1.Tournament of Technology

Historical reasoning and decision-making (1 and 2)

This resource sets up exactly like a major sports tournament in the very early days of spring. Students debate with each other about which technologies from our collective history is the greatest.

Historical reasoning and decision-making are the major skills at play as students try to convince their peers that their opinions are the best.

This resource can be used year-round though and I think it makes a great exercise at the beginning of the year, especially as students haven’t necessarily seen how many of these technologies impacted our world. Use it again at the end to see how their answers changed.

My favorite part of this game is that it changes every single time you play it ensuring you can’t get bored with it.

2. Poem of Mulan

Historical analysis (3)

Analysis of a primary source? Check. Integration of poetry/literature and history? Check. Including the study of women in history? Check. Common core-aligned? Check.

Analysis of poetry doesn’t have to be from a literary perspective. When you focus on the history of the words and phrases and the imagery the author is trying to portray an entirely different perspective is revealed. This is one way to engage students in historical analysis.

Using a translation of the Poem of Mulan, capture the fun and the whimsy of a story many students will know thanks to the popular feature-length cartoon. Analyze how women are portrayed in the poem and consider how radical the story actually is. Analyze the geography and the technology that is used to illustrate the story. Trace the changes throughout history and see how the story has been used to illustrate a woman’s place in the world.

This can be a multi-day lesson as you incorporate other elements of women’s history or Chinese history but this can also be a standalone lesson where you focus on the reading of a primary source.

3. Leif Erikson

Historical comprehension (4)

Historical comprehension deals with understanding context and to a certain point, motivation. It does not help to think about historical events through the eyes of a 21st-century person. This is very, VERY difficult for people and in my opinion, is something that students need lots of scaffolded practice to do well.

Christopher Columbus is a great subject to begin scaffolded practice. My TpT resource is a beginning step for students to think about the true history behind the European discovery of the Americas. The quick reads give students an introduction to the debate of which European explorer should get the credit and outlines modern attempts to give more or less recognition to both explorers.

In the end, students are asked to consider many different aspects before they make up their own minds.

4. Elizabeth Bathory

Historical analysis and interpretation (5)

Students can engage in historical analysis all they want but they must have an opportunity to interpret the information as they wish. History is not a study of facts but opinions. They must make up their own minds about events so they understand this.

Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian noblewoman who is known for being the world’s most prolific serial killer. Stories of her bloodbaths are infamous. This historical analysis focuses on her history and trying to figure out what is fact (something that actually happened) and myth (something that was made up out of the surrounding circumstances).

What makes Bathory interesting is there is a small faction of historians who believe Elizabeth is actually innocent of the charges. Some contend that she was the victim of a long chain of events that were set in place to reduce her wealth and influence in Eastern Europe and hopefully to absorb the Bathory territory into the Holy Roman Empire.

The workbook follows the streaming podcast as we explore the possibilities of her innocent but in the end, students make up their own mind. They have to interpret the information and the sources to determine if she is innocent, if it is possible she is innocent, or if she is guilty as charged.

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