History Standard Three - Grades 9-12

Sample Activities

Parent Partnership Project: Students might research and write a family history, using genealogical evidence and interviews, and putting this history into the context of larger historical events [Interpretation].

Students might read three differing interpretations of Reconstruction, generate a list of questions and sources which might have been used by each author to frame an interpretation of the period, and present an analysis of the varying perspectives of the authors [Interpretation; content].

Parent Partnership Project: Students could ask their parents, grandparents, and other family members to list the ten most important historical events in their lives and explain the impact of these events. The different lists could be brought into class to serve as the basis of a discussion of differing perspectives in interpreting history [Interpretation].

Students might read different historical interpretations of a major event in recent world history and draw logical inferences concerning how the questions asked by the historians were influenced by the time in which they wrote. For example, students might be assigned to gather accounts concerning the victor of the Communists in China during the late 1940's. These accounts would then be placed in chronological order by date of composition, and the students would read them, generating for each a list of the assumptions, major questions, and conclusions of the authors. Then the students would research both the authors and their times, and attempt in an oral or written presentation to determine whether there is a relationship between changing interpretations and the times in which the authors wrote (e.g., comparing accounts written in the late 1950's with those created in the late 1970's) [Interpretations; analysis; content].

Students might be asked to examine a current national or international event and illustrate the ease or difficulty of obtaining primary and secondary sources. They might indicate the benefits as well as the limitations of current event analysis compared to researching earlier historical events. Part of the assignment might include speculating on how such an event and its context might be viewed by future historians [Interpretation].

to History Standard Three.