Historical Thinking Skills Reading like a Historian

Sourcing Reliability Questions Reliability: the factors that determine whether or not a source can be trusted. Factors that determine Reliability: Bias Background Purpose Who wrote this? What is the author’s Perspective? When was it written? Where was it written? Why was it written? Is it reliable? Why? Why not?

Sourcing Golden Hawk Historians Will be able to… Sentence Starters Identify the author’s position on the historical event. Identify and evaluate the author’s purpose in producing the document Hypothesize what the author will say before reading the document Evaluate the source’s trustworthiness by considering Bias, the background of the author, and the Purpose. The author probably believes… The audience is… Based on the information in this source, the author might… This document is/is not reliable because...

Contextualization Contextualization Questions Contextualization: to understand an event in the context of when it happened (Past, present, future) When and where was the document created? What was different then? What was the same? How might the circumstances in which the document was created affect its content? What connections can I make between this document and prior or later events?

Contextualization Golden Hawk historians Will be able to… Sentence Starters Understand how context and background information influences the content of the document. Recognize that documents are products of particular points in time. The author might have been influenced by… This document relates to… Prior to this document… After this document was written…

Corroboration Corroboration Questions Corroboration: to support an argument with evidence. How does this document compare with others? Do the documents agree? If not, why? What are other possible documents? What documents are most reliable?

Corroboration Golden Hawk Historians will be able to… Sentence starters Establish what is probable by comparing documents to each other. Recognize differences and similarities between documents. Establish a strong argument using evidence from prior knowledge or the documents. The author agrees/disagrees with… These documents all agree/disagree about… Another document to consider might be… From this document it can be concluded that…

Close Reading Close reading Questions Close Reading: an intensive analysis of a text in order to come to terms with what it says, how it says it, and what it means. What argument does the author make? What evidence does the author use? What language (words, phrases, images, or symbols) does the author use to persuade the audience? How does this document’s language indicate the author’s perspective?

Close Reading Golden Hawk Historians will be able to… Sentence Starters Identify the author’s argument about an event. Evaluate the evidence and reasoning the author uses to support their argument. Evaluate author’s word choice and understand that language is used intentionally. The author’s words indicate... The author’s argument is… The Evidence… supports the authors argument that…