Introducing the Historical Thinking Practice of Contextualizing to Middle School Students

ABSTRACT

This article describes the design of a social studies unit about the Johnstown Flood of 1889 with a particular emphasis on how specific unit resources engaged middle school students in learning about the geographical and historical context of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We also report on how the resources supported the teaching and learning of the historical thinking practice of contextualizing.

KEYWORDS:

• Contextualizing
• historical inquiry
• historical thinking practices
• middle school social studies