Do you have favorite activities or discussion prompts that encourage students to identify patterns, draw comparisons, or analyze long-term developments? I’d love to hear how you guide students to expand their historical thinking and make meaningful connections across time periods!
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One thing I like to do is bring in local organizations that are doing current work in the same area. Like for example, we learned about the Khmer Rouge in my World History class, but then we also learned about some local orgs including VietLead in Philly that did work to help rebuild with the southeast asian refugees that came to philadelphia, including Cambodian people. Or like, we learned about the Taíno people and then like colonial farming practices in PR, and so then we looked at Norris Square Neighborhood Project and what they have done to bring some of the Taíno farming practices to our city. Things like that, that show how things are connected and also more local than the name "world history" suggests.
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There's an older post here about hexagonics (also called hexagonal thinking). I use hexagonal thinking projects as the summative evaluation for about half of my units. My class is concept-based, so for each unit, we carry over some concepts from previous units while adding new hexagons for the current one.
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Ashley Hartman In my world history class "Great Inventions" I've come up with a way to break down the impact of any invention. I look at the catalyst for each event in four categories. I think it can be applied to most things, and I think it has some use for trends, or movements too. The four catalyst are; capital, creativity, application, and necessity. In terms of an invention, let's say the light bulb, the "capital" is glass technology, electricity, and the ability to have power established in lines, all that in place, the cost of the actual light bulb isn't much, but the catalyst "capital" is pretty expensive in total. The "creativity" catalyst is high. A pretty vivid imagination, and the capacity to see this device working is amazing. So in terms of the ingenuity and imagination, it's up there. Application is a no-brainer for the light bulb, immediate use! And the invention of numerous other things, stop lights to Christmas trees, application is huge. And lastly, the catalyst necessity- that one is low, it was not necessary to stay up late working after dark, but we humans sort of made it that way. One could argue driving at night or walking at night make it necessary.
So everything we discuss gets the four catalyst treatment. Sure has framed my student's thinking nicely. Reminds them of all the angles to think about. Capital, creativity, application, and necessity. Maybe something similar could work for you?
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Ashley Hartman , at my school we're lucky to have a diverse faculty, so I've had panels of faculty members come in for post-colonial panel discussions with WH students. The first year I did it, we had a post-colonial Africa panel, featuring faculty from Uganda, Tanzania, Algeria, and South Africa, and then a post-colonial Asia panel with faculty from Malaysia, Korea, and India, and this year a post-colonial Caribbean panel featuring faculty from Puerto Rico and Barbados. I ask panelists to give a 5 minute intro, then have questions prepared, and take questions from students. It's inspiring to see how they bring things together, and it helps them get to know teachers too.
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Rachel Reinhart You are so lucky!
