HISTORICAL THINKING CHART

Historical Reading
Skills
Sourcing

Contextualization

Corroboration

Close Reading

Questions

Who wrote this?

What is the authors perspective?
When was it written?
Where was it written?
Why was it written?
Is it reliable? Why? Why not?

Students should be able to . . .

Identify the authors position on
the historical event
Identify and evaluate the authors
purpose in producing the
document
Hypothesize what the author will
say before reading the document
Evaluate the sources
trustworthiness by considering
genre, audience, and purpose

Prompts
The author probably
believes . . .
I think the audience is . . .
Based on the source
information, I think the author
might . . .
I do/dont trust this document
because . . .

When and where was the document Understand how context/

Based on the background
created?
background information influences
information, I understand this
What was different then? What was
the content of the document
document differently
the same?
Recognize that documents are
because . . .
How might the circumstances in
products of particular points in
The author might have
which the document was created
time
been influenced by _____
affect its content?
(historical context) . . .
This document might not give
me the whole picture
because . . .
What do other documents say?
Do the documents agree? If not,
why?
What are other possible
documents?
What documents are most reliable?

Establish what is probable by

comparing documents to each
other
Recognize disparities between
accounts

What claims does the author make? Identify the authors claims about
What evidence does the author use?
an event
What language (words, phrases,
Evaluate the evidence and
images, symbols) does the author
reasoning the author uses to
use to persuade the documents
support claims
audience?
Evaluate authors word choice;
How does the documents language
understand that language is used
indicate the authors perspective?
deliberately

STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP

The author agrees/disagrees

with . . .
These documents all agree/
disagree about . . .
Another document to
consider might be . . .
I think the author chose these
words in order to . . .
The author is trying to
convince me . . .
The author claims . . .
The evidence used to support
the authors claims is . . .

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