Khaldun's theory around social solidarity is, at once, accessible and illustrative of complex historical thinking. It provides students with an example of the "big picture" that the AP World History course is designed to teach, it encourages thinking in historical comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time, and it is relevant to content from nearly every unit.
Author: Shane Twaddell
Historical Thinking Skills Classroom Posters
Every few years I do a new iteration of my classroom posters for AP World. This year, I focused my new posters around the major historical thinking skills. These were inspired by the skill-based guideposts in Peter Seixas' book The Big Six.
Analytical Threads in AP World: Military Force vs. Cultural Power
The interplay between military force and cultural power is one of the threads that runs through the entire AP World curriculum. Picking out these threads (or Key Concepts) and making them visible is one of the values teachers can add to the curriculum so that it does not become a death march through content. This takes a bit of planning, but pays tremendous dividends.
Experiencing the Silk Road in Dunhuang
At the end of September I traveled to Dunhuang, in western China, with a group of high school students. There were some great experiential connections to the AP World curriculum. History is more than just a skill or content from a book. History can be experienced; There is value in looking for connection to the past in order to understand the human experience. Trips like this can plant seeds for future historical interest and inquiry in ways that my classroom cannot.
Preparing for National History Day China 2024
NHD is the best social studies style program I have seen that gets students to apply their knowledge and skills to a real world question, and engage with the wider community about their research and passions.
Breaking the “Content Trap” in Social Studies
I will never give up my intrinsic love of and passion for content, but it needs to be tempered with the recognition that students need more. Content is merely the roadmap to a skill set that will help every student think more deeply about and engage more critically with the world around them.
The flexibility to design a new course is another reason I love international schools.
After a well needed summer respite another school year has started. One of the things I am most excited about is teaching our new 9th grade course. A major benefit of teaching at a private international school is curriculum flexibility. If our department sees a need to fill curriculum gaps or to make adjustments to … Continue reading The flexibility to design a new course is another reason I love international schools.
Scaffolding Historical Thinking Skills
In the race to cover content it is easy to overlook the importance of scaffolding historical thinking during instruction. It is easy to ask students to analyze causes and effects, make comparisons, or effectively source documents; but harder to make sure students have a clear path to showing proficiency. Without clear scaffolding, without a system for teaching historical thinking, students are more likely to fall into "kitchen-sinkism." That is, they are more likely to think that copious amounts of detail and content, regardless of its relative significance, constitutes good history. Some students will always get to the goal on their own, but scaffolding helps all students have a clear path forward.
Standards-Based Grading in History: Vertical and Horizontal Alignment
Curriculum is not an add-on task that occurs in meetings, over summers, or acts as a distraction from teaching and instruction. Curriculum is at the heart of teaching and teachers should own it and live it. Vertical and Horizontal alignment is an oft mentioned, but less fine-tuned component of curriculum.
Earning Complexity in AP World: The Power of However
Although the complexity point is difficult for students to earn, it is possible. Depending on the historical thinking skill or topic being written about, there are some easy frameworks students can use in their arguments to make writing with complexity a habit.