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The History Student’s Handbook. History is a discipline based on interpretation, debate, analysis, and synthe-sis. Because of this, history essays are more than narrative accounts of the past. The purpose of a history essay is to communicate useful conclusions about past events in a purposeful and persuasive manner.
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As in traditional historical scholarship, our individual work became part of a larger scholarly discourse about fundamental questions–in this case, about how students learn history in our classrooms, how the use of visual sources shapes and disrupts historical narratives, and how new media can provide innovative opportunities for the ...
Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information, or they may learn them for pur- poses of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom. 2.
Essays are an essential educational tool in disciplines like history because they help you to develop your research skills, critical thinking, and writing abilities. The best essays are based on strong research, in-depth analysis, and are logically structured and well written. An essay should answer a question with a clear, persuasive argument.
- Conventional Practices in Using Primary Sources
- Using First- Second- and Third-Order Primary Sources
- Selecting The First-/And Second-Order Documents
- An Example of The First- Second- and Third-Order Approach
- The Importance of Asking Questions
- Editing First-Order and Second-Order Documents
- Assessing Historical Knowledge, Understanding, and Dispositions
- Conclusion
- Notes
In observing student teachers and classroom teachers, we have found that most history teachers use primary sources—particularly textual sources and images—in one of two ways. Teachers use a single source approach or a multiple source approach. Some teachers intersperse a single primary source within a historical topic, often to validate to students...
We define the First-Order document (hereafter, 1st-order) as the teacher’s essential primary source. This 1st-order document must be one that is so essential to the teacher that the teacher regards it as one he or she cannot live without. This core document must be located at the epicenter of the teacher’s instruction. And the teacher must lead a d...
Something more must be said about the selection of a 1st-order document. There are two key criteria: its historical value and its potential contribution to students’ historical knowledge and thinking. As teachers determine a document’s historical value, they should consider at least two essential qualities. First and most importantly, does the sour...
We offer as an example the use of 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents in an investigation of the period of the Cold War. Teachers can readily access primary sources on the Cold War period through the Internet. The “Cold War International History Project” (http://cwihp.si.edu/default.htm) provides a wide range of both documents and links to other rela...
When teachers discuss with their students a 1st-order document such as the “Long Telegram” they cannot simply give students the document with the instructions to read it and answer some questions. Intellectual enjoyment and engagement are the products of a co-investigation involving both teachers and students. History, after all, is to a great exte...
The 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents named above are examples we have used in our classrooms for a United States history survey course in both schools and universities and for a university course on American diplomatic history. We adjust the length of the textual documents depending on the nature of the course. In the American diplomatic history c...
The concepts of historical knowledge, understanding, and dispositions are inextricably linked, and teachers will want to assess their students’ development in both the cognitive and affective domains. As students relate their document to their teacher’s 1st-order document, the content of both will become more meaningful to them. Teachers can assess...
We recognize the need for further research to determine the impact this 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order systematic approach can have on history teaching. Even though teachers and students are not confounded by the use of such terminology as primary sources and secondary sources, the inclusion of our terminology (1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents) does at f...
1.� Joan W. Musbach, “Using Primary Sources in the Secondary Classroom,” OAH Magazine of History (Fall 2001): 30–32. 2.� M. Anne Britt, Charles A. Perfetti, Julie A. Van Dyke, and Gareth Gabrys, “The Sourcer’s Apprentice: A Tool for Document-Supported History Instruction,” Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Pers...
Mar 1, 2021 · If instructors want to make forays into the digital world when seeking to help students learn historical thinking, our study suggests they can do so with the assurance that they are not harming students' ability to learn valuable heuristics of historical thinking, and may actually be making history instruction more accessible to students for whom essay writing is an unfamiliar—and arguably ...
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Aug 25, 2023 · In principle, each writing element must appear in a right section. Therefore, the most crucial factor for students is knowing a basic structure of a history essay because it helps to shape their writing mindset. Step 1: Preparation. a first step in writing a history essay is preparation, which involves several tasks.
