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Teacher tips for how to teach skills + content

Bridgette OConnor

Does this scenario sound familiar to you: You’re planning for the start of school and trying to figure out how you’re going to cover all the required content and teach students how to make and test claims, analyze continuities and changes, source documents, and write essays. How do you do it all without losing your sanity?!

Let’s kick off the year with some tips for teaching historical thinking skills. How do you teach these skills and cover the content in your classroom without overwhelming students or drowning in grading? Share your top tips and tricks that you wish someone had shared with you at the start of the year.

Thanks for joining our PD Event on August 5th! Here are all of the resources shared, and there's lots to explore whether you were able to join us live or are catching up.

  • You raised a timely question. One thing that has worked well in my classes is asking students to find evidence that challenges a claim. The OER Project’s Claim Testing Practice Progression includes helpful activities that guide students to consider both supporting and conflicting evidence before they write a thesis, helping them build stronger historical reasoning and make more thoughtful arguments.
  • in reply to Mehreen Jamal

    Love that answer,  ! Do you make any modifications to the claim testing activities to switch things up a bit?

  • in reply to Bridgette OConnor

     Thanks!  

    Yes, I do make small modifications depending on the time available. For example, instead of printing and cutting all the claim cards I often project the claims and have students analyze them through small-group discussions or short answers. 

  • To be completely honest, I start with a little positive self-talk. Something along the lines of "No plan is perfect" or "Feasibility is vital," and then I move on to: "What do my students need the most?" Once I answer that, I can prioritize which content and skills are most critical to my students’ success in the classroom and beyond.

    I also like to adapt skill activities on the fly. For example, if we don't have time for the extended writing portion of a comparison or CCOT activity, we might just focus on the outline. Other times, I’ll jigsaw different elements of an assignment to save class time—acknowledging that meaningful exposure is better than skipping it entirely.

    For content, I really lean on unit overviews (videos and articles) to provide the big picture, occasionally augmenting with a Crash Course video. After all, we’re covering thousands of years in World History, and that broad, foundational understanding is what will truly support them in future social studies courses—and in making sense of the world.

  • in reply to Mehreen Jamal

    I think your strategy is also great for multiple choice practice. It reminds me of what a teacher told my own children when they were struggling in AP World- prove each answer choice wrong, rather than always looking for the correct answer. Thank you for sharing!

  • I try to get the students thinking like a historian from day 1 and do a SPICE-T on their lives with a look at the things that have changed and stayed the same for them since they were born, both to their family and community and possibly nation.

  • As mentioned during the PD session, I run a poster review for AP World before the exam that requires students to apply historical thinking skills directly to historical events. You can find a PDF of the directions below. It’s nothing fancy, but it's a great way to reconnect students with core themes and skills ahead of exam day!

    PDF

  • I teach charged and challenging topics that certainly can bring about emotional responses/withdrawal over the semester , i.e. transatlantic slave trade and its legacies, human trafficking, immigration, gentrification, etc. Do you have tools/tips to help manage various emotional charges while encouraging critical thinking to wade through the muck? These are music history courses, so that does help, but more tips and tools would be helpful. 

  • in reply to April Williams

    This is a great way to review  ! Love that your students have to make connections between eras/themes. Thanks for sharing:)

  • in reply to Courtney-Savali Andrews

    Hi  and thanks for your question. I completely understand how these topics would be challenging for students. We do have a Teaching Sensitive Topics Guide with some strategies you can use with your students. We also have activities for many of these topics that were created to help students understand the sensitive nature of these historical events. These lesson materials on the Middle Passage include a video filmed in Ghana, a graphic biography that helps students zoom in on the life of one person, and an activity that asks students to curate a museum exhibition about this topic in a thoughtful way. In addition, we have videos and graphic biographies that focus on how people resisted against the slave trade, the institution of slavery, and European colonialism. There's a graphic biography on the abolitionist Harriet Forten Purvis, which can be found in our lesson on Abolitionists and another on Queen Nanny, who founded a maroon society in Jamaica. Then, we have two additional videos filmed in Ghana (Experiencing Colonialism and Resisting Colonialism) on how people resisted colonialism. For more modern history, we have these materials on Indigenous Resistance, which includes a video filmed with Pueblo experts about repatriation efforts as well as an accompanying activity. These materials provide students with information about the perils experienced during these historical eras but also highlight ways that people persevered in the face of harsh conditions.