Synthesizing Historical Significance
Preserving Our Nation Liberty Fellowship
April 7, 2012
Fran Macko, Ph.D.
fmacko@aihe.info
Framing the Session
• What historical events,
people, themes and issues
are important to
remember?
• How do historians
determine historical
significance?
• What strategies can
history teachers use to
help their students
understand and reflect
historical significance?
What is Historical Significance?
• The concept of historical
significance is a variable,
not a fixed one.
• Historians select and
emphasize certain facts and
information and deemphasize others.
• The resources that
historians value the most
become the basis for their
accounts of an event.
What are the criteria for determining
historical significance?
• Contemporary
significance
– How important was it to
the people of the time?
• Profundity
– How deeply were people
affected?
• Quantity
– How many people were
affected?
• Durability
– How long lasting were the
effects?
• Relevance
– How does it help us
understand current issues
and events?
How does understanding historical significance
support learning?
• Central to the critical reading and analysis of history is
an understanding of historical significance.
• Understanding historical significance:
– supports students in making connections across texts.
– supports students in moving beyond the memorization of facts
and dates.
– supports students in thinking critically about content.
• Once students have acquired new content information
and concepts they can use the framework of historical
significance to rework, apply, and extend their
understandings.
What are some strategies for teaching
historical significance?
• Popular strategies for
understanding historical
significance are:
–
–
–
–
Fact Pyramid
SPAWN
Timelines
RAFT
What is RAFT?
• RAFT is a writing strategy that:
– gives students the opportunity to project themselves into
unique roles and look at content from unique perspectives.
– can be used to explain processes, describe a point of view,
envision a potential job or assignment, or solve a problem.
– can be used for assessment, class presentations, portfolio
projects or as a response to content.
– provides a focus for writing.
– can be differentiated.
• RAFT requires students to think critically about their
reading or viewing in order to take on a new role, match
the audience to the role, create a format that would fit that
role, and cover specific topics from the content.
What are the steps
in the RAFT strategy?
• Review the RAFT acronym
with students, explaining
what each letter stands
for:
– R – Role (role of the
writer)
– A – Audience (to whom or
what the RAFT is being
written)
– F – Form (the form the
writing will take, as in
letter, song, etc.)
– T – Topic (the subject
focus of the writing)
• Scaffold the strategy by
beginning with a
prescribed RAFT to model
the process.
• Use a specific text or
image to model the
strategy.
• Provide a completed RAFT
graphic organizer.
• Stress that RAFT writing
allows for creativity, but
must accurately reflect the
content just learned.
• As students become more
proficient in the strategy,
have them develop their
own list of possible roles
and audiences, formats and
topics.
• This allows students to
demonstrate their
understanding of historical
significance and multiple
perspectives and synthesize
their learning through
writing.
What types of sources can be used
as prompts for RAFT?
• RAFT is a flexible
strategy that can be
used with a variety of
sources.
• These sources can be
used as prompts for
RAFT writing.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Primary Sources
Non-Fiction
Fiction
Interviews
Artifacts
Videos
Periodicals
Poetry
Music
Art
The RAFT Graphic Organizer
RAFT
R
A
F
T
R= Role What role (s) will you assume as writer?
A= Audience Who or what will be the audience for writing?
F= Format What format will the writing take?
T= Topic Define the topic, determine questions to be answered and point to be
made.
Modeling the Strategy
The Spanish American War
Modeling the Strategy:
Using an Image as a Prompt
Prescribed RAFT Assignment
RAFT
R
A
People who read the
newspaper
F
T
Personal Recollections
of the Spanish
American War
Reporter
Interview
• Working with a partner
generate a list of interview
questions that would match
the role, audience, and content
of the RAFT assignment.
• What factors would influence
the questions a reporter would
ask of the people in the image?
• How does the choice of
questions reflect historical
significance?
On Your Own
• Select one of the
following texts and
create two RAFT
activities for the text
other than an
interview for a
newspaper.
• What decisions would
students need to make
regarding what
information is
significant to complete
the assignment?
• “Account of the Battle of
Cusco Hill”
• “Black Participation in
the Spanish American
War”
• Native American
Participation in the
Spanish American War”
Other Images for RAFT
Adapting RAFT to Your Classroom
• How might you use
RAFT in your social
studies classroom?
• What adaptations can
you make?
Extension and Differentiation
• The student selects the role and audience and the
teacher selects the format and topic.
• Students write the RAFT in small groups.
• Students write from the perspective of an historical
character.
• RAFT is used a pre-writing activity before a small
group or class discussion.
• What other extensions or differentiations can you
think of?