MPS/MOEC Teaching American History Grant Lesson Plan Template
Teacher’s Name: Pamela Scamperino-Rule
District: Bellevue Public Schools
Date Submitted: _________
Lesson Title: Why Study History?
NE Standards
Overview
Through visualization and reading the opinions of others, in addition to questioning
and discussion, students start thinking about the usefulness of the study of history.
This is the start of a year long investigation into this topic, which will be revisited
periodically.
Age Level
Established Goals (Learning Objectives)
7 - 12
The student will analyze the need to study history.
Duration
Understandings (Background Knowledge)
1 – 2 days
Students will need to know a definition of history.
Materials
Essential Questions (Engaging Question)
What is history?
Why study history?
Is history different from the past?
Primary Sources (if appropriate)
Learning Activities (Procedure)
DAY 1
1 – BEFORE CLASS: Create a list of different events, along with the date they
occurred, that have impacted the world, i.e. the signing of the Magna Charta, the fall
of Rome, the beginning of the Crusades. Cut these apart into strips. Place these
strips in enough envelopes to hand out one per student, a given number of events per
envelope, 10 for example. These events can be limited to their course of study or
cover any important events in history
On the envelope place the following instructions: Inside this envelope are 10 reasons
we study history. While you are waiting, look through them, organize the information
and postulate an answer to the questions “Is this history?” They are also assigned
the task of finding a visual for at least half of events in the envelope. This can be
from the web, hand made, or photo copied from a text.
As the students enter the classroom, hand each of them an envelope.
2 - Introduce the question “What is history and why should we study it?” Tell the
students the objective of the lesson is to get an answer to these questions. Ask the
students to keep these questions in mind during the lesson. Tell them they will be
expected to write an essay to answer the question at the end of the activity.
3 – Have the students come up with their own definitions of history. Compile a list of
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possible definitions for the students to use as a basis for discussion.
4 – BEFORE CLASS: Construct on paper, like butcher paper, a timeline to cover the
period of years the events that are in the envelopes.
5 – Ask the students “What is in the envelopes?” Discuss the contents of the
envelopes.
6 - Have the students, a few at a time, bring the events to the timeline and place them
on the timeline. Use tape or glue.
7 - Once the timeline has been constructed discuss their answers to the questions in
the instructions. And pose the questions “Is this history?” “What is history and why
should we study it?” while referring to the timeline.
DAY 2
8 - Using the activity from studentsfriend.com, guide the students through the
visualization activity. Discuss the question within the article. Guide the students to
the realization that we use our personal history to make the decisions in our life. And
the study of history is for the same thing, to help us understand the events in our life,
our future.
9 – To give them some examples of essays written about the topic and to carry on the
discussion about why we should study history, read an example of essays like the ones
at the links below. I generally use the Our American Amnesia essay and the Did You
Hear the One About Plato? essay only because they were the first two I found and
they are the ones I fell in love with first.
Discuss the authors’ interpretations of the questions and their answers as seen in the
essays.
10 – Assign the essay “Why Study History?”
Technology Links:
Why Study History?
websites
http://www.historians.org/pubs/Free/WhyStudyHistory.htm
http://history.hanover.edu/why.html
http://www.historyguide.org/guide/study.html
http://www.tntech.edu/history/whystudy.html
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/flash.html
http://www.itasca.com/school/peacock/7team/peel/whyhist.htm
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year7links/why.shtml
http://www.studentsfriend.com/onhist/uses.html
http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/whyhistory.htm
http://www.studentsfriend.com/aids/curraids/whylessn.html
http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/history/newsite/whyhst.htm
http://www.historians.org/pubs/archives/WHMcNeillWhyStudyHistory.htm
http://kancrn.kckps.k12.ks.us/Harmon/breighm/hist4.html
http://www.itasca.com/school/peacock/7team/peel/printhist2.htm
http://inst.sfcc.edu/~sbs/history/
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“Our American Amnesia” by Bruce Cole link http://www.wethepeople.gov/newsroom/wsjarticle.html
“Did you hear the one about Plato?” by G. Howard Hunter
14 Nov 1994 issue of NEWSWEEK
Differentiated Instructional Strategies (Learning Advice)
Students who struggle with writing need only write 3 paragraphs.
Read the essays examples as a group, at least 1.
For higher level learners assign an extra essay to read and require the students to
reference to these in the essay. The essay should also be longer.
Assessment Evidence: Performance Tasks
Essay “Why study history?”
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