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.
Teaching Historical Thinking Skills
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.
Historical Thinking begins with Primary Sources and Evidence
The use of primary sources has become increasingly common in history classrooms. Educators and researchers have been broadly pushing for this years. Specifically, this has been part of a call for the explicit teaching of historical thinking skills alongside prioritized content. Interestingly, the largest barriers to increased use of primary sources in the classroom that I have witnessed are not student reading ability, but a lack of teacher training and experience as well as access to materials.
Classroom Questioning Strategies
As students grow older they ask fewer questions. How can teachers fight back against this trend, integrating questioning strategies into their pedagogy in order to encourage inquiry and analytical depth?
Providing Useful Feedback in the Classroom
Providing quality feedback, and setting aside time for students to read it, reflect on it, and revise with it pushes back against the desire to go fast instead of focusing on mastery. Doing this frequently and consistently also helps build a positive classroom culture; Students can tell the difference between a classroom where feedback is being used as a justification for the grade they received and a classroom where feedback is the pathway to both learning and the grades that reflect that learning.
Approaching AP World History
When I started teaching AP World in 2016 I relied heavily on tips and advice from my APSI as well as resources from other teachers kind enough to share them. I also borrowed a few structures that I had been successful with when teaching AP Econ. Over the years my approach has developed into several … Continue reading Approaching AP World History
AP World: Teaching Imperialism in Unit 6
Unit 6 is one of my favorite units to teach in AP World, and is arguably one of the most important for understanding contemporary global issues. The unit's content demands thinking about how we teach imperialism as much as what we are teaching. Student engagement is important, but also building historical empathy and training students to think critically about sensitive issues.
C3 Historical Thinking Skills Proficiency Scales
This post contains proficiency scales I have drafted for all C3 history standards for high school. Hopefully they offer a clear starting point for teaching and assessing historical thinking in addition to content.
ChatGPT in AP World History
I finally tested out ChatGPT with my AP World History classes. Seeing the changes that technology brings to education is both scary and exciting; particularly as that change seems to be growing exponentially. Also includes are some great resources I have found on using AI in the classroom.
AP World History: Industrialization Spreads Lesson
For better or worse, I have grouped together some of the content from topics 5.4 and 5.6 in order to cover Industrialization's spread outside of Europe. The goals of this lesson are to establish that industrialization, modernization, and westernization are not synonyms, understanding change requires recognizing unique cultural contexts, and that within colonial encounters and imperial relationships change flows both ways affecting everyone involved.