PFA - A Note About Historical Thinking Skills (Lesson)

A Note About Historical Thinking Skills

Historical Thinking and Reasoning Skills

The AP exam will test your knowledge of United States History, but it will also test your application of a variety of Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes. Learn about each below.

 

Historical Thinking Skills

  • Development and Processes - Identify and explain historical developments and processes.
  • Sourcing and Situation - Analyze the sourcing and situation of primary and secondary sources.
  • Claims and Evidence in Sources - Analyze arguments in primary and secondary sources.
  • Contextualization - Analyze the context of historical events, developments, or processes.
  • Making Connections - Using historical reasoning processes (comparison, causation, continuity, and change), analyze patterns and connections between and among historical developments and processes.
  • Argumentation - Develop an argument.

 

Let's take a closer look at these skills...

Development and Processes

  • Identify a historical concept, development, or process.
  • Explain a historical concept, development, or process.

Sourcing and Situation 

  • Identify a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.
  • Explain the point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience of a source.
  • Explain the significance of a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience, including how these might limit the use(s) of a source.

Claims and Evidence in Sources

  • Identify and describe a claim and/or argument in a text-based or non-text-based source.
  • Identify the evidence used in a source to support an argument.
  • Compare the arguments or main ideas of two sources. 
  • Explain how claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a source’s argument.

Contextualization

  • Identify and describe a historical context for a specific historical development or process.
  • Explain how a specific historical development or process is situated within a broader historical context.

Making Connections

  • Identify patterns among or connections between historical developments and processes.
  • Explain how a historical development or process relates to another historical development or process.

Argumentation

  • Make a historically defensible claim.
  • Support an argument using specific and relevant evidence.
  • Describe specific examples of historically relevant evidence.
  • Explain how specific examples of historically relevant evidence support an argument.
  • Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of historical evidence.
  • Corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument using diverse and alternative evidence in order to develop a complex argument. This argument might:
      • Explain nuances of an issue by analyzing multiple variables.
      • Explain relevant and insightful connections within and across periods.
      • Explain the relative historical significance of a source’s credibility and limitations.
      • Explain how or why a historical claim or argument is or is not effective.

 

Reasoning Processes

Reasoning Process 1 - Comparison

  • Describe similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.
  • Explain relevant similarities and/or differences between specific historical developments and processes.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.

Reasoning Process 2 -  Causation

  • Describe causes and/or effects of a specific historical development or process.
  • Explain the relationship between causes and effects of a specific historical development or process.
  • Explain the difference between primary and secondary causes and between short- and long-term effects.
  • Explain how a relevant context influenced a specific historical development or process.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of different causes and/or effects.
  • Describe patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
  • Explain patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of specific historical developments in relation to a larger pattern of continuity and/or change.

Reasoning Process 3 - Continuity and Change

  • Describe patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
  • Explain patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of specific historical developments in relation to a larger pattern of continuity and/or change.

 

 

 

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