EFL students and historical thinking
Change Context Causality Contingency Complexity
Presenter:
Eric Gondree
Overview
Introduction: What is History?
How does it relate to teaching language? CLIL
Can kids think like historians?
The 5 C’s:
Putting it all together: Five questions to ask
My Social Studies Background:
What is History?
What is History?
*Interdisciplinary: Archaeology, paleolinguistics, DNA analysis, etc…
How does it relate to teaching language? CLIL
How does it relate to teaching language? CLIL
(Nation & Yamamoto, 2012)
Historical aspect to language:
If you’re going to learn Chinese…
Historical aspect to language:
“Oracle bone script”
Historical aspect to language:
Language reforms?... Traditional vs Simple?…
Wade-Giles vs Pinyin romanization?...
…And so on!
Can kids think like historians?
Can kids think like historians?
Can kids think like historians?
Let’s try it out
Discussion
Discussion
The 5 C’s of Historical Thinking
The 5 C’s “…stand at the heart of the questions historians seek to answer, the arguments we make, and the debates in which we engage.”
The 5 C’s of Historical Thinking
1. Change
Example: How has food changed over time?
Example: How has food changed over time?
?
Example: How has food changed over time?
“Chocolātl”
No sugar!
Example: How has food changed over time?
= 1 bean
= 3 beans
= 100 beans
(Codex Mendoza, 1542)
How and why did this change happen?
Example: How has language changed over time?
Example: How has language changed over time?
1947 ?
Example: How has language changed over time?
(Gerasimov, 1965)
(Repin, 1897)
(Late 1500s)
Example: “Ivan the Terrible”
Example: “Ivan the Terrible”
Example: “Ivan the Terrible”
Old English Yard Seal of Muscovy Company
(Moscow) Joint-stock corp. (1555)
How did this happen? Mistranslation
(Psalms chapter 68, n.d.)
🡨 (Compiled by
conservative scholars,
from 1604-1611)
“Ivan the Awesome”?
(Bible gateway, n.d.)
wording)
Example Activities: Change
Old newspapers or photographs?
2. Context
Stories need context to be understandable
2. Context
Stories need context to be understandable
2. Context
The beginning of every Star Wars movie…
Context: Sons of Ivan IV…
Ivan V (d. 1573)
(Repin, 1885)
Eldest son of Ivan IV, killed
by same in 1581
Context: Sons of Ivan IV…
Ivan V (d. 1573) Fedor I Dmitry I
Regent Boris Godunov
Death of Dmitry I (1591):
?
?
Official investigation:
Dmitry’s mother
Prince Dmitry
Ivanovich
(died age 9)
After the Death of Dmitry I:
Uglich
Town seal
Of Uglich
After the Death of Dmitry I:
After the Death of Dmitry I:
After the Death of Dmitry I:
Returned
Context…
Example Activities: Context
Example Activities: Context
Example: Tomb of Ptahhotep II �
Context Activity: Mixtec book
Details: Mixtec book
Activity answers:
(Jiménez et al., n.d.)
Art vs. Propaganda
Did it really happen
like that?
(The British Museum, n.d.)
Art vs. Propaganda
Did it really happen
like that?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
(The British Museum, n.d.)
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
bones of their ancestors into flour
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Assyrians
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
Who’s going to win?
1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the
bones of their ancestors into flour
5: Which side looks better-armed?
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
“…I [Ashurbanipal], great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria…
…dammed up the Ulai River with the bodies of the warriors and people of Elam.
For three days I made that stream flow full of bodies instead of water…”
(Russell, 1999)
Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)
Possible discussions:
Art or propaganda?
Who was the audience?
How should they feel?
3. Causality
3. Causality
Franz Ferdinand?
3. Causality
No partial mobilization plans
Nationalism
Balkan ‘tinderbox’
Austro-Hungarian ambitions
3. Causality
No partial mobilization plans
Nationalism
Balkan ‘tinderbox’
Austro-Hungarian ambitions
Causality Activity: Ötzi the Iceman
1991: Frozen Copper Age man found in Austrian Alps
Causality Activity: Ötzi the Iceman
1991: Frozen Copper Age man found in Austrian Alps
Died approx. 3350-3105 BCE
With clothes, tools & arrows
Incl. copper axe,
medicine bag, etc.
Ötzi the Iceman: Reading Activity
Group reading assignment: Examining evidence
In groups:
Read & explain your answers:
Other analysis from Ötzi …
Mosses & pollen: Indicator of past altitudes
Axe, tools & arrows: varied wear & repair 🡪
Medium-skilled toolmaker, right handed
Types of stone suggest trade network
Wounds and injuries: varied healing
Including oldest known tattoos: 🡪
DNA: Blood of other 3 people found
Own blood suggests nearby copper working
Position of body:
Turned onto stomach after death
Fatal arrowhead missing
(Deter-Wolf et al., 2016; Dickson, 2008; Gostner et al., 2011; Groenman-van Waateringe, 2011; Maderspacher, 2008;
Vanzetti et al., 2010; Wierer et al., 2018; Zink et al., 2011)
Reconstructing Ötzi’s final hours…
(Wierer et al., 2018)
Example Activities: Causality
4. Contingency
Example: Contingency
Adm. Zheng He
(1371-1433?)
Example: Contingency
China’s 15th
century voyages
of exploration
had continued?
(African giraffe
gifted to Ming
Emperor Yongle,
1415)
Example Activities: Contingency
Why didn’t something
happen?
5. Complexity
Example: News or Propaganda?
Illustration of “Boston
Massacre” on night of
March 5, 1770
Was it a “Massacre”?
“Macellum,” Latin for
“butcher shop”
(Massacre: Online etymology dictionary, n.d.)
Was it a “Massacre”?
Was it a “Massacre”?
Boston “Massacre”…
Examining the image…
Peaceful crowd?
Peaceful, unarmed
And all-white
Peaceful crowd?
John Adams: Defense attorney
Peaceful, unarmed
And all-white
Peaceful crowd?
Peaceful & unarmed?
Crowd
“tumultuous,” “riotous”
“…a club was thrown
at Captain Preston…”
John Adams: Defense attorney
1854 Painting:
Peaceful & unarmed?
Crowd
“tumultuous,” “riotous”
“…a club was thrown
at Captain Preston…”
John Adams: Defense attorney
Armed crowd, Racially-mixed
Victims’ social class?
Middle-class?
Victims’ social class?
Actually:
workingmen
Rope-makers,
dockworkers,
sailors
apprentice
“ivory turner”
Boston “Massacre”…
(Cohen, 2023; Schuman, 2022;
The Gilder Lehrman Institute advanced
placement history study guide, 2012)
The danger of teaching complexity:
Making it brief & easy…
Erases a lot of details…
Oversimplification Example: “The Fall of Rome”
Oversimplification Example: “The Fall of Rome”
What perspective: Which Rome?
Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne),
1st Holy Roman Emperor,
800-814
In 5th century
…Collapse in 1543
Constantinople became new
Roman capital in 330…
Collapse:
X
“Byzantium”
What perspective:
Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne),
1st Holy Roman Emperor,
800-814
The Eastern Roman Empire?
X
Collapse of Western Roman Empire: External factors
(Gibbons, 2018;
Toohey et al., 2016)
Collapse of Western Roman Empire: Internal factors
“The Fall of Rome” “The Dissolution of Western Rome”?
X
Putting it all Together:
How can we read history?
Five Questions to Ask
Five Questions to Ask
Five Questions to Ask
Five Questions to Ask
Five Questions to Ask
Five Questions to Ask
To summarize the 5 C’s…
Thank you for joining!
Questions? Comments?
This PPT available for download at: http://eric.gondree.com
References:
Bible gateway: Psalm 68:35 - new international version. Bible Gateway. (n.d.). Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+68%3A35&ver sion=NIV
Codex mendoza (1542). The Public Domain Review. (n.d.). https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/codex-mendoza-1542/
Cohen, K. (2023, January 17). How picturing the Boston Massacre Matters. National Museum of American History. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/how-picturing-boston-massacre- matters
Deter-Wolf, A., Robitaille, B., Krutak, L., & Galliot, S. (2016). The world’s oldest tattoos. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 5, 19–24.
References:
Dickson, J. H., Hofbauer, W., Porley, R., Schmidl, A., Kofler, W., & Oeggl, K. (2008). Six mosses from the Tyrolean Iceman’s alimentary tract and their significance for his ethnobotany and the events of his last days. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 18(1), 13–22.
Gibbons, A. (2018). Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive.’ Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw0632
Gibson, L. (2020). What is historical thinking? Canadian Historical Association.
Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://cha-shc.ca/teaching/teachers- blog/what-is-historical-thinking-2020-09-07.htm
Gostner P, Pernter P, Bonatti G, Graefen A, and Zink AR. 2011. New radiological insights into the life and death of the Tyrolean Iceman. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12), 3425-3431.
References:
Groenman-van Waateringe W. (2011). The Iceman's last days – the testimony of Ostrya carpinifolia Antiquity 85(328), 434-440.
Jiménez, D. M., et al (n.d.). Art of the Americas. Introduction to Art History I. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://pressbooks.pub/art100/chapter/art-of-the-americas
Maderspacher, F. (2008). Quick Guide: Ötzi. Current Biology 18(21), R990-R991.
Marsh, D. (1994). Bilingual Education & Content and Language Integrated Learning. International Association for Cross-cultural Communication, Language Teaching in the Member States of the European Union. Paris: University of Sorbonne.
Marwick, A. (2001). The new nature of history: Knowledge, evidence, language. UK: Red Globe Press.
Massacre: Online etymology dictionary. Etymology. (n.d.). https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=massacre
References:
Psalms chapter 68 (original 1611 KJV). PSALMS CHAPTER 68 (ORIGINAL 1611 KJV). (n.d.). Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Psalms-Chapter-68_Original- 1611-KJV
Rodwin, N. (2021, March 4). "A glorious tribute which embalms the dead:" paul revere and Henry Pelham's Boston Massacre. Paul Revere House. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.paulreverehouse.org/a- glorious-tribute-which-embalms-the-dead-paul-revere-and-henry- pelhams-boston-massacre
Russell, J. M. (1999). The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. p. 164.
Schuman, E. (2022, October 11). The Bloody Massacre. Boston Athenaeum. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://bostonathenaeum.org/blog/the-bloody-massacre
TeachingHistory.org (2022). What is Historical Thinking? National History
The British Museum (n.d.). Wall Panel #124801b, Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1851- 0902-8-b
The British Museum (n.d.). Wall Panel #124874, Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/
W_1851-0902-8-b
References:
The Gilder Lehrman Institute advanced placement history study guide. (2012, March 24). Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770 | AP US History Study Guide from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://ap.gilderlehrman.org/resource/paul-revere%27s-engraving- boston-massacre-1770
Thomas, A and Burke, F. (2007). “What Does It Mean to Think Historically?”
Toohey, M., Krüger, K., Sigl, M., Stordal, F., & Svensen, H. (2016). Climatic and societal impacts of a volcanic double event at the dawn of the Middle Ages. Climatic Change, 136(3–4), 401–412.
References:
Vanzetti, A., Vidale, M., Gallinaro, M., Frayer, DW., & Bondioli, L. (2010). The Iceman as a burial. Antiquity 84(325), 681-692.
Wierer, U., Arrighi, S., Bertola, S., Kaufmann, G., Baumgarten, B., Pedrotti, A., Pernter, P., &; Pelegrin, J. (2018). The Iceman’s Lithic Toolkit: Raw Material, technology, typology and use. PLOS ONE, 13(6).
Zink, A., Graefen, A., Oeggl, K., Dickson, JH., Leitner, W., Kaufmann, G., Fleckinger, A., Gostner, P., and Egarter, Vigl E. (2011). The Iceman is not a burial: reply to Vanzetti et al. (2010). Antiquity 85(328).