historical thinking: part ii
DESCRIPTION
Historical Thinking: Part II. Creating a Historical Process. Where We Finished. Looked at Historical Thinking as a process that was arranged in levels that built upon each other The levels, or tiers, built from the general to the specific - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Historical Thinking: Part II
Creating a Historical Process
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Where We Finished
• Looked at Historical Thinking as a process that was arranged in levels that built upon each other
• The levels, or tiers, built from the general to the specific
• Studied the first level of Historical Thinking that dealt with students being able to acquire historical knowledge
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Where We Will Go Now
• Look at a few issues that tend to impede Historical Thinking in action
• Reinforce the idea of Historical Thinking being a process of providing a framework for students
• Examine the 2nd level of Historical Thinking Skills• Demonstrate an example of Historical
Processing
The examples, documents, and many of the images used to illustrate this presentation come from CICERO: History Beyond the Textbook.
You can sign up for a free trial of this incredible supplement by visiting www.cicerohistory.com and sign up for the free trial.
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Impediments to Historical Understanding
• Sacred vs. Secular Time• Obscures the time that come before and after
• Obfuscations• Loss of common references• Terms of discourse
• History as Apologetic • Rage, demands for restitution• Emergence of ethno-centric histories and diasporas• Apologizing builds false hope for rehabilitating the past
Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineberg, Knowing Teaching & Learning History (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 66-78.
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Impediments to Historical Understanding
• Relativist Nihilism • False idea that all interpretations of the past are
equally worthy and that there is no historical truth• Becoming aware that the past is unique• While there are parallels, the past is not
necessarily analogous to the present• Reliance on Hindsight• Prevents us from being fair to the actors and
events of the passtPeter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineberg, Knowing Teaching & Learning History (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 66-78.
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A HISTORICAL THINKING FRAMEWORK
Thinking Like a Historian
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Tier 1Building a Foundation to Acquire Historical Knowledge
Tier 2Analyzing and Evaluating Historical Material
Tier 3Context and Interpretation of the Past
A Scaffolded Approach
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The History Puzzle
History is not a simple puzzle
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Where do the pieces fit?
The History Jigsaw
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Can You Start Here?
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AN EXAMPLEOf the Puzzle Analogy in Action
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What do you see?
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Tier 1
Tier 1Building a Foundation to Acquire Historical Knowledge
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Tier 2
Tier 1Building a Foundation to Acquire Historical Knowledge
Tier 2Analyzing and Evaluating Historical Material
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The following skills will use the historical knowledge that students have gained and further the understanding process through formal analysis and evaluation.
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Analyzing Causation and Consequence
Studying the differences between single-causation and multi-causation of the events of the past
Impact of the consequences of events and decisions of the past, including those that were desired, and those that were unintended
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Three Levels of Causation
1. Long-term• Takes place over a period of years• Individuals and groups cannot generally effect the
outcome2. Intermediate• Where groups come together to effect change
3. Short-term• Almost immediatePeter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineberg, Knowing Teaching & Learning History (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 56
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What were the causes of the American Revolution?
We are looking for causation and consequence here
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Causes of the American Revolution
• The Enlightenment• Salutary Neglect• French and Indian
War• Proclamation of 1763• New Taxes• Stamp Act• Townshend Duties• Boston Massacre• Lexington & Concord• Common Sense
Let's Roll out the Usual Suspects:
• Growing sense of Americanism• Physical and Mental separation• Structures of Government• Radical Whig Ideology
Some Important Others:
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Teasing One Out
Salutary Neglect- For many years the British had taken a hands-off approach to the colonies. Britain was making huge sums of money from the colonies and did not want to tamper with a profitable enterprise. When the British do begin to assert themselves in the colonies, the American colonists resist and claim a history of self-rule.
The Single Cause or One of Many?
How do we know? What is the evidence?
What was the intended consequence(s)?
What were the unintended consequences?
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DifferentiatingLong-Term Short-Term
• _________________• _________________• _________________• _________________• _________________
_________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________
1600's 177617751770176517631754
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Ranking
Most Important Least Important
1. __________________2. __________________3. __________________4. __________________5. __________________
1. __________________2. __________________3. __________________4. __________________5. __________________
WHY?
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Analyzing Change throughout the Past
• Determination of different types of change that took place in the past, including political, economic, and social
• Analysis of the impact of the different types of change on the history of America
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And Whereas Attempts may be made to evade this Act, by introducing into this State, Negroes and Mulattos, bound by Covenant to serve for long and unreasonable Terms of Years, if the same be not prevented.
Be it therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Covenant of personal Servitude or Apprenticeship whatsoever shall be valid or binding on a Negro or Mulatto for a longer Time than Seven Years; unless such Servant or Apprentice were at the Commencement of such Servitude or Apprenticeship under the Age of Twenty one Years; in which Case such Negro or Mulatto may be holden as a Servant or Apprentice respectively, according to the Covenant, as the Case shall be, until he or she shall attain the Age of twenty eight Years but no longer.
An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, Pennsylvania, 1781
From CICERO Unit 5–Primary Sources section
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That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion …
The Emancipation Proclamation, 1862
From CICERO Unit 8–Primary Sources section
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“The historians method of stimulating comprehension thus rests not just on relating events in chronological order, but primarily emphasizing how everything is continually becoming …”
- Joseph Miller
Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineberg, Knowing Teaching & Learning History (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 134
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Understanding History through common Themes and Ideas
Establishment of the essential themes of history and determination of their presence
1) Foundations of Freedom2) Creation of an American Culture3) Conflict and Compromise4) Political and Social Movements5) America on the World Stage
Analysis of the essential themes in different periods of history and across history
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Freedom
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
From CICERO Unit 4–Primary Sources and Gallery sections
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American CultureThe controversy that created Anne’s moral dilemma began shortly after her arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. The daughter of a minister and a devoted student of scripture, Hutchinson disagreed with many practices she observed in the colonial church. Hutchinson believed in the “Covenant of Grace,” which meant salvation came directly from God. The Puritans believed in grace but maintained people must demonstrate the outward signs of salvation through pious living and charitable works. Hutchinson dismissed this as a “Covenant of Works” and accused church officials of preaching a false doctrine. She soon began sharing her views on Puritan theology. She even began inviting people who agreed with her to participate in religious meetings at her home.
From CICERO Unit 3 – Heroes section
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I shall proceed in the next place, to inquire, what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all the advantages that are to be derived from the proper institution of youth; and here I beg leave to remark, that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.
On the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic Benjamin Rush, 1798
From CICERO Unit 3 – Primary Sources and Galleries section
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Conflict and Compromise
From CICERO Unit 4 – Gallery section
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We shall decline the ungrateful task of describing the irksome variety of artifices practiced by many of your Majestys ministers, the delusive pretences, fruitless terrors, and unavailing severities, that have from time to time been dealt out by them, in their attempts to execute this impolitic plan, or of traceing thro' a series of years past the progress of the unhappy differences between Great Britain and these colonies which have flowed from this fatal source.
Your Majestys ministers persevering in their measures and proceeding to open hostilities for enforcing them, have compelled us to arm in our own defence, and have engaged us in a controversy so peculiarly abhorrent to the affection of your still faithful colonists, that when we consider whom we must oppose in this contest, and if it continues, what may be the consequences, our own particular misfortunes are accounted by us, only as parts of our distress.
From CICERO Unit 4 –Primary Sources section
Olive Branch Petition, 1775
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Political and Social MovementsTHESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
From CICERO Unit 4 –Primary Sources section
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And whereas, the Condition of those Persons who have heretofore been denominated Negro and Mulatto Slaves, has been attended with Circumstances which not only deprived them of the common Blessings that they were by Nature entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest Afflictions by an unnatural Separation and Sale of Husband and Wife from each other, and from their Children; an Injury the greatness of which can only be conceived, by supposing that we were in the same unhappy Case. In Justice therefore to Persons so unhappily circumstanced and who, having no Prospect before them whereon they may rest their Sorrows and their hopes have no reasonable Inducement to render that Service to Society, which they otherwise might; and also in grateful Commemoration of our own happy Deliverance, from that State of unconditional Submission, to which we were doomed by the Tyranny of Britain.
An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery Pennsylvania, March 1, 1780
From CICERO Unit 5 –Primary Sources section
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which not only deprived them of the common Blessings that they were by Nature entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest Afflictions by an unnatural Separation and Sale of Husband and Wife from each other, and from their Children; an Injury the greatness of which can only be conceived, by supposing that we were in the same unhappy Case. In Justice therefore to Persons so unhappily circumstanced and who, having no Prospect before them whereon they may rest their Sorrows and their hopes have no reasonable Inducement to render that Service to Society, which they otherwise might; and also ingrateful Commemoration of our own happy Deliverance, from that State of unconditional Submission, to which we were doomed by the Tyranny of Britain.
From CICERO Unit 5 –Primary Sources section
Continued…
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America on the World Stage
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Analysis of historical controversies and their Impact on the past
Identification of the key controversies and the elements that made them volatile
Analyzing the impact that key controversies have had on the direction of the nation
Tracing the impact of key controversies to their modern conclusion(s)
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THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
From CICERO Unit 4 – Primary Sources
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General Washington expects on the arrival of the French- Troops to collect 30,000 Troops to act in conjunction; if not disappointed, New York is fixed on as the first Object, if his numbers are not sufficient for that Object, Canada is the second; of which I can inform you in time, as well as of every other design. I have accepted the command at West Point. As a Post in which I can render the most essential services, and which will be in my disposal. The mass of the People are heartily tired of the War, and wish to be on their former footing - They are promised great events from this year's exertion. If disappointed you have only to persevere and the contest will soon be at an end. The present Struggles are like the pangs of a dying man, violent but of a short duration
From CICERO Unit 4 – Primary Sources
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HISTORICAL PROCESSING
Putting Pieces and Interpretations Together to Form Knowledge
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Application is Built on Four Premises
1. There must be a systematic approach to teaching and learning history
2. Teaching history is not just lecture and learning history is not just listening
3. Students learn history best by actually doing history4. Intellectual engagement and investigation are
critical to teaching and learning history
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Danger of Relying on Narrative History
Narrative history helps students see the past as a relatively simple story rather than as a rigorous discipline or thought process.
Textbooks simply reinforce the storytelling model and perpetuate that outmoded view of history
The narrative model does little to develop historical reasoning or deep levels understanding
Example on next slide
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From the NarrativeWhat are the main
ideas in this selection?What imagery is
provided for the reader?
Is this a story or a rigorous process?
What does the reader “get” out of this selection?
Are there enduring understandings?
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Historical Processing
The key component of a systematic plan for teaching and learning history is to build in consistent and rigorous mental processes
Understanding is ultimately a function of information processing
Historical processing occurs best and most efficiently when there are multiple sources and a required constructive and analytic product
Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineberg, Knowing Teaching & Learning History (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 375-386.
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Pitfalls of Having Students DO History
1. Can focus on the trappings rather than the thought processes
2. Copying behavior is not equivalent to engaging in the processes of historians
3. Students do not have the basic assumptions of historians and will have to be instructed
4. Without restructuring social interaction or challenging beliefs the activities will yield only ritualistic understanding
Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineberg, Knowing Teaching & Learning History (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 334-335.
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An Exercise in Processing We are going to look at three different excerpts
(A, B, & C) about a specific event in American history
The excerpts are from primary sources and from combinations of primary and secondary sources
What to do:1. Read each excerpt and determine the main idea2. Compare and contrast the excerpts with each other
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Letter from Nathanael Greene to Daniel Morgan
A
From Kings Mountain and Cowpens: Our Victory was Complete
B
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Lt Colonel John Moncure’s The Cowpens Staff Ride and Battlefield Tour
C
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Nathanael Greene to Daniel Morgan
Kings Mountain and Cowpens: Our Victory Was Complete
The Cowpens Staff Ride and Battlefield Tour
Corroboration
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Analysis
What are the facts in this instance?
What do the facts mean?
How reliable are the facts that have been presented?
How do the facts compare?
What do the differences imply?
• Part One • Part two
Wineberg, Sam. "Reading and Rewriting History." Educational Leadership September, no. (2004): 42-45.
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Part Two: Analysis and Evaluation
Three major components1. Factual knowledge is crucial for analysis and
evaluation2. Knowledge itself is NOT an end3. Dig deeper, ask questions, cross the boundary
between the known and unknown
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Crossing the Boundary
1. What risks did Morgan and Greene face?2. Was Morgan (and Greene) in a precarious
position? How do we know?3. What was Greene’s “true” intention for
Morgan?4. Is there anything “between the lines”?
Use the information you have gathered from the three documents to answer the following questions:
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When I advance, I must either destroy Morgan’s corps, or push it before me over the Broad river towards Kings Mountain. The advance of the army should commence (when your Lordship orders it to move) towards Kings Mountain.
Communique from Banastre Tarleton to Lord Cornwallis
D
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Part Three: Contextualize and Interpret
Four main components:1. Placing events, documents, and personalities into
their surroundings2. Examining the economic, social, and political
conditions of the time3. Compare and contrast information derived from a
number of sources4. Examine changing interpretations
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Contextualizing & Interpreting
• Placing into surroundings1. Where are the armies in relation to each other?2. Who is Greene? Cornwallis? Morgan? Tarleton?3. What is the state of the American Revolution at
this point?
Use the information you have gathered from the three documents to answer the following questions:
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Contextualizing & Interpreting
• Changing or differing interpretations1. How do the Moncure and Brown interpretations
differ?2. How do the Moncure and Brown interpretations
compliment each other?
Use the information you have gathered from the three documents to answer the following questions: