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Social Studies Teachers Chatboard

What does it take to be a historian?

by Kev

Jun 11, 2011

Next year I've decided to really focus in on skills as opposed to trivial facts with my history classes. I've always tried to do this but in really evaluating myself I still have tilted toward to the "make sure they know stuff" side of things instead of the "make sure they know how to know stuff" side.

So, I'm trying to make a list of skills a historian uses or should have. I'm trying to keep them to one-word titles for simplicity's sake. On each assignment we do I want to be able to point out which of these skills are required or will be built up by it.

So far I have: Research (looking stuff up) Analysis (interpreting information) Technology (using a computer to retrieve or present findings) Recreate (use art to remake past events or objects) Empathy (put yourself in another person's shoes)

What else might one add?

History Teacher br> > So far I have:

I'd want to say that 'research' for historians isn't - looking stuff up. Historians do real research just like scientists except that historians work primarily with documents and scientistis work with beakers and vials and bunsen burners. History is a matter of interpretation and changing interpretation at that a...See More

Jun 12, 2011

tracy On 6/11/11, Kev wrote: > Next year I've decided to really focus in on skills as > opposed to trivial facts with my history classes. I've > always tried to do this but in really evaluating myself I > still have tilted toward to the "make sure they know stuff" > side of things instead of the "make sure they know how to > know stuff"...See More

Jun 22, 2011

TeachLikeYoda All of the above are certainly essential.

But who cares if students know how to research if they cannot recognize and distill bias? Facts vs. opinions, Venn Diagrams, structured classroom debates/socratic seminars, and knowing the pros and cons of primary and secondary sources are all paramount here.

Historiography, basically. In ...See More

Jul 10, 2011

Joe/HS/CT 2nd year teachers in Connecticut used to have to submit teaching portfolios to the state which would be evaluated and ultimately lead to the next level of teacher certification. I used to evaluate the social studies portfolios, which were supposed to be designed around "essential social studies skills." Here is the list of skills from the CT SDE we...See More

Jul 11, 2011

Kev Interesting. While I'd agree those are all imporant I see them all as a component of analysis (and arguably writing). I'll definitely see how I can incorporate them into that idea.

As far as the "moral component" of the facts, I'm sorry but that is nonsense. Perhaps in a non-political world that might be true but in my world most of the fa...See MoreInteresting. While I'd agree those are all imporant I see them all as a component of analysis (and arguably writing). I'll definitely see how I can incorporate them into that idea.

As far as the "moral component" of the facts, I'm sorry but that is nonsense. Perhaps in a non-political world that might be true but in my world most of the facts are taught because someone told us it would probably be on a test somewhere and they are on that test because some interest group wanted to make sure they were included.

When Constantine gets 2 lines in our textbook and Cesar Chavez, who lived 250 years after the end of the scope of our text, gets two paragraphs I think it is pretty hard to argue we're looking at anything other than a random collection of trivia designed not to offend anyone.

On 7/11/11, Joe/HS/CT wrote: > 2nd year teachers in Connecticut used to have to submit > teaching portfolios to the state which would be evaluated and > ultimately lead to the next level of teacher certification. I > used to evaluate the social studies portfolios, which were > supposed to be designed around "essential social studies > skills." Here is the list of skills from the CT SDE website. I > keep them in mind all the time when I'm developing my > lessons: > > Essential Social Studies Skills > > Effective social studies teachers ensure that all students > have the opportunity to develop essential social studies > skills and know that skills and content should be learned > together. > > They provide students with opportunities to think and > communicate in ways that will enable them to develop a working > knowledge of social studies content. > > > Developing essential social studies skills can occur at any > grade level. Essential skills include but are not limited to: > > a. formulating hypotheses and supporting arguments with > content based evidence; > > b. analyzing information and weighing evidence; > > c. critiquing alternative interpretations of history/social > studies so as to weigh the credibility of different historical > sources; > > d. reading critically in order to recognize the difference > between fact and conjecture, between evidence and assertion; > > e. analyzing primary sources; > > f. analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of political > documents; > > g. evaluating the validity or bias in opposing viewpoints, and > drawing and defending independent conclusions regarding > historical/current events based on an analysis of different > resources; > > Hope this helps! Joe > > On 6/11/11, Kev wrote: >> Next year I've decided to really focus in on skills as >> opposed to trivial facts with my history classes. I've >> always tried to do this but in really evaluating myself I >> still have tilted toward to the "make sure they know stuff" >> side of things instead of the "make sure they know how to >> know stuff" side. >> >> So, I'm trying to make a list of skills a historian uses or >> should have. I'm trying to keep them to one-word titles for >> simplicity's sake. On each assignment we do I want to be >> able to point out which of these skills are required or will >> be built up by it. >> >> So far I have: >> Research (looking stuff up) >> Analysis (interpreting information) >> Technology (using a computer to retrieve or present findings) >> Recreate (use art to remake past events or objects) >> Empathy (put yourself in another person's shoes) >> >> What else might one add?

Jul 12, 2011

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