Standard 1: Historical Thinking

Students will develop historical thinking skills, including chronological thinking and recognizing change over time; contextualizing, comprehending and analyzing historical literature; researching historical sources; understanding the concept of historical causation; understanding competing narratives and interpretation; and constructing narratives and interpretation.

K-12 Performance Standards

Educational experiences in Grades K-4 will ensure that students:

gather historical data from multiple sources;
engage in reading challenging primary and secondary historical source materials, some of which is contradictory and requires questioning of validity;
describe sources of historical information;
identify the main idea in a source of historical information;
identify ways different cultures record their histories, compare past and present situations and events, a present findings in appropriate oral, written, and visual ways;
create timeline which sequence events and peoples, using days, weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries; and
write short narratives and statements of historical ideas and create other appropriate presentations from investigations of source materials.

Educational experiences in Grades 5-8 will ensure that students:

formulate historical questions based on primary and secondary sources, including documents, eyewitness accounts, letters and diaries, artifacts, real or simulated historical sites, charts, graphs, diagrams, and written texts;
gather information from multiple sources, including archives or electronic databases, to have experience with historical sources and to appreciate the need for multiple perspectives;
distinguish between primary and secondary sources;
interpret data in historical maps, photographs, art works and other artifacts;
examine data to determine the adequacy and sufficiency of evidence, point of view, historical context, bias, distortion and propaganda, and to distinguish fact from opinion;
analyze date in order to see persons and events in their historical contexts, understand causal factors and appreciate change over time;
examine current concepts, issues, events and themes from historical perspectives and identify principle conflicting ideas between competing narratives or interpretations of historical events; and
develop written narratives and short interpretive essays, as well as other appropriate presentations from investigations of source materials.

Educational experiences in Grades 9-12 will ensure that students:

formulate historical questions and hypotheses from multiple perspectives, using multiple sources;
gatehr, analyze and reconcile historical information, including contradictory data, from primary and secondary sources to support or reject hypotheses;
interpret oral traditions and legends as “histories”;
evaluate data within the historical, social, political and economic context in which it was created, testing its credibility and evaluating its bias;
describe the multiple intersecting causes of events, and
use primary source documents to analyze multiple perspectives.

Using the On-Line Learning Sites to Teach About Historical Thinking

The Museum’s on-line learning sites can be used to expose your students to variety of people and ideas from the past to foster their historical thinking.

The Lyme Art Colony flourished during the first two decades of the 20th century in the New England village of Old Lyme, Connecticut. The development of the art colony in this location was based on both history (what had happened in Old Lyme before 1900 that made the village a desirable location for artists) as well as the artists’ contemporary reaction to social issues of the day (the growing sense of anxiety in crowded urban areas and modernity with telephones and automobiles). The on-line learning sites are rich with well-researched explanatory texts infused with historical quotations from primary sources such as letters, newspapers, and memoirs. It also offers immediate access (through digitized images) of primary source documents such as vintage photographs, film clips, sketchbooks, diary pages, artifacts, drawings, and paintings. The on-line information and suggested activities create fertile ground for developing historical thinking skills.

Using the On-Line Learning Sites to Foster Historical Thinking

There are several sections of The Fox Chase site that can foster historical thinking:

Go to The Griswold House: Intro for information regarding the boardinghouse where many of the Old Lyme painters stayed including a virtual tour.
Go to The Griswold House: Imagine Yourself as an Artist for a description of how a typical artist would get to Old Lyme.
Go to The Griswold House: Who’s Who for information regarding the different roles people filled at the boardinghouse for artists.
Go to The Griswold House: Inside the House for a virtual tour of the boardinghouse where many of the Old Lyme painters stayed.
Go to School of Lyme for information regarding the development of the Lyme Art Colony including their working methods and leisure activities.

There are several sections of the In Situ site that can foster historical thinking:

Go to The Fox Chase by Henry Rankin Poore for information about the long panel that involves the members of the Lyme Art Colony in a mock fox hunt.
Go to Evening Skyline from the Water by Charles Vesin for information about his panel portraying the tallest building in the world in New York City.
Go to Hound Dog Baying at the Moon by Henry Rankin Poore and Bow Bridge in Moonlight by Henry Ward Ranger for information about how the tradition of painting on doors and panels at the Griswold boardinghouse was started.

Each of the following selections from the menu of Scholar Essays contains information that fosters historical thinking:

Go to Lyme Art Colony for information regarding the development of the Lyme Art Colony.
Go to Miss Florence for information regarding Florence Ann Griswold, the sea captain’s daughter who opened her house to the artists.
Go to CT Impressionism for information regarding the development of this American version of the French painting style.
Go to New England Identity for information regarding the Colonial Revival movement in America and its impact on art, architecture, and the decorative arts.
Go to Boardinghouse for information regarding the development of the boardinghouse system in American at the end of the 19th century.

Suggested Activities to Foster Historical Thinking

Go to Dear Miss Florence . . . for a lesson plan that prompts students to write a letter using a historic voice.
Go to Movie House to view all of the vintage film footage available from the Lyme Artists reels. Have your students create dialogue for the people in the film using appropriate historic voices.
Go to Planning a Visit for information regarding a field trip to the Florence Griswold Museum. Field trips include guided tours of the historic areas of the Griswold boardinghouse.
Go to Art Goes to School for information regarding the Museum’s outreach program Curtain Up On a Day at the Griswold Boardinghouse for Artists.
Have students write a letter to Miss Florence using the voice of one of the artists. Ask them to imagine what they experienced during their stay at her boardinghouse. Encourage them to use The Fox Chase website to get specific ideas and information about their artist.
Have the students write a diary entry using the voice of one of the artists. Ask them to describe a whole day from waking up to going to bed as part of the Lyme Art Colony.
Divide the students into small groups and have them design their own artist colony. Encourage them to give it a name and imagine where it would be, where the artists would stay, what kind of things would they make, what art style would they choose, etc. Have the various art colonies create examples of their artwork and report out to the class.
Have students create short skits based on ideas that are in The Story of Miss Florence and the Lyme Art Colony Have them decide where in the boardinghouse their skit would take place.