?
4. Reason: Why was this source produced when
it was?
Ibid,. 39
Bibliography
Ferlazzo, Larry. “Response: Teaching History By Encouraging Curiosity” Education Week Teacher. (May 31, 2014) accessed
October 1, 2014,
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2014/05/response_teaching_history_by_encouragin
g_curiosity.html
*Editorial Projects in Education is an independent, nonprofit publisher of Education Week. EPE's mission is to raise
awareness and understanding of critical issues facing American schools.
Lesh, Bruce A. “Why Don’t You Just Tell Us the Answer?” Teaching Historical Thinking in Grades 7-12. Portland Maine:
Stenhouse Publishers, 2011.
*This book is a guide for teachers wanting to use the historical thinking model in their classroom. He goes step by step
using different teaching standards for each chapter to show how historical thinking strategies can be used successfully
in the classroom
Stanford History Education Group. “Charting the Future of Teaching the Past.” http://sheg.stanford.edu/
This website was put together by Stanford Universities' Historical group. It offers lessons on historical
thinking, and details how to implement it into the classroom.
Teachinghistory.org. “What is Historical Thinking?” http://teachinghistory.org/historical-thinking-intro
Teachinghistory.org is designed to help K–12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S.
history education in the classroom. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for
History and New Media (CHNM) has created Teachinghistory.org with the goal of making history content,
teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible
Wineburg, Sam. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001