Tag: 19-A3

I really enjoyed working with both google forms here and combining it with the concept of historical thinking in this case. This gives students a more individualized and engaging way for them to practice historically analyzing and depicting an image or document.

I like this assignment most for providing a way of engaging with historical thinking more than anything else. Growing up in history classes, especially as I got into middle school, high school, and college, for the first time I began to get an understanding of how history was more than just memorizing facts and dates. I began to realize that history was more like being a detective and coding information, whether it be source, context, or any of the other five, to be able to reconstruct the story in ways that are more accessible to others. This can only be truly done if we teach students and take time to analyze documents using these historical thinking strategies. Also, in my personal experience, it is such a cool experience to be able to know an historical happening for more than just the bare bones of what it is. I always enjoyed being able to understand where something fit in context, what came before that led to it, and the effects that happen after. I would even go to say that for some, it may be more engaging and rewarding to be able to think historically to map out the whole picture rather than focusing and then forgetting certain individual pieces of the puzzle.

This activity focuses on analyzing a depiction of the Boston Massacre and trying to identify any bias that is present. I imagine this activity taking place soon after starting a unit surrounding the Revolutionary War (including causes and effects). The engraving on this Google Form is meant to depict a scene of the Boston Massacre, however there are ways to interpret bias from this specific source (looking at things such as who is inciting the violence in the illustration). Students will observe the engraving attached to the Google Form and answer the questions that follow based on their prior knowledge and what they observe in the illustration. This should practice students’ analytical skills as they try to interpret where bias came into play in this piece of history.

Original Google Form

While making this lesson, I really enjoyed how easy the Google forms were. Since my school uses Google Classroom a lot, I know it will be an important skill to have and utilize through the year and in the years after. I really liked how easy it was to add different aspects of a lesson such as background information, photos and videos, and even asking questions or creating quizzes. Because this, it’s versatile in how you can use it in your classroom.