New Mexico: 8th-Grade Standards

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  • Strand: History

    Content Standard I: Students are able to identify important people and events in order to analyze significant patterns, relationships, themes, ideas, beliefs, and turning points in New Mexico, United States, and world history in order to understand the complexity of the human experience. Students will:

    • Grade 8 Benchmark I-A—New Mexico:

      Explore and explain how people and events have influenced the development of New Mexico up to the present day.

      Performance Standards

      1. Compare and contrast the settlement patterns of the American southwest with other regions of the United States.
      2. Analyze New Mexicoís role and impact on the outcome of the civil war (e.g., strategic geographic location, significance of the battle of Glorieta Pass, trade routes to California, native allegiances).
      3. Explain the role New Mexico played in the United States participation in the Spanish American war.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark I-B—United States:

      Analyze and interpret major eras, events and individuals from the periods of exploration and colonization through the civil war and reconstruction in United States history.

      Performance Standards

      1. Describe, evaluate and interpret the economic and political reasons for the American revolution, to include:
        • a. attempts to regulate colonial trade through passage of Tea Act, Stamp Act and Intolerable Acts; colonistsí reaction to British policy (e.g., boycotts, the sons of liberty, petitions, appeals to parliament);
        • b. the ideas expressed in the declaration of independence, including the preamble.
      2. Describe the aspirations, ideals and events that served as the foundation for the creation of a new national government, to include:
        • a. articles of confederation, the constitution and the success of each in implementing the ideals of the declaration of independence;
        • b. major debates of the constitutional convention and their resolution (e.g., the federalist papers), contributions and roles of major individuals in the writing and ratification of the constitution (e.g., George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Jay);
        • c. struggles over ratification of the constitution and the creation of the bill of rights.
      3. Describe and explain the actions taken to build one nation from thirteen states, to include:
        • a. precedents established by George Washington (e.g., cabinet, two-term presidency); Alexander Hamiltonís financial plan (e.g., the national bank, payment of debts);
        • b. creation of political parties (democratic republicans and the federalists).
      4. Describe the successes and failures of the reforms during the age of Jackson, to include:
        • a. extension of franchise to all white men;
        • b. Indian removal, the trail of tears, the long walk;
        • c. abolition movement (e.g., Quakers, Harriet Tubman, underground railroad).
      5. Describe, explain and analyze the aims and impact of western expansion and the settlement of the United States, to include:
        • a. American belief in manifest destiny and how it led to the Mexican war and its consequences;
        • b. comparison of African American and Native American slavery; westward migration of peoples (e.g., Oregon, California, Mormons and southwest);
        • c. origins and early history of the womenís movement.
      6. Explain how sectionalism led to the civil war, to include:
        • a. different economies that developed in the north, south and west; addition of new states to the union and the balance of power in the United States senate (Missouri and 1850 compromises);
        • b. extension of slavery into the territories (e.g., Dred Scott decision, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Frederick Douglass, John Brown);
        • c. presidential election of 1860, Lincolnís victory and the southís secession.
      7. Explain the course and consequences of the civil war and how it divided people in the United States, to include:
        • a. contributions and significance of key figures (e.g., Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant);
        • b. major turning points in the civil war, including Gettysburg; unique nature of the civil war (e.g., impact of Americans fighting Americans, high casualties caused by disease and type of warfare, widespread destruction of American property);
        • c. role of African Americans; purpose and effect of the emancipation proclamation.
      8. Analyze the character and lasting consequences of reconstruction, to include:
        • a. reconstruction plans; impact of Lincolnís assassination and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson;
        • b. attempts to protect the rights and enhance the opportunities for freedmen by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the United States constitution;
        • c. post-civil war segregation policies and their resulting impact on racial issues in the United States.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark I-C—World:

      Compare and contrast major historical eras, events and figures from ancient civilizations to the age of exploration.

      Performance Standards

      1. Describe and explain the significance of the line of demarcation on the colonization of the new world.
      2. Compare and contrast the influence of European countries (e.g., England, France, Holland) on the development of colonies in the new world.
      3. Describe and explain the impact of the American revolution on France and the French revolution.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark I-D—Skills:

      Research historical events and people from a variety of perspectives.

      Performance Standards

      1. Demonstrate understanding and apply problem-solving skills for historical research, to include: use of primary and secondary sources; sequencing, posing questions to be answered by historical inquiry; collecting, interpreting and applying information; gathering and validating materials that present a variety of perspectives.

  • Strand: Geography

    Content Standard II: Students understand how physical, natural, and cultural processes influence where people live, the ways in which people live, and how societies interact with one another and their environments.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark II-A:

      Analyze and evaluate the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools, knowledge, skills and perspectives and apply them to explain the past, present and future in terms of patterns, events and issues.

      Performance Standards

      1. Describe patterns and processes of migration and diffusion.
      2. Provide a historic overview of patterns of population expansion into the west by the many diverse groups of people (e.g., Native Americans, European Americans and others) to include movement into the southwest along established settlement, trade and rail routes.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark II-B:

      Explain the physical and human characteristics of places and use this knowledge to define regions, their relationships with other regions, and their patterns of change.

      Performance Standards

      1. Describe how individual and cultural characteristics affect perceptions of locales and regions.
      2. Describe political, population and economic regions that result from patterns of human activity, using New Mexico as an example.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark II-C:

      Understand how human behavior impacts man-made and natural environments, recognize past and present results and predict potential changes.

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain and evaluate how changing perceptions of place and the natural environment have affected human behavior.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark II-D:

      Explain how physical processes shape the earthís surface patterns and biosystems.

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain how human activities and physical processes influence change in ecosystems.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark II-E:

      Explain how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations and their interdependence, cooperation and conflict.

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain and describe how movement of people impacted and shaped western settlement.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark II-F:

      Describe how natural and man-made changes affect the meaning, use, distribution, and value of resources.

      Performance Standards

      1. Describe the differing viewpoints that individuals and groups have with respect to the use of resources.

  • Strand: Civics and Government

    Content Standard III: Students understand the ideals, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship and understand the content and history of the founding documents of the United States with particular emphasis on the United States and New Mexico constitutions and how governments function at local, state, tribal, and national levels.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark III-A:

      Demonstrate understanding of the structure, functions and powers of government (local, state, tribal and national).

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain the structure and functions of the national government as expressed in the United States constitution, and explain the powers granted to the three branches of government and those reserved to the people, states and tribes, to include:
        • a. the federal system (dividing sovereignty between the states and the federal government and their supporting bureaucracies);
        • b. the sovereignty of Native American tribes in relation to state and federal governments (and government to government relationships); bill of rights, amendments to constitution;
        • c. the primacy of individual liberty;
        • d. constitution designed to secure our liberty by both empowering and limiting central government;
        • e. struggles over the creation of the bill of rights and its ratification;
        • f. separation of powers through the development of differing branches;
        • g. John Marshallís role in judicial review, including Marbury v. Madison.
      2. Identify and describe a citizen's fundamental constitutional rights, to include:
        • a. freedom of religion, expression, assembly and press;
        • b. right to a fair trial;
        • c. equal protection and due process.
      3. Describe the contributions of Native Americans in providing a model that was utilized in forming the United States government (Iroquois league).
      4. Explain and describe how water rights and energy issues cross state and national boundaries.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark III-B:

      Explain the significance of symbols, icons, songs, traditions and leaders of New Mexico and the United States that exemplify ideals and provide continuity and a sense of unity.

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain how the development of symbols, songs, traditions and concepts of leadership reflect American beliefs and principles.
      2. Explain the importance of point of view and its relationship to freedom of speech and press.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark III-C:

      Compare political philosophies and concepts of government that became the foundation for the American revolution and the United States government.

      Performance Standards

      1. Describe political philosophies and concepts of government that became the foundation for the American revolution and the United States government, to include:
        • a. ideas of the nature of government and rights of the individuals expressed in the declaration of independence with its roots in English philosophers (e.g., John Locke);
        • b. concept of limited government and the rule of law established in the Magna Carta and the English bill of rights;
        • c. social covenant established in the Mayflower compact;
        • d. characteristics of representative governments;
        • e. anti-federalist and federalist arguments towards the new constitution, including those expressed in the federalist papers;
        • f. concepts of federalism, democracy, bicameralism, separation of powers, and checks and balances.
      2. Explain the concept and practice of separation of powers among the U.S. congress, the president and the supreme court.
      3. Understand the fundamental principles of American constitutional democracy, including how the government derives its power from the people.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark III- D:

      Explain how individuals have rights and responsibilities as members of social groups, families, schools, communities, states, tribes and countries.

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain basic law-making processes and how the design of the United States constitution provides numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and to monitor and influence government (e.g., elections, political parties, interest groups).
      2. Understand the multiplicity and complexity of human rights issues.

  • Strand: Economics

    Content Standard IV: Students understand basic economic principles and use economic reasoning skills to analyze the impact of economic systems (including the market economy) on individuals, families, businesses, communities, and governments.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark IV-A:

      Explain and describe how individuals, households, businesses, governments and societies make decisions, are influenced by incentives (economic as well as intrinsic) and the availability and use of scarce resources, and that their choices involve costs and varying ways of allocating.

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain and provide examples of economic goals.
      2. Analyze the full costs and benefits of alternative uses of resources that will lead to productive use of resources today and in the future.
      3. Explain that tension between individuals, groups and countries is often based upon differential access to resources.

    • Grade 8 Benchmark IV-B:

      Explain how economic systems impact the way individuals, households, businesses, governments and societies make decisions about resources and the production and distribution of goods and services.

      Performance Standards

      1. Describe the relationships among supply, demand and price and their roles in the United States market system.
      2. Identify how fundamental characteristics of the United Statesí economic system influence economic decision making (e.g., private property, profits, competition) at local, state, tribal and national levels.
      3. Explain changing economic activities in the United States and New Mexico and the role of technology in those changes.
      4. Identify situations in which price and value diverge.
      5. Describe the use of money over time (e.g., college funds beginning in elementary years, saving accounts, 401K accounts).

    • Grade 8 Benchmark IV-C:

      Describe the patterns of trade and exchange in early societies and civilizations and explore the extent of their continuation in todayís world.

      Performance Standards

      1. Explain how specialization leads to interdependence and describe ways most Americans depend on people in other households, communities and nations for some of the goods they consume.
      2. Understand the interdependencies between the economies of New Mexico, the United States and the world.
      3. Understand the factors that currently limit New Mexico from becoming an urban state, including: the availability and allocation of water, and the extent to which New Mexico relies upon traditional economic forms (e.g., the acequia systems, localized agricultural markets).
      4. Describe the relationship between New Mexico, tribal and United States economic systems.
      5. Compare and contrast New Mexico commerce with that of other statesí commerce.

Alabama: 8th-Grade Standards

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AL.8 Standard: World History—Early Man to 1500

The study of world history in Grade 8 addresses the time period from prehistoric man to the 1500s.

8.1

  • 8.1.1 Students will:

    Explain how artifacts and other archaeological findings provide evidence of the nature and movement of prehistoric groups of people. (Geography, History)

    • Grade Level Example:

      cave paintings, Ice Man, Lucy, fossils, pottery

  • 8.1.2 Students will practice:

    • Identifying the founding of Rome as the basis of the calendar established by Julius Caesar, which was used in early Western civilization for over a thousand years
    • Identifying the birth of Christ as the basis of the Gregorian calendar used in the United States since its beginning and in most countries of the world today, signified by B.C. and A.D.
    • Using vocabulary terms other than B.C. and A.D. to describe time
      • Grade Level Example:

        B.C.E., C.E.

    • Identifying terms used to describe characteristics of early societies and family structures
      • Grade Level Example:

        monogamous, polygamous, nomadic

8.2

  • 8.2.1 Students will:

    Analyze characteristics of early civilizations in respect to technology, division of labor, government, calendar, and writings. (Economy, Geography, History, Civics and Government)

  • 8.2.2 Students will practice:

    • Comparing significant features of civilizations that developed in the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, Indus, and Huang He River valleys
      • Grade Level Example:

        natural environment, urban development, social hierarchy, written language, ethical and religious belief system, government and military institutions, economic systems

    • Identifying on a map locations of cultural hearths of early civilizations
      • Grade Level Example:

        Mesopotamia, Nile Valley

8.3

  • 8.3.1 Students will:

    Compare the development of early world religions, philosophies, and their key tenets. (History)

    • Grade Level Example:

      Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Greek and Roman gods

  • 8.3.2 Students will practice:

    • Identifying cultural contributions of early world religions and philosophies
      • Grade Level Example:

        Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Greek and Roman gods, Phoenicians

8.4

  • 8.3.1 Students will:

    Identify cultural contributions of Classical Greece, including politics, intellectual life, arts, literature, architecture, and science. (History, Civics and Government)

8.5

  • 8.5.1 Students will:

    Describe the role of Alexander the Great in the Hellenistic world. (Economics, Geography, History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      serving as political and military leader, encouraging cultural interaction, allowing religious diversity

  • 8.5.2 Students will practice:

    • Defining boundaries of Alexander the Great’s empire and its economic impact
    • Identifying reasons for the separation of Alexander the Great’s empire into successor kingdoms
    • Evaluating major contributions of Hellenistic art, philosophy, science, and political thought

8.6

  • 8.6.1 Students will:

    Trace the expansion of the Roman Republic and its transformation into an empire, including key geographic, political, and economic elements. (Economics, Geography, History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      expansion—illustrating the spread of Roman influence with charts, graphs, timelines, or maps
      transformation—noting reforms of Augustus, listing effects of Pax Romana

  • 8.6.2 Students will practice:

    • Interpreting spatial distributions and patterns of the Roman Republic using geographic tools and technologies

8.7

  • 8.7.1 Students will:

    Describe the widespread impact of the Roman Empire. (Economics, Geography, History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      spread of Roman law and political theory, citizenship and slavery, architecture and engineering, religions, sculpture and paintings, literature, and the Latin language

  • 8.7.2 Students will practice:

    • Tracing important aspects of the diffusion of Christianity, including its relationship to Judaism, missionary impulse, organizational development, transition from persecution to acceptance in the Roman Empire, and church doctrine
    • Explaining the role of economics, societal changes, Christianity, political and military problems, external factors, and the size and diversity of the Roman Empire in its decline and fall

8.8

  • 8.8.1 Students will:

    Describe the development of a classical civilization in India and China. (Geography, History)

    • Grade Level Example:

      India—religions, arts and literature, philosophies, empires, caste system
      China—religions, politics, centrality of the family, Zhou and Han Dynasties, inventions, economic impact of the Silk Road and European trade, dynastic transitions

  • 8.8.2 Students will practice:

    • Identifying the effect of the monsoons on India
    • Identifying landforms and climate regions of China
      • Grade Level Example:

        marking landforms and climate regions of China on a map

8.9

  • 8.9. Students will:

    Describe the rise of the Byzantine Empire, its institutions, and its legacy, including the influence of the Emperors Constantine and Justinian, and the effect of the Byzantine Empire upon art, religion, architecture, and law. (History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      Identifying factors leading to the establishment of the Eastern Orthodox Church

8.10

  • 8.10. Students will:

    Trace the development of the early Russian state and the expansion of its trade systems. (Economics, Geography, History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      rise of Kiev and Muscovy, conversion to Orthodox Christianity, movement of peoples of Central Asia, Mongol conquest, rise of czars

8.11

  • 8.11. Students will:

    Describe early Islamic civilizations, including the development of religious, social, and political systems. (Geography, History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      Tracing the spread of Islamic ideas through invasion and conquest throughout the Middle East, northern Africa, and western Europe

8.12

  • 8.12. Students will:

    Describe China’s influence on culture, politics, and economics in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. (Economics, History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      culture—describing the influence on art, architecture, language, and religion
      politics—describing changes in civil service economics—introducing patterns of trade

8.13

  • 8.13.1. Students will:

    Compare the African civilizations of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai to include their geography, religions, slave trade, economic systems, empires, and cultures. (Economics, Geography, History, Civics and Government)

  • 8.13.2 Students will practice:

    • Tracing the spread of language, religion, and customs from one African civilization to another
    • Illustrating the impact of trade among Ghana, Mali, and Songhai
      • Grade Level Example:

        using map symbols, interpreting distribution maps, creating a timeline

8.14

  • 8.14.1. Students will:

    Describe key aspects of pre-Columbian cultures in the Americas including the Olmecs, Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and North American tribes. (Economics, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      pyramids, wars among pre-Columbian people, religious rituals, irrigation, Iroquois Confederacy

  • 8.14.2 Students will practice:

    • Locating on a map sites of pre-Columbian cultures
      • Grade Level Example:

        Mayan, Inca, Inuit, Creek, Cherokee

8.15

  • 8.15.1. Students will:

    Describe military and governmental events that shaped Europe in the early Middle Ages (600-1000). (Economics, History, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      invasions, military leaders

  • 8.15.2 Students will practice:

    • Describing the role of the early medieval church
    • Describing the impact of new agricultural methods on manorialism and feudalism

8.16

  • 8.16.1. Students will:

    Describe major cultural changes in Western Europe in the High Middle Ages (1000-1350). (Economics, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      the Church, scholasticism, Crusades

  • 8.16.2 Students will practice:

    • Describing changing roles of church and governmental leadership
    • Comparing political developments in France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire, including the signing of the Magna Carta
    • Describing the growth of trade and towns resulting in the rise of the middle class

8.17

  • 8.17.1. Students will:

    Explain how events and conditions fostered political and economic changes in the late Middle Ages and led to the origins of the Renaissance. (Economics, Civics and Government)

    • Grade Level Example:

      Crusades, Hundred Years’ War, Black Death, rise of middle class, commercial prosperity

  • 8.17.2 Students will practice:

    • Identifying changes in the arts, architecture, literature, and science in the late Middle Ages

Understanding Civic Republicanism

Image
Photography, Athena at Parliament, 6 April 2009, Alisha Rusher, Flickr CC
Question

Can you provide a few examples of how to teach civic republicanism to California middle-schoolers?

Answer

California State History-Social Science Content Standard 8.1.4: Describe the nation’s blend of civic republicanism, classical liberal principles, and English parliamentary traditions.

There is a famous story about the day the Constitutional Convention ended in September 1787. Benjamin Franklin was walking out of Independence Hall, and a woman ran to him and asked, “Dr. Franklin, what kind of government have you given us?” He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Whether apocryphal or not, this statement shapes the definition of active citizenship in this country. At the heart of Franklin’s challenge is the idea of civic republicanism. The notion that it is imperative for people of this country to remain attentive and devoted to the maintenance of our institutions for their sustainability is still one of America’s cherished ideals.

The idea of civic republicanism is not meant to be a one-shot assignment that can be covered with a worksheet.

The California State History Standards ask that the background of civic republican traditions be covered during students’ 6th, 7th, and 8th grade years. A student begins the middle years with Greek and Roman political contributions, continues with the Enlightenment’s influence on democratic thought and its links to Greek, Roman, and Christian pasts, and then blends those ideas with the evolving republic of the United States. In other words, the idea of civic republicanism is not meant to be a one-shot assignment that can be covered with a worksheet. It is an ongoing theme and discussion throughout the middle school years. While the various ideas that emanate from civic responsibility can certainly be weighty to teach, their density is manageable if presented consistently over the years. Since the traditions of civic republicanism extend back to colonial America, it is fitting that they should be enmeshed in the curriculum throughout the students’ 8th-grade year of study.

What Are Some of the Ideas Related to Civic Republicanism?

Students must understand that while citizenship is a right it is also a responsibility. We all have responsibilities to our families, communities, schools, places of worship, the state, the country, the world, and, especially, our descendents. Many schools now require students to complete a set number of hours for community service. A discussion about why it is important to complete community service is a great place to start when tackling the ideas of civic republicanism with eighth graders. Before moving on to the relationships between our government’s structure and how it is influenced by past traditions, it is useful to conduct a discussion or writing assignment about what students do to make their communities better, why it is important to do so, and what benefits result from such participation.

Resources

Many textbooks have sections regarding the roles of citizenship that can prove quite useful when introducing the concept of civic republicanism. This lesson plan and this plan, both from the Center for Civic Education, can be used to help students explore and identify what it means to play an active role in our republic. This would also be an appropriate time to review ideas from students’ 6th- and 7th-grade classes, such as Pericles’s praise of public service and the Roman Republic’s expectation of its citizens to perform public service, and various Enlightenment ideas from thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu.

This handout can be used as part of a class discussion. The first page would be done by students in groups or as an entire class while sharing common ideas. (It may also be helpful to identify pages in your textbook that can help students answer these questions.) The second page includes some of the content that could come out in the discussion of the second question and particular principles.

An Important Idea!

Again, this concept is not an easy one to teach, especially with the limited time our school schedules are allowing year after year. While teaching our subject matter is essential, we must remember that ultimately our responsibility as educators demands that we are constantly guiding our students to be active citizens who are energized by their potential to play a part in achieving a better society. Citizens in a republic must stay engaged in the social fabric of making their institutions better. Our students must be reassured and impressed with the idea that civic participation has benefited civilization since ancient times, as can be seen throughout their studies of history in the middle years.

For more information

Students can learn more about the responsibilities of modern-day citizens and the workings of U.S. government at iCivics. Online games explore the responsibilities of citizens and each of the three branches of government.

What resources can you use to teach about civics and civic republicanism? A previous Ask a Master Teacher shares more suggestions.

Do you teach ELL students? You don't need advanced English comprehension to learn about the rights and responsibilities that are part of living in a republic! Michael Long shares a teaching strategy.

Elizabeth Schaefer on Facebook in the Classroom

Date Published
Image
Photo, Facebook, Jan. 26, 2010, Colevito Mambembe, Flickr
Article Body

Many teenagers spend much of their free time in a virtual world, and the school world can be peripheral to the connections they make through TV or a computer screen. As our society becomes more and more driven by social media, Facebook opens a door to meet students where they are and to create informal educational connections outside of the classroom.

Why did we become history teachers? For me it was because I love exploring this country and its past. I take great joy in visiting museums and historic sites to learn about hidden pieces of our past. I spend time every year experiencing different states and growing my understanding of how geography and regional culture shaped past events and affect politics today.

Unfortunately, all of those verbs—"exploring," "visiting," and "experiencing"—have limitations in the school system, so as teachers we need to look for new and creative tools that are within our reach. Since I began teaching, my students have been on my mind during my adventures, especially those within my own city—Washington, DC. I wish that they could have the experiences that I have, or at least be aware that these experiences exist. It was somewhere along this line of thought that I realized my guilty pleasure, Facebook, could actually be a useful academic tool. I started a project to learn more about Facebook's potential to engage and nurture lifelong historians.

Utilizing Facebook Academically

To preface, this project will be described as an addition to classroom learning. For those John Dewey enthusiasts squeezed out by test prep, Facebook offers an opportunity for your students to explore and engage at will. Rather than mandating participation, the teacher enters the students' world and offers various resources that students may choose to read and interact with. Here are some of the many ways that Facebook can be utilized:

Sharing Visual Aids
My original idea was primarily to utilize Facebook for my visual learners, to help support vocabulary and historic concepts. Images can be found on Google within seconds, but presenting images from your own life provides relevance and tangibility. A smartphone is helpful to upload pictures as you take them and therefore to also model that history is alive and active in your life.

Examples: If we were studying city life during the colonial period and I traveled to Boston, I would upload a photo of a historic building to demonstrate the small windows and brick-laying techniques. As a nature lover in a city school, uploading photos has been especially helpful with geographic terms, such as "marsh" and "plains," that the students are unfamiliar with.

Modeling a Love For History
All of our cities and towns have their own unique history and hidden treasures. While I spend a great deal of time in local parks and museums, my students, like many teenagers, repeatedly tell me that they spend weekends at the movies, sports, or the mall. I do not think this is simply because they are not interested or cannot get to cultural sites, but because it does not occur to them to go. Post a status update saying that you are listening to a presidential address or watching a historical movie. Let them know you are at a museum or just heard a fun fact. Take pictures on a trip when you stumble upon an old cemetery or find a family heirloom. Let the students know when you feel excited about being a history nerd!

Highlighting Current Events
Those less practiced in Facebook may not realize that it can literally be a newsfeed. By clicking to post a "link" instead of "status," you can link your students to any online news source. These could be articles that you think they should all be aware of or articles that may interest a particular group of students.

In addition, any number of politicians, NGOs, and national celebrities have Facebook pages, and this Facebook world is likely not the one that your students pay attention to. If they see that you are "Facebook friends" with Barack Obama and John Boehner, this might prompt them to check both Facebook profiles out and learn more.

Creating Interactive Puzzles
I get the best response when I post interactive puzzles for the students. They can be about anything you are studying or a review throwback to the beginning of the year.

Examples: In the Smithsonian American Art Museum, there is a piece that combines license plates from all 50 states that spell out the words of the Declaration of Independence. I took a quick picture and then posted this up with "Who can tell us what this is?" Several students chimed in.

Questions and puzzles like this can come in many forms, and do not need to relate to museums. For instance, a new movie is coming out called Jumping Over the Broom and I plan to post a link to the movie and ask if anyone remembers the historic significance of this tradition to slave life.

Expanding Student Choices
Most students love activities which involve the computer and social media, and the more we can do to spark interest, the better. There are many ways to use Facebook for turning in assignments or expanding on in-class participation.

Example: When discussing slavery, I asked students what one carries with them when deprived of everything. The students had to go home and look for skills or knowledge that the enslaved could have brought with them across the ocean. They were invited to either bring in items or describe what they had found. As another option, students could post what they found on Facebook. I also posted my own pictures that weekend: a drum, a quilt, and a woven basket to show that the skills brought by the enslaved Africans are seen everywhere.

Giving Shout-Outs and Recognition
Up to this point, you may be able to complete the same goals with a blog—but a unique aspect of Facebook is public recognition. Your teenage students are used to sharing their happiness and sadness and pride across a computer screen so go ahead and jump in! For those wary of causing embarrassment, I recommend sticking to recognizing the whole class. This is fun because it gathers lots of "likes" and revs up the competition.

Building Community
Facebook was designed as an online community and is therefore built to create feelings of belonging. Teachers can share pictures of field trips the students went on, follow along with a topic important to the community, and create special groups relevant to school. Some of my students who are shy in class seem to have a different online personality and are more likely to comment and join in through the computer.

Encouraging a Sense of Ownership and Interest in Our Country
In teaching history, we are passing on ownership of this country, but many students in many cities and towns have not been more than one or two states away. If my Washington, DC students skim pictures of the Oregon coast, Arches National Park, or a New Mexico Indian reservation, my greatest hope would be that the pictures make them want to visit more of our amazing country. Even if they are content where they are, they can at least be more culturally aware and form a broader definition of national diversity.

Ensuring Security and Consent

Securing Privacy
In setting up this project, the first thing to do is to establish a secure Facebook page at www.facebook.com. I recommend the following steps to ensure privacy:

  • Separate this account from any other Facebook account that you have.
  • Add only the information that you are comfortable with. I added my favorite books, some inspirational quotes, and a few historical movies to my profile. In this account, I also chose to include some pictures of myself and my family and created a couple of photo albums with facts about places I had been.
  • Ensure that all of your security settings are set to "Friends Only." This is for the security of the students who "friend" you. It allows only those students who have friended you to have access to your page and your pictures.
  • If you do have a personal Facebook account, I recommend double checking that your settings on it are secure before going online with your teacher account. I temporarily switched my personal profile picture to a landscape so that if the students were searching for me, they would select and friend my teacher account, which had a photo of me as the profile picture.

Ensuring Consent
Before just "friending" all of your students, there are a couple necessary steps to take. First, I sought approval from the principal and then I sent a letter home for all of the parents. The parents had to sign the permission slip before any online contact could be established. In this letter, I welcomed the families to join my community on Facebook if they were uncomfortable with their children doing so. Within this letter, I included an additional item about whether I could post pictures of the kids on Facebook. Most parents who agreed to let their children participate in the project agreed to let them participate in all of its aspects.

Project Challenges

Facebook has so much potential for being an educational tool, but I cannot claim I have had full success quite yet. I plan to continue experimenting until this initiative matches the vision that I have for it. Here are some of the challenges I faced.

Encouraging Buy-In
Once everything was set up, then I needed to hook my students. If they did not want to join in, everything was for naught. To present the project to them, I emphasized the "shout-out" portion of the activity and told them that I would offer some project options only on Facebook. I only received about a 40% opt-in rate. On the plus side, the kids who participated were probably the most likely to actually search out the educational articles and pictures that I posted. Next year, I plan to start this project with the beginning of the year paperwork to see if that increases participation.

Creating Routine
It was very difficult for me to create a routine that involved regularly updating my student Facebook account. Facebook is justifiably blocked on my school network so this always had to be an outside-of-work project. Everything I did for the project therefore felt like extra. Next year, I plan to start from the beginning with a commitment to posting biweekly to create more of a routine for myself and the students.

Maintaining Distance
I recommend avoiding skimming your students' pages. There is just information out there that we do not want to know. I requested from the students and in the parent letter that students only allow me access to their Limited Profile, a setting that does not allow me full access to the students' conversations.

Also, be aware that commenting on your students' status may be seen as invasive. I have commented now and then when it was relevant specifically to school or current issues involving social studies or social justice. In my opinion, especially early in the year, teachers may be better off viewing Facebook interaction as one-way.

Facing the Inequity of Computers
Utilizing media outside of the classroom involves inevitable inequities. Since Facebook is blocked at most schools and some students cannot leisurely browse the Internet at home, this project does give some students an unfair advantage. I have not found a way to work around this.

Starting Your Own Projects

I hope that other teachers experiment with this online tool, and would love to hear about any successes or receive feedback. For the first time in history, teachers can reach their students during the after-school at-home hours to build community, provide historic resources, and truly offer the type of engagement that allows us teachers to declare ourselves lifelong learners.

For more information

Get more ideas on using social media with your students in Digital Classroom. You can read more about Facebook, or watch an example of how one teacher used it to engage her students in the lives of historical figures.

Confronting the "Official Story" of American History

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"Washington Crossing the Deleware". Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. 1851 oil on canvas
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Keith Barton of Indiana University and Linda Levstik of the University of Kentucky wanted to understand the "official" story of American history so often presented in classrooms and textbooks. What happens to aspects of history that don’t fit the way we usually teach U.S. history? And how do students respond?

Barton and Levstik interviewed 48 children, grades 5–8, to see how middle-schoolers understand the significance of particular events. Students were asked to choose from a number of historical events in order to determine which eight to include on a timeline of the last 500 years.

Many students alighted on a central theme in U.S. history: steadily expanding rights and opportunities. While stories like this help structure students' thinking about American history, traditional themes (such as perpetual progress or expanding freedoms) left them ill-equipped to deal with issues like racial inequality or political dissent.

While stories . . . help structure students' thinking about American history, traditional themes . . . left them ill-equipped to deal with issues like racial inequality or political dissent.

This study suggests that middle-grade students may need help grasping the complexities of the past or finding a place for stories that don’t fit common narratives. The authors proposed that teachers expose students to more complex and diverse perspectives by identifying what such narratives leave out. How has progress not been achieved? Where have freedoms not been expanded? What are the exceptions, the outliers, the cases that don’t fit? The researchers believe that students can learn traditional thematic narratives, while at the same time exploring the richness and complexity of history.

Thematic Trends

When Barton and Levstik interviewed the students, they found a core group of themes emerged from the events students chose as the most significant. Stories of national origin, American exceptionality, expanding freedoms, and technological progress consistently appeared among the students' choices. Such themes represented an "official version" of American history that all students seemed to recognize.

Alternative Stories

Some students viewed events as important despite the fact that their themes did not easily fit into the more popular narratives. Racism and sexism directly contradict themes of progress and expanding freedoms. Other events like the Great Depression and the Vietnam War fly in the face of American exceptionality. In both cases, however, students found it challenging to explain why they found these events significant. While students were convinced of the importance of such events, they struggled to reconcile them with common themes of U.S. history.

Two Ideas in Their Minds

American history presents a wide variety of events and themes. Some, like our nation’s heritage regarding race, class, and gender, pose particular challenges. Accustomed to justifying the importance of events by referencing a few common themes, many students find themselves at a loss when confronted by events they know are important, but which don’t seem to fit the stories they are used to hearing. Lacking an overarching framework to help make sense of such events, they develop overly simplistic explanations to reconcile jarring events with the official story. As the sample application below shows, their explanations may put events together, but at the expense of historical accuracy.

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Photomechanical print, Progress, Keppler & Schwarzmann, c. 1901, LoC
In the Classroom
  • Have students create a timeline of important events in American history, asking them to explain why they make particular choices.
  • After students create their timeline, discuss the major themes that arise from their picks. Do they seem to represent an "official" history?
  • Once they have identified common historical themes, ask students to pick out events that don’t fit the "official story." What might explain this lack of fit?
Sample Application

When learning about the Great Depression, one group of students demonstrated a characteristic dilemma. As far as they knew, throughout its history the United States had been on a steady march of economic progress. Consequently, students weren't sure how the Great Depression fit into this story:

  • "It wasn't a good part of history."
  • "It was something to learn from."
  • "It was the first time our country had become really poor."
  • "They realized that they weren’t the god of all countries."
  • "It’s not going to be perfect all the time."

As these quotes demonstrate, students had accumulated a wide range of conceptions about the Great Depression. They knew bad things had happened, but thought these occurred uniformly to all Americans. As a result, they concluded that the nation had been punished for being too prosperous or self-satisfied. They entirely missed the fact that the Great Depression occurred for many specific and complex reasons, and affected different Americans in dramatically diverse ways.

Bibliography

Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik, "'It Wasn’t a Good Part of History': National Identity and Students' Explanations of Historical Significance," Teachers College Record 99, no. 3 (Spring 1998): 478–513.

Stories in History: Is Narrative an American Approach?

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An eigth grade teacher reading a childrens book to her class. NHEC
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In "A Sociocultural Perspective on Children’s Understanding of Historical Change: Comparative Findings From Northern Ireland and the United States," Keith Barton, a professor at Indiana University, looked at how children in different countries learn history, specifically the role played by narrative.

Barton observed that American students learn the "story" of American history, more often than not, as one of perpetual progress. In Northern Ireland, history is seen as relationships among social institutions over time, not a story about progress.

Barton wondered about the effects of such an approach. To that end he interviewed 121 students, ages 6–12, in four schools across Northern Ireland, asking how and why life had changed over time. Along with classroom observations and collecting data from history-related settings like museums, Barton’s interviews demonstrated how students in a non-American cultural context learn about history.

When he compared these to studies done in the United States, Barton found that American students portray historical change as straightforward, linear, and generally beneficial progress, while the Irish students saw history as either random and ambiguous, or cyclical. The American students studied tended to focus on accomplishments of historical figures, whereas students in Northern Ireland often discussed the role of societal and economic forces.

Narrative in American History

The "story" of history taught to American students frequently takes the form of a "quest-for-freedom" narrative in which life slowly but surely gets better for all Americans. This serves to unite a diverse society, such as is found in the U.S. By contrast, in Northern Ireland, where Protestants and Catholics remain divided, the narrative form creates the potential for opposing sides to take aim at each other. Consequently, in Northern Ireland, the primary emphasis in history is on societal relationships—relationships between different groups, as well as between people and institutions.

The "story" of history taught to American students frequently takes the form of a "quest-for-freedom" narrative in which life slowly but surely gets better for all Americans. This serves to unite a diverse society, such as is found in the U.S.
The Individual in American History

History classes in the United States also tend to focus more on the role of exceptional individuals in driving history forward. In this version of history prominent figures initiate a series of events which follow a causal chain to bring about significant change. For example, the American students learned that the civil rights movement was the product of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s genius rather than a broad range of social and institutional forces. In Northern Ireland, the students focused less on individuals and more on issues relating to social and economic structures. Barton suggests this may be because Americans are more comfortable dealing with individuals and their stories than with issues such as social class and prejudice. Conversely, there are few historical figures taught in Northern Ireland classrooms who don't represent a political position of one kind or another. Thus, while the Northern Irish are comfortable discussing social class, for instance, they have less experience examining the influence of particular individuals.

Progress in American History

Barton's study showed that narratives about American history are frequently positive stories about the triumph of progress: as time passes, technology improves, freedoms expand, and life gets better. In Northern Ireland, stories about progress are much less common. Time goes on and life changes, but they do so in unpredictable ways. Barton argues that while a focus on progress may be positive, giving students a feeling of shared identity and inspiring their belief that Americans can learn from their mistakes, relying solely on such a narrative doesn't acquaint students with the effects of societal forces on individual actions or the diversity that exists at any given time in history.

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Poster, Forging Ahead, Harry Herzog, 1936-1941, Library of Congress
In the Classroom

Help students understand that the passage of time doesn't always bring what is commonly viewed as "progress."

  • Begin with contrasting images—a rural village and a large city—and ask students to explain the relationship between the two.
  • Students will likely explain how the village became the city. This is a good jumping-off point to helping them see that the "story of history" is not always simple or straightforward.
  • Next, explain that villages and cities have often existed simultaneously.
  • Spend some time discussing why and how cities first began to emerge. While urban centers may look like signs of "progress," students should be made aware that there is a more complex relationship between villages and cities.
  • Suggest to students that historical development doesn't occur in a simple progressive sequence, and that historical periods can't be boiled down to a single image. While many people in the past lived in villages, there are also cities that date back thousands of years. And even though today many people reside in cities, villages are far from extinct.
Sample Application

In interviewing students in Northern Ireland, Barton gave them a number of exercises. One asked the students to explain why British students were once caned—hit with a reed or branch—by their teachers, and why the practice ceased. In answering, one third of the students attributed the change to inevitable progress:

Because over time they realized that they should be less strict.

They just found out that it’s really, really bad, and they’re thinking of other people’s feelings now.

In explaining how things change, these students didn't mention collective action or how institutional change can bring about social improvements. However, the rest of the students—two-thirds of those interviewed by Barton—pointed to changing social relations, collective action like strikes and protests, and evolving legal and government institutions:

Because if you cane them, you could get sent to jail. . . it’s against the law to hurt somebody that you don’t know.

New people came in. . . and they made new rules like child abuse, like jails, and all that kind of thing.

For these students, caning ended not because of inevitable progress, or even due to a change in attitude; instead, the changing attitudes themselves led to collective action, that in turn produced new laws and regulations.

Bibliography

Keith Barton, "A Sociocultural Perspective on Children’s Understanding of Historical Change: Comparative Findings From Northern Ireland and the United States," American Educational Research Journal 38, no. 4 (Winter 2001), 881-913.

Amy Trenkle's Be the Blogger!

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Blog, Lincoln Logs, http://stampslincoln.blogspot.com/, Amy Trenkle
Blog, Lincoln Logs, http://stampslincoln.blogspot.com/, Amy Trenkle
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Beginning to Blog

During the 2008–2009 school year, in an effort to integrate more technology into my classroom I started blogging with my students about history class. Because I was pretty new to blogging and wasn’t sure how it would go, I did one collective site for the 8th grade. Basically, the students wrote and I uploaded it to the blog. As the year went on, I logged in for students and they took over the maintenance of the site. Sometimes the writing was an assignment and I chose the best ones to post. Other times, I offered extra credit if they posted about a topic provided. And still other times I loved what a student wrote and typed it up for the blog. This site ended up being a wonderful compilation of our year come June. I still use it as a preview site for students, parents, and pre-service teachers I work with, as to what we do during the year. The blog can be viewed at http://shmshistoryclass.blogspot.com/.

That same year, an after-school group that is co-sponsored by myself and a friend from the National Park Service took a cross-country trip for Lincoln’s Bicentennial. I created another blog for the students to document their adventures and for friends and family back home to be able to find us. What was nice was that because I had been working with the blog in history class, my students were aware of how a blog works and were familiar with how to write for it and their audience. Each student was required to write three times for the blog during the course of our week-long adventure. Each night after our full day they would write on either paper or share the two laptops we brought for blogging. Before going to bed each night I would upload any remaining blog entries. The system proved effective for sharing our adventures and for students documenting their days. The site has also become a great way for Jen Epstein, my National Park Service co-organizer, to share what she is doing in schools for outreach. View it here: http://stampslincoln.blogspot.com/.

Blogging Expanded

With two school group blogs under my belt, I decided to ramp it up for the 2009–2010 school year. I wanted students to be able to learn how to blog . . . not just post, but learn the process. I set out the planning of it before school started. Basically, I decided to have students choose their groupmates in the class they were in. I have approximately 100 students each year and about 25 per history class. I asked them to be in groups of three or four students.

I wanted students to be able to learn how to blog . . . not just post, but learn the process.

Once they chose their groups (and we discussed the characteristics of a quality groupmate, both in a group partner and as a group partner—they are 8th grade after all!), I gave them a sheet that asked them to record their group member names, create a name for their blog, and to write a username and a password that they would remember (not one that was already in use by one of the group members!). I created Google accounts for each student using the information provided, noting on their sheet, if a username was taken, the reassigned username.

Generally, I’ve found that it takes about a week for me to set up the 30 or so email accounts and blog sites. I introduce the blog and what it will be about, how it will be used, etc., and then come back to it about a week later once I’ve created the accounts and site. We spend a full double block learning to log in, changing the appearance of the blog, and learning to post. We generally do the first blog post together. We discuss the elements of a quality blog post—what am I looking for? Points I stress are that it is still for class—correct English grammar must be used. For all intents and purposes, I am their audience (so it should remain as formal writing), and the blog is only for history class. I do not want to read about their weekend experiences on this blog.

Usually, after a guest speaker they have a blog update to do. Sometimes they turn in an assignment and then I ask them to cut and paste what they have typed and to post it. Other times I have them work as a group to post a response to something in class.

Points to Consider

I find that they’re pretty excited about the blogs and they like to write on them. I’ve learned that a clear rubric is key to success—for the students but for my grading as well. Just as any teacher would do for a writing assignment, it is important to lay out the criteria for the post in advance. Am I grading on content? Spelling? Grammar? Reflection? When grading 30 blogs, it becomes ultra important to be able to know what I’m looking for, especially because their posts can vary so much.

I find that it is important to be very clear with parents about expectations as well.

Another important note to consider is deadlines. Because students aren’t turning in a physical paper, it’s easy for them to forget deadlines and to overlook them. I find that it’s important to have a final cut-off date for grading blogs . . . along with a lot of reminders. Many parents are not familiar with blogging and so I find that it is important to be very clear with parents about expectations as well. Last year I ran a parent workshop and walked parents through the what, how, and why of blogging so that they could better support their children at home . . . and because I was getting a lot of questions!

I’m fortunate enough to have a classroom set of laptops and a relatively new and working internet system. However, the number of computers is what has dictated my choices for class blog site vs. small group blog sites. When I started in 2008, I had only two laptops and a desktop, with no permanent and/or regular access to a classroom set of computers.

My recommendation would be to start small—either with a classroom blog or with a select group of students. Simultaneously, I was blogging on a personal blog and it helped for me to play around with my own blog. I found the Google help site for Blogger very helpful when teaching my students. Pages can be printed and copied for students and then put in their notebooks to be referenced. (Editor's note: If you're using a different blogging service, look for that service's support documentation.)

The Advantages of Blogging

For me, blogs are really flexible—for both time and content. While I’ve used them for the duration of a school year, they would be great for a unit project or a semester project. And for those students who are really savvy, it’s a great way to engage them by having them add other multimedia objects to their blogs and to embed links to related content material.

Just remember to give yourself a head start and don’t be afraid to play around!

The ideas truly are endless! The winter break and other school breaks really lend themselves to my own exploration time on the blog. It allows me to see what I could implement with my students and to think about how it might further benefit what I am teaching in the classroom. Just remember to give yourself a head start and don’t be afraid to play around! Blogging can be wonderful for both you and the students!

For more information

Curious to learn more about blogs and blogging? Our Tech for Teachers entry on blogs looks at some possible platforms, and, in a Teaching Guide, high-school teacher Kyle Smith details one way of using a blog in class.

Read other ideas from Amy Trenkle in her blog entries on teaching Christopher Columbus with monuments and celebrating the First Amendment.

Diana Laufenberg on the Power of Visuals

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Image, Tablue Data Visualization, Apr. 14, 2010, courtneyBolton, Flickr
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History teachers (tend to) love history. Students do not (often) love it so much. This is a perplexing situation that I have bounced around in my brain for the past two decades. When I was a student, I liked the teachers and felt as though I was being educated, but I did not love my history classes. That is until I enrolled in a special freshman seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire: "Medieval Foundations of the Modern West," co-taught by a history professor, Dr. Thomas Miller, and an Academic Adviser with an art degree, Jeannie Harms. This course was about nurturing freshmen as students but also approaching history from an interdisciplinary angle. It was incredibly unconventional and I loved every minute of it. There was a significant 'visualness' to the history—we were constantly digging into paintings and illustrations and artifacts of the era to extract their history, for ourselves.

The Need for Images

As I developed my own classroom practice, it occurred to me that I needed to include that compelling visual component in my teaching as much as possible. Some years I have been more successful than others at achieving that balance, and there have been years when I was more acutely aware of the need. Consider this student: a 12-year-old girl with a 2nd-grade reading/writing level, identified with a specific learning disability in both areas. She is in my classroom in adherence with the inclusion model. I quickly realize that her struggles with the written word have nothing to do with her capacity for logic and critical thinking. She is bright and actively participates in class discussion, but is left out of the conversation much of the time because the reading and writing stand between her and the ideas. To address her identified areas of struggle, she is scheduled into small, intensive remedial classes, but much of the content is well below her actual intellect; she is bored.

I began to realize that if I introduced the concepts visually, this student was much more motivated to attempt the assignment even though she struggled. In addition, her ability to engage verbally in the discussion and group work related to the content improved. Here's the other bonus moment—introducing concepts in a visual way motivated most of the kids. It helped them to access the ideas or get hooked by the story so that they then wanted, all on their own, to know more, inquire, and dig. Two minutes of historical video on the Space Race can get a room of 13-year-olds completely rapt and intrigued. A famous political cartoon with clever components can provoke a stream of compelling questions. An infographic comparing unemployment rates in the Great Depression to those today can link the personal experiences of the students today to the historical concept of the Great Depression, helping them look for commonality and divergence in the events. As teachers of history we often place reading and writing before discussion, leaving behind those students averse to or struggling with the written word. By flipping the compelling component to the front of the day or lesson, students are much more likely to buy into the learning. I learned this all those years ago in that freshman seminar.

Data Visualizations

As technology advanced and I began to use more video, I also stumbled across the occasional data visualization. My interest was piqued. These visualizations were not just a way to capture interest but also a way to introduce highly complex ideas and relationships quickly, so as to elevate the level of dialogue and inquiry. One such example is GapMinder from Hans Rosling. If you have never investigated this tool, I dare you to spend less than an hour on your first visit. Watching the bobbing and weaving of country data through time makes the data beautiful and meaningful to many students and fills them with curiosity. The visualizations created by Slate and The Guardian for the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East deliver a deluge of rich information to the learner in forms that suggest connections between events, geography, and time. Tools like these can include the vast majority of learners, regardless of reading ability, in a dialogue of ideas and critical thought.

Accessing and Assessing in Many Ways

This is not to say that we shouldn't work with students on their areas of struggle, but we can teach students to access and assess content in more ways than just reading and writing. That 12-year-old girl taught me that seeing a student as a voraciously curious brain and not just a reader/writer was critically important. We teach the whole child, not just the parts that decode letters. Our history classrooms have the ability to become fertile ground where citizens engage in truly enriching dialogue about issues of import. I want to involve all of my students in the conversation, not just those interested in the history or those that can access the reading, but all the students, their interests piqued by engaging and relevant resources about which they can ask thoughtful questions.

For more information

Our Tech for Teachers section introduces you to visualization tools like Many Eyes and Wordle.

Mind mapping and mental mapping are data-visualization techniques students can embrace, and English language learners can also benefit from bringing more visuals into the classroom.

Framing History with Historical Questions

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Photography, puzzle, 21 March 2005, Nasir Nasrallah, Flickr CC
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Why Essential Questions (EQs)?

After six successful years implementing three Northern Nevada Teaching American History projects, it became apparent to us that we could challenge ourselves and our teachers to move beyond individual professional development experiences and engage in a long-term, three-year project aimed at fostering collaboration between vertical teams of upper elementary, middle, and high school teachers. Because teachers at these various levels had different curricular foci in American history, we sought common ground through common themes and questions. A primary goal for these vertical teams was to reframe their entire curriculum around the same essential questions (EQs) to facilitate historical inquiry and historical thinking.

Essential questions are open-ended questions that address the big ideas of history, have no predetermined correct answer, allow for multiple interpretations, and, most importantly, are applicable across historical eras and to contemporary events. Four to six well-written essential questions could frame every unit of study across all grade levels. After setting the instructional stage with these essential questions, teachers could structure historical inquiry around specific historical questions (HQs) for each unit of study. An HQ is directly related to specific historical content and to an individual EQ. The formula used by teachers was: EQ + history standard = HQ. Our article, “The Past as a Puzzle: How Essential Questions Can Piece Together a Meaningful Investigation of History” in The Social Studies (2011), details the process and results of our adventure implementing EQs and HQs in grades 5–12.

(For more examples of EQs and HQs for elementary, middle, and high school, download this chart.)

Overcoming Difficulties

The first difficulty we faced in this process was collaboratively writing the overarching essential questions. Writing questions that were truly open-ended and thematic proved difficult to say the least. Despite originally believing that one eight-hour session introducing the concept and writing the EQs would be enough time, we found that the process actually took almost the entire year. We had to allow teachers time to process and play around with the questions before we could adopt them as a whole group.

...we had to provide additional tools, guidance, and mentoring in ways to think about EQs as a framework rather than an addition to their classroom goals.

Even more difficult was facilitating the use of EQs with integrity. That is, EQs were meant to help teachers reframe their curriculum around broad themes and enduring questions but were not initially used in this fashion. For some teachers, the leap to instruction and assessment around EQs was natural. They had a yearning to focus on the big picture and enduring ideas while engaging students in inquiry, and so the change was embraced. However, a majority of the teachers involved struggled with reframing their curriculum around EQs. They were eager to implement EQs, recognized the potential for increased student engagement and understanding, and even regularly inserted EQs into their lessons. They hung posters of the EQs in their rooms and talked about them sometimes during class. BUT, for these teachers, we had to provide additional tools, guidance, and mentoring in ways to think about EQs as a framework rather than an addition to their classroom goals.

Positive Results

Despite the initial difficulties, we have all found great success in implementing EQs. Teachers have noted that students in their classes who were exposed previously to the same EQs in lower grades grasp the enduring issues in history and comment on their comfort in using EQs to inquire deeply into the content.

We have been most impressed by the natural link to the next NNTAH project focus: creation and implementation of Document Based Questions (DBQs). Familiarity with using questions to guide the curriculum supported the move towards answering historical questions with DBQs. Historical questions, directly aligned with EQs, were the foundation of the document based questions. Teachers were able to create DBQs that supported their year-long focus on enduring issues in history, because the historical questions under study were always linked to the EQ. In 2010–2011, 44 teachers created their own high-quality DBQs based upon essential and historical questions. Since that time, many have reported creating additional DBQs to support historical inquiry in their classrooms.

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