History Standard Three - Grades 6-8

Sample Activities

Students might read explanations for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire (or Han China) and create a chart which shows the different factors emphasized by each historian. Then the students might each have to give a brief talk detailing their individual reasons for supporting a particular factor as decisive [Interpretation].

After watching the movie Gettysburg, students might then be assigned in groups to review different accounts of the battle, written by participants and historians. Each group would then compare these accounts to the narrative presented in the movie, and offer a conclusion about the interpretive viewpoint of the movie [Interpretation].

Using a source like The North Reports the Civil War and The South Reports the Civil War, students might compare newspaper coverage in different regions of the same events. Small groups of students might each be given one or two newspaper accounts of Abraham Lincoln's election or the bombardment of Fort Sumter to use as source material to construct a brief narrative account. Then students could exchange narratives of the same events written from different source materials in order to investigate the differences in interpretation [Interpretation].

to History Standard Three.