Teaching historical thinking concepts can give purpose, make connections, and engage students. History may be the stories we tell about the past but we need to ask critical questions of those stories.

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Making History Meaningful
Tom Morton (GuyLafleur64 - www.slideshare.net)
tmorton1027@gmail.com

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Learning Intentions
• What is historical thinking Canadian style?
• How can historical thinking concepts help make
history meaningful (through purpose,
connections, and engagement)?

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Histories are the stories we tell about the past.
(Seixas and Morton, The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts)
We cringe when the word narrative comes up
in educational settings….
(Levstik and Barton, Teaching History for the Common Good)

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Six Concepts of Historical Thinking:
To think historically, students need
to be able to:
• Establish historical significance
• Use primary source evidence
• Identify continuity and change
• Analyze cause and consequence
• Take historical perspectives, and
• Understand the ethical
dimension of historical
interpretations.

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CONCEPT POTENTIAL TO GIVE MEANING
Historical Significance Purpose and connections
Evidence Engagement
Continuity and Change Connections
Cause and
Consequence
Engagement, purpose, and connections
Historical Perspective Engagement
Ethical Dimension Purpose, engagement, and connections

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Introduction to the Concept of Evidence
and Inquiry: I Left a Trace
1. Jot down everything that
you have done in the last 24
hours.
(that would be appropriate for
discussion.)

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2. Make a list of traces that might
have been left from your life during
the past 24 hours.
3. Check ✓ those that were likely
to have been preserved.

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1. How well could a biographer 50 years from now
write the story of your 24 hours based on the
traces you left? How much of what happened
would be left out? What aspects of the story
might the biographer miss?
2. Where else could he or she turn for evidence?
3. How could readers of the biography know if it
was an accurate account?
4. What does this exercise tell us about the
challenges historians face when writing histories?

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“the past as a series of events is utterly
gone . . . some remnants remain like litter
from a picnic, but these material remains
never speak for themselves. In fact they are
inert traces until someone asks a question
that turns them into evidence.”
- Joyce Appleby, “The Power of History”

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Concept: Historical Significance
The problem: We can’t remember or learn or
cover everything that ever happened. How do we
decide what is important to learn about the past?
“Historical significance”: the principles behind the
selection of what and who should be remembered,
researched, taught and learned about the past.

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Guideposts to Understanding Historical
Significance
1. An event, person, or development has historical significance
if it resulted in change. That is, it had deep consequences,
for many people, over a long period of time.
2. An event, person, or development has historical significance
if it is revealing. That is, it sheds light on enduring or
emerging issues in history or contemporary life.
3. Events, people, and developments meet the criteria for
historical significance only when they are shown to occupy a
meaningful place in a narrative.
4. Historical significance varies over time and from group
to group.

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14. 7. Political cartoon: “The Dance of Death,” The Grain Growers’ Guide, October, 1914
DANCE OF DEATH
Arch Dale, The Grain Growers’ Guide, August, 1914

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Should war resistors and peace movements
be included in our textbooks? On what
grounds?

16. SHOULDER TO SHOULDER
Arch Dale, The Grain Growers’ Guide, November, 1914
1914

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In our increasingly multi-cultural countries
what stories of WW I should we include?

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Question Stems for Historical
Significance (aka: so-what or who-cares
questions):
• What was so special about X?
• Why should everyone remember X?
• Does X deserve to be famous?
• Why was X forgotten?

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How do we know what we know about the
past?
Concept: Evidence
Shoulder to Shoulder (Arch Dale, The Grain
Dance of Death, (Arch Dale, The Grain Growers’ Growers’ Guide, November, 1914)
Guide, August, 1914)
7. Political cartoon: “The Dance of Death,” The Grain Growers’ Guide, October, 1914
9. Rents are unpaid, families are living on not half rations, and in many homes not
knowing where the next meal is coming from. Many heads of families are feeling the
pressure mentally; two men, one with a wife and seven small children, the other with a
wife and two small children, have been unable to stand up to the depression. One became
mentally unbalanced and died of starvation in the hospital, and the other took his own
life, both leaving their families destitute.
From an Ontario report on unemployment, 1913.

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Guideposts to Understanding Evidence
• History is intepretation based on inferences made
from primary sources.
• Asking good questions about a source can turn it
into evidence.
• Sourcing often begins before a source is read, with
questions about who created it and. It involves
inferring creator’s purpose, values, and worldview.
• A source should be analyzed in relation to the
context of its historical setting.
• Inferences should always be corroborated—checked
against other sources (primary and secondary).

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What does the change in message suggest
to us about Arch Dale? About The Grain
Growers' Guide? Or Canada?
8. Political cartoon: “Shoulder to Shoulder,” The Grain Growers’ Guide, November,
1914
Shoulder to Shoulder (Arch Dale, The Grain
Dance of Death, (Arch Dale, The Grain Growers’ Growers’ Guide, November, 1914)
Guide, August, 1914)
7. Political cartoon: “The Dance of Death,” The Grain Growers’ Guide, October, 1914
9. Rents are unpaid, families are living on not half rations, and in many homes not
knowing where the next meal is coming from. Many heads of families are feeling the
pressure mentally; two men, one with a wife and seven small children, the other with a
wife and two small children, have been unable to stand up to the depression. One became
mentally unbalanced and died of starvation in the hospital, and the other took his own
life, both leaving their families destitute.
From an Ontario report on unemployment, 1913.

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Reflection on Certainty: Clothesline
How certain are you about
your answer/hypothesis?
UNCERTAIN?
www.thinkinghistory.co.uk -
© Ian Dawson 2009
22
CERTAIN?

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How certain are you about your
hypothesis?
What words do
students need to use?
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Maybe
Not sure
Possibly
Perhaps
What phrases? Most likely
This source suggests…
This photo confirms the idea that…
I chose these two pictures to show…

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Question Formation Technique (AKA:
Brainstorming)
• Ask as many questions as you can.
• Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer
the questions.
• Write down every question exactly as it is
stated.
• Change any statement into a question.
(Rothstein and Santana, Make Just One Change)

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Criteria for Good Inquiry Questions
• They are worth answering (lead to deeper
understanding of history; authentic)
• They are broadly engaging (for teacher inquiries)
• Students care about them – they see the purpose
in answering them
• They can be answered, though the answer may
be contested or difficult (and this may need
teacher support if this is the case)

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Ways to Support Students to Generate
Questions:
• Look at models, e.g., www.bcheritagefairs.ca
portfolio
• Supply prompts
• Use engaging sources to build curiosity
• Brainstorm questions
• Give or create criteria for powerful questions
• Make a Wonder Wall of Questions
• Plan for peer and teacher feedback
• Practise with small inquiries
• Have students choose one question; you give others
as a focus for a unit

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Concept: Continuity and Change
How can we make sense of the complex
flows of history?

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“Come on, Bart. History can be fun. It’s like an
amusement park except instead of rides, you get
to memorize dates.”
—Marge Simpson in “Margical History Tour,” an
episode of The Simpsons that aired
on December 22, 2004

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Timeline Story Telling
• Give students assorted cards with events,
people, and trends to place in chronological
order.
• Supply cards with dates to add to their
timeline. Ask students to tell their portion of
the story.
• Ask them to choose a number of events,
people, and trends to construct a story; ask
them to add some more to expand the story.
• Compare stories. Treat them as hypotheses to
be investigated further and retold later.

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Guideposts to Understanding Continuity and
Change
1. Continuity and change are interwoven: both
can exist together.
2. Change is a process, with varying paces and
patterns. Turning points are moments when
the process of change shifts in direction or pace.
3. Progress and decline are broad evaluations of
change over time. Progress for one people may
be decline for another.
4. Periodization helps us organize our thinking
about continuity and change. It is a process of
interpretation.

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Cause and Consequence
Few things can be more fascinating to
students than unpeeling the often
dramatic complications of cause. And
nothing is more poisonous to whole
societies than a simple, monocausal
explanation of their past experiences
and present problems.
(Lessons from History, The National
Center for History in the Schools.)

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Cause and Consequence
Why do event happen and what are their
impacts?

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Why were men so
keen to enlist in
1914?

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Who killed the
Red Baron?

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Why was this man
crucified? German
atrocity or Canadian
propaganda?

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Historical Perspectives
The past should not be comfortable. The
past should not be a familiar echo of the
present, for if it is familiar why revisit it?
(Richard White, Remembering Ahanagran)

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Historical Perspectives
How can we better understand the people of
the past?

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They advanced in line after line… and not a
man shirked going through the extremely
heavy barrage, or facing the machine-gun
and rifle fire that finally wiped them out....
(I) saw the lines which advanced in such
admirable order melting away under the
fire. Yet not a man wavered, broke the
ranks, or attempted to come back. (I
have) never seen, indeed could never have
imagined, such a magnificent display of
gallantry, discipline and determination.
(British Brigadier General Rees, GOC 94th Infantry Brigade, 31
Division, Battle of the Somme, cited in Tim Travers, The Killing
Ground.)

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The Ethical Dimension
(T)he ethical dimension of historical thinking
helps to imbue the study of history with
meaning. Remembrance of heroes’
sacrifices, memorials to history’s victims,
reparations for mass crimes, and restitution
for stolen goods and ruined lives are all
attempts to come to terms with the past in
the present.
(Seixas and Morton, The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts)

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The Ethical Dimension
How can history help us to live in the
present?

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[E]ngaging students with the
complexity of (history) is precisely what
generates its interest and appeal…
[Students] acknowledge the
importance of knowing the facts about
Australian history, but they also want
historical narratives, discussions and
debates, and imagination in the
classroom.
(Anna Clark, History's Children)