Successful Tips for Reading like a Historian

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Successful Tips for Reading like a Historian

• Rebecca Morgan
• World History (6)

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Goals

• Develop an awareness of reading strategies for
  best practices of literacy in history and Social
  Studies.
• Increase understanding about the literacy
  connections between Language Arts and Social
  Studies

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Social Studies is primarily the application of
language arts and critical thinking skills to
specific concepts and content
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Historical Thinking Skills

• Sourcing (Who?, When?, Bias?)
• Contextualizing (Imaging, Historical or Cultural
  Context)
• Corroborating (Cross-Checking, Evidence
  Triangulation)
• Close Reading (Critical Reading, Tone, Language
  Usage)

Reading Like a Historian Stanford History
Education Group
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What is History?

• Accounts/narratives different depending on
  perspective
• We rely on evidence to construct account of the
  past
• We must question the reliability of evidence
• Any single piece of evidence is insufficient
• We must use multiple sources to build a plausible
  account

Reading Like a Historian Stanford History
Education Group
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Sourcing

• Who wrote this?
• What is the authors point of view?
• Why was it written?
• When was it written?
• Is the source believable?

Reading Like a Historian Stanford History
Education Group
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Contextualizing

• What else was going on?
• What was it like to live in this time?
• What things were different?...the same?
• What would it look like to see this event through
  the eyes of someone who lived back then?

Reading Like a Historian Stanford History
Education Group
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Corroboration

• What do other pieces of evidence say?
• Am I finding the same information everywhere?
• Am I finding different versions? Why?
• Where else could I look to find out about this?
• What evidence is most believable?

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Close Reading

• What claims does the author make?
• What evidence does the author use to support
  those claims?
• How is this document supposed to make me feel?
• What words of phrases does the author use to
  convince me?
• What information does the author leave out?

Reading Like a Historian Stanford History
Education Group
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Comparing Sources

• Conduct a close reading of the two textbook
  excerpts about the Boston Massacre
• In what ways do the authors attempt to influence
  the reader?
• Which source would you consider more reliable?
  Why?
• Are textbooks reliable sources?

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Be an Active Reader

• Predict what will happen next based on what has
  already happened.
• Question what is happening while you are reading.
  
• Summarize what you are reading frequently in
  chunks.
• Connect what is happening in the part youre
  reading to what you have already read.
• Clarify your understanding. Stop occasionally to
  ask yourself whether you are confused by
  anything.
• Visualize what is happening in the text.