Brown_ C Journal Critique 1

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Apr 3, 2024

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Thematic Long Term US History Planning 1 Journal Critique: Themantic Long Term Planning for a Secondary US History Class Caroline Brown School of Education, Liberty University Author Note Caroline Brown I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Caroline Brown. Email: crbrown29@libtery.edu

Thematic Long Term US History Planning 2 Journal Critique: Themantic Long Term Planning for a Secondary US History Class Ask any history teacher what the most common questions students ask them and it will likely be, why are we even learning about stuff that happened more than 100 years ago? History is a complex and dynamic area of study, but can be difficult for students to connect with as well as conceptualize. Long term planning in a history course often times is easy to map out because it is typical to follow the linear timeline of historical events. In an effort to enchance student learning and understanding not only of the history itself, but the wider historical context and importance, Jason Endacott’s (2011) article Power and Liberty: A Long-Term Course Planning Strategy to Encourage the Contextualization of Events in American History describes how US history teachers specifically can think more thematically with their planning. By using power and liberty as the a thematic framework for studying American history, students gain a richer and more meaningful understanding of how these two concepts shaped our country’s past, as well as setting them up to analyze current events (p. 79) . Summary Thematically planning has shown to increase student understanding as well as engagement. Endacott’s argues specifically applies for how American History teachers can use the two principles of Power and Liberty to guide student discussion and learning and help them contextualize knowledge of our nations history when it comes to continuity and change (p. 73) . Power and liberty are two themes that lend itself to studying American history because they not only exist as founding ideals in our documents, but the dynamic struggles of our people and culture. As such, taking the time at the beginning of the class to have students pull these concepts

Thematic Long Term US History Planning 3 apart and truly understand them will help weave a historical thread throughout the entire course (pp. 74-75) . This creates a grounding place for students to view the historical events through that make it easier to recognize as well as understand. Wherever the curriculum allows it, teachers should take the time to reinforce this framework through discussions and guideing questions that "encourage student reflection on the threaded historical theme …” (p. 76) . Using these two themes also allow students to consider how current events play out and why. Ultimately using this long term thematic planning for teaching us history get students closer to the goal of critically analyzing historical events while also exploring the different reasons for importance to the diverse people who experienced it. Analysis Endacott’s article is found in research based strategies that have been proven to increase student learning and engagement. By choosing power and liberty to frame planning and instruction of an American history course, he points out how many curriculums already have these concepts in place within many of the standards as well as an endless possibilities for use of founding primary source documents that students. Not only does he clearly justify the uses of these concepts, he offers real world application for how to implement this thematic planning. He describes a simple introductory lesson that can easily be modified for the different student populations that teachers may encounter as well. He also described how subsequent discussions should be framed around carefully worded guided questions that he also provides. Overall, his strateqy is just as practical as it is enriching for teachers and students. Personal Reflection Thematic planning is something that I have always been interested in, but have geninuingly been scared to approach. There is debate over teaching history in timeline order or

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