1. What is History?
Overview and Objectives
Suggested time: This lesson will take approximately two 50-minute periods.
Overview
Students learn about the process of writing history and discuss the reasons people study history.
Preview The activity functions as this lesson’s Preview assignment.
Activity In an Experiential Exercise, students witness a staged event that they then reconstruct to help them
understand the challenges historians face in interpreting and communicating information about the past.
Reading Students read about the academic discipline of history and identify the reasons people study history.
Processing Students examine the reasons behind different interpretations by describing three important events
from their childhood.
Objectives
Students will
• investigate the Essential Question: What is history, and why should we study it?
• reconstruct the details of a staged event to learn about the process of writing history.
• analyze content from the reading to rank and discuss the reasons people study history.
• learn and use the Key Content Terms for this lesson.
Vocabulary
Key Content Terms evidence, primary source, secondary source, point of view, historical interpretation
Social Studies Terms artifact, bias, chronology, chronicle, legacy, empathy

2. Experiential Exercise
1 Before class, prepare for the activity.
• Make copies of Student Handout: The Getting to Know You Game. This game will keep students engaged as a
staged event occurs.
• Arrange to have a teacher or student from another class come in while students are playing the game and
“steal” something valuable from your desk, such as your grade book or a set of graded papers. Make sure you
plant this item clearly on your desk before class begins. Tell the “thief” that he or she should walk in, pick up
the item, and walk out. He or she should also make eye contact with at least three students in the classroom.
2 Introduce the game. Distribute copies of the Student Handout. Select volunteers to be the five “feature”
students.
3 Conduct the game. Have the “feature” students go to another classroom to complete the handout with one
another. These students must not witness any part of the staged event about to take place. Encourage the
remaining students to gather as many interesting details as they can about the “feature” students.
4 Monitor the classroom while the staged event occurs. Once students are settled into the game, signal the
“thief” to perform the staged event. Ignore or redirect any students who try to call your attention to what is
happening. Continue the game for a few minutes after the person has left the room.
5 Stop the game. Walk to your desk and announce that the game must stop immediately. Tell students that
something has happened and something is not where it was before. Ask the class to help you figure out what
happened.
6 Ask students to return to their desks and quickly write an eyewitness account of the event. Explain that
you want to get all the facts correctly, because it is important that you handle the situation appropriately. Expect
students to have different versions and to be eager to share many details. Make sure student accounts include
specifics about the following:
• Who? (name, height, clothing, facial expression)
• What?
• Where? (location in the classroom)
• When? (approximate time)
• How?
Students should complete their accounts individually. If students do not have certain information, they should
not include it in their account.
7 Divide the class into five groups. Have the “feature” students return to the classroom. Assign one “feature”
student to each group. Tell the “feature” students that something has happened and now something is not where
it was before. Their job is to listen to the eyewitness accounts and come up with a more detailed summary of
what happened.
8 Have students share their eyewitness accounts with other members of their groups. The five “feature”
students should take notes. Encourage them to ask clarifying questions, such as Who? What? Where? When?
and How?
9 Ask the “feature” students to give you their accounts. Read aloud from each account. Call attention to
differences and model confusion or disbelief. Encourage students to raise questions and provide alternative
information.
10 Discuss why students think this event happened. Tell them that they have heard many pieces of
information. Some information came from students who were in the room at the time, but other information
came from students who were not. Some information was more detailed, while other information was lacking in
detail. Have several volunteers share their interpretations of why this event happened.
11 Debrief the experience. Invite the “thief” to return the missing item to your desk. Have that person share his
or her reason for taking the valuable item. Explain that the purpose of this activity was to give students an
opportunity to reconstruct an event to learn about the process of writing history. Ask,
• Who was in the room when the event occurred?
• Who was not in the room when the event occurred? How did they learn what had happened in the classroom?

3. • Which source of information about the event was better—the students who were in the classroom at the time
or the students who were not?
• What information were you able to agree on? What information were you not able to agree on? Why do you
think there was disagreement?
• Did any of you change your account in any way? Why?
• Did everyone agree on why the staged event occurred? Why do you think there may have been differences
between interpretations?
12 Tell students that their experience is similar to that of historians as they try to reconstruct and
interpret the past. Students who were in the room during the event were primary sources who provided
eyewitness accounts. Students who were not in the room were secondary sources. Both sources had value in
reconstructing an account of what happened. Each student also had his or her own point of view about what
happened, which made it more challenging to develop a single interpretation of why it happened. There was
disagreement between interpretations, just as there are often disagree-ments between historians.

4. Reading
1 Introduce the Essential Question. Ask students to turn to this lesson and consider possible answers to the
Essential Question: What is history, and why should we study it?
2 Introduce the Key Content Terms and social studies terms for this lesson. Preteach the boldfaced
vocabulary terms in the lesson, as necessary, before students begin reading.
3 Have students read Section 1, Introduction. Ask students to find sentences in this section that match visual
details in the lesson’s opening photograph. Have volunteers read a sentence and point out the corresponding
detail.
4 Distribute copies of the Notebook Guide.
5 Have students read Sections 2 and 3 of the Student Text and complete the corresponding Reading
Notes. Afterward, use the Guide to Reading Notes to review their answers as a class. (Note: You may want to
have students complete the Reading Notes in pairs during class or individually as homework.)
6 After students complete the Reading Notes for Section 3, Why Study History?, have them form a
human bar graph.
• Write each of the four reasons for studying history so they are spaced out horizontally on the board.
• Have students stand in front of the reason that they believe is the most important. If there is a student already
standing in front of their reason, they should stand in front of that student.
• Ask volunteers to explain why they chose their reason as the most important. Encourage discussion. (Note:
You might consider having students switch positions on the human bar graph if they have changed their minds
after the discussion.)

5. Processing
Have students complete the Processing assignment in their notebooks. Review the directions with them and
answer any questions they have.