Category Archives: historical thinking

Socrates, Plato, and Noble Puppies

Don Gifford, historical thinking, reading

We are fortunate to have another guest post from our KSDE Social Studies Consultant, Mr. Don Gifford.  Enjoy!

(And don’t forget to comment on the Flags post to win your own classroom flag.)

——

When I was young, I really couldn’t read philosophy partly because they used really old language, really big words, and mostly because I knew so little about the world and of thinking about it. But recently I have returned to reading some of the classic works of political philosophy and ran across the description of Socrates’ ideas about education in Plato’s Republic.

In my role as an educational program consultant for the Kansas State Department of Education, I was intrigued with the education of what Socrates calls the “guardian class.”

Continue reading Socrates, Plato, and Noble Puppies →

Using elementary Evidence-Based Terms in social studies classrooms

best practice, C4, common core, Glenn Wiebe, graphic organizer, historical thinking, literacy, primary sources, reading, strategies, , , , , ,

evidence-based-terms2As we move into a social studies world that is asking kids to collect evidence, organize evidence, create products, and communicate results, writing skills are becoming more and more important.

But for the last ten years or so, at least in the state of Kansas, we’ve asked kids to focus instead on memorizing content. So now when we’re asking our middle school and high school students to not just write more but to use evidence while proving assertions, we get a lot of blank stares.

My suggestion?

Steal a practice used by a lot of elementary teachers and start training your secondary kids to use evidence-based terms while writing.

Evidence-based terms are simple phrases that support the use of, well . . . evidence. So if we ask kids to look a couple of primary source documents and develop a thesis from their analysis, they have some scaffolding to help them do that.

Examples of evidence-based terms? Continue reading Using elementary Evidence-Based Terms in social studies classrooms →

Disc vs. Plow: Social Studies in the 21st Century

best practice, Glenn Wiebe, historical thinking, standards, strategies

I grew up in western Kansas. Land of giant jack rabbits. Tumble weeds. Beautiful sunsets. Vast horizons. And wheat. Lots of wheat.

I spent a lot of time on the family farm in the northeast part of Finney County. Much of the land was broken out by my grandmother’s father and uncles around the turn of the century. Growing up, my brothers and I rode trucks, tractors, and combines, climbed windmills, fell off windmills, walked miles of fields, hunted pheasants, raced motorcycles, and generally had a great time.

As we got older, we drove the trucks, tractors, and combines – planting and harvesting wheat and milo.

The point? Continue reading Disc vs. Plow: Social Studies in the 21st Century →

Some sweet sites for historical thinking

common core, historical thinking, lesson plans, primary sources, standards, , ,

The new buzz word in social studies instruction?

Historical thinking.

Okay. Yes. It’s two words but it’s still pretty buzzy. The idea of historical thinking has been hanging around as part of social studies instruction for a long time. But it’s sort of been like that weird second cousin who shows up at family reunions that no one really talks to. We haven’t been paying much attention to it.

But with new state standards and Common Core literacy stuff, not to mention the new College,Career, and Civic Life standards, historical thinking is back where it really belongs. As the central part of everything we do. And because it’s been at the weird second cousin status for so long, many teachers don’t have a ton of historical thinking resources.

So today . . . three sweet web sites that provide primary source raw data and lesson plans / resources that support historical thinking skills. Continue reading Some sweet sites for historical thinking →

Analysis worksheets, evidence, and primary documents

Glenn Wiebe, graphic organizer, historical thinking, primary sources, , ,

loc analysis worksheetThere’s a cool buzz running through the history education world.

Primary sources. Documents. Using evidence. Solving problems. Historical thinking. And that’s a good thing. But I know that it can be difficult sometimes trying to figure out how to use primary sources.

First piece of advice?

Don’t worry so much about primary vs. secondary sources. Start thinking about evidence, about data, instead of focusing just on one sort of document over another. Because if we’re asking great questions, kids will be using all sorts of documents and sources to solve the problem.

Second piece of advice?

Don’t re-invent the wheel. Have kids use the different tools already out there as they work to make sense of documents. As we train our kids to think historically, these sorts of analysis worksheets can be great scaffolding tools, especially with  elementary and middle school students.

Some of the best Continue reading Analysis worksheets, evidence, and primary documents →