Evidence and Reasoning

How to be the GOAT at Evidence and Reasoning

Nate Otey

Thank you Mr. Otey for three great ideas about how to teach this important history skill.  The triangle structure is something that my department has focused on.  The idea of no surprises and holding hands seem really useful.  Has anyone else approached the skill this way or what do you do?  

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  •   your talk provides some very useful strategies for articulating what reasoning entails. Thank you! I wonder if you ever encounter students who get the hang of your three-part map, but then struggle to create arguments with the same strength when it comes time to write in essay format. If so, what strategies might help those students?

  • Hi Anne, great question! We recommend giving students ample opportunities to practice and improve these skills, such as we have provided in Lesson 6 and Lesson 8 of our interactive textbook. When it comes time for students to support their claims in an essay, we encourage them to first organize their argument in MindMup which is an open-source software tool that is easy for students to use and exports neatly into a bullet-point outline to make their first draft. I'd be happy to share examples of essay templates and student work if you like, just let me know! 

  • Hi  .  Great job.  Can you check the url link for the interactive textbook.  I would like to take a look but the link you have in the forum is broken. Thanks

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