What is History?
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Introduction to History for middle school through early high school
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What is History?
- 1. WHAT IS HISTORY E. Kent Rogers
- 2. IN PAIRS, DISCUSS THESE TOPICS:
- 3. WHAT IS HISTORY? OFFER A DEFINITION FOR THE SUBJECT WE CALL “HISTORY”.
- 4. WHAT DO OTHERS SAY? • a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events –Merriam- Webster • the study of or a record of past events considered together, especially events of a particular period, country, or subject – Cambridge Dictionaries Online
- 5. WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY? • To know more about the roots of our current culture. Why is this important? • To learn about the mistakes of those who have gone before us. Why is this important? • To learn about human nature in general by looking at trends that repeat through history. Why is this important? • To learn historical facts. Why is this important? • To learn about how different factors shape society e.g. religion, greed, the intersection of different cultures, technology, etc. Why is this important?
- 6. WHY IS HISTORY IMPORTANT? In sum, we study history to learn about who we are—both our past and our present.
- 9. WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY Oral Historians
- 12. HISTORY IS A MYSTERY TO BE SOLVED • Finding out about history is a lot like trying to solve a mystery… • You must look for clues. • You must interpret those clues • You must bring all the clues together to shed light on each other. • You must reinterpret each clue every time you find a new clue. • You must then try fill in the gaps and come to an educated conclusion.
- 13. SOURCES •Scholars call anything that gives us a clue about history “Sources.” •Sources fall into two major categories •Primary Sources, and, you guessed it, •Secondary Sources.
- 14. •Can you guess what is meant by primary source?
- 15. PRIMARY SOURCES A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event.
- 16. PRIMARY SOURCES What are some examples of primary sources?
- 17. PRIMARY SOURCES •First-hand accounts of events
- 19. PRIMARY SOURCES •Artifacts an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest.
- 24. MORE EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY SOURCES •Diaries •Poetry •Personal Interviews •Government Documents •Autobiographies •Peer-reviewed journal articles of new findings •Photographs •Video •Etc.
- 25. SECONDARY SOURCES What do you think is meant by Secondary Source? A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event.
- 26. WHAT ARE INCLUDED AS SECONDARY SOURCES? • Textbooks • Encyclopedias • Magazine or news articles dealing with issues from the past
- 27. WHICH KIND OF SOURCE DO YOU THINK WE’LL BE LOOKING AT? Secondary!
Editor's Notes
- Ask students to identify what they see in the photos…i.e. buildings, painting, texts, artifacts,
- For each photo, ask “Why did I pick this picture to represent historical investigation” Answers: Girl looking back: we are looking back into our past; motorcycle: we look back so we can drive forward better; shades/camera: in history, we are recording what happened, like a camera, and at the same time we are seeing a reflection of ourselves; Girl with earings: we study history so we can be prettier as a human race (improve ourselves); broken: we don’t have a perfect picture of the past, we have to piece together what we have and make an educated guess at what the truth is about the past.
- With each of these, ask the students to guess based on the pictures. Then ask them how each profession might be involved in historical inquiry
- Ask: So what does this mean about what we know about history? (At least one important correct answer is that most of the time, what we know is only partial and so not completely reliable. We have to always keep an open mind that we don’t know the whole story and therefore, what we think we know may be a little or even a lot wrong.)
- Ask: what do you think is meant by “primary sources” and by “secondary sources”?
- Ask what is important for historical investigation about each news excerpt presented: slaves: general cultural practices; Massacre: important events; Married: trace lineage; wonder of wonders: not always reliable.