The content of history curriculum is constantly growing and teachers have less and less time to teach it. Teachers need strategies to guide content selection, make courageous deletions, and unlock the potential of history education. This includes involving student choice and inquiry into the process.
Author: Shane Twaddell
AP World: Map Project & Unit 2 Plan
An overview of my unit two plan for AP World. It is structured around a trade route map project with multiple opportunities for content acquisition and skill practice. At the end of the unit students write their first complete DBQ essay.
Aztec Parenting & Contextualization
A lesson intended as a thoughtful example of putting skills first. It involves some interesting primary sources on the pre-Columbian Americas and an emphasis on source analysis, argumentation, and contextualization.
AP World & Causation: Round 2
When students are making historical arguments they need tools that help them think through vast quantities of content quickly and provide a scaffold for complexity. I like to use two different activities that introduce two "Frameworks for Analysis" to help them do this, one for causes and one for effects.
Thematic Unit Design in US History
My unit design process for a thematic course involves overcoming several challenges: content and skill selection, assessment design, and leaving space for inquiry, scaffolding, and differentiation. A healthy dose of backwards design alongside the four non-negotiables of my own process end up making things work.
Introducing Causation in AP World History
Teaching both content and skill is a constant challenge, especially in AP World History. Rethinking old lesson plans helped me come up with a new plan for teaching Topic 1.1 that introduced causation, argumentation, and thesis writing. It worked well.
Teach historiography in high school!
Seeing the methods and philosophical traditions that uphold the creation of narrative is an important lesson for any student of history. Interpretation is an act that is debated and ever-evolving, and it provides great opportunities for practicing historical thinking. There are some great entry-points into historiography in most curriculum that will deepen students' ability to analyze alternative viewpoints and get them discussing ideas and modes of thinking instead of fact. In my experience, students respond to such a compelling challenge.
What is the role of historical narrative in today’s classroom?
History is a weapon, and narrative is its highest caliber bullet. How its used depends on who wields it. When it comes to students, they deserve more than being fed a narrative. Teachers should help them see behind the curtain of history to help them learn how to think instead of what to think.
Coffee Market & New Resources
Found a pop-up coffee market near the Shanghai Bund today and was inspired to start adding a couple of resource pages to the blog.
Skill-based Enduring Understandings
I use skills-based enduring understandings to design my lesson activities, create and tune assessments, and plan my units so that they are aligned and have strong progression of skills. History teachers who already teach skills will not find all of these new nor incredibly insightful. It's how you use the enduring understandings that can be transformative in the classroom.