Examining the Evidence

by Kathleen Thompson

Educators are being challenged as never before to invite reality into the classroom and allow students to explore it. This book will help you meet the challenge. Primary sources are the very documents that history is made of, the images that science is based on, the raw material of our lives. They are also excellent tools to teach the critical thinking skills required by the Common Core State Standards. This book reveals in detail the strategies you can use to make primary sources come alive for your students and to enhance visual literacy, using fascinating photographs and powerful primary source texts. By design, these books are not printable from a reading device. To request a PDF of the reproducible pages, please contact customer service at 1-888-262-6135.

Genres: Education

165 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2014

Reviews

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fabulous, accessible book is essential to anyone who works in history / literature education or curriculum development. Kathleen Thompson and Hilary Mac Austin do a fantastic job demonstrating how the activities they include and questions they pose hit Common Core standards. They also remind us of the "humanity" evident in humanistic inquiry, and how to get students interested in topics that may at first seem very faraway and foreign to them. They also provided a ton of online resources and lesson plans. I work at a research library, in an education department, and I believe that one of the most important things I can do is empower teachers and make their lives easier by giving them ample "tools" to use in the classroom. This book definitely can do both of those things. I'll recommend this to all of my teacher friends.

[Jenji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful and informative!

I stumbled upon this book as a science educator, with little knowledge of how to teach historical research, critical thinking about history, or procedures for obtaining evidence. I had my own ideas, of course, but thoroughly enjoyed this methodical and careful approach—so much so that it had me investigating, exploring, and thinking long after reading. I’m hopeful that many teachers gain wisdom from this approach, as I’m sure it will spark a curiosity that will lead to more insightful understandings of our past, current times, and future, with wide reaching impact.