Expanding the Notion of Historical Text Through Historic Building Analysis

• In Event: 31.026 - Methods Explosion!! Showcasing Innovation

Abstract

Historical thinking practice seeks to use expert behavior in the content discipline as a model for developing student understanding with and about history. Over the past 20 years, history and literacy educators have sought to make disciplinary thinking explicit using historic texts as the foundation for student historical investigations. While much has been done to understand and support student reading and analysis of text, little has been done to develop these analytic skills using less-traditional texts—buildings, objects, and landscapes—meaning a world of important disciplinary ways of knowing are left out of historical literacy practices. Thus, we offer a model for the exploration of historical buildings to help students meet the specific demands of disciplinary literacy in history.

Authors

• Christine Baron, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Christina L. Dobbs, Boston University