Mission, Vision, Competencies, Standards, and Benchmarks

Breakdown of Competencies
Competency: Historical Thinking
Description: Students will work to master…
‣ applying research methods associated with historical inquiry.
Essential Questions:
‣ What is "history?"
‣ How do we really know "what happened" when we weren't there to see it?
‣ What is power? Where does power come from?
‣ What makes some sources more reliable than others?
‣ What does bias tell us about a time period? About the people who defined that time
period?
Core Understandings:
Students will understand that…
‣ History is an activity of the present that requires us to make meaning now of the
"leftovers" of man's past events (artifacts, documents, art, archeological data,
traditions, etc.).
‣ "History" is inseparable from research. "Doing history" requires careful examination of
the evidence of past events. Identifying bias, questioning the reliability of sources,
checking written evidence against artifact evidence, and argumentation are all part of
what it means to "do history."
‣ Studying the past makes it possible for us to understand the human story across time,
enabling them to analyze the causes and consequences of events and developments
throughout history.
Competency: Awareness of Time, Continuity, and Change
Description: Students will work to master…
‣ Locating themselves in space and time.
‣ Building an awareness of sequence and learning to analyze the complex relationships
between events.
Essential Questions:
‣ What time is it? When are we?
‣ How long is an "age?" An "epoch?" What separates one time-period from another?
‣ What makes something "old?"
‣ How much does our past determine our present? Our future?
‣ Which models help us understand changes in human history? When do those models
get in the way of our understanding?
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