Historical Memory Foundational Inquiry

Class begins with students analyzing a set of images from pivotal moments in world history. In small groups, students categorize each moment as having a social, political, technological, or economic impact and share their reasoning. Next, students work in pairs to research one of the historical events using National History Day’s T.I.D.E.S. rubric to understand the impact of each event. After sharing with the class, students reexamine the images, sorting them as either a crisis (disruption that forces change) or innovation (new ideas and advancements). As they sort the images, students justify their choices, deliberating over events that could fall into more than one category. The class then comes back as a whole to share their ideas and discuss whether crises or innovations have had a more significant impact on shaping world history. Students then individually select the image that best represents a major turning point in history and write and produce a claim that identifies the historical moment, the extent to which it was a crisis or innovation, and its long-term impact on society, politics, technology, or the economy.