Developing Historical Detectives

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Active History is proud to present a video each week from New Directions in Active History. The conference took place at Huron University College on October 2-4, 2015 and brought together scholars, students, professionals and community members to discuss a wide range of topics pertaining to the practice of active history.

In this week’s video, Lindsay Hall, Head of History at Clark Road Secondary in the Thames Valley District School Board, discusses the challenges facing teachers of history in the public school system. Hall explains that since students are required to only take one Canadain history class throughout high school, teachers must strive to instill curiosity in their grade 9 students. Hall provides examples of innovative activities and projects designed to build student confidence and subsequently, encourage students to take an interest in studying the past. Hall goes on to say that before students can “think like historians”, skills like close reading need to be developed. In her own experience, many grade 9 students lack reading skills, requiring her to become a “teacher of reading” before a “teacher of history.” Hall also encourages educators to be cognisant of the way student’s encounter the past in their everyday lives through tv shows, video games, novels, and the internet, among other topics. She ends by arguing that skills taught inside the history classroom can extend beyond the its walls and can encourage students to become critical thinkers and problem solvers.

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Transcript

00:10
so I’m taking a little bit of a
00:14
different approach today because I’m
00:15
talking first of all women specifically
00:18
about my intermediate students of my
00:20
grade 10 students and the reason for
00:22
that is that is in high school the only
00:24
chance we are guaranteed to have them
00:26
and so I think at that stage it’s really
00:28
important for us to prepare them for
00:29
some of the amazing things that then
00:31
they can be capable of doing in
00:32
simulations or in their senior classes
00:35
when they choose to come back and the
00:38
you know sure that the sad thing about
00:40
the curriculum is that grade 10 Canyon
00:44
history is the only time they must take
00:45
Canadian history in secondary school if
00:47
you have a great 70 canadian history
00:49
experience which is varied depending on
00:53
the soul that they go to and the teacher
00:55
that they have in their senior years of
00:58
elementary school but in terms of the
01:01
secondary situation have our skill set
01:06
is the only thing that transfers to
01:08
grade 11 and 12 the content is
01:09
irrelevant really i mean it’s hopeful
01:12
that they walk away with this like
01:13
amazing knowledge of canadian history
01:15
but the reality is is that may not be
01:17
the case and what what they will walk
01:20
away with hopefully it are some skills
01:22
that will set them up for their you know
01:23
world history in grade 11 or their law
01:26
in grade 12 or whatever does they happen
01:28
to continue on to so it’s the
01:29
Disciplinary thinking stuff that the
01:31
Ontario curriculum and revised Ontario
01:34
curriculum in theory has has leaned on
01:37
to and in but I would argue that the
01:41
teachers many of us and certainly those
01:43
the colleagues that I am sitting with
01:44
here today I’m speaking with you with
01:46
speaking today with have already been
01:49
doing that work in terms of disciplinary
01:51
thinking and so I just want to talk a
01:52
little bit about how we encourage
01:53
intermedia students to do history so the
01:56
sort of four main things that I and then
01:58
bye in terms of sort of a checklist for
02:01
myself the and my students must sort of
02:03
go through this process and i have to
02:06
work through this process in order for
02:07
them to get to that stage and it doesn’t
02:09
have to take an entire semester it can
02:11
happen really in the first month or the
02:13
first month and a half or so but to
02:15
build them into a place where they’re
02:17
ready to really dig into inquiry which
02:19
is the the ultimate goal here so i’m
02:22
going to talk a bit about how to
02:23
encourage academic risk-taking i’m using
02:25
diagnostics to identify skill gaps
02:27
skills and their gaps in terms of their
02:29
skills in particular i’m using varied
02:32
and alternative sources so you know
02:34
appealing to them where they are I mean
02:35
what they’re already experiencing in the
02:38
outside world outside of sort of the box
02:39
of classroom and then getting to the
02:42
place where students are doing the work
02:43
of historians and not just simply being
02:45
like receptacles for whatever story I
02:46
want to tell them so the first is
02:49
academic risk-taking the problem that we
02:51
have is that students are often competed
02:54
by their fear of failure and their
02:56
limited background knowledge the common
02:58
with sort of that paradigm I don’t know
03:00
anything or I will need all about one
03:02
thing and that’s because they happen to
03:03
be particularly interested in that one
03:05
area whatever that might be for a lot of
03:07
my students that might be a war wars are
03:11
definitely very much popular still it
03:15
might be one time period so we
03:18
definitely look to the ancient world
03:19
some of the students come in with a lot
03:20
of knowledge and you know in the area
03:22
played Greek or Roman history something
03:23
like that they just just have like an
03:25
interest in one thing so yeah they don’t
03:26
know anything or they only want to know
03:28
about one thing so I really think the
03:30
first job of a history teacher then is
03:31
to build students confidence and their
03:34
interest on it by encouraging academic
03:36
risk-taking because sometimes this will
03:37
freeze your students up and I found that
03:40
especially with intermediate students
03:42
and that partially is connected to the
03:44
fact that in elementary school depending
03:46
on how much time in grade seven and
03:48
eight days
03:48
history they really feel like they came
03:50
in with like nothing and they don’t have
03:52
to know any of that to be perfectly
03:53
honest I mean it’s lovely if they do but
03:55
they don’t actually have to know any of
03:56
that to start a 19-14 where r curriculum
03:58
actually begins so we need to get them
04:01
to that mind frame so what I do with my
04:03
students is show that I’m in the first
04:06
day that they actually know quite a bit
04:07
so these are pieces of chart paper and
04:09
all the little yellow things and fit
04:11
some papers are sticky notes and what we
04:14
do in the first couple days is redefined
04:15
history in broader terms we stop
04:17
thinking about history answered about a
04:18
very narrow definition that they may
04:20
have experienced again in their
04:21
elementary school life and you know it’s
04:24
it’s not the fault of the elementary
04:26
school teachers my husband is a 7-day
04:28
teacher and so I can’t just throw them
04:29
under the bus it is part of the
04:31
curriculum that they are asked to
04:33
deliver it’s part of the fact that many
04:35
people are not specialist in history
04:36
most are not specialist in history their
04:38
passions in lay there and the curriculum
04:40
that is just ginormous and they have to
04:42
cover all of this so anyways we start to
04:45
redefine history in sort of a number of
04:46
different categories so we come up with
04:47
definitions from what would be cultural
04:49
history what would be social history
04:51
science technology military clinical
04:53
economic history and the students just
04:55
start to brainstorm using a couple
04:58
different strategies things that they
05:00
think would fall into those categories
05:01
and so you know within half an hour we
05:04
had I think here there’s like a hundred
05:05
and ninety seven things brainstormed up
05:07
here we have them because we thought
05:08
that that number may matter and it kind
05:10
of does matter right because these are
05:12
15 year olds who are coming and saying I
05:13
don’t know anything and really in you
05:16
know 30 minutes they’re able to come up
05:17
with a high 197 different things that
05:19
they think actually like qualify as
05:21
historically relevant under the
05:22
categories so this could be like a good
05:25
starting place but the next point of
05:27
this is that I want them to them
05:28
able to start tuning cross connections
05:30
between these categories because because
05:31
if we’re is no person or event or
05:33
anything is isolated within any one of
05:34
these categories of history so we start
05:37
to develop the idea of sort of rich
05:38
examples and being able to explain a
05:40
historical topic that they knew you know
05:43
very little about or only know sort of a
05:45
little bit about and trying to connect
05:47
these different categories so from there
05:49
we go and they make my maps where they
05:51
categorize and explain an example of
05:54
something they brainstormed and then
05:56
they connect it to another category or
05:58
multiple categories right so yeah this
06:00
kid is super assistant to she’s amazing
06:02
I have been inspired by her they don’t
06:04
all look like this but I am in terms of
06:07
my academic my five my locally develop
06:09
students so students in all academic
06:11
bubbles they can all be successful in
06:13
this strategy Miz task because and I do
06:15
it with all of those classes for exactly
06:16
that purpose because they do start to be
06:18
able to see how an event that might seem
06:21
entirely military base so a war actually
06:24
connects to multiple different areas of
06:25
life and so we start to have those
06:27
conversations so this one here looks
06:29
different because this young lady she
06:31
said just you know she it’s like I hate
06:33
my maps so she and said which is fine
06:35
I’m so she started creating posted notes
06:37
that she stuck on top there were all of
06:39
the different areas that she could see
06:41
them connect to other categories right
06:43
so this is I mean you know like i said
06:45
this would be to your first two days in
06:47
class and all of a sudden everybody’s
06:49
feeling like they were kind of on the
06:50
same like you know they can tell the kid
06:52
who knows a lot about one thing because
06:54
that guy wants to talk about the same
06:55
topic and the history kids definitely
06:57
will will come out and you’ll be able to
06:59
identify them as a teacher but we’re all
07:02
kind of on the same playing field here
07:03
because now our definition of history is
07:06
broader things that we might have
07:07
interested or know about our definitely
07:09
value in this class and so that’s part
07:11
of the big conversation and for them
07:13
getting to start to see themselves in
07:15
history and they’re interesting history
07:16
is really what the motivation is there
07:18
right so the next time you see teacher
07:20
is using the Diagnostics really
07:22
identified
07:23
skills they have or what gaps they have
07:25
and of course we know and we’re involved
07:27
in history so we know there’s a lot of
07:28
skills attach the history that are far
07:30
more paramount at this stage especially
07:32
early in the semester than the content
07:34
because they can’t get to the content
07:35
they can’t do anything with it if they
07:36
have these skill gaps and any time we
07:39
present students with contests of
07:41
content or challenges that are too far
07:44
beyond where they are currently we are
07:46
definitely risking them just backing off
07:48
completely I having to teach in an area
07:50
of London with large population of
07:52
address students a high population and
07:55
academically disengage students and so
07:57
the more that I can engage them and make
07:59
them feel comfortable and actually
08:00
identify their skill sets the better
08:02
because they’re going to come back and
08:03
they’re going to get engaged in history
08:04
and so the long-term outcomes are much
08:06
more significant so there’s a number of
08:08
complex skills we know question
08:09
development buying sources critical
08:11
reading and research using specific
08:12
evidences for an opinion identifying
08:14
perspective advice you know this goes on
08:16
these are some that are clearly
08:17
identified within our curriculum and so
08:20
I want to identify and help students
08:22
identify themselves which skill sets
08:24
that they need to work on because this
08:25
is individual to students there are some
08:28
common things that come up amongst the
08:30
group and I’ll talk about those in the
08:32
sack but also explicitly teaching the
08:35
skills required for success the
08:36
presumption of prior knowledge is
08:38
something that you know many teachers
08:39
are aware of that the presumption of
08:40
prior skills are something that is you
08:43
know we can’t assume that they can use
08:44
the internet effectively for example
08:46
because they can’t they know how to
08:49
Google a question they don’t know how to
08:51
Google search terms and so that’s you
08:53
know heavily problematic and so um
08:56
that’s something that we need to be very
08:58
cognizant up so for this example this is
09:01
you know I did this with all of my
09:02
classes at you know I so a grade 10
09:05
applied grade ten academic and grade 12
09:08
world history class and we 911 so let’s
09:12
do some stuff on 911 this topic is
09:15
totally irrelevant it can be plugged out
09:17
but definitely something for this
09:18
strategy um if it would work best if
09:21
it’s something the kids like have
09:22
curiosity about curiosity is definitely
09:24
what we’re trying to inspire here and so
09:26
if they have curiosity about a
09:27
particular topic this will work for it
09:29
so basically individually the students
09:31
develop and questions that they want to
09:33
know more about we start with like what
09:35
should we already know about this topic
09:36
my grades hens you know we’re born in
09:38
p.r 2000 so their whole world everything
09:41
they really know is a post-911 concept
09:44
like contact straight so they don’t
09:46
understand what it was like before
09:47
that’s happened they just understand
09:49
this world so um we talk about what we
09:52
already know what we know but we kind of
09:54
want a fact check because it might not
09:56
be okay you know and then and then
09:58
things that we definitely need to have
09:59
answered and so then I take all of that
10:01
in in order to make it a little bit more
10:03
collaborative I look at their questions
10:06
and first of all I look for like you
10:08
know red flags if I know this for sure
10:10
it’s like clearing Lee problematic and
10:12
so we just got some of those
10:13
misconceptions I you know answer any
10:16
questions or things that need
10:17
clarification but then I take their
10:18
questions and I reduce them down to see
10:21
if five or six that work for the whole
10:23
class so then each kid gets to pick
10:25
which topic they want to which question
10:28
they want to research the individually
10:30
do research except for doing it on
10:31
Google Docs and Google classroom so
10:33
they’re actually collaborating all the
10:34
research at the same time you’re able to
10:36
check and see if something somebody has
10:37
already found that piece of information
10:39
etc and then the next day they come in
10:41
and I give them information than another
10:43
group researched so now they have to
10:46
read the question read the research that
10:48
has come about and they write a brief
10:50
summary of that research that answers
10:51
the question and they also identify new
10:54
questions that they might have based on
10:56
what you know what caps were left so
10:58
this process and we obviously do a
11:00
disgusting degree again it’s like two
11:03
periods so a period of question
11:04
development research a period the next
11:06
day doing the debrief but what I’m able
11:07
to do you know come up with and this is
11:09
this this year with these particular
11:11
great
11:12
they struggled with question development
11:14
like they were writing statements they
11:17
weren’t writing questions so I can’t get
11:19
to inquiry if they don’t ask at know how
11:21
to ask questions so we need to do
11:22
question development they were
11:23
comfortable with using technology and
11:25
got them all send into my google
11:26
classroom in like five minutes for the
11:28
first time I was like getting so we can
11:29
use the Internet I at least in that form
11:32
I put many struggled with finding
11:34
sources and had real academic merit so
11:36
it was the first not best sort of
11:38
mentality they used the first source
11:39
they find instead of looking deeper they
11:42
worked well in small groups that was
11:44
good for you to know except class the 31
11:45
so I need to know that I can actually
11:48
like put them in small groups and big
11:50
thing was that they struggled
11:52
significantly was summarizing research
11:54
and critical reading skills like really
11:56
problematic there so what that means for
11:58
me is that if I want them to be able to
12:00
do history I need to be now a teacher of
12:02
reading and I know that seems crazy
12:04
because we’re dealing with 15 year olds
12:06
but that is the biggest biggest struggle
12:08
right now is that we have kids coming to
12:09
is ill-prepared to deal with grade level
12:12
let alone below grade level reading and
12:14
yes there are lots of different ways to
12:16
get to history without reading but it’s
12:18
really tough and they’re not going to
12:20
get as much out of it if they can’t read
12:21
read like rigorously and work their way
12:25
through tough tough sort of written
12:27
pieces so we even have our strategies we
12:30
ask students this is the same something
12:32
strategy or use they have entity texting
12:34
its answer fast questions here and so we
12:36
start to practice the skills of being
12:38
critical readers so again this is how
12:40
skills associated with history they
12:41
can’t get to the big thinking until they
12:43
can do that um yeah that’s that’s how
12:46
I’m feeling about my students right now
12:49
right and and this is the world that
12:50
they live in and I feel like as a
12:52
teacher this is the world I live in
12:53
because there’s so much coming out
12:54
there’s so much information out there
12:56
and i even have hard time filtering what
12:58
it is that I want to put in front of my
12:59
students let alone them making those
13:01
decisions so the next is using the
13:04
sources that we have available to us in
13:06
a really meaningful way so we’re often
13:09
confronted with too many sources and
13:11
that’s the reality of the world that the
13:13
students live in but we also have to
13:16
recognize we ought to move beyond
13:17
textbook in fact let’s be honest in
13:19
Ontario they’re not even making new
13:20
textbooks for some of our courses
13:21
anymore because they’re just becoming
13:23
antiquated they’re growing a digital
13:25
about and so I mean we need to move
13:27
beyond that you need to become an doing
13:29
that not be honest some teachers and
13:31
history teachers in particular are not
13:33
comfortable moving beyond the textbook
13:34
that the statement I love my colleagues
13:36
but you know I thought that’s just the
13:38
reality so textbooks are the sources or
13:40
students are encountering in the real
13:42
life they are d capturing these kinds of
13:45
sources and so this goes to you know a
13:47
project that I’ve been working on for a
13:49
number of years with my students which
13:51
is asking them to evaluate assess and
13:53
really critically analyze the kinds of
13:56
sources that they might come in contact
13:57
who in the real life related to some of
13:59
the topics that we might study in great
14:01
n Canadian history so obviously we’ve
14:02
got sort of a DA focus here but it is
14:05
not just exclusive to d-day we ask
14:08
students to do this in a number of
14:09
different areas and the ultimate outcome
14:12
of this is that then students take these
14:15
sources they analyze them using some
14:17
criteria as some criteria so the
14:19
liability abuse educational value etc
14:21
and then ultimately they end up creating
14:24
their own sources that that would be
14:26
useful for a grade 10 student from a
14:28
Canadian perspective because the one
14:30
thing you might notice here is that a
14:32
lot of these sources are going to also
14:33
be have a very americanized perspective
14:35
so we need to shift this now
14:37
to sort of the canyon acadian dialogue
14:39
and Canadian perspective so they might
14:41
create um prisoner of war Diaries these
14:44
ones are an extension because what
14:46
they’re actually using is they’re
14:47
jumping off point for their source that
14:49
they create is a primary source they
14:51
seek out a primary source and they use
14:52
that as their inspiration this one here
14:55
they actually were using a Hitler Youth
14:58
propaganda poster and creating some work
15:02
and then doing comics etc so from
15:04
Canadian perspective and then the last
15:06
is they get to the point of doing
15:07
history as you know as far as I’m
15:09
concerned with historians do which is
15:11
going to the primary sources asking
15:13
questions and coming up with their own
15:14
answers so this approach I would say
15:18
just as with the simulation greater
15:20
content retention if that’s your
15:21
priority but also a more authentic
15:23
demonstration of the historical thinking
15:24
concepts because they’re actually doing
15:26
the work and story and now and these are
15:28
transferable than to our grade 11
15:29
courses and you know let’s get outside
15:31
of education to life okay they get
15:34
actually think critically so what we do
15:38
is develop a class a question for
15:40
investigation and sometimes I provide
15:43
the material for students the primary
15:46
sources depends on the class depends on
15:47
their skill set I’m or they provide them
15:50
themselves and then we go to for example
15:53
doing evidence sports where they have a
15:55
series of questions that they need to
15:57
answer about a particular battle they
15:59
then find the sources they might have 30
16:03
sources available to them and they pick
16:05
five or ten that actually help them
16:07
answer the questions and they have to
16:09
clearly show in the sources where they
16:10
got their information so now they are
16:12
demonstrating their ability to do actual
16:15
history instead of simply just being the
16:17
receptacles of the story that I want to
16:19
tell them so
16:26
thank you I hope everyone will join me
16:30
in thanking our
16:52
you