Evidence from the Past
METAUnderstand that everything we know about the past comes from evidence — objects, buildings, pictures, documents, and stories that have survived
Mastery Evidence
- Wineburg historical thinking framework
- Historical Thinking in the Elementary Years (ERIC)
Assessment Prompt
“When [child] learns about something that happened long ago, do they ask how we know about it — and understand that someone had to find or leave behind that evidence?”
Prerequisites2
- Thinking Before StartingsoftAges 6—7
- Vocabulary: historical thinkinghardAges 6—10
Show full prerequisite tree
- Thinking Before Starting soft
Understanding that knowledge of the past comes from surviving evidence builds on the habit of activating prior knowledge — what do I already know, and where did that knowledge come from?
- Persisting When It's Hard hard
Activating prior knowledge requires the foundational habit of persistent engagement with new material
- Vocabulary: historical thinking hard
Understanding that everything we know comes from evidence requires 'evidence' and 'source' vocabulary
- Domain Vocabulary Across Subject Areas soft
Acquiring the specialist vocabulary of historical thinking (source, bias, chronology, corroborate) builds on the academic vocabulary development taught in English
- Discussing and Questioning New Words hard
Academic and domain-specific vocabulary acquisition builds on the habit of discussing word meanings and linking new vocabulary to known words
- Defining Words soft
Defining academic words requires the ability to define words by category and attribute
- How Many in Total? soft
Sorting and categorising objects uses the same counting/cardinality skills from maths
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
Unlocks3
- Different Accounts of the Same EventhardAges 6—8
- Evidence for Greek and Roman LifesoftAges 9—11
- Battle of Hastings and 1066softAges 7—9