Who's the historian in your classroom? Do the students get to watch (and listen) to the teacher be historian? I have spent my career developing teaching strategies and assembling resources that foster the student as historian.
This downloadable SlideShare accompanies my workshop in “Teaching with Documents.” Don't think of it as a presentation. It's a online guide to resources and includes strategy illustrations from my workshop.
That's certainly what you would have seen early in my teaching career. I was the one doing most of the reading, reflecting and synthesizing of historic material. I thought my job was to distill it all and simplify for consumption by my students. It took me a few years to realize my job was to get the students to be the historians (and economists, anthropologists, etc). Since then I have spent my career developing teaching strategies and assembling resources that foster the student as historian.
This downloadable SlideShare accompanies my workshop in “Teaching with Documents.” Don't think of it as a presentation. It's a online guide to resources and includes strategy illustrations from my workshop.
The Student As Historian - DBQ Strategies and Resources for Teaching History
1. The Student as
Historian
DBQ strategies and
resources
Presented by Peter Pappas
http://peterpappas.com
Election Day by CW Guslin,
(1909)
2. This SlideShare accompanies my
workshop in “Teaching with
Documents.”
Don't think of it as presentation. It's a online guide
to resources and includes a few strategy
illustrations from my workshop.
My workshops are very interactive- I model what I
preach. (They don’t fit on a slide share.)
My PD approach: “Essential Questions for the
Successful Staff Developer” http://bit.ly/r9KvgK
3. Learning is relevant
when the student:
understands how this information or skill has
some application in their life.
has an opportunity to follow their own
process rather than just learn “the facts.”
is not just learning content and skills,
but is reflecting on their work and their
progress as learners.
For reflective prompts see:
The Reflective Student: http://bit.ly/uQT0xl
4. Check out one
of my free DBQ
iBooks at iTunes
The student as historian in action!
http://bit.ly/1bmjWnX
5. Here’s a DBQ
iBook designed
by my students
The student as historian in action!
Free at iTunes
http://bit.ly/1dURzeE
7. I’ve also documented
Portland Oregon’s
historic Japantown
My free iOS walking
tour app
http://bit.ly/1fDs8R2My free iBook
http://bit.ly/SLJe86
8. Example: The traditional lesson “Should the Constitution
be ratified?” The students is asked to learn (memorize)
the arguments of the historic debate.
Reframe the lesson with an essential question -
“How strong should the central government be?”
Now students can master the historic content
in the context of an enduring debate.
9. Teaching
history?
It shouldn’t
be
teaching as
telling
Our natural, unexamined
model for teaching is
Telling.
... to carefully and clearly
tell students something
they did not previously
know.
Knowledge is transmitted,
we imagine, through this
act of telling.~ Donald Finkel
12. 1. List people, objects, and
activities in the image
2. Who do you think they are?
What’s going on?Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures
Collection (NDSU, Fargo, N.D.) 190-?
LOC 2028.046
18. Erie Canal and Bridge
Rochester NY 1894
rpf00328.jpg Rochester Public Library local History Division
Little background
knowledge needed
to “read” this.
19. Street scene
Rochester NY 1910
No background
knowledge needed
to “read” this.
From: Albert R. Stone Negative Collection Rochester NY Museum and Science Center
23. Using DBQs to
summarize
Allow students to
make their own
judgments about
what’s important
(instead of just
repeating the details
the teacher highlights)
Students need to be
able to share what
they’ve learned with
an audience other
than the teacher.
24. Let students use drawings to
summarize what they think is important
"Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way."
Frances F. Palmer (1868)
27. After creating their own
visual summaries, 2nd
graders said:
People were moving west. They moved by
wagon at first, then but train, which is faster.
The Indian could see the people coming.
They knew their lives were changing.
The railroad split the old way from the new
way.
How to Teach Summarizing: A Critical
Learning Skill for Students http://bit.ly/n8Fze4
28. Text
Structure
Description Cue Words
Description
Describes a topic by listing
characteristics, features, and
examples
for example,
characteristics are
Comparison
Explains how two or more
things are alike and/or how
they are different.
different; in contrast;
alike; same as; on the
other hand
Cause / effect
Lists one or more causes and
the resulting effect or effects.
reasons why; if...then; as
a result; therefore;
because
Problem /
Solution
States a problem and lists one
or more solutions for the
problem.
problem is; dilemma is;
puzzle is solved;
question... answer
Sequence
Lists items or events in
numerical or chronological
order.
first, second, third; next;
then; finally
Students need to be able to share what they’ve
learned with an audience other than the teacher.
31. Comparing
meets evaluating
You work for Life
Mag in the ‘30s.
Which photo would
you use to illustrate
an article on the
plight of the
migrant workers?
33. There is no correct answer.
Let students share their opinions.
Close up showing details? Long
shot showing bleak setting? ...
Student are using docs to
explore a full range of higher
order skills: analyzing photo
elements, evaluating what’s
important
(to them) and creating a
rationale to be shared (and
defended)
with peers.
34. Historic thinking
is higher order thinking
Creating -generating new ideas
Evaluating - justifying a decision or choice
Analyzing - breaking into component parts
Applying - using information in a new setting
Understanding - explaining idea or concept
Remembering - recalling information
35. Combine documents to consider point of view -
Ask HS students, “Did the artist think this was a
good or bad development?”
36. The tribes were warlike and
bloodthirsty, jealous of each other
...they claimed land for their hunting
grounds, but their claims all
conflicted with one another...
they are always willing to sell land to
which they have the vaguest title.
[Can we] consider the dozen squalid
savages who hunted at long intervals
over a territory of 1000 square miles
as owning it out-right?
~ Teddy Roosevelt 1889
Annals of America Vol 12
Then let them read this ...
Theodore Roosevelt in 1885
by G.G. Bain LC-USZ62-23232
38. Using DBQ’s
to compare
and classify
We must ask students
to develop the
comparison, not just
learn and repeat the
model that we present
to them.
Student must share
what they learned
from the comparison.
39. Traditional Writing is
Assigned
Students are asked to
write only on the
teacher's topics.
Student writes
for the teacher.
Teacher grades
their writing.
Writing Assigned
with Choice
Students can
develop topics that
matter to them.
Audience and purpose
for writing
is identified.
Students are asked
to reflect on
their growth.
41. My sample DBQ sets
supporting:
Literacy Support
Critical Thinking
Essential Questions
Student Engagement
42. Essential questions
meet literacy support in:
“Homefront
America”
http://bit.ly/tjAHz5
by Weimer Pursell, 1943
Printed by the Government Printing Office
NARA Still Picture Branch NWDNS-188-PP-42)
43. Critical Thinking
"12 Great Debates in
American History"
http://bit.ly/w1RKpJ
Bertha the sewing machine girl;
or, Death at the wheel!
By Francis S. Smith.
[Louisville, Ky.?] [c. 1871].
LOC rbpe 0230010c
44. Explore historic point
of view with:
“What did Europeans
‘see’ when they
looked at the
New World and the
Native Americans?”
http://bit.ly/sOavHf
45. Explore the History of the Bicycle:
Zoom into a Prezi DBQ - http://bit.ly/qHxfXh
57. Peter Pappas
K-12 faculty / admin trainer
Literacy Across the Curriculum
Teaching for Rigor and Relevance
Technology and Literacy
Instructional Leadership
Classroom Walkthroughs
Current
Workshops
http://peterpappas.com
Follow me at
twitter/edteck