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Reading Like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle and High School History Classrooms
''The focusing questions, the teaching tips, and the primary sources make it possible for any teacher of history and social studies to help students become more interested, careful, and effective in handling information. The beauty of the book is that the authors show how to accomplish this while working with even the most traditional dreary textbook. Any educator interested in producing more thoughtful students should buy and use this book!''
-- Grant Wiggins , president of Authentic Education, co-author of Understanding by Design and Schooling by Design
''What a great resource for teachers of history! This book explains how teachers can help students bring a critical eye to history, teaching ways of thinking that they can use in all of their studies.''
-- Diane Ravitch , research professor of education at New York University, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System
''Everyone agrees that developing 'critical thinking skills' is essential for 21st century learners. But how? This wonderful book vividly illustrates how teachers of history--and, indeed, other subjects--can teach students to be critical thinkers and democratic participants, as well as more effective readers. All educators who want to promote deeper understanding should read and use this book.''
-- Linda Darling-Hammond , Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Teaching and Teacher Education, Stanford University, author of The Flat World and Education
Reaching beyond textbooks, this is a guide to teaching ''historical reading'' with middle and high school students. This practical resource shows you how to apply Sam Wineburg's highly acclaimed approach to teaching, Reading Like a Historian , in your classroom to increase academic literacy and spark students' curiosity. Each chapter begins with an introductory essay that sets the stage of a key moment in American history--beginning with exploration and colonization and the events at Jamestown and ending with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Following each essay are all the materials you'll need to teach this topic--primary documents, charts, graphic organizers, visual images, and political cartoons--as well as suggestions for where to find additional resources on the Internet and guidance for assessing students' understanding of core historical ideas. Reading Like a Historian will help you use your textbook creatively and give you ideas for how historical instruction can enhance students' skills in reading comprehension. Get started today and watch the excitement unfold in your classroom!
1. Did Pocahontas Rescue John Smith?
2. ''Standing Tall'' or Fleeing the Scene?
3. Lincoln in Context
4. Columbus 1892, Not 1492
5. Electricity and Women's Who Really Benefited? And When?
6. ''Dust to Eat, and Dust to Breathe, and Dust to Drink''
7. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
8. To Blink or Not to The Cuban Missile Crisis
-- Grant Wiggins , president of Authentic Education, co-author of Understanding by Design and Schooling by Design
''What a great resource for teachers of history! This book explains how teachers can help students bring a critical eye to history, teaching ways of thinking that they can use in all of their studies.''
-- Diane Ravitch , research professor of education at New York University, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System
''Everyone agrees that developing 'critical thinking skills' is essential for 21st century learners. But how? This wonderful book vividly illustrates how teachers of history--and, indeed, other subjects--can teach students to be critical thinkers and democratic participants, as well as more effective readers. All educators who want to promote deeper understanding should read and use this book.''
-- Linda Darling-Hammond , Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Teaching and Teacher Education, Stanford University, author of The Flat World and Education
Reaching beyond textbooks, this is a guide to teaching ''historical reading'' with middle and high school students. This practical resource shows you how to apply Sam Wineburg's highly acclaimed approach to teaching, Reading Like a Historian , in your classroom to increase academic literacy and spark students' curiosity. Each chapter begins with an introductory essay that sets the stage of a key moment in American history--beginning with exploration and colonization and the events at Jamestown and ending with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Following each essay are all the materials you'll need to teach this topic--primary documents, charts, graphic organizers, visual images, and political cartoons--as well as suggestions for where to find additional resources on the Internet and guidance for assessing students' understanding of core historical ideas. Reading Like a Historian will help you use your textbook creatively and give you ideas for how historical instruction can enhance students' skills in reading comprehension. Get started today and watch the excitement unfold in your classroom!
1. Did Pocahontas Rescue John Smith?
2. ''Standing Tall'' or Fleeing the Scene?
3. Lincoln in Context
4. Columbus 1892, Not 1492
5. Electricity and Women's Who Really Benefited? And When?
6. ''Dust to Eat, and Dust to Breathe, and Dust to Drink''
7. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
8. To Blink or Not to The Cuban Missile Crisis
152 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2011
25 people are currently reading
222 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 30, 2019
如果美国人都像书中所示范的那样教授美国中学生学习历史，那么美国的民智开启程度无疑是惊人的。
May 9, 2021
When it comes to books on education, I particularly like books that are present practical, actionable ideas. Reading like a Historian is that type of book. Its eight chapters are eight historical questions that can be taught as lessons that make use of primary and secondary sources. The chapters allow the teacher and students to move through American history chronologically with eight lessons. Each chapter begins with four or five pages of context on the historical episode in question. I thought these introductions were well researched, informative, and interesting. After the introduction, each chapter included a section of about half a page that explained why the question is worth answering, or what could be learned by examining it. Then the authors provided three options for how to teach the lesson. The different options varied in the number of documents that would be examined, the time necessary to teach them, and the issues and skills that would be the focus of the lesson. Each chapter then included documents and teaching materials on which the lesson was based. At the end of each chapter there were several websites listed where a teacher could find documents and teaching materials.
One oddity was that the about this book is the copyright situation. Many books are designed as "reproducible" lessons, that are intended for the teacher to copy pages and hand them out to students. This book appears to be written with that intent. The explanation of the lessons is clearly aimed at teachers, so this isn't a book that you would buy for each student in your class. However, the materials are formatted as if they are ready to be copied and used. However when I checked the copyright statement at the beginning of the book, it said - all rights reserved, don't copy. I try to respect the creative work of others and honor copyright, but I just don't understand the mixed signals I was getting. I may actually email the authors to find out what I'm missing.
Copyright issues aside, the book has a lot of great ideas for how a teacher could create lessons to get kids dig into documents and begin to not only learn about the past, but also learn about how the past is studied. It is definitely worth reading for anyone who teaches history.
One oddity was that the about this book is the copyright situation. Many books are designed as "reproducible" lessons, that are intended for the teacher to copy pages and hand them out to students. This book appears to be written with that intent. The explanation of the lessons is clearly aimed at teachers, so this isn't a book that you would buy for each student in your class. However, the materials are formatted as if they are ready to be copied and used. However when I checked the copyright statement at the beginning of the book, it said - all rights reserved, don't copy. I try to respect the creative work of others and honor copyright, but I just don't understand the mixed signals I was getting. I may actually email the authors to find out what I'm missing.
Copyright issues aside, the book has a lot of great ideas for how a teacher could create lessons to get kids dig into documents and begin to not only learn about the past, but also learn about how the past is studied. It is definitely worth reading for anyone who teaches history.
December 30, 2018
Excellent resource, of course, but fails to instruct one in how to bring about original units along the same investigative lines. Also, I feel that the book’s marketing should make its American History focus more obvious. Teachers of World will find less use here.
January 29, 2022
简明易懂，但实践起来估计就是另一回事啦……
文本与叙事必须放在其特有背景与语境之下，同时警惕由于人类对于因果关系的偏好而导致的错误归因，偏见，误导，以及忽略非事件（non-events)的倾向。最重要的是，能够忍受认知的复杂性，并根据事实适度地修改自己的认知
文本与叙事必须放在其特有背景与语境之下，同时警惕由于人类对于因果关系的偏好而导致的错误归因，偏见，误导，以及忽略非事件（non-events)的倾向。最重要的是，能够忍受认知的复杂性，并根据事实适度地修改自己的认知
September 7, 2014
I'm sure that if you're an American teacher, this book feels like a godsend. Every chapter looks at a different aspect of American history - from Pocohontas to the Dust Bowl, Abraham Lincoln as a racist to the Cuban Missile Crisis - and provides documents, context, and ways of approaching lessons on these topics that teach a variety of historical thinking skills. As an Australian, the only chapter that was directly relevant was the one on the Cuban Missile Crisis - I certainly intend to change my lessons around next year to use and incorporate the information suggested here. The book as a whole is actually still useful to me, on two levels: 1. I learnt a lot about American history (well, bits of it anyway), so that was quite fun. 2. The way Wineburg etc explain why to teach the different historical thinking skills, as well as suggestions for how to do so, are obviously transferable to any historical period, topic, or issue. So with a little bit of effort, I can use every concept here to inform (and hopefully improve) my teaching, which is a remarkably exciting thing. First revelation: include a 'word bank' with sources that you give kids. OF COURSE. Also, Wineburg et al are very big on context - students have to understand where documents and ideas fit into the bigger picture (this matches with Tovani and her ideas about teaching kids to be fully literate, which I'm also reading at the moment).
I enjoyed reading this book, and I look forward to implementing its ideas.
I enjoyed reading this book, and I look forward to implementing its ideas.
February 2, 2015
Pretty helpful for the classroom if you end up going over any of the seven or so topics covered. Overpriced for a dozen lesson plans though. Includes some great primary and secondary sources for document analysis. Very interesting ideas for taking topics that students probably have some prior knowledge of (Pocahontas, Dust Bowl, Cuban Missile Crisis) and teaching students to questions what they think they know, how primary sources can be biased, and look at the influence of perspective. Some worksheets also included. Multiple variations of lesson plans available to allow teachers to customize what works for their classes.
October 10, 2014
This is the perfect book for social studies teachers! It discusses how to use primary and secondary sources to expand a story past the textbook. The very best thing about this book is that it provides several primary sources that I didn't even know existed - or I wouldn't have thought to look for and use in my classroom; it also provides worksheets that you can use with those sources if you wish. Even if you don't want to use those exact worksheets they can jump start you into your own ideas. I will definitely be using these in my own classroom.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews