What is History?

Mrs. Attardi
Grade 8 Social Studies
 Essential
Question 1
How do
historians
think and
learn about
George Washington by Horatio Greenough, 1840

the past?
What is History?

History is an account of the past.

• Accounts differ depending on one's perspective.

• We rely on evidence to construct accounts of the

past.

• We must question the reliability of each piece of

evidence.

• Any single piece of evidence is insufficient to build

a plausible (reasonable or probable) account.
 Citation/Sourcing: Sourcing
asks students to consider who wrote
a document as well as the
circumstances of its creation.

Before reading a document ask:

• Who wrote this?
• What is the author’s perspective?
• Why was it written?
• When was it written? Illustration from the Dresden Codex,
• Where was it written? created 1200-1250 CE. From the World
Digital Library.
• Is this source reliable? Why? Why not?
 Close Reading: Students evaluate sources and analyze
rhetoric as they read/examine a source.

Photo of Lincoln on the battlefield at Antietam taken by Alexander

Gardner on October 3, 1862. From the Library of Congress.
Contextualization: Students
locate a document in time and
place and to understand how these
factors shape its content.

When reading a document ask:

• 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? Photo of the Great Wall of China taken by Herbet Ponting
in 1907. From the Wikimedia Commons.
 Corroboration/Connections: consider details across
multiple sources to determine points of agreement &
disagreement.
To corroborate information between
sources or to prove opposing views
between sources:

Ask:
• What do other documents say?
• Do the documents agree? If not,
why?
• What are other possible
documents?
Photo of the Sphinx and pyramids taken by David Gardiner in
• What documents are most reliable?
1906. From the Travelers in the Middle East Archive.
Historical Thinking Chart
 The 4 C’s of Source Analysis

Author, date of publication, location where written, Circumstances affecting content: What is going on

Graphic
reliability of source, & author’s point of view. in the world, the country, the region, or the locality
when this was created? What was different? Same?

Organizer:

The 4 C’s of
Source
Features (text or otherwise). Main Idea-Describe in
detail what you see. What claims are made?
Evidence used? Language used to persuade?
Link to Prior Knowledge-things that you already
know or have learned about. How does the source
contribute to our understanding of history?

Analysis
Bias?