Thursday, November 17, 2011
Building a Personal and Intimate Connection to the Past
Of the Tier 1 historical thinking methods presented in the Historical Methods document, the one that appeals to me the most as a teacher and a person is "building a personal and intimate connection to the past." As I think of think of the writing my students will do, I absolutely love the idea of students making personal connections to history. It makes the whole difference between loving history, or finding it dreadfully boring. We already try to do this by reading historical fiction that matches the time period we are studying. When we got ready to study the Columbian Exchange, the kids were so excited I was shocked! They felt connected because of a book we were reading. When it comes to writing narratives, it would be excellent to put themselves in the shoes of a historical figure and write from their perspectives. This would help to strengthen that personal and intimate connection.
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Laura, I love that our team goals (both our Foundations team and our Carrillo team) has fully adopted the focus of making history more personally meaningful for our students. Using SPECs as a focus in our teaching is one of those "best practices" that I know you put into place right away! As for our shared goals of seeking personal connections to history and viewing history through the stories and lives of real people, not disconnected events.... I KNOW that this has been meaningful for our students. They are enthusiastic and vested in learning about The Columbian Exchange and reading Blood on the River-- We must be on the right track. :)
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