Program info

Year Three: Historical Thinking - Historical Writing - Academic Year Program

The practices, processes and applications of thinking historically will occupy our study during the academic portion of Year Three.

Utilizing Document Based Questioning, we will apply the techniques, methodologies and approaches of historians to a wide variety of historical topics.

Topics for 3rd/4th Grade teachers:

1. Jamestown: Why Did So Many Colonists Die? (Orientation to DBQ Approaach)

2. How Does the Geography of Colorado Affect Its History?

3. How Did the Ancient Peoples Live in Colorado?

4. Native Americans in Colorado: Could You Live a Nomadic Life?

5. The Fur Trade and the Santa Fe Trail: How Did Different Cultures Create a "Middle Ground"?

6. How Did the "Rush to the Rockies" Change Colorado?

Topics for 5th Grade teachers:

1. Jamestown: Why Did So Many Colonists Die?

2. Benjamin Franklin: Tinker, Soldier, Spy, Traitor, or Genius?

3. Valley Forge: Would You Have Quit?

4. How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny?

5. Alexander Hamilton or Thomas Jefferson: Whose Vision Would You Choose?

6. George Washington: Why Was George Washington So Important to the Success of the New Nation?

Topics for 8th Grade teachers:

1. Jamestown: Why Did So Many Colonists Die?

2. Was the US Justified in Going to War vs. Mexico?

3. What was Harriet Tubman's Greatest Achievement?

4. How Free Were Free Blacks in the North?

5. The Battle of Gettysburg: Why Was It a Turning Point?

6. North or South: Who Killed Reconstruction?

Topics for 9 - 12th Grade Teachers

1. Jamestown: Why Did So Many Colonists Die? (Orientation to the DBQ approach)

2. Should the US Have Annexed the Philippines?

3. Progressivism: Where Would you Put Your Million Dollars?

4. What Caused the Dust Bowl?

5. Why Did Japan Bomb Pearl Harbor?

6. The Geography of the Cold War: What Was Containment?

A special feature of the Stories and Histories Program is the introduction of Digital Storytelling techniques into the classroom. This year two experienced teachers from the Colorado Springs area will introduce new teachers to the art of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool and will instruct veterans of the TAH program in how to teach their students digital storytelling methods and techniques.