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Article: Connect-the-dots: making meaning from historical evidence.
- Article from:
- Social Education
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 National Council for the Social Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It is often lamented that exciting historical scholarship rarely trickles into the secondary classroom. I define my job as an eighth grade history teacher as being a bridge between historical scholars and my students. For example, I believe that part of my work is to read a Pulitzer-winning book like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and make its basic insights accessible to middle school students, to show how Diamond's thesis connects to aspects of history covered in the curriculum. (1) I call what I do "the connect-the-dots method," and the goal is to make the study of history exciting
Day 1: Presenting a Puzzle
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