There seems to be a myth out there that being a history teacher is the "easy" subject to teach. Anyone can do it.. right? This belief goes along with many student beliefs that history is just a series of facts, dates, and places and all you have to do is memorize these isolated facts in order to be successful. This is far from the truth. In order to teach like a historian, and get students to think like historians, we must go beyond the surface and look deeper. We most focus, not on the big picture, but on the details. This may seem counterproductive, but it is the details that make history instruction rich and engaging for students. It is the details that historians use to develop new ideas and arguments about history. And, it is the details that make up the story of history.
I first realized this as a first year teacher. Even as a first year teacher I used primary source documents in my classroom. However, my mistake was that I would often just place an image in front of students and flash it on the screen for a minute or so. We would discuss the image for a few minutes and I would use it to teach the larger context of the unit. However, I never asked students to think like historians and delve into the details, or story, behind the images.
As years have passed, I have developed many strategies for having students delve deeper into primary source analysis. One of the strategies I often use are the primary source analysis tools from the Library of Congress. You can check these out for yourself at www.loc.gov/teachers or check out my modified version at http://tinyurl.com/6ucjzgb. Now asking students to analyze images might look something like this.
I Observe- Ask students to record what they actually see. Are there people in the image? What do they look like? Is there text? What does it say? This forces students to look for the details and not simply say, "this is an old picture."
I Reflect Ask students to reflect on the details they observed? What do the details lead them to believe about the image?
I Question Ask students to ask questions about their reflections and further define their thoughts about the image.
I Know Ask students to record information about what they uncovered about the image. What is actually going on in the image? What is the historical background of the image?
