What Works?
Teaching History
to Middle School
Kids

“A morsel of genuine history is a
thing so rare as to be always
valuable.”
Thomas Jefferson
1817

Primary / secondary?
Old history Copy of a
textbook forwarded email
New history Diary
textbook Live blog on a
The Wild Blue computer
Photo Digital photo on
Artifact laptop
World Book Wikipedia article

Direct traces of the event

Direct traces of the event
Accounts created at the time it
occurred, by firsthand observers and
participants

Direct traces of the event
Accounts created at the time it
occurred, by firsthand observers and
participants
Accounts created after the event
occurred, by firsthand observers and
participants

Definitions?

Definitions?
Primary sources?
•Contemporary accounts of an event,
created by someone who experienced or
witnessed the event in question
•“a first-hand account of an event, person,
or place”

Secondary sources?
•Materials that interpret, assign value to,
conjecture upon, and draw conclusions
about the events reported in primary
sources
•“An account of an event, person, or place
that is not first-hand”

How do you use primary docs?

Three stage media analysis
See?
Similarities & Differences?
So what?

Three stage media analysis
Boston Massacre

Paul Revere
1770
Alonzo Chappel
1868

Training kids to analyze
“What really happened in Boston on
March 5, 1770?”

5 W’s and
credibility

Who
1st / 2nd / 3rd person?

What
format?

Why
audience?

Where
present?

When
date?

National Archives & Records
Administration
www.archives.gov/education

Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/teachers

Our Documents
www.ourdocuments.gov

Use analysis worksheets
archives.gov/education/lessons

One side write
•What you see (details)
Other side
•What you feel (adjectives)

Use music with images to create an
emotional engagement
•Civil War Photos

What do all pictures have
in common?

Primary document myths?

Primary sources are reliable

Primary sources are reliable
Primary sources are naturally
engaging for all students

Primary sources are reliable
Primary sources are naturally
engaging for all students
Evidence can be neatly packaged as
primary or secondary

Primary sources are reliable
Primary sources are naturally
engaging for all students
Evidence can be neatly packaged as
primary or secondary
The more primary sources the better

Some basics

Some basics
History Frame
•Graphic organizer

Some basics
History Frame
•Graphic organizer
Fence Sitter
•Industrial Revolution was good for the US

Some basics
History Frame
•Graphic organizer
Fence Sitter
•Industrial Revolution was good for the US
List / Group / Label
•Brown vs. Board of Education

Play video games

Third World Farmer
www.3rdworldfarmer.com

Ancient
Egypt
www.knowledgematters.com

Discover
Babylon
www.discoverbabylon.org

eLections
www.ciconline.org/elections

Use fiction &
nonfiction
•Children of the
Dust Bowl
•Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust
•Create a pencil /
pen / stone
graphic
organizer

Children of the
Dust Bowl
•Create list of
questions from
pencil / pen list
•Research using
non-fiction
•Publish class book

Images
•Use visual DEIs (Discrepant Event
Inquiry) to engage kids

New York City 1939

New Jersey 1938

“Backwards” DEI
•Student stands facing class
•Project picture on wall
•Student must ask the questions

Prepare a 30 second
speech
•Summarize your day
•Use your Ready/Set/Go/
Whoa sheet
•Describe action plan

Glenn Wiebe
ESSDACK
glennw@essdack.org
Tech integration questions? Social
studies issues? I would love to
hear from you!
View other presentations at:
slideshare.net/glennw98