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This wikispace was designed by Maryam Emami, 10-12 Social Studies department at [|Rangeley Lakes Regional School], in the spring of 2013. The goal is to develop a LPLC (Professional Learning Community) with Robin George 6-8 Social Studies, Kelsey Orestis 9th grade Geography and Jeannette Jacobs Alternative Education. The mission is to align our curriculum vertically to meet the [|Common Core literacy standards], the [|National History standards] and the (National Education Technology Skills-Students Standards) [|NET-S standards] by transforming historical literacy.

This wikispace is organized around the central idea that history is an argument without end. Historical thinking is an inquiry using historical artifacts, historical memory and the points of view or historical lenses of all the participants. Students become constructers of the past rather than passive recipients of information. They have to critically analyze sources and interpret meaning out of them by forming hypothesis and asking a variety of questions to begin the research process. ** Learning to "do history" begins with modeling the process then students practice the process and then they are "doing history". This wiki provides access to examples of historians "doing history" and students practicing the process. This wiki also provides access to examples of how technology like e-portfolios ** can provide a means for learners to articulate and make connections to not only "show" but to demonstrate concretely what they know to the world (Light, T. P., retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/481243/Making_Connections_Developing_Students_Historical_Thinking_with_Electronic_Portfolios).

Historians separate strands of people and events into themes or lenses. Two themes are included in the wiki: Intellectual & cultural and political & diplomatic history, in order to further illustrate historical thinking within a thematic strand. These links are works in progress.

The internet has allowed for an exponential explosion of information. We are no longer in a world were the teacher holds the only resources, there are more sources becoming available every second. The question is can students “think like historians not because they will become professional historians but precisely because most won't. The goals of school history are not vocational but to prepare students to tolerate complexity, to adapt to new situations, and to resist the first answer that comes to mind. When a video uploaded from a cell phone in Tehran can be transmitted to San Francisco in half a second, history reminds us to start with basic questions: Who sent it? Can it be trusted? What did the camera angle miss? There's no shortage of forces telling students what to think. In this daily avalanche of information, students have never been in greater need of ways to make sense of it all. Without thinking, history is meaningless. But when you add thinking, especially the specific skills of “thinking historically,” the past comes to life. In the end that is what reading, and thinking—and I would add, teaching—like a historian is all about"(Wineburg, S., Historical Thinking: Memorizing Facts and Stuff?, retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/quarterly/historical_thinking/article.html). http://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/theme/3/

= = **An excellent example of students at Barnard College interpreting the past.** **[|Reacting to the Past: The Student Perspective (2012)]**