Historical Thinking Skills: A Workbook for U. S. History

First of all - if the teachers who have made critical remarks can make something better, DO IT! I find it a little disingenuous of teachers who find fault with a product and then want an answer key! The whole point of historical thinking skills is that there is NO correct answer, although some answers may be better than others. Anyone who cannot lead students through this process and accept that different students can come up with different results (and also needs an answer key) should not be teaching Advanced Placement. Secondly, the reason there are numerous pages the same is that this is a WORKBOOK - it is intended that the student write in the book. And lastly, just the final two sections alone are worth the reasonable price of this book. Last year it took me hours to locate two different texts to compare for historical interpretation - this book has 42 pages of them! The exercises on chronological reasoning are also excellent and very helpful. As someone who scores the essays, I can attest that chronological reasoning is one of the weakest areas of many students' writing. The sample pages that introduce each historical thinking skill are excellent. John Irish has done a masterful job of determining themes that can be used under each type of historical thinking skill. He is also an individual who has worked on AP test development and knows exactly what College Board is looking for in emphasizing these skills. I applaud his efforts and am extremely grateful for the time he has saved me with this workbook for students. I'm just hoping he can get the AP Euro historical thinking skills workbook out as soon as possible!!!

Received the book in mint, crisp and clean condition. I'm a teacher. The graphic organizers in this book are great for students and teachers to use to plan their lessons. This book is not a substitute to teach students history. Instead, it can be used as a supplement to teacher's lessons. The teacher still needs to teach the lessons first before using the graphic organizers in this book.

I really like the exercises. I wish there was an answer key but I understand why there isn't. The samples are useful but could be better. I needed more direction for contectualization and synthesis but have figured out my own way. I also wasn't too sure about the venn diagrams. The line through them throws me off but it has expanded my own thinking as I try to figure out how to use them. I wouldn't work so hard for it if I didn't really like the historical questions being presented. I'm excited to use these!

If you teach AP United States history this is a most buy for yourself and if possible for your students. The historical interpretation section by themselves are worth the cost of this book. To have all of these resources and examples in one place are excellent. I will be shameless in my praise of John Irish, he is an excellent presenter for college board and if you are an APUSH teacher and you have not been to one of his training you really need to find a way to get there. He uses this book with his own students and he uses it during the institutes that he presents for. This book has saved me hours and hours of work. Thank you John Irish and Norton for this resource.

History is not a recitation of facts -- it is an interpretation of events. This book provides a number of ways for a student to view history in order to develop interpretations. I purchased this book to improve my teaching of high school history. As simple as the book's structure, it provides a great resource to tickle the minds of students in their efforts to crack the history code. This book will be a strong addition to my toolbox.Thank you.

I just recieved this in the mail last week and I've already started using it in my planning for the upcoming school year. Finally! A great resource for AP U.S. History teachers and students to begin doing the work of "applied history," which is so important, especially in light of the newly redesign AP U.S. History exam! High school students need to learn how to do and apply the skills of historical and critical thinking. This book provides the perfect platform for that work. I will also be using this with my Honors U.S. History and regular-level U.S. History classes. Thank you John Irish for another wonderful resource for high school history teachers!

Not what I was expecting. There are basically nine different worksheets in here. But each of the nine has the titled changed repeatedly to make it through the APUSH survey. So, for example, there's a worksheet called "Argumentation: Bacon's Rebellion was a turning point ..." with a support/refut T chart underneath it and a small section under that for a thesis. Not bad! But then that exact same worksheet is repeated for 20-30 more pages with only the question at the top changed. So twenty more support/refute T Charts with the these space at the bottom and only the question at the top changed. This is how all nine sections are done - same worksheet, different title.I agree with the earlier commenter - if an answer guide had been provided then this would be a valuable tool. As it is this seems like nine ideas spread out to make a workbook. It's disappointing. I suggest any of the Mike Henry books as an alternative, especially the new Threads of History.

My APUSH class used this workbook all year in preparation for the AP exam. This workbook provides a great way to organize, break down, and compare and contrast important historical events to know for the exam. I felt very prepared for the exam after using this workbook, and would recommend it to anyone in an AP US History class.