At the very beginning of the semester, we were assigned to write a paragraph on what we thought history was and how we do it?

Below is my paragraph that I wrote on the first day of class about how we do history,

I believe history is a way of connecting to the past. Its a way for us to understand what once was, and different events that happened in the past. It helps us understand the people before us as well as our ancestors. History is an essential piece of evidence, when it comes to trying to understand the past. I’m not entirely sure we “do” history. I mean we try to interpret and understand it as best as we can, but none of us truly understand history, as we weren’t there ourselves. We can use evidence from the past to try to interpret what has happened to those before us, but that evidence may not always be accurate. We can try to use letters and photos to also understand what previous events shaped the world we live in today. I’m excited to learn more ways that we can understand and “do” history this semester.

I also thought I would include my last and final reading log, that is on the topic of “What is History and how do we Do it?” to compare what how my learning has changed over the course of the semester.

 

Reading Log : 10

What have I learned about history and historical thinking this term?

There are many things that I have learned about history and how to think historically this term. I have learned through reading logs how to interpret information and summarize it weekly. I think this was very helpful in learning to think historically because I am now able to interpret a historical article, and understand where the author was coming from and their historical views. At first, I had difficulty identifying what a primary document was, but with Tracy’s help I was able to get the skills and information needed to identify a primary document in History. Throughout the class I also learned how to effectively work in a group and lead group discussions, I think that Tracy putting us into groups really helped me, as I am very shy, I felt more comfortable stating my opinion in a smaller group. Through the research paper assignments, I learned how to analyze a document when picking a primary document for my research paper. I also learned how to effectively plan a research assignment when I was constructing my outline. One of the additional things I learned how to do was create footnotes in a document, and creating a Chicago style bibliography for my research paper. I had never done this for any class before so this was a very important thing to learn.