High School > History > Common Core Videos

Common core standards for history relates to skills that students need to understand instruction focused on social sciences. One example would be to have them read historical documents and then analyze assertions from the author of such articles. Students would then gather supporting evidence for the claims in the document so that they can evaluate the validity of the author’s reasoning. In this students learn to find relevant and sufficient evidence.

While students may not strand into a degree in history, they still need to spend a lifetime learning about history through significant current and past events. Given the many different events in the world, students need to be able to identify impactful historical events. They learn to value historical themes and empathize historical dilemmas. In the case of the very social media environment they have in now, they also need to differentiate fake from the truth. This is where discernment through social sciences lessons and writing comes in. They will no longer see biographies and diaries as pieces of literature, but as evidence to certain occurrences in society. They begin to think more critically when reading original documents, narrative artifacts, and even legends.

Common core standards in social sciences create an environment for students to understand archives and historical sites as indispensable resources of the world, and perhaps, their only link to the past. This not only enriches their study in history but also allow them to understand complex themes throughout history and relate them to their own lives.