Assignment 1A

Article Review

Andrew Keane

4/14/19

National University

TED690

Professor Hart
 Abstract

The following is a review of “High School History Doesn’t Have To Be Boring”

an article from The Atlantic by History Teacher David Cutler. In the article Cutler

expresses the importance of using history as a means to teach students skills like

communication, critical thinking, and reasoning, while also relating history to

students lives by making a connection to current events. Cutler also focuses on

student mastery of concepts vs. the recollection of facts at a given time, facts student

well soon forget anyways.

 Article Review

As I was sifting through articles to populate my Professional Development

Quest portfolio I came across an article titled, “High School History Doesn’t Have to

Be Boring” and could not deny the erg to read more. Right when I dove into the text

my curiosity turned into excitement and as I read and found myself agreeing with

the text or having ah-ha moments of understanding of ideas I have not yet been

presented with before. There is no doubt the title of this article is correct for history

as well as for all subjects, but how do we as teachers compete with our fast pace

technology rich society to make education not boring? Those are the answers that

evoke my curiosity and spark my excitement.

Bruce Lech a renowned history teacher characterizes the currents state of

history instruction as “lecture, textbook and coverage”. Bruce Lech puts emphasis

not on a student’s ability to recall historical facts, which will be forgotten anyway,

but on “weather a student can critically, reference appropriate sources and support

an argument with evidence”. As history teachers it is not our Job to prepare students

for a career in the archives but to prepare students for “making presentations to

clients and arguments that are based on the application of evidence, and evidence is

gained through analysis of information. “

David Cutler the author of the article presents three major concepts that are

crucial for teaching History. First, “teachers are foolish to expect a student to

remember anything for long that has little to no direct relevance in their daily lives.”

Next, “ Teachers need to do a much better job of connecting history to today, and

place a greater emphasis on how young people could learn from past mistakes.
Finally, Teachers should assess students on what they can do with what they know,

rather than how much they know at any given time. As K-12 education transforms

and evolves with technology and society we as educators have to evolve with it.

Evolving for History teachers means to view history as a medium to teach

relevant skills like reasoning, critical thinking, writing, communication and

technology skills. This will make subject content more useful, engaging, and

relatable. At the end of the day it is about student mastery of concepts, ideas, and

knowledge or as Lesh puts it “I always tell students, my job is to help them convince

their parents that when they came in late after curfew, they shouldn’t get in trouble.

To do that, you have to make a logical, thoughtful argument that uses evidence and

examples.”
 References

1. Commission on Teacher Credentialing. (Mach 2013). Teaching Performance .

Retrieved from: http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/standards/adopted-TPEs-

2013.pdf

2. Costantino, P., Lorenzo, M., & Tirrel-Corbin. C. (2008). Developing a

Professional Teaching Portfolio: A Guide for Success, 3rd Edition, Pearson

Publishing.

3. The Atlantic. (May 2014). High School History Doesn’t Have to be Boring.

Retrieved from: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/05/how-i-

teach-history/361459/