ERIC Number: ED251351
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1983
Pages: 281
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Exploration to Constitution: Booklet 1. Critical Thinking in American History. Teacher's Guide and Source Envelope.
O'Reilly, Kevin
One of a series of curriculum materials in U.S. history designed to teach critical thinking skills systematically, this teacher's guide presents a series of supplementary ready-to-use lesson plans for teaching high school students about the exploration of early America, the colonies, the revolution, and the Constitution. The introduction presents a rationale for the "history and logic" project (HAL) and points out differences between the HAL approach to critical thinking and the inquiry method. The introduction is followed by a guide to critical thinking which offers an explanation of types of arguments in history, examples of fallacies, a checklist for evaluating evidence, a method of analyzing value positions, ways of identifying assumptions, and models for analyzing arguments. Other methodologies include: problem worksheets; debate topics and transcriptions; and analyses of interpretations, in which students are presented with rival interpretations of historical events, rewritten at a high school vocabulary level. The teacher's guide includes a rationale for the program, detailed lesson plans keyed to student booklets, answer keys, test questions, a chart of critical thinking skills taught in each lesson, and difficulty-level coding. The document concludes with a separate section (the source "envelope") containing an outline of the guide to critical thinking, introductory worksheets, a unit on Salem Witchcraft for advanced students, sources for debate on the Stamp Act, and test questions (LH).
Descriptors: Colonial History (United States), Constitutional History, Critical Thinking, High Schools, History Instruction, Instructional Materials, Lesson Plans, Revolutionary War (United States), Social Studies, Teacher Developed Materials, United States History
Critical Thinking Press, 775 Bay Road, South Hamilton, MA 01982 (Order No. 0150, $12.95, plus postage).
Publication Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers; Practitioners
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Hamilton-Wenham School District, South Hamilton, MA.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: For student materials, see SO 016 023. For other documents in the Project on History and Logic (HAL) series, see SO 016 023-027.