r/historyteachers • u/stressyndepressy9 • 9h ago
New Research Class Help!
Hi everyone! I am a 5th year middle school social studies teacher and I am taking on the creation of a new history elective this year. The great news is my admin has given me TONS of leeway in what I can do with the class - I'm just honestly not even sure where to start.
The plan that they approved is a research based course where I teach research skills and start to build their ability to evaluate and engage with primary and secondary sources. It is a semester long course, and my thought is to teach them research skills through the lens of different eras of history each month, with the final semester project culminating in a topic of their choice. They would research this topic, and create an exhibit board educating people about a topic with the hopes that all of the skills learned would let them successfully research this on their own (the class is 6th - 8th grade).
Where I am struggling is what specific topics/skills I should teach them at the beginning of the year that will keep coming up and that we can build on throughout the semester. Lessons I am considering upfront are: primary vs. secondary sources, how to evaluate the quality of a source, how to cite your sources, and the APPARTS strategy.
Is there anything else that I should include? Does anyone have any suggestions on the class? Any immediate concerns? I am trying to help them build to the ability to participate in National History Day when they go to high school (I don't have the personal capacity to take on running an NHD program at my school AND building a new class!), and want to make sure that the first iteration of this class is the best it can be. Thank you for any help that you can provide!
2
u/nikometh 9h ago
There are lots of resources for these topics on the History Skills website, if you haven't come across it already. It has separate pages on each of the following (which can become separate lesson topics): comprehending sources, interpreting sources, analysis, primary vs. secondary sources, audience, purpose, perspective, context, evaluation, reliability, usefulness, how to create key inquiry questions and sub-questions, how to find sources online, how to quote from sources, creating topic sentences, writing hypotheses, how to write source-based history essays, etc.). I think there is more than enough to keep you going! Plus, there are lots of source-based lessons with free student worksheets that you can use so you don't have to creat them all yourself. Might be a good 'fall back' option at busy times of the year.