US History II

Today we focused on how your historical knowledge can be tested, such as on an exam. We brainstormed a long list of types of test questions.* We discussed how different kind of questions elicit different kinds of thinking, from simple recall of memorized material or recognition of a statement’s accuracy, to more complex thinking (explain, re-tell, synthesize, or in the case of an essay: develop points using evidence, empathize or think like a person in the past, etc). A good exam will do more than ask you to produce “lower order” or basic-level thinking – it will require you to do more with your brain. Research shows that when you use more of your brain, you learn better and retain more.

So, as a workshop, we divided up Chapters 25 and 26 into the book’s sections and split it up among the class so each person had one section. Each of you became experts on your section and then taught it to a partner. I would love to hear feedback on how you thought that went (I enabled comments on this post, if you’d like to comment), but from my perspective it seemed like that went very well – I saw lots of eye contact, close listening, nodding, asking of questions, give-and-take. In other words, you didn’t zone out on each other, doodle, text, stare off into space, or act disengaged. If only all lectures could be one-on-one! Hmm…

Then, once you had taught each other, I asked you to condense your knowledge (re-formulate, re-process) into a different format: something I call “8 Things.” For each section, I asked you to select or come up with 2 adjectives, 2 nouns, 2 verbs and 2 numbers. We recorded those on a wiki-page, which can be found here.

Finally, although we ran out of time for it, I had planned to have you write an exam question based on your section. I hope I get them via email from each of you sometime today, and I do promise to use the good ones on our next test. (“Good” = they involve different skills or parts of your brain; well-written; they don’t just focus on trivia but invite reflection, connection or critical thought).

*Our list of question types = multiple choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, essay, short answer, definition, identification, matching, map, timeline or chronological order, photograph/cartoon/visual image, correction, document-based-question, case study. Did I leave anything out?
Types of exams: in-class v. take-home; self v. professor-graded; open v. closed book.