Teaching Historical Inquiry

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Teaching Historical Inquiry

• Scaffolding Student Learning
• Teaching American History Grant Seminar Series
• September 12th, 2006

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Puzzler

• When can a secondary source become a primary
  source?
• Huh?

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Puzzler

• it is the questions we decide to ask that
  determine whether something is a primary or a
  secondary source. Thus Gibbons book The History
  of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire may
  be either a primary or a secondary source,
  depending on whether we are asking questions
  about Rome or about eighteenth-century ideas. (P.
  Lee, 2005)

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Guiding Questions

• How can we support and nurture students abilities
  to engage in inquiry in the history and social
  science classroom?
• What type of scaffolding can be used to support
  historical inquiry and source analysis?
• How did World War II impact the lives of people
  in Virginia?

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Preface

• While TAH teacher work products demonstrated
  teachers knowledge of facts, they also revealed
  participants limited ability to analyze and
  interpret historical data. Findings from the
  exploratory study of teacher work products
  (lesson plans and research papers) indicated that
  while teachers had a firm grasp of historical
  facts and some lower-level historical thinking
  skills, they had difficulty interpreting and
  analyzing historical information. Although the
  teacher work products reviewed ranged in quality,
  nearly all products earned low scores on
  historical analysis and interpretation. SRI
  International (September 2005) prepared for
  U.S. Department of Education, Evaluation of the
  Teaching American History Program. Washington
  D.C. U Department of Education Office of
  Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
  Available www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/teaching/us-
  history/teaching-exec-sum.html

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Preface Part Deaux

• the acquisition of historical knowledge is
  both the servant and the result of enquiry
  (Counsell, 2000, p.70).
• The concept of evidence is central to history
  because it is only through the use of evidence
  that history becomes possible. Even when students
  ask themselves how we know about what happened,
  however, it does not follow that they will
  recognize source material as evidence to be used
  differently from the notes or textbook accounts
  they may encounter on other occasions (Lee,
  2005, p.54).

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The importance of historical thinking

• Historical thinking is a very close relative to
  active, thoughtful, critical participation in
  text-and image- rich democratic cultures.
  Consider what good historical thinkers can do
  they are informed, educated thoughtful, critical
  readers, who appreciate investigative
  enterprises, know good arguments when they hear
  them, and who engage their world with a host of
  strategies for understanding it Thomas Jefferson
  could hardly have wanted better citizens than
  these thinkers
• (Van Seldright, 2004, p. 222-223).

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Agenda

• Mystery of Sam Smiley
• Activity to think about the nature of history and
  introduce students to the doing of history and
  historical thinking.
• Introduces a scaffold to analyze historical
  sources as part of an inquiry.
• How did World War II impact the lives of people
  in Virginia?
• Working with local historical sources to
  understand national and international events.

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Sam Smiley www.historicalinquiry.com

• http//filebox.vt.edu/users/tsnedike/Sam_Smiley/ss
  webfinal/index.html
• Body found
• You are detectives decide who is Grissom or
  Horatio or Gary Sinise or Starsky- maybe not
  Starsky - and you need theme music.
• Roles writer (reporter) and forensic expert-
• Forensic expert- sorts and describe evidence
• Writer records key information
• Team uses information and evidence to draw
  conclusion, and create an account.
• Objectives- Timeline, profile, hypotheses.

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SCIM-C Chart
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Debrief

• Questions from handout--
• Keep moving as they may be a little put out
  what no freaking answer.. ??
• Psstt--Note to self- dont forget the history
  book point-

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Extension

• Content version of Sam Smiley? What would be an
  equivalent content activity that serves as a
  follow up?

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Historical Inquiry

• It is only when students understand that
  historians can ask questions about historical
  sources that those sources were not designed to
  answer, and that much of the evidence used by
  historians was not intended to report anything,
  that they are freed from dependence on truthful
  testimony. Much of what holds interest for
  historians (such as, What explains American
  economic supremacy in the postwar years? Did the
  changing role of women in the second half of the
  twentieth century strengthen or weaken American
  social cohesion?) could not have been
  eyewitnessed by anyone, not even by us if we
  could return by time machine. Once students begin
  to operate with a concept of evidence as
  something inferential and see eyewitnesses not
  as handing down history but as providing
  evidence, history can resume once again it
  becomes an intelligible, even a powerful, way of
  thinking about the past (Lee, 2005, p. 37).

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Transition.. Or Break??????
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Just Do it.

• How has war impacted your lives over the last 5
  years?

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Quick quiz

• What is this?
• How many people know?
• If not lets explore
• What does this artifact signify?
• Generate hypotheses
• Lets check
• You can only ask questions of me that will elicit
  a yes or no answer

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I want to find out from you what is going on here
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Question of the Day

• What do we mean by total war?
• How did World War II impact the lives of people
  in S.W. Virginia?

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Goal

• The student will be able to (TSWBAT),
• Interrogate and evaluate a range of historical
  source, and synthesize the available evidence
  into a historical narrative exploring how World
  War II affected life on the American home front.

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SWBAT

• Obj1 recall (brainstorm) the impact of World War
  II on the home front (Knowledge)
• Obj2 identify keywords relating to life on the
  home front in order to conduct an Internet search
  for primary sources. (Knowledge and
  Comprehension) -not really--

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SWBAT

• Obj3 analyze and evaluate a series of primary
  sources related to life during World War II
  (Analysis and Synthesis)
• Obj4write a narrative, using the evidence
  identified from sources, describe how World War
  II impacted the lives of Americans who remained
  at home. (Synthesis)

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Brainstorm

• How did World War II impact the lives of
  civilians left at home?

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Exploring sources

• In groups- you will be assigned sources-
• Complete the SCIM process of each source.
• Roles Writer and Presenter- both of you analyze
  the source

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Connect with another group

• Share and corroborate sources?
• Generate a chart / list of what you have found
  and link to evidence?
• Based on your initial brainstorm what have you
  not found yet

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Create an account.

• Based on the evidence you have found as a group
  create an individual account to answer the days
  big question.
• How did World War II impact the lives of people
  in S.W. Virginia?
• You need to refer to your evidence.

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So what were this Roanoke Commandoes doing
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Significance Cards

• Based on your initial brainstorm and findings of
  your inquiry
• Identify cards that support your findings
• Can you put the cards in a chronology.
• Identify cards that deal with production,
  consumption, and distribution
• Identify cards that provide further insights into
  the impact of war that were not identified in
  your brainstorm or findings.