Historical Thinking Skills

Thinking Historically Historians are professional question askers - if you can Google your answer, you are not thinking historically. Look at all the information available, then draw conclusions. Great thinkers can argue a point with full knowledge of all counterarguments. Think about what words mean during a particular time.

Thinking About the Past History should not be studied in just a linear manner - it is a complex web of relationships. Look at events as if you don’t know what will happen next. Questions shaped by our time, BUT listen to their words and questions to answer. Avoid PRESENTISM (taking current knowledge/attitudes and applying them to the past).

Thinking Analytically Make an assertion - a conclusion reached after examining all available evidence. Defend an assertion with specific, accurate and relevant information (SFI). Anticipate and destroy counterarguments.

Analyzing Historical Sources & Evidence

Analyzing Evidence Describe, select and evaluate relevant evidence from diverse sources. Extract useful information, make supportable inferences and draw appropriate conclusions. Understand evidence in its context and assess point of view.

Interpretation Describe, analyze and evaluate how historians interpret the past. Primary and secondary sources. Analyze two separate quotes or sources to understand what is similar and different in each person’s point of view.

Making Historical Connections

Comparison Identify similarities and differences within a society or between societies—could be chronological, ideological, demographic, geographic, political, economic, or social.

Contextualization Connecting events to their specific place and time in history. When and where? What else is going on at the time?

Synthesis What do these have in common, and what can one learn from them? Synthesis can be a forward or backward reflection. Examines themes/patterns in history.

Chronological Reasoning

Historical Causation Why did stuff happen? (Cause) What was the impact? Think long and short term! (Effect)  

Continuity and Change What stayed the same? What changed? Why did it change and how much did it change?

Creating and Supporting an Argument

Argumentation Requires a clear, comprehensive and analytical thesis supported by relevant historical evidence (SFI). Ability to recognize counterarguments and place evidence in context.

Credits APUSH Teachers on Facebook Group “The APUSHers” Josh Haynes, Hewitt-Trussville High School in Alabama Tina Koltz, Alamogordo High School in New Mexico