1st Edition
"Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer?" Teaching Historical Thinking in Grades 7-12
By Bruce Lesh
Copyright 2011
240 Pages
by
Routledge
240 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Every major measure of students' historical understanding since 1917 has demonstrated that students do not retain, understand, or enjoy their school experiences with history. Bruce Lesh believes that this is due to the way we teach historylecture and memorization. Over the last fifteen years, Bruce has refined a method of teaching history that mirrors the process used by historians, where students... Read more
Introduction; Chapter 1: Reinventing My Classroom; Chapter 2: Introducing Historical Thinking; Chapter 3: Text, Subtext, and Context; Chapter 4: Using the Rail Strike of 1877 to Teach Chronological Thinking and Causality; Chapter 5: “Revolution in the Air”; Chapter 6: Continuity and Change over Time; Chapter 7: Long or Short?; Chapter 8: Trying on the Shoes of Historical Actors; Chapter 9: “How Am I Supposed to Do This Every Day?”; Chapter 10: Overcoming the Barrier to Change; Afterword
Biography
Bruce Lesh has been a teacher and department chair for eighteen years at Franklin High School in Reisterstown, Maryland. A past president of the Maryland Council for the Social Studies and current vice-chair of the National Council for History Education, Bruce teaches American history and advanced placement U.S. politics and government. Additionally, he has published three units on teaching American history using primary sources and has contributed to the OAH Magazine of History and The History Teacher. In 2008 Bruce was recognized as the Precollegiate Teacher of the Year by the Organization of American Historians.
"What the book intends to do, and what is does well, is provide a 'road map' for those who wish to teach historical thinking skills in the secondary classroom. Lesh has written a valuable book for history teachers at the secondary level." - The History Teacher
"Teachers are shown how to teach history using interpretive questions and interrogative evidence in this exciting alternative to traditional history paths, recommended for any educator's collection." - Midwest Book Review
