ABSTRACT
During a unit on the Middle Ages in her 10th grade world history class, Mrs. Hansen decides to conduct a historical literacy activity during students’ study of the Crusades. She determines to give them excerpts from multiple primary and secondary sources showing Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and historians’ perspectives. She selects a historical question that she feels is simple enough for her students to understand, but complex enough to allow for different opinions: “Were the Crusades primarily motivated by religious factors?” (Mitchell & Mitchell, 2002). She hopes that her class will be unable to reach a consensus on this “yes” or “no” question, and that a debate, properly structured, will help them become more skillful at using historical evidence. She wants students to develop a more mature understanding of the nature of knowing and learning history, recognizing that historical understanding is open to multiple interpretations, but that through the skillful use of evidence, learners of history can make defensible claims.
