We talked a lot in our session about preventing linear thinking and making sure students are able to identify multiple causes across a wide span of time. However, I think there was a missed opportunity to discuss how we as educators use causation to connect the past with the present. So... what strategies have you used to help students connect historical causation to present-day issues?
When it comes to Roman architecture, the warm up involves the students drawing a building they would like to build. Then, after a brief set of notes on Greece's influence on Rome, students examine the similarities between Roman buildings and budlings today. It shows how Greece influenced Rome, and then, Rome influenced us today.
Excellent. I love how this sets students up to see how something like architecture can have effects in multiple spaces and at different times.
I have my students think and discuss how Enlightenment Ideas play into revolutions in the United States, Latin America, France and then to the Arab Spring. I'm not sure what strategy this would be or even if it is a strategy per se but I definitely have my students connect the past to multiple events from the past and the present.
I do the same thing in my AP World History class. In fact, we are currently focusing on this topic and today's class is all about 19th century Latin American Revolutions. While we won't draw specific parallels to more modern "bottom up" revolutionary movements like the Arab Spring right now (mostly because the reference will be lost on most of my students), when we do get into the modern period we can draw parallels to help students see the difference between causation and comparison - and also how the two sometimes intersect or overlap. The Enlightenment to American Rev to French Rev to Haitian Rev to Latin American Revs is great historical example to help students see causation, but also to think analytically as to how causation is not always a linear progression.
Kind of like Robert was talking about I think the key strategy to get students to connect historical causation to present-day issues is through warm-ups or 'hooks'. When students recognize an issue going on around them and understand its importance, its a lot easier for them to be interested in the content of past when they can see its connection to present-day issues. Besides warm-ups, you can really do whole lesson plans on these connections to present-day issues. We do this a lot with our librarians in US history connecting issues surrounding Civil War logistics to logistic issues around the Panama Canal or the significance of 19th century female influencers to 21st century female leaders. Students love these activities because it gets them away from the standard formula of the classroom.
I approach this task in a few ways. I may have students compare and contrast past events with current events by completing a Venn Diagram or completing sentence frames. For example, when learning about immigration in the early 1900s, I provided relevant pictures and newspaper clips from that particular time period and today as a starting point for comparison. I also encouraged my students (who are immigrants) to use their own experiences as evidence. This practice allows them to clearly see similarities and differences, as well as make connections between past rhetoric about immigrants and what is said today by government and society.
Another way is sharing information about a historic time period and asking how that development impacts their lives and our current society. For example, we watched an Edpuzzle video on 8 inventions by the Romans, including vending machines and improved surgical tools. Afterwards, I asked students to reflect on which invention is most important for society and which is most important for their own lives. This direct approach helped them make a clear connection between the past and the present.
I would agree with Robert, I try to compare the current architecture of the buildings in DC with architecture from all time periods. For example, the Lincoln Memorial is modeled much after the Greek temple known as the Parthenon. There are a lot of buildings in DC and in America that are modeled after much of the ancient architecture from most of the early civilizations.
One way I do this is during the Enlightenment unit. I have a chart for the students that links Enlightenment ideas to US founding documents. Once the students complete the chart we see the link between the Enlightenment and the US government today. Next year I want the students to examine Title IX with Mary Wollstonecraft. Maybe have the students ready experts from the law and see the link between Wollstonecraft's ideas and the law.
I also use the Ethnic Nationalism lesson to make connections to the world today with my students. We look at the area of Europe that was the former Yugoslavia and try to understand why there are so many different nations located in this one area. Students make the connections between Ethnic nationalism and the development of these nations.
I haven't incorporated this strategy in my class, but thinking about the question posed, here are some examples of historical events/topics I could use in an activity about causation and tying it to present-day issues:
1) During my Age of Exploration Unit, I can bring up the discussion of how current global trade networks today were impacted by the Age of Exploration. Other ideas from that unit can be the legacy of Columbus and how that has shifted, the exchange of foods and how food today could've been impacted by trade back then, etc.
2) During the Imperialism/Industrial Revolution Unit, I can tie it to technology and the ever changing, rapid growth of technology today and how it impacts daily life. There is also an opportunity to tie in environmental impacts.
3) I haven't gotten to the unit yet, but during the Cold War Unit, there are MANY opportunities to tie in events from 50+ years ago that still have lasting impacts on global politics today. Could be turned into a mini-research project/activity?
I do similar activities as others in the group. When we cover the Enlightenment, we also compare modern day ideas with the ones created by the philosophers. One thing that we cover a lot of is what my class calls the "Dictator Playbook" and why countries with extremist leaders are constantly trying to build militaries to expand. We connect this to people like Putin and the recent leaders of North Korea. One of the biggest causation starts with the Ottoman Empire and the middle east. Each unit seems to build on the divisions that are created so students are able to see that while one event can trigger the domino effect, others contribute as well.
