Historical Thinking Skills
HTS 1Reflection During the course of the school year, I was expected to be able to learn and develop the skill of Crafting Historical Arguments. This basically required me to be able to take a simple historical fact or question and develop it into a whole new argument which had to be then supported by plausible evidence. One way in which I learned to develop this skill was by practicing how to write and formulate acceptable and concrete thesis statements. I also had to be able to somewhat simplify this thesis statement and make it easier to understand. For example, during an essay test or quiz, I was given a prompt that I was expected to answer accurately and thoroughly. In order to be able to answer the question completely, I would turn the thesis statement into a simple question that would help me answer the prompt. One way I was able to support my thesis with solid evidence was by analyzing various documents by using SOAPSTone charts. This helped me take information given in historical documents and analyze the source, occasion, audience, purpose and tone of the document. Analyzing these things allowed me to see how important the documents were in supporting the arguments given either on a test or in the textbook. Also, in order to prepare for the AP exam, we as a class filled in a chart in which we wrote down key events that happened during a specific time period and a certain region. All of these things allowed me to take a step further in creating my own thesis statements and being able to fully support them with evidence. Evidence This chart that we filled in as a class shows the different time perios in which we labeled key events in, which then helped us formulate thesis statements and compare regions.  |
HTS 2Reflection Throughout the year, we as AP students are required and encouraged to learn various Thinking Skills, one such being Chronological Reasoning. This skill mostly consists of being able to identify causes and effects of certain time periods. One way we as students have developed this skill is by writing Change Over Time essays. these essays require students to study and analyze events in certain empires or time periods in order to identify certain traits and characteristics that changed within the course of time or remained the same. Change Over Time essays helped me develop Chronological Reasoning by somewhat forcing me to think about the continuities and effects of historical events. This Historical Thinking Skill also requires us AP students to be able to recognize and point out important and specific historical events revolving around the same time period.One example of this would be the Chinese Dynasty Song. By learning this song , I am able to identify key events in history around a specific time period of a Chinese dynasty. This enables me to start connecting ideas and develop thoughts concerning historical times. One way that we as a class went over this Thinking Skill was in after school study sessions. As a class we discussed events happening around a certain dynasty. Later, we bagan to connect events outside China and the effect they had on China or in empires overall. Both the Change Over Time essay and the Chinese Dynasty Song were a great way for me to develop this Historical Thinking Skill throughout the school year. Evidence This is an annotated poster of the Chinese Dynasties (Chinese Dynasty Song) which shows the different events and connections that we made as a class during an after school study session.  |
HTS 3Reflection During this course, we as students must be able to demonstrate learning of the AP Historical Thinking Skills by the end of the school year. One of these thinking skills would be comparison and contextualization. This basically requires us to be able to compare, describe, and analyze developments that happened within a society, group or time period. Also, we as students must be able to gather historical facts and connect ideas or circumstances to specific places or events happening in the world. One way in which I developed this skill was by writing comparison essays. These essays were mostly assigned as tests, homework, or classwork. While writing this essay, I would have to search information that addressed the prompt. Comparison essays helped me develop this thinking skill by forcing me to be able to make global connections. Another way in which I personally develop this skill would be by making SPICE charts. These charts really helped me analyze the different AP themes and how they differed in every society. Throughout the year, making SPICE charts helped me differentiate empires and understand events that are happening in the world in order to be able to compare the societies or regions. Some exercises that we did during class to develop this skill were that we were able to choose partner and with our partner make a small poster on a specific topic and discuss events happening in that region. Later, we placed the posters on a wall according to specific dates in which they happened. This helped me compare events happening in certain parts of the world and allowed me to identify key developments throughout history. Evidence This is one of the Comparison Essays that I wrote during the MOCK exam in order to prepare for the test and show my knowledge/  |
HTS 4Reflection During this AP course, one of the things that all of us students are required to learn is the skill of historical interpretation and synthesis. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis skills require me to be able to analyze documents or interpretations of the past. Also, this skill requires me to be able to dig deep into the reading and be able to use this information as evidence for and argument. One of the activities that we did as a class that helped me develop these skills would be revising and practicing how to analyze DBQ documents. We would use these documents to annotate important things, identify point of view, and come up with a reason of why the document was important. This helped me because instead of just reading the documents, we would take time to analyze and break down the documents into a simpler way of understanding them. Another way in which I developed this skill would be by writing synthesis notes almost every night for homework. These notes required me to read a section in the textbook and with every paragraph, identify the main points, and rewrite the paragraph into a short, simple sentence. Writing synthesis notes allowed me to read the book at a faster speed and understanding t better as the year progressed. Throughout the school year, both of these things helped me develop and work on this historical thinking skill. These activities not only helped me grow as a student, but helped me achieve my standards as well. Evidence These are my synthesis notes which show the process in which I took the paragraph and shortened it into small bullet points and sentences.  |
