Steps in a Teacher-Generated History Lab

1. Introduce the overarching question, based on a curricular indicator, which will guide the History Lab:
   • The question should be thought-provoking and encourage inquiry and discussion.
   • The question should address the curricular content.
   • The question should deepen students’ understanding of history as an interpretive discipline, by emphasizing historical thinking skills, such as causality, change and continuity, turning points, multiple perspectives, significance, impact, and context.
2. Initiate the History Lab:
   • Access prior knowledge. Students can read from narratives, poems, journal entries, or accounts, listen to excerpts from speeches, or examine maps, broadsides, or political cartoons. This activity should engage students and set the context for the History Lab.
3. Frame the History Lab:
   • Facilitate the framing of topic focus questions that relate to the (larger) overarching question. Teachers can direct this step, depending on the ages and ability levels of their students, or have students take the lead.
     • Ensure that students have identified the relevant questions. If necessary, lead students to important questions they have not considered.
4. Have students identify sources of information that would provide answers to the focus questions.
5. Model the historical process:
   • Model the process of analyzing a historical source. Use a focus question as an example.
     • Identify the “who, what, when, where, and why” information.
     • Determine context, subtext, and relevance of the source to the focus question.
6. Facilitate the History Lab:
   • Have students choose focus questions to investigate.
   • Provide students with relevant historical sources.
   • Have students work in cooperative groups or independently to generate interpretations from the source materials.
     • Have students cite information from the sources as evidence to support their interpretations.
     • Multiple interpretations may emerge.
7. Present information and interpretations:
   • Individuals or representatives from groups will present their interpretations and defend the sources that provided the evidence for their decisions. In a debate format, students can also refute the interpretations of their fellow students or historians.
   • Discuss the ways in which the interpretations are related. Look for commonalities and differences.
   • The teacher will facilitate the discussion to ensure that the interpretations are supported by solid factual information and reasoning.
8. Address the overarching question:
   • Students will synthesize the information gained during the History Lab to address the overarching question.
   • Student responses can be oral, written, or expressed through a variety of products.
9. Assessment:
   • Assess students’ understanding of the historical content and historical thinking skills (process).