Why Learn History Book Club // Get your copy and join the conversation!

Drumroll please! We are thrilled to announce our summer OER Conference for Social Studies Book Club pick! This month you are invited to join us in reading Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone) by Sam Wineburg (IndieBound / Amazon), who happens to be one of our keynote speakers for the OER Conference for Social Studies. 

Since the 1990s, Sam Wineburg has been one of the leaders in research on historical thinking and the teaching and learning of history. He is also one of the founders and directors of the Stanford History Education Group (sheg.stanford.edu), one of the largest providers of free educational resources in the world. Wineburg believes it is essential to provide students with the critical thinking tools necessary to sort through the incredible amount of information being thrown at them every day, and to do so may require updates to traditional teaching practices. 

Our community discussion about Why Learn History will kick off with our first book club questions on July 14 right here in this thread, located in the OER Conference for Social Studies Discussion Forum. We’ll post a new question each Thursday for three weeks leading up to the conference which takes place August 3-4. So, grab a copy of the book, bookmark this thread so you can return on the 14th, and prepare for some rich discussions with other members of the community.

Our first week of conversations will cover Part One of the book. Let the reading begin!

Why Learn History // Week One Questions 

We are excited to start our book club conversation on Why Learn History (When it’s Already on Your Phone) as we make our way to Sime Wineburg’s August 4th keynote address in the OER Conference for Social Studies. Post your thoughts and answers to the questions below or add your own question. Erik Christensen will be leading the discussion and will be checking in throughout the day to respond to the conversation.  

In Chapter 1 "Crazy for History" Wineburg gives a critical analysis of American testing systems (and their effectiveness) and reaches the conclusion that "...no national test can allow students to show themselves to be historically literate."  Further, Wineburg makes the claim that multiple choice tests "convey the dismal message that history is about collecting disconnected bits of knowledge..., where one test item has nothing to do with the next, and where if you can't answer a question in a few seconds, it's wise to move on to the next. [These] tests mock the very essence of problem solving."   

  • How should teachers of history in 2022 test our students?  
  • How do you determine if your students are learning history?  
  • How do you, to paraphrase Wilfred McClay, make those hard choices about what gets thrown out of the story so that the essentials can survive?

Why Learn History // Week Two Questions 

Bloom's Taxonomy is referenced in many professional development sessions, teacher-admin conversations, and there may even be a poster of this pyramid in your classroom. Wineburg suggests that in a history classroom, Bloom's Taxonomy should be inverted so that knowledge is at the top.    

  • Do you agree with Wineburg's thesis - that Bloom's Taxonomy doesn't work in a history classroom?   
  • What would an inverted version of the pyramid look like in your practice?   
  • Is knowledge the result of critical thinking? Or is knowledge needed to think critically?  

Why Learn History // Week Three Questions 

In Chapter 7 "Why Google Can't Save Us" Wineburg dives deep into the internet's ability to deeply confuse expert and novice historians (and everyone else!). He describes several case studies that highlight how difficult it can be to assess information that we come across online.    

  • As more students are conducting research online, how are you managing the information they are exposed to?   
  • Do you teach digital literacy?   
  • How do you practice online reasoning or claim testing? How do you practice it with your students?   
  • What routines or activities have made the biggest impact to negotiating the power of the internet in your classroom?  

Post your response to the questions in the comments below as we complete our final week of the Book Club. Be sure to join us for Sam Wineburg’s Keynote Address on August 4 at 1:00 PM PDT!  

Top Replies

  • Hi everybody. Figured I wade into this thread because reading everyone's posts and being familiar with Wineburg's book got me thinking. Anyway, I often find myself TL-DR-ing my posts.  I'm sure this…

  • You bring up some interesting points for the start of a discussion. First, I have not read Wineburg's book - yet. I am purchasing today. However, your points on the Zinn book - which I have had for a very…

  • So far, I am enjoying the book...definitely not finished, but I'm on track(ish) to be ready to respond to Part 2 later this week! :) I find Wineburg's tone and style to be straightforward and comprehensible…

Parents
  • Why Learn History // Week Three Questions 

    In Chapter 7 "Why Google Can't Save Us" Wineburg dives deep into the internet's ability to deeply confuse expert and novice historians (and everyone else!). He describes several case studies that highlight how difficult it can be to assess information that we come across online.   

    • As more students are conducting research online, how are you managing the information they are exposed to?   
    • Do you teach digital literacy?   
    • How do you practice online reasoning or claim testing? How do you practice it with your students?   
    • What routines or activities have made the biggest impact to negotiating the power of the internet in your classroom?  

    Post your response to the questions in the comments below as we complete our final week of the Book Club. Be sure to join us for Sam Wineburg’s Keynote Address on August 4 at 1:00 PM PDT!  

  • It was both fascinating and a little terrifying to read about how experienced historians struggled to navigate online sources to determine their reliability. Wineburg also brought up the point that this is not an issue unique to students; it's equally true of adults. Just yesterday, someone sent me a video of a politician speaking, and it didn't sit right with me. A few minutes of online sleuthing later and I realized that the video had definitely been altered. Using all of the claim tester activities is one way that I try to make students more aware of misinformation, clickbait, and unreliable sources. We consider who wrote the article and who published the website, does it seem like there is opinion or bias inserted...? Making connections to social media using specific examples of things that have gone viral has also been powerful for students because I think it helps them realize that they may be adding to the problem. I connect to gossip and have done a 'glitter and gossip' activity to demonstrate that gossip is easy to spread, but extremely challenging to clean up. The same can be said for false headlines and misinformation. I tell students that unless they are sure something is true, they shouldn't post it. However, this doesn't solve the issue of determining whether something is true or false when researching. A couple of things I do: in any research scenario, they have to include links to the sites they used and find a minimum number of sites. The goal here is to corroborate information across sources and hold them accountable for the information they find. I think this year, I may incorporate an extra component by asking them to provide at least one piece of evidence for why the site/source seems reliable. Depending on the research task, starting with a provided article and then having them brainstorm questions based on holes in their research is also helpful. In other words, before you just start searching for things on the internet, have a purpose or goal in mind for the information you are trying to find (instead of an ambiguous question typed into a search bar). I'd like to try to empower my students by teaching them to think more "laterally" like a fact-checker when researching as opposed to reading "vertically" like we might do when reading from a scholarly text. Not only is this more efficient and accurate from a research standpoint, but it also has ramifications beyond the classroom. If empowering students to more effectively navigate information online leads to more responsible citizenship, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

  •  , your efforts to empower students is something that resonates with me personally. I always considered it a success if I could help my students learn how to learn on their own. This has become increasingly difficult as more information is available. As I read the questions for this week, I kept going back to the amazing Track Talk by Crissy Calera and how she helps students with the question  “How do we know what we know? as the starting point for distinguishing fact and fiction.

    Holding students accountable for the information they share is such an important component to determining reliability. I love that you have them do the pre-work of creating questions prior to beginning the search. That saves so much time and leads to greater success.

    As technology has improved and information is at our fingertips, our desire to go beyond page one of the search results or actually look at the source seems to decline. That desire for instant gratification is so strong. Helping students to see the value in taking time to get the correct information will leade to responsible citizens down the road. 

  • Thank you so much for the incredible compliment! I am glad my talk has resonated with you!

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