Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer?

This common refrain heard in social studies classrooms is the title and subject of a new book, written by CHE Lead Master Teacher, Bruce Lesh. Lesh, who has taught for the CHE since 1999, has refined a method of teaching history that mirrors the process used by historians, where students are taught to ask questions of evidence and develop historical explanations. Research has shown that when students are actively engaged in investigating the past, they find that history to be challenging and fun. As a result, they learn better and retain more information.

Each chapter focuses on a key concept in understanding history and then offers a sample unit on how the concept can be taught. By the end of the book, teachers will have learned how to teach history via a lens of interpretive questions and interrogative evidence that allows both student and teacher to develop evidence-based answers to history's greatest questions.

"Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer?" is available through Stenhouse Publishers at http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9337.

Posted by Rachel Brubaker on April 12, 2011 12:05 PM | Permalink