Historical Thinking Matters

One of the reasons I named this blog "Not Your Father's Social Studies Class" is because that is exactly what I set out to do in teaching history. It was not going to be learning names and dates and regurgitating them back to me in an essay or on a test and then flushing them to learn the next set. I wanted my students to think, to question, to recreate history given many sources. I wanted them to practice listening and empathy. I wanted them to be historians.

All of this involves historical thinking.

How do you do this?

Start here with this amazing video of a historian thinks through resources around the Battle of Lexington in 1775.

You can continue on using resources from this site - or any site or materials that give you multiple perspectives on an event. (HINT: In NYS this is pretty easy as it is exactly what the Document Based Question was intended to do!) 

And be sure to register to get this free classroom resource to hang in your classroom.


I'll keep trying to provide resources and questions and opportunities on this site.

The beginning of modern warfare

On this day in 1914, the first trenches were dug on the Western Front. While the trenches were extremely brutal ways to live, they actually saved many lives with the advent of modern warfare. This 6 minute video is a good way to introduce students to the realities of trench warfare during World War I.

How does this compare to the ways in which war is waged today?