Why Don't You Just Tell Us the Answer? - Ch. 1

Chapter 1: Reinventing My Classroom: Making Historical Thinking Reality

Getting started on the first few chapters of Bruce Lesh's book, Why Don't You Just Tell Us the Answer? There is a lot of good insight so far! #sschat pic.twitter.com/FPJGjufCZq

— Carlene Baurichter (@MrsBaurichter) July 28, 2018

The "History Laboratory" Approach

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"In the history lab, students would confront information (conduct experiments), draw conclusions (analyze data), and defend their hypothesis (do lab write ups)." - Bruce Lesh

I love this idea because this is a different approach to "doing" history instead of simply memorizing history. As Lesh states, other disciplines teach students the process of "doing." They focus on the tools and skills necessary. History needs to be the same way! I am going to make sure that I am focusing on how to interpret historical events instead of just teaching rote memorization. I will present my students with sources and the facts, help them learn historical thinking skills, and allow them to make hypotheses and come to their own conclusions about historical events and their impact on the current day.

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Essential Questions

"[Essential] questions must be worth discussing, not have a simple or single answer, and be linked to significant historical evidence."

This is excellent advice to keep in mind as I move toward implementing the new Social Studies standards for the state of Wisconsin. As I plan the revisions to my Social Studies units, I have to make sure that I include essential questions that spur curiosity in my students instead of asking my students to simply "identify" or "describe" vocabulary. Vocabulary is important, but students will remember it much better, as well as its connections to the wider context of history, if they use the vocabulary within their analyses of historical events. Lesh focuses on essential questions on pages 15-18 of his book and does a great job of providing criteria for teachers to assess the effectiveness of the essential questions.

Text, Context, Subtext

Lesh encourages his students to interpret history through analyzing the text, context, and subtext. I love this strategy because it pushes students to look beyond the meaning of the words alone and encourages them to focus on the influence of the author's perspective, the events occurring at the time in history in which the source was written, etc.

Why Don't You Just Tell Us the Answer, Bruce Lesh, 2011, p. 20

Conducting a Historical Investigation

Lesh does a great job of explaining concisely how to conduct a historical investigation on p. 23 of his book. He starts with introducing a focus question and walks the reader through the steps all the way to assessment of student learning. I'd encourage you to buy his book for that page alone! UMBC also has a page on History Labs that includes a video and some additional reading.