The Historical Thinking Project

Promoting critical historical literacy for the 21st century

I think I had my most fun in the introductory unit when teaching significance. I engaged my students in a one-on-one debate format defending to another student their choice of an event as either being of greatest significance or of least significance. But, before I explain how I did this, I need to backtrack.

Working with chronology in the classroom often brings forth the infamous history timeline, often with disastrous, or at least uninteresting results.  I too am guilty of handing students a list of important events to be sequenced into a less than in-depth exercise in timeline building, but I was resolved to change this. Drawing ideas from The Big Six Historical Thinking Skills (Seixas & Morton, 2013) I put together an activity for my Social Justice 12 class on the major developments in LGBTQ history in North America. 

In my previous blog, I talked about using my first unit to introduce the historical thinking concepts.  On my first day, I did a general introduction to the integration of historical thinking concepts into the curriculum.

When teaching Grade 10 history in Ontario I traditionally have had to overcome some obstacles that are common to most history teachers:

Family history is my favourite type of history. Today I took my grandmother on a drive around Eastbourne, the seaside town she grew up in and left more than 60 years ago. I wanted the physical experience of being at a location to trigger her memories.