Sarah Drake Brown | History Circles: The Doing of Teaching History | The History Teacher, 42.2

History Circles: The Doing of Teaching History

Sarah Drake Brown
Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana

RECENT RESEARCH in history education has focused on domain-specific thinking and the necessity of emphasizing discipline-specific skills in the teaching and learning of history. In the white paper, "The Next Generation of History Teachers: A Challenge to Departments of History at American Colleges and Universities," Edward Ayers explained, "History teachers-in-training need to discuss the thinking behind the work they are doing, the purposes and strategies that animate good history teaching" [italics in original]. Furthermore, he identified the need "to create new opportunities for the people in our [history] classes to begin thinking like history teachers as well as history students."¹ While the opportunities Ayers outlined should exist in history courses that teach content, they are also necessary in courses designed to teach students how to be history teachers. In addition to focusing on their own "doing" of history, future history teachers need to focus on "the doing of teaching history."² Since, as Peter Seixas explained, "there is something distinctive about the teaching and learning of history, which cannot be known by simply applying general principles of teaching and learning to issues of history education,"³ methods courses need to emphasize discipline-specific teaching practices.

Lesson planning is a critical task in the education of pre-service teachers, but I have often questioned the extent to which traditional lesson plan formats truly contribute to the teaching and learning of history. While such examples as the Madeline Hunter Model, Mastery Learning, and Oliver and Shaver's Jurisprudential Inquiry can contribute to history teachers' construction of lesson plans, this approach frontloads the "model" and relegates discipline-specific considerations to a secondary position. Since current research in history education calls for an emphasis on building historical thinking skills and content knowledge in students (as opposed to the more general model of critical thinking), it follows that lesson planning by teachers should likewise adhere to a discipline-specific focus. With these ideas in mind, I designed the History Circle. The History Circle is not a lesson plan or a model format of a plan. Rather, it serves as a starting point to engage pre-service teachers in curriculum making. By emphasizing the interaction between content (often primary and secondary sources) and thinking skills (historical thinking), the objective of the History Circle is to enable beginning teachers to focus on the necessity of considering the relationship between the content and skills one wishes to teach. The History Circle requires pre-service teachers to use primary and secondary sources to engage students in historical thinking. In the following essay, I outline the processes I have used as a methods professor to implement the History Circle in the preparation of middle school and high school history teachers.

The Purpose of the History Circle

History Circles are designed around the five aspects of historical thinking outlined in Chapter 2 of the National History Standards: chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research capabilities, and historical issues-analysis and decision-making. When utilized by teachers with middle and high school students, the History Circle enables students to encounter historical thinking at five different stations aligned with each aspect from the National Standards. Each station is set up at a specified location in the classroom (hence, the Circle). Students move from one station to another at the teacher's discretion after investigating various primary and secondary sources. When engaged in planning, pre-service teachers focus on five areas in the creation of each station: historical thinking, the use of habits of mind, vital themes and narratives, objectives, and content standards.

The central purposes of the History Circle are 1) to enhance students' (pre-service teachers) content knowledge through the reading of a common book and 2) to enable students (pre-service teachers) to explore the relationship between content and historical thinking skills. I selected Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America to meet the purposes outlined above. Listed on the New York Times bestseller list, Larson's novel traces the madness of a late nineteenth-century serial killer against the backdrop of the 1892–1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Juxtaposing methodical, sinister murders with the struggles to create the White City for the Columbian Exposition, the novel provides a basis for discussions on the conflicts inherent in industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and American democracy.

Building Teachers' Content Knowledge

Larson is not a historian, but every event included in his compelling narrative is documented. The Devil in the White City tells the stories of architect Daniel Burnham and murderer Henry Holmes in the context of the 1892–1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Burnham's tale is one of struggle and eventual triumph as he battles the elements and landscape of nineteenth-century Chicago and wrestles with the egos and talent of other nineteenth-century architects. Larson's description of the difficulties Burnham faces incorporates details about architectural design and the personalities of Louis Sullivan and Frederick Law Olmsted. The author also provides rich descriptions of the exhibits at the Fair, items that were introduced at the Fair and remain part of American popular culture (for example, the Ferris Wheel, Juicy Fruit, and Cracker Jack), and famous individuals in attendance.

Concomitant to Larson's story of struggle and triumph on the part of Burnham stands the narrative of Henry Holmes' sinister successes and eventual demise. Holmes constructed a hotel under the auspices of making a profit from the Fair, but the gas chamber, crematorium, secret passages, and dissection table that existed within the structure revealed a different purpose. The charming and attractive Holmes successfully lured unsuspecting young women to their deaths in the shadow of the White City.

We use one class period (75 minutes) to discuss The Devil in the White City. Significantly, we limit our discussion only to the content of the book, the structure of the narrative, aspects students found especially compelling, parts they did not care for, and questions they would ask the author. At this point, we do not consider the ways in which we might design lessons using the book or other techniques we might use to teach the text; we discuss only the book itself. It has been my experience that such focused discussions are necessary and often difficult in classes that are part of coursework sequences for teacher certification. Pre-service teachers often jump into conversations regarding teaching methods without first carefully considering the content and thinking processes they want to teach. While I do not intend to squelch their enthusiasm, I also consider it irresponsible to discuss pedagogy without ensuring that strong content knowledge exists. Of course, content and pedagogy should not be separated, but moving straight to pedagogy without first considering content does not help teachers consider discipline-specific teaching strategies.

After discussing The Devil in the White City, we begin the next class by listing the "big ideas" from the book on the board. I ask students to imagine they had read Larson's book for the purpose of improving their content knowledge as teachers. Questions often include: What topics for United States history or world history stand out? What "titles" of units or lessons might be created after reading this book? In the past, students have offered such examples as: the rise of the city; transportation in the Gilded Age; nineteenth-century innovations; nineteenth-century American architecture; the "wild west"; medical experiments. During this brainstorming session, I record all ideas on the board without offering comments or proposing any organizational structure. I do ask clarifying questions, but I try to keep my role to a minimum. When it appears that we have exhausted our ideas regarding the content the book offers, we begin to make connections between knowing the content and teaching the content.

Exploring the Relationship Between Knowing History and Doing History

In order to help pre-service teachers connect what they know about the content of history (in this case specifically content relating to The Devil in the White City) to what they know about the methods of history, we focus on five elements: the use of themes, habits of mind, historical thinking skills, national and state content standards, and the writing of objectives. Prior to beginning the History Circle, we spend considerable time in class ensuring that students have a working familiarity with these organizational tools and skills that must be part of every history teacher's repertoire. Therefore, during the second class period (after determining the "big ideas" from the book), we spend the remainder of the class reviewing these concepts.

In order to help students organize their teaching of history, I ask them to consult the six vital themes and narratives recommended by the National Council for History Education (NCHE).⁴ NCHE's vital themes and narratives provide a content rich framework that is particularly helpful for new teachers beginning to consider what to do with the vast amount of content they need to teach and how to organize it all. Since we have spent a day in class at the beginning of the semester examining NCHE's vital themes and have used them consistently in the context of planning throughout the semester, students only need a few minutes to read the descriptions and refresh their memories. In order to facilitate discussion about using themes in teaching, I often employ the "Think, Pair, Share" method. Students think on their own about a vital theme they might use to organize the ideas we have listed on the board. They pick and choose which ideas seem appropriate under their specified theme. It is important to stress to students that a theme does not necessarily incorporate every piece of content or idea they want to teach, and they must make choices about what to include and what to leave out. Then the students pair with a partner and discuss their ideas. Finally, they share their thoughts with the entire class and explain the reasoning behind their decisions. Students must be able to justify how and why they believe the vital theme and narrative on which they have decided to focus organizes the content they intend to teach.

Next, we turn to NCHE's habits of mind that historians use.⁵ These thirteen ways of thinking and ways of knowing represent historical thinking in action. The habits of mind are discipline specific and subsume general models of critical thinking. As students review the habits of mind and discuss with their partners the habits that stand out to them as being important, I also direct their attention to the concept of historical thinking. For the purposes of the History Circle, I draw upon historical thinking as specified in Chapter 2 of the National Standards for History.⁶ While there is not one definition for historical thinking and thinking historically undoubtedly extends beyond cognitive processes that can be placed in an orderly chart, Chapter 2 of the National Standards for History offers a starting point from which beginning teachers can build their understanding of the discipline. The skills of chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research capabilities, and historical issues-analysis and decision-making are described in concrete terms and written as objectives, so they are relatively simple for novice designers of curriculum to grasp. In order to be able to articulate in clear and discipline-specific terms what they want their students to be able to do, pre-service teachers need a vocabulary from which to work. NCHE's habits of mind and the historical thinking skills identified in National Standards for History provide the terminology necessary to participate in the discourse community.

As with the vital themes and habits of mind, we have already spent a class period examining the historical thinking skills identified in the national standards so students have a working familiarity with these cognitive skills. We now focus on the relationship between the habits of mind and historical thinking skills in the context of the content from Larson's book and a vital theme. In preparation for the next class, I ask students to review the historical thinking skills and content standards in the national standards and in their state standards. In addition, they are to bring to the next class a source (preferably primary) related to any aspect of the content of Larson's book.

Completing the Circle

At the beginning of the third class session devoted to the History Circle, I assign students to groups of four or five. Each group is then designated as being responsible for teaching one of the five historical thinking skills in the national standards. From this point on, the idea of historical thinking is at the forefront of our discussions. Specifically, students are to use the sources they brought to class to teach the historical thinking skill to which their group has been assigned. A considerable amount of discussion takes place regarding which source(s) they will include in their portion of the Circle. I remind them that not all sources are equal and that some sources might lend better to teaching their historical thinking skill than others. If, by chance, no one in the group has brought a source that can be used with the particular historical thinking skill the group has been assigned, students are free to exchange sources with other groups. This activity is not intended to force pre-service teachers to use sources in a limited fashion. Instead, the purpose is to compel them to think deeply about the possible uses for sources and how different sources can best contribute to the development of different historical thinking skills.

After each group has selected the source(s) they will use, they must then make further decisions regarding the organization and approach of their teaching. These decisions, which more than likely occur concurrently, involve the selection of a vital theme and narrative, habit of mind, national and state content standards, and the writing of an objective. Students also develop source analysis guides with questions designed specifically to promote the historical thinking skill on which they are focusing. Each person in the Circle has a role (some individuals have two roles depending on the number of participants in the circle) and is responsible for writing an explanation/rationale for the decisions the group makes regarding the elements of the Circle described above. Finally, students explain the ways in which the five elements of the Circle fit together.

Rather than include the entire work students turned in for their History Circles, I offer below an overview of the key ideas one class of students emphasized, and I provide an examination of trends I noticed regarding the strengths and weaknesses in each group.

History Circle: Chronological Thinking
Source:The Book of the Fair by Hubert Howe Bancroft, 1893.
Vital Theme and Narrative: Civilization, Cultural Diffusion, Innovation
Habit of Mind: Perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness
Historical Thinking Standard: (1F) Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration in which historical developments have unfolded, and apply them to explain historical continuity and change.

History Circle: Historical Comprehension
Source: Images of the landscape and architecture
Vital Theme and Narrative: Human Interaction with the Environment
Habit of Mind: Understand how things happen and how things change, how human intentions matter, but also how their consequences are shaped by the means of carrying them out, in a tangle of purpose and process
Historical Thinking Standard: (2G) Draw upon data in historical maps in order to obtain or clarify information on the geographical setting in which the historical event occurred, its relative and absolute location, the distances and directions involved, the natural and man-made features of the place, and critical relationships in the special distributions of those features and the historical event occurring there.

History Circle: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
Source: President Benjamin Harrison's December 24, 1890 Proclamation
Vital Theme and Narrative: Civilization, Cultural Diffusion, and Innovation
Habit of Mind: Acquire at one and the same time a comprehension of diverse cultures and of shared humanity
Historical Thinking Standard: (3E) Analyze cause and effect relationships bearing in mind multiple causation including (a) the importance of the individual in history; (b) the influence of ideas, human interests, and beliefs; and (c) the role of chance, the accidental and the irrational.

History Circle: Historical Research Capabilities
Source: Multiple sources including images of the Fair and letters from attendees
Vital Theme and Narrative: Civilization, Cultural Diffusion, and Innovation
Habit of Mind: Perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness
Historical Thinking Standard: (4A) Formulate historical questions from encounters with historical documents, eyewitness accounts, letters, diaries, artifacts, photos, historical sites, art, architecture, and other records from the past.

History Circle: Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making
Source: "Grave Robbers Surprised" New York Times February 26, 1890
Vital Theme and Narrative: Civilization, Cultural Diffusion, Innovation
Habit of Mind: Perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness
Historical Thinking Standard: (5A) Identify issues and problems in the past and analyze the interests, values, perspectives, and points of view of those involved in the situation.

As is indicated by the examples above, the pre-service teachers drew upon a wide variety of sources when creating their History Circles. In spite of (by their own admission) knowing very little about the Columbian Exposition or Henry Holmes prior to reading Larson's novel, they were able to use internet websites effectively to gather sources that will compel their students to engage in reading text and reading images.⁷ The rationales the pre-service teachers included regarding their source selection and their explanations of the source's relationship to their chosen vital theme and narrative, habit of mind, and specific historical thinking standard suggest a willingness to answer Ayers' challenge and "begin thinking like history teachers as well as history students."

For example, the group who created the circle on chronological thinking decided to emphasize patterns of historical succession and duration to build this historical thinking skill. While having students analyze Hubert Howe Bancroft's The Book of the Fair, these pre-service teachers sought to have their students examine technological innovations and developments over time. In using this source, this group elected to have their students "perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time,"⁸ explaining:

Students may look at such creations [technological developments] as outdated and common to today's standards. After students have read the primary source, our goal is to set them in the frame of mind so that they will be able to fully grasp the life of a common nineteenth-century worker and how these inventions revolutionized their world.⁹

The pre-service teachers who developed a History Circle to build students' skills in historical analysis and interpretation gathered sources that would assist their students in thinking about causation, the role of the individual, the influence of ideas, and chance. Using President Benjamin Harrison's December 24, 1890 Proclamation about the Fair as a core document, they utilized that source and others in order to focus on

...the collaboration of individual ideas in addition to the ... particular circumstances [that had an effect on] the resulting World's Columbian Exposition. We would like our students to understand the impact of the Fair's placement in Chicago, as well as who its architects and governing committee members were. Each of these people's individualities and ideas had a specific effect on the Fair. Our students will be able to understand the variations that would have taken place if the circumstances would have been different. They will also be able to evaluate how these particular conditions affected each other.¹⁰

The group of pre-service teachers who created a History Circle with the purpose of building students' historical research capabilities decided to emphasize the possibility of a "global expansion of ideas and technology through the World's Fair." In selecting Civilization, Cultural Diffusion, and Innovation as their theme, they wrote:

This theme explains the backbone of the research project. The time of the World's Fair was a time of ideas spreading and a period of technological and cultural explosion around the world. The World's Fair allowed people to see and experience things that they would probably never get to experience anywhere else all at once and in one place. This is what the students should be able to understand after completing the project. The primary sources we have provided are perfect to emphasize the idea. The picture of the Ferris Wheel ticket is a great source that shows the importance and progressiveness of technology at the Fair. The Woman's Building picture can be used to help explain where the country (and even the world) was at in terms of women's rights and how a building designed by and dedicated to a female was very modern. Finally, the copies of the letters from a visitor of the Fair are perfect for expressing what people were actually seeing and thinking while they were there ... Basically, this theme summarizes the rise, interaction, and decline of successive centers of skills and power, which is exactly what the World's Fair did.¹¹

Requiring pre-service teachers to consider the relationship among themes, habits of mind, thinking skills, and primary sources is essential. The thinking process compels them to carefully consider the idea that not all sources are equal and that some sources lend better than others to teaching specific ways of thinking in the discipline.

I found the pre-service teachers' explanations to be extremely valuable for them and their own work as teachers; but the explanations also enabled me to evaluate their areas of strength and weakness in conceptualizing lessons. Interestingly, of the five elements of the History Circle, the pre-service teachers were familiar with two parts of the Circle while three parts were new. They had worked with content standards and objectives in previous courses while vital themes and narratives, habits of mind, and historical thinking skills had not been introduced prior to their time in my course. I included content standards and objectives primarily to enable them to be familiar with parts of the Circle and therefore to not be intimidated with this way of thinking about teaching history lessons. Ironically, writing objectives gave students a great deal of trouble. In addition, the pre-service teachers also followed a pattern that practicing teachers often follow in regard to standards; they planned their sources and methods they might use to teach those sources and then went back and "picked" a content standard that "matched"—sometimes not very well—the content they wanted to teach.¹² Upon realizing students' difficulties with objectives and content standards, I was able to review these ideas with them. Recognizing these problematic areas was helpful for me as a methods instructor.

The primary sources included below are examples of the sources students used in creating their History Circles. In addition to photographs, artifacts from the Fair, and proclamations, students included excerpts from the time period of books on the Fair. In relation to the Holmes story, students also included newspaper articles on grave robbing and the sale of human skeletons. The diversity of sources gathered by the pre-service teachers sparked excellent discussions pertaining to thematic teaching and building historical thinking skills in middle and high school students.

Women's Building¹³

Presidential Proclamation, December 24, 1890

[I]n the name of the Government and of the people of the United States I do hereby invite all the nations of the earth to take part in the commemoration of an event that is preeminent in human history by... sending such exhibits to the World's Columbian Exposition as will most fitly and fully illustrate their resources, their industries, and their progress in civilization.

—President Benjamin Harrison¹⁴

Closing the Circle

Students typically spend the remainder of the third class period designing their History Circle, and they complete the descriptions of each element individually outside of class. During the fourth session of class devoted to the History Circle, each group presents on their Circle, and after the semi-formal presentations, the Circles rotate from "station to station" to be able to view their peers' sources and make suggestions regarding the use of the sources with middle and high school students. As a culminating discussion, we examine specific ways in which these future teachers might use these materials with students in middle and high schools. I have found that the fact that the students have designed their History Circles using a common reading enables students to provide better feedback and engage in more productive discussions than when we design lessons based on individual content decisions and then engage in peer review. Working from a common content basis provides the context for deeper and more meaningful exchanges about "the doing of teaching history."

Ferris Wheel Ticket¹⁵

Conclusion

The History Circle contains elements of lesson planning, but it is not about procedures. Instead, the History Circle emphasizes the ways in which the five parts of the planning element of the Circle—historical thinking, vital themes and narratives, habits of mind, objectives, and content standards—and, in effect, parts of lesson planning which history teachers should always consider, relate to disciplinary thinking and content knowledge. The use of sources is central to the vibrancy of the History Circle. Instead of a lesson being based on procedures and plugging content into a prescribed process, the History Circle places content at the fore. While content is the driving force in the History Circle, pre-service teachers cannot shun the importance of consciously building historical thinking skills in their students, and that is why the source(s) pre-service teachers decide to use must be based on the ability of the source to promote the specific type of historical thinking to which the group has been assigned.

Stearns, Seixas, and Wineburg posit that the teaching of history is "an epistemological and cultural act."¹⁶ It is imperative for methods professors in history education to compel future teachers to consider how they know what they know and why they assemble sources to build discipline-specific thinking skills. Instead of utilizing ad hoc procedures, following a formula, or "winging it," future history teachers must devise carefully crafted lessons they consciously construct to meld content knowledge acquisition with the building of historical thinking skills in their students. Systematic planning of history lessons that are built around the methods of the discipline will assist well-started beginning teachers¹⁷ in becoming wise practitioners.

Notes

^1.� American Historical Association, "The Next Generation of History Teachers: A Challenge to Departments of History at American Colleges and Universities," <http://www.historians.org/pubs/free/historyteaching/>.

^2.� Frederick D. Drake and Lynn R. Nelson, Engagement in Teaching History: Theory and Practices for Middle and Secondary Teachers (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005); Frederick D. Drake and Sarah Drake Brown, "A Systematic Approach to Improve Students' Historical Thinking," The History Teacher 36, no. 4 (August 2003): 465.

^3.� Peter Seixas, "When Psychologists Discuss Historical Thinking: A Historian's Perspective," Educational Psychologist 29, no. 2 (1994): 107.

^4.� The Bradley Commission on History in Schools, Building a History Curriculum: Guidelines for Teaching History in Schools (Westlake, OH: National Council for History Education, 2005), <http://www.nche.net/page28/page45/files/page45_1.pdf>.

^5.� Ibid.

^6.� National Center for History in the Schools, National Standards for History (Los Angeles, CA: National Center for History in Schools, 1996), <http://nchs.ucla.edu/standards/thinking5-12.html>.

^7.� For methods on image analysis, see Drake and Nelson, Engagement in Teaching History.

^8.� The Bradley Commission on History in Schools, Building a History Curriculum: Guidelines for Teaching History in Schools (Westlake, OH: National Council for History Education, 2005), <http://www.nche.net/page28/page45/files/page45_1.pdf>.

^9.� Quoted from student work completed in my course, Fall 2006 and Spring 2007.

^10.� Ibid.

^11.� Ibid.

^12.� Sarah Drake Brown, "A Comparative Analysis of Historical Thinking Skills in the History Standards of Seven States: California, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, and Virginia" (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 2004), 174.

^13.�Benjamin Harrison, "By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation, 24 December 1890," A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897, vol. IX, ed. James D. Richardson (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1900), 140, <http://books.google.com/books?id=UAkKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=%22i+do+hereby+invite+all+the+
nations+of+the+earth%22&source=web&ots=IFQu6NfhX7&sig=K0DoQZEyc4Y3CHKq1kDb67hnb7E#PPA140,M1>.

^14.� Photograph of the Women's Building at the 1893 World's Fair, from A Digital Archive of American Architecture, Boston College, <http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893/1893womn.jpg>.

^15.� Photograph of Concession-58, The Ferris Wheel ticket at the 1893 World's Fair, from 1893 World's Columbian Expo, Tom Hoffman, <http://www.1893columbianexpo.com/ride-tix.html>.

^16.� Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, eds., Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 3.

^17.� "Well-started beginning teachers" is a phrase used in Sharilyn C. Steadman, "Becoming University Supervisors: Constructing Practices and Identities" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 2004).

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