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The Role of Historical Fiction in building Historical Empathy and Engagement in Social Studies Classrooms

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In recent years, “empathy” has generated buzz‒and not always in a good way. As some, such as Paul Bloom make a case “Against Empathy,” historical empathy has gotten lumped in with the subsequent criticism. 

At Thinking Nation, we see historical empathy is an essential tool in the historian’s toolbelt. But what do we actually mean by “historical empathy?”

Our Definition

Historical Empathy – Thinking historically means seeking to understand the past on its own terms by considering the context and perspectives of the era. It also means being aware of our own point of view to avoid presentism in our evaluation of the past.

In essence, historical empathy is a skill, not a feeling. It is about using context and evidence to understand the motivations and the actions of the people of the past. 

However, getting students to engage in this work can be challenging. And, historical fiction can be a powerful tool to make this task easier.

The Role of Historical Fiction

According to a new NCSS publication, Inquiry by the Book: Teaching Historical Fiction With the Inquiry Design Model, by Kristy A. Brugar and Annie McMahon Whitlock, “Historical fiction situates context, content, and perspective taking or point of view in narrative form. But equally‒if not more importantly as social studies educators‒historical fiction often serves as a source for students to interrogate as they seek to understand the past.”

SAMPLE LESSON

Let’s consider a Middle School U.S. History class studying the American Revolution. You have introduced students to the Winter at Valley Forge and you want them to dive into the sources‒but the 18th-century language feels daunting.

Imagine if you started with a dense primary source , like the one written by Alexander Hamilton about the conditions at Valley Forge. It begins with: “By injudicious changes and arrangements in the Commissary’s department, in the middle of a campaign, they have exposed the army frequently to temporary want, and to the danger of a dissolution, from absolute famine.” 

I bet I can guess how well that will go with your students… 

Now imagine, that instead you begin class by grounding students in the skill. Hand out the Historical Empathy Graphic Organizer to help them frame the topic and consider questions that activate their prior knowledge.

Next, divide students into three groups. One group will focus on the conditions at Valley Forge, another on ideas about freedom, and the last on the role of Baron von Steuben. Each group will read an excerpt from Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson.

One group’s excerpt describes “the snores and farts” of the soldiers and expresses that an absent soldier, who was thought to be dead, was “not permitted to be dead!”

Now, you’ve got your students hooked! 

Then, you have students work together to analyze the primary sources and fill out a “Notice, Wonder, Think” chart. Afterward, students can mingle with classmates to share what they learned.

Complete the lesson with a “Triangle, Square, Circle Exit Ticket.” Now, students who may have struggled to engage with primary sources are attempting and grappling with them. They likely still struggled, but just maybe, they didn’t give up.

The Power of Historical Fiction

This lesson demonstrates the impact that historical fiction can have.  Students are more likely to participate in the critical thinking that historians practice. Students develop a curiosity about the people and events of the past. Students are drawn into the stories and can more accurately understand the context for life in a historical period and appropriately empathize.

Download this sample lesson here!

Fostering historical empathy and incorporating historical fiction into the classroom is a passion of mine. I’d love to hear what you think of this lesson plan or what other ways you do this with your students! Let me know by emailing me at annie.jenson@thinkingnation.org or adding a comment!

*For more book recommendations, join me on Instagram and Goodreads where I host The American History Teacher Book Club.

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Strong Schools, Stronger Communities: The State of Education in Los Angeles

On Friday, October 4, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools hosted a one day conference at the USC Tower in downtown Los Angeles: Stronger Schools, Stronger Communities. In alignment with its 20th anniversary and rebrand, Alliance invited education stakeholders throughout L.A. to attend the one day event. The premise alone sends a needed message to Angelenos—if we want to strengthen public education, we must work together.

Often, it feels like providing high quality education for all Los Angeles students is a competition. Traditional districts compete with charter schools for enrollments and we are still making sense of the mass exodus from public education to homeschooling during the pandemic. But rather than dwell on these hardships, the event served as a planning session for the future.

Given my current role as executive director of Thinking Nation , a Los Angeles-based social studies education nonprofit, I was especially curious about how local education leaders were going to think through our schools and our communities. At the heart of Thinking Nation’s mission is to empower students. We believe that social studies is uniquely set up to do so. But of course, our focus is just one part of a student’s day. This one day event, covering the entire school day, provides necessary context for us to fulfill our own mission. The word ‘progress’ defined the day. It was a remarkably inspiring time together. Early in the morning, our emcee and Alliance’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Jass Stewart, M.Ed., M.B.A.

, reminded us that when Alliance began in 2004, only 49% of Los Angeles high schoolers were graduating. In looking at LAUSD’s metrics for the 2022-23 school year, it’s now 84%. If we include charter schools, it is likely even higher. Those who care about education in L.A. have clearly done great work. But of course, the work is not over.

In the first session, panelists discussed the state of education in Los Angeles. Continuing to highlight progress, Dr. Fernando Guerra, the Director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, pointed out that capital funding is secure and will likely continue to be strong. While this funding doesn’t directly correlate to student outcomes, that funding is critical for teachers and administrators to focus on our students. But what should we focus on? This question transitioned the conversation to measurement and accountability. Myrna Castrejón, the President & CEO of the California Charter Schools Association challenged us to reach a better consensus about what makes a great school. Measurement is critical if we want to support all students, especially students in historically underserved communities. Our consensus must be backed by data, Mayra A. Lara, Ed.D., Director of Southern California Partnerships & Engagement at Education Trust – West, argued. In many cases, she pointed out, we simply don’t have the data necessary to meet student needs. To continue to progress, we must curate and make meaning of helpful data.

This focus on data and accountability is one of the core reasons that Thinking Nation works with many Los Angeles schools, including Alliance. We harness generative AI to provide feedback to students on how they think about history, that is historical thinking skills, in order to provide teachers with thorough data reports on student thinking. Our goal here, to measure student thinking rather than student knowledge, is critical in supporting teachers to empower their students with the skills and dispositions necessary for civic and economic success.

In his post-lunch keynote address, L.A. city council president, Marqueece Harris-Dawson demonstrated how student empowerment leads to progress. He shared about how Jefferson High School, just two miles from where we convened on Friday, only had 1 working toilet for its 3600 students in 1997.

Students were given the right tools, access, and time, and as a result, successfully pushed the city to reallocate $200 million in funds toward bettering school campuses. Harris-Dawson, who helped organize student activism during that time, showed us that when we tell students they are empowered, they will act on it. This takeaway, of progress toward student empowerment, was woven throughout the other sessions of the day. It was lifegiving to be among so many educators who saw that and relentlessly pursued better education in our city. Of course, as history teaches us, nothing is inevitable. Historical progress is never guaranteed and is always contingent on human choice. As evidenced by Friday’s conferences, hundreds of educators around the city are poised to make the choices that support our kids. Let’s join them.

A Historical Review of U.S. Elections

We are currently 12 days away from election day here in the United States (in case you haven’t been paying attention). If you live in any of the swing states currently being bombarded with hundreds of political advertisements, rest assured that your regular programming will return shortly. Presidential elections eclipse almost everything else in the news cycle and dominate the attention of the nation like few other events can. While elections are temporary, they are important and impactful. The history of the United States, in fact, is intertwined with and demarcated by important political elections. Below are some of the most pivotal elections in United States history. 

Election of 1800: “Revolution of 1800”

The United States was a young democracy that had yet to experience a shift in political power. In other parts of the world, a shift in political power was usually accompanied by violence and turmoil. However, the “Revolution of 1800,” as it has come to be called, served as an important moment in the history of American elections because it was the first peaceful transfer of power between political parties. 

Election of 1824: “The Corrupt Bargain”

The race for the White House in 1824 was radically different from that of 1800. First, there were four candidates competing for the presidency; secondly, the election was decided by the House of Representatives. Andrew Jackson was denied the presidency because Henry Clay, who was also running for president, threw his support behind John Quincy Adams and mobilized others to stop Jackson. In 1828, Jackson, buoyed by supporters that believed that he had been denied the presidency in a “corrupt bargain,” would become the first President of the United States that was not directly connected to the “Founding Fathers.”

Election of 1860: The Rise of Honest Abe

It is an overused adage but: “Elections have consequences.” The Election of 1860 was one of the most consequential presidential elections in American history, as it directly led to the outbreak of the American Civil War. This election took place amid deep sectional tensions between the North and the South over the issue of slavery, and the results effectively split the nation along regional lines. Abraham Lincoln, the leader of the newly formed Republican Party, was elected with approximately 40% of the popular vote. Forty-four days after the election, South Carolina would be the first state to secede from the Union. The Civil War consumed Abraham Lincoln’s entire presidency. 

Election of 1932: A New Deal

By the election of 1932, the United States was in the midst of a Great Depression. Unemployment was at an all-time high and Herbert Hoover was hesitant to get directly involved in addressing many of the issues facing Americans. By 1932, Americans were ready for a change and elected Franklin D. Roosevelt as President of the United States. Roosevelt’s victory in 1932 set the stage for his unprecedented four-term presidency and the transformation of American politics and government in response to the challenges of the Great Depression and World War II.

Election of 1960: A New Frontier

The Election of 1960 was one of the closest and most historic presidential elections in American history. It was notable for its televised debates, its tight margin of victory, and the election of John F. Kennedy (JFK), the first Catholic and the youngest person ever elected as president of the United States. The election also marked a generational shift in American politics. “Let the word go forth from this time and place,” JFK said during his inauguration address in 1961, “that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” This new generation would expand the Cold War internationally and set a new tone for Civil Rights domestically. 

Election of 2008: Obama

The Election of 2008 saw the election of the first African American President of the United States, Barack Obama. Obama came to office as dissatisfaction with George W. Bush and the collapse of the banking system were dominating the news. Obama ran on a platform of “hope” and “change,“ promising to end the divisive politics of the past, reform the healthcare system, address climate change, and restore the U.S.’s global standing. 

Election of 2016: Trump

The majority of the political forecasters were wrong – Hillary Clinton would not become the 45th President of the United States. Instead, the election was won by a business mogul, who openly questioned Obama’s birthplace and who engaged in unscripted dialogue with reporters. Trump effectively used Twitter to bypass the traditional news media and to communicate directly with Americans. Trump’s approach with his rivals and his ability to pull from traditional Democratic voters essentially shifted the political landscape of the United States. 

Here at Thinking Nation, we believe in teaching historical thinking skills so that people can learn how to stay informed and so that they can actively participate in the political process. Thinking Nation believes in cultivating thinking citizens. So while this election will come and go, the need to continue to promote democratic participation, critical thinking, and equity will continue to drive the work we are doing at Thinking Nation. Democracy demands it. Join us. 

Texas Council for Social Studies

Will you be at the Texas Council for Social Studies? If so, come say hi to Annie Jenson, our Director of Curriculum. She is presenting and will be holding down our booth in the exhibit hall. Check out our press release for more information!

High Expectations = High Outcomes

During the 1960s, Robert Rosenthal, a psychologist, and Lenore Jacobson, an elementary school principal in California, set out to explore the effect of an educator’s expectations on student learning and instruction. In their study, elementary school teachers were told that certain students in their class were “academic bloomers” and that these students were expected to show significant academic growth during the school year. The study noted that, once told about the “academic bloomers,” teachers began to pay more attention to these students, began offering more feedback on their work, and took more time to provide challenging learning experiences. As a result of the teacher’s high expectations, these students, who were randomly selected and were not necessarily “academic bloomers,” showed increases in their IQ compared to the other students in the class. 

While the Pygmalion Effect Study, as it has come to be known, helps forward the idea that high teacher expectations can lead to higher educational outcomes for students, we know that many teachers continue to have a cycle of low expectations for students and their learning. Low expectations for student learning are influenced by many variables, including the teacher’s own personality, past experiences, the socioeconomic background of students, and the racial makeup of the school. We, as teachers, need to believe that all students can learn and that we can provide learning experiences that are challenging and doable. We need to break the cycle of low expectations. It takes work, but it can be done! 

The Pygmalion effect, for its part, is often viewed as a chicken and egg problem (expectations can influence performance but performance can also influence expectations, making it difficult to know which comes first). What is clear is that teachers make instructional decisions based on their perceptions of what their students can achieve and can often avoid exposing students to rigorous learning material because they have become convinced that it is out of the range of what their students can do.

Image Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/ 
Image Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/ 

At Thinking Nation, we believe that teachers should have high expectations for their students and for their learning. We challenge teachers to raise their expectations! Our resources provide ample opportunities for students to engage in critical thinking, evidence gathering, and argumentation. These skills, while difficult to teach, can make learning more relevant and more engaging for students. As a result, when students feel more engaged in their learning, they are more likely to challenge themselves and to grow academically. High expectations directly influence the learning materials the teacher selects or does not select. Our resources are built with the unyielding belief that all students can learn and that students can do hard things! 

Anyone who has ever watched a student playing video games can understand what determination to learn looks like. There is always a point in the game when a challenge is so demanding that the student “gives up.” Later, they return to the task and try again, and often fail to succeed even after a second try. Undeterred, the student continues to try over and over until they “get it.” While we are not arguing that a curated research paper (CRP) or a formative assessment is as innately engaging as a video game, we are arguing that students will challenge themselves and persevere when they feel the task is worthwhile. So let’s set high expectations for our students and design learning experiences that reflect those expectations. Onward! 

Watch our video discussing the need for high expectations in social studies education. 

History or the Past? The Difference that Changes Everything

[Looking to Register for our Socratic Seminar Webinar on October 17th? Click here.]

Recently, I was explaining a lesson plan that I love to a non-educator. In the lesson, students encounter the contents of a wallet that has been left behind and draw conclusions about who the owner could be. Through this investigation, students are introduced to the task of using evidence from the past to make a claim. 

I love this lesson because it prompts students to think critically about how historical narratives are constructed, encouraging them to question and carefully examine what we accept as truth. The person who was listening to my story, however, was disturbed by the lesson‒stating, “But, we do know what happened in the past. We have it written down.”

While there is some truth to that statement, it really comes down to understanding the difference between “history” and “the past.” While these two words seem very similar, they aren’t the same thing and the distinction between them is important. 

“The past” refers to everything that has ever happened since the beginning of time. However, much of the lives and actions of the majority of people, along with the objects they used, have been lost to time‒often because they were never recorded or were intentionally erased. This means that much of the past is truly unknowable. 

“History” is the study of the past. When we are engaging in the study of the past, we are engaging in the study of the ‘knowable’ past‒ the parts that have been recorded and preserved. 

“Revisionist history”

This explains why history is sometimes “revised” or “reinterpreted.” While the past itself remains unchanged, history evolves as evidence is uncovered or reexamined, at times enriching and other times disagreeing with our previous understandings. 

When a historical event or development is dealt with in a new light, the author can sometimes be disparaged‒labeled “a revisionist.” These reinterpretations are often criticized not based on their merits, but simply because they challenge the established view or narrative. 

Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer for The New Yorker, capitalizes on this controversy in his podcast, “Revisionist History.” By asking about the origins of the understanding about something from the past, he asks “whether we got it right the first time. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance.”

It is interesting, though not surprising, that challenging the historical narrative sparks controversy, particularly among those who purport to value objective truth. 

As historian James M. Banner, Jr. writes in The Ever-Changing Past: Why All History is Revisionist History, “… it is troubling to encounter people who dismiss substantiated historical evidence, plausible historical perspectives, and strongly-argued, evidence-based interpretations of the past simply because those versions of the past differ from their own, from what they think is proven and safe from challenge, or from what they dream the past ought to have been even if it never was as they imagine it.” 

In the classroom

For educators, this negative attitude toward “revisionist history” creates one more challenge to teaching social studies in our current climate. The fear over and opposition to considering new evidence and arguments directly contradicts the attitude and role of historians. As we strive to empower students to think historically, we can find ourselves stuck between a rock and hard place.

Practically speaking, the role of the educator is to guide students through the process of analyzing and questioning historical narratives, equipping them with the tools to critically assess the evidence available to us at this particular moment in time. We want our students to recognize that while the past doesn’t change, history is not static, but a dynamic field that thrives on inquiry, debate, and revision when necessary.

This requires use to encourage our students to ask tough questions:

  • For what purpose was the historical narrative constructed?
  • Whose voices have been left out?
    • What historical and personal contexts may have shaped the recording of the past?

Our job is not to simply teach facts and get students to regurgitate that information. Our classes become significantly more interesting when we teach them to study the complexity and nuance of the past.

In this way, we enable students to critically examine what they hear and learn not just within the walls of our classrooms, but in our fragile democracy as well. As Orwell’s quote reminds us, the ones who control the narrative of the past, hold power over both the present and future. As educators, we can equip our students with the skills and mindset to critically evaluate who has that power and hold them accountable for how they influence the stories we tell about the past and the lessons we take into the future.

The American Historical Association’s American History Report

On September 19th, our friends at the American Historical Association published a deeply needed report on the state of American History education in the United States. Having had the opportunity to work alongside the AHA’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Brendan Gillis, as well as speaking with two of the researchers on the report, Nicholas Kryczka and Scot McFarlane, as they finalized the project, I want to affirm just how much work went into this report. It is a prime example of what historians can bring to better understand the educational landscape in this country. 

Before I get into the main part of my own reflections on the report, I also want to shout out Scot McFarlane’s new initiative, the Oxbow History Company. The vision behind Oxbow, to take the tools of the historian and apply it to a variety of contexts, is brilliant. 

Back to the report. Both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times published articles in response to the publication of the American Historical Association report: American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools. I appreciate that the report was referenced by these national news outlets, and, at least in the case of the New York Times, represented well. As part of my own reflective exercise, I responded to them both. I linked the original articles before my responses, and I encourage you to read them. I also hope that these responses are helpful as we think about how we can use this report to shift the paradigm of history education.

Response to the New York Times

As Dana Goldstein summarized, the American Historical Association report on history education is a needed anchor. Without this data, we might believe the polarizing narratives that teachers use their classrooms to indoctrinate students on their particular view of American history. These narratives come from both left and right. 

The AHA report paints a better picture. It is a testament to the power of research and evidence. It reminds us that history teachers are professionals. Most history teachers take their job seriously to present “multiple sides of every story.” They root their classrooms in evidence. 

In the face of narratives that opine otherwise, let’s remember John Adams’ comment during the  Boston Massacre trial, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

While the article acknowledges how teachers utilize primary sources, like the one above, I want to underscore how important this is. Giving students the opportunity to analyze primary sources empowers them to think critically, gain empathy for multiple perspectives, and effectively evaluate evidence. Let’s better support teachers in this work. These skills can strengthen both public education and our pluralistic democracy.

Response to the Los Angeles Times

LZ Granderson’s article highlighting the American Historical Association’s American History report draws needed attention to the state of history education. After reading the report, however, Granderson’s thesis seems incongruent with its findings. The report is not a reckoning of how history is taught, but an outline of the good work being done in history classrooms.

Of course, some of Granderson’s concerns over our nation’s collective knowledge of the past are warranted and need to be addressed. But, to say a report on education in American history classrooms “is not going to be pretty” severely misrepresents the AHA’s findings. The AHA notes that it “did not find indoctrination, politicization, or classroom malpractice.” History teachers are doing good work.

The evidence-based history that many teachers prioritize is a model for how to engage with the past. The AHA report embodies hope for American history education. Granderson’s problem may be there, but it’s not in our classrooms.

New Historical Thinking Graphic Organizers!

Richard Feynman, the famed American theoretical physicist who notably worked alongside J. Robert Oppenheimer during the building of the first atomic bomb, once said, “If you can’t explain something in simple terms, then you don’t understand it yourself.” This quote by Feynman highlights the not-so-obvious fact that in order to truly master a concept, idea, or theory, one must be able to explain it and teach it to others. 

During the past couple of months at Thinking Nation, we have been working on developing graphic organizers that can support students in understanding how to apply and interpret historical thinking skills. Specifically, we have created graphic organizers that have focused on the historical thinking skills related to continuity and change over time, evaluating evidence, evaluating perspectives, evaluating arguments, and quantitative analysis. These historical thinking skills, while complex, are essential in helping students think critically and deeply about historical events.

The process of creating these graphic organizers has been a team effort by Thinking Nation’s curriculum staff. On one document, for instance, we made over dozens of edits trying to simplify the language, visuals, instructions, and graphics for both middle and high school students. Just when we thought we had finally captured the essence of the historical thinking skill in the graphic organizer, one more comment or a bit more feedback would send us back into another review cycle. The refinement process has been long, but has produced solid work that takes multifaceted historical thinking skills and shows students how to apply them. 

For example, in primary sources and secondary sources students often encounter different types of claims made by historical figures. Not all claims are equal, and history students need a systematic method for evaluating these claims. To help students, we developed a simple acronym titled “CLAIM.” CLAIM stands for: Claim, Logic, Authority, Intuition, and Merit. Each of the letters in the acronym is aligned to a specific element for evaluating claims, and has scaffolded questions that help students methodically evaluate the claim. 

Another example of how we took complex concepts and created resources for students to use can be seen through the continuity and change graphic organizer. In history, there are hundreds of events that have precipitated great changes for people and society. During the era of Reconstruction, for instance, social life for many African Americans changed throughout the country, yet economic opportunities remained out of reach for many newly emancipated people, who, out of necessity, turned to sharecropping. The advanced graphic organizer developed by our Thinking Nation team allows students to unpack historical events – like the Era of Reconstruction – and analyze the juxtaposition of what changed and what continued on for a particular group in society. Additionally, students are asked to justify why one of the cited examples in the graphic organizer represents a major continuity or change in history.

Throughout his life, Richard Feyman wrote and lectured extensively about concepts related to quantum mechanics and physics. His books have sold widely in various languages throughout the world because of their broad readability and for the ways Feynman made complex ideas accessible to laymen. The ability to explain the complex to others and to simplify multifaceted concepts takes skill, time, and effort. The work we did here at Thinking Nation over the past month will help explain complex concepts in simple terms to students, and will help teachers teach and reinforce those skills over the course of the school year. As a team, we are proud of the work we did and are convinced that it will help students become better historical thinkers!

THINKING NATION TEACHERS! Head to the Teacher Tool Kit when logged in to download all of the new graphic organizers!

Exciting Thinking Nation Platform Updates!

In this week’s newsletter, we want to highlight the major platform updates we underwent over summer to ensure that our teachers have the best tools at their disposal. We are excited to share the latest updates, all aimed at simplifying the teaching workflow and enhancing students’ learning experience. Let’s dive into the key changes and improvements! (Also, if you want a video overview of the updates, go here!)

1. Resources Organized by Topic for Easy Navigation

We’ve reorganized the platform’s resources by topic. This change is aimed at making it easier for teachers to find and navigate through the platform. Now, everything you need is more accessible, helping you spend less time searching and more time teaching.

2. Select the Resources You Want to Assign

Our new filter option allows teachers to select exactly what they need. The filter ensures that teachers only see what they are looking for, making the assignment process faster and more tailored to the classroom’s needs.

3. A Unit Overview to Streamline Your Planning

We’ve added a Unit Overview feature that serves two essential purposes. First, it provides a quick and easy view of all available resources for a specific topic. This feature helps maintain consistency in how resources are used, allowing teachers to see what’s available at a glance. Second, it demonstrates clear alignment to various educational standards. The Unit Overviews show alignment to Common Core, California, Texas, EAD, or C3 standards.

4. AI-Enhanced Formative Assessments

We’ve integrated AI-powered formative assessments to assist in grading short answers automatically. This new feature will grade responses based on our rubrics criterias, providing immediate feedback to teachers and students. Teachers still have full control over the assignments as they can edit scores and feedback at any point before releasing grades to students. The “edit feedback/score” button is at the bottom right corner of the page when viewing the AI-given feedback and score.

We hope these platform updates will improve teachers’ experience with the platform and help them kick off the 2024-25 school year with confidence and efficiency. (and check out this video summary of the updates)

New Posters, New Podcasts!

The Thinking Nation team has been hard at work over summer so that we can best support all of the wonderful teachers we work with! In next week’s blog, we will look at some of the platform updates that took place recently, offering teachers and students a more streamlined way to engage with the disciplinary nature of our classes. This week, though, we want to highlight our new posters and podcasts that may be of particular help at the beginning of the school year.

First, you asked, and we listened! We created a few different posters that are available free for you to print out and hang in your rooms. We hope that these posters further cement the language of historical thinking and analysis in your classrooms as students begin to internalize that “unnatural act” of historical thinking (click on the poster image to download the file).

New Podcasts

We’ve had several new podcasts/youtube videos published in the last month. Head over to the Thinking Historically About series on our Youtube Channel to find the video versions of most of the conversations. All of the conversations are published as podcasts. Head over to Apple Podcasts or Buzzsprout to listen! Here are the episodes:

  • Thinking Historically About the Relationship between American Indians and Europeans with Dr. James Merrell, Vassar College (July 30)
  • Thinking Historically with Dr. Catherine O’Donnell, Arizona State University – Why Should We Think Historically? (August 5)
  • Thinking Historically About LGBTQ Protest with Dr. J.B. Mayo, University of Minnesota (August 13)
  • Thinking Historically About Japanese Incarceration during World War II with Dr. Lily Anne Welty Tamai, California State University, Channel Islands (August 27)
  • Thinking Historically About the Labor Movement with Dr. Dylan Shearer, University of Illinois, Chicago (September 5)

In each episode, the scholar explores the same essential question that guides our units. We hope these are helpful resources for you and your students as they engage in the work of the historian.

As you kick off the 2024-25 school year, we hope that these posters and podcasts better serve you as you aim to shift the paradigm of what social studies can be for your students.

This Week in History

There has been much talk in the media this week about historical moments. While we are certainly experiencing a very momentous time in our nation’s history at present, I went back into the past to consider a rather significant event that occurred on July 21, 1969. That was the day a man first walked on the Moon.

The United States space program was a capstone to a period of exploration and scientific discoveries. The 1960s were also a time of educational innovation. In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched this period of change with the issuance of Proclamation 3363, designating  “the period from November 6 through November 12, 1960, as American Education Week; (urging) citizens throughout the Nation to participate actively the observance of that week in their schools and communities.” The proclamation also encouraged that Americans “study the programs of our schools and demonstrate our support for the work of our dedicated teachers. (And) take every opportunity to strengthen our educational system so that our young people can be prepared to meet the challenge imposed on our Nation by this competitive century.” And over the course of the decade the Federal Government became increasingly education-oriented. There was an increase in federal aid and more programs were created to support education.

On the national level, the most significant changes to education affected students who were disadvantaged economically or educationally, with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Bilingual education increased. And as scholars and theorists voiced criticism of the manner in which Americans were educated, across the country schools and teachers gained the freedom to try creative ideas in an effort to improve education. For social studies education specifically (because this is after all a social studies blog) students began studying old subjects in new ways. One of product of the civil rights movement was a change in the approach to teaching American history. Courses exploring the founding of the United States began emphasizing diversity. The struggles of black Americans for equality were added to course material, as were the experiences of Native Americans. Education experts pushed for teachers to be empowered to develop their students’ minds and encourage their intellectual curiosity, rather than merely stressing learning by rote memorization.

Fueling the transformation of social studies education were numerous grant funded projects, many notably led by historians Edwin Fenton and Richard Brown. They and others created instructional materials, provided professional development to teachers, and entered into agreements with publishers, to transform traditional content focused history taught through lectures and use of a textbook, into new frameworks characterized by engaging materials where teachers used methods of inquiry to get students thinking, seeing, and writing about the past. The goal Brown wrote was to commit “to the idea that ‘history’ is primarily a way of learning and secondarily a body of knowledge…. To be sure, we (agree) that history as a body of knowledge is also important—the more that one knows of the past the better one’s ability to ask good questions of it—but nonetheless, we (view) the body of knowledge as essentially a treasure trove to be used rather than ‘mastered’ as an end in itself….”

This echoes the mission and vision of Thinking Nation today. So, what happened decades ago to unravel the progress made by these and other visionaries? Their reforms in teaching were overshadowed by controversies associated with the diversity of the subject matter. “Academic freedom struggles emerged in cities and towns across the nation as the “new social studies” went on trial.  (Fenton), called it a “national conspiracy” led by a small and interconnected group of extremists. And so, it was “back to the basics” along with a revival of traditional history defined largely as the acquisition of historical “facts.” Among those contributing to the backlash of the “new social studies” were critics of progressive education, including “The Council on Basic Education, business groups, religious fundamentalists, textbook critics Mel and Norma Gabler, neoconservative educators Diane Ravitch and Chester Finn, and backed by conservative funders with deep pockets such as the Heritage Foundation.” (Evans, R. W. (2011). The Tragedy of American School Reform: How Curriculum Politics and Entrenched Dilemmas Have Diverted Us from Democracy. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.)

What followed also included a growing concern about failing schools, a focus on standards, and eventually, the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 , promising to “combat the “soft bigotry of low expectations” in public education through a set of nationwide standards and federally enforced accountability.” Standardized tests focused on reading and math followed, and the era of teaching to the test began. And then of course, in early 2000s the United States began an intense focus on and funding of STEM courses. Social Studies was pushed to the side, as is covered in our white paper “A Second Class Subject? Why Social Studies Gets Short Shrift in U.S. Middle and High Schools,” published last November by the Education Week Research Center.  Now we find ourselves once again needing to transform social studies education—or perhaps “re-form” it back to what the innovators of the 1960s infused into the discipline.

Thinking Nation also believes in sharing the “undertold” stories of historical figures not featured in most textbooks. Our units cover “Women and the American Revolution” and “Women and the Civil War,” “The Jewish Experience in Nazi Germany,” “WWI and Minorities,” “Japanese Incarceration,” “El Salvadoran Migration,” “The Chicano Movement,” and more. There are Civics-Centered Topics which focus on “Protecting Civil Liberties,”The Citizen’s Role,” “Presidential Power,” “Social Media and Democracy,” and many more.

To learn more, you may download free resources available via our website. And feel free to Connect With Us to learn more

Back to School Webinar!

Please join Thinking Nation for: Empowering Students as Historical Thinkers: Transforming Social Studies Classrooms

Unlock the power of historical thinking in your classroom! Join us on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, from 3-4:30 PM CST for an exclusive webinar designed to provide you with methods to shift historical thinking from the teacher to the student. Gain practical strategies you can implement from day one, and receive free resources just for signing up, with even more available during the webinar. All registrants will additionally receive a recording of the webinar and a professional development certificate. Don’t miss this chance to equip yourself with everything you need for a classroom centered around historical thinking!

Register Today!

Early Learners Can Think Critically Too

Hello! I’m Valerie Badica, Operational Support at Thinking Nation. I was excited to take over this week’s blog to be able to share a bit about myself and experience in the education field. Although I have a few years of experience in the role of operations, before this, I was a preschool teacher for six years and received my Masters in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Early Childhood Development. During my teaching career, I had the privilege of working at a preschool that supported children with their intrinsic motivation to explore, learn, and think critically. This really shaped the way I viewed teaching and helped me to understand that all children are curious about the world around them and inherently want to learn and create. 

I think it’s safe to say that we all learn better when we’re engaged in activities we’re already interested in, right? The same goes for children! That’s because learning seems interesting when we can relate to it. This thought is already found in research as one approach for successful ways to integrate social studies into elementary classrooms– by making content relevant to student’s lives as stated in 2023 CCSSO Guidelines: “Effective Social Studies Integration in Elementary Classrooms.” (Check out our past blog post for more research around elementary social studies).

One of the things I found most rewarding in working with young children was building close relationships with them but most importantly, knowing that I was helping them add social and learning skills to their toolbelt that are required of them by the time they get to elementary school. An example of what these relevant teaching opportunities looked like was when I would help children through conflict resolution if they were fighting over a toy. I never resolved the situation for them by telling them what they needed to do but rather, act as a narrator and state what I noticed and then helped facilitate a solution that was agreed upon by all children involved. This might sound like me simply stating, “It looks like you both want to ride the bike right now but we only have one bike, I wonder what we can do about that?” This helped students think critically and start a conversation about coming to a resolution while learning about perspective and empathy.

Another favorite memory of mine was watching children engage in pretend play. This happened every day at preschool but I especially remember a time where children built an ice cream shop using big wood blocks and later took on different roles such as customer, cashier and even traffic officer. So much learning is happening during this play time; children are engaged physically, socially, cognitively and developing turn-taking, negotiation skills, authority and so much more. Children can relate to this because they are clearly imitating what they see in the social world and by allowing these types of learning experiences to happen in the early years of a child’s life, we allow their curious minds to think critically and continue being curious and harness their love for learning later in life as they move on to grade school and on.

Thinking Nation’s Disciplinary Thinking Skills

Similarly, Thinking Nation’s mission to cultivate critical thinkers goes hand-in-hand with the skills taught as early as preschool age to become thoughtful leaders in society. In fact, one of the reasons why I enjoy working for an organization like Thinking Nation is because I noticed that the disciplinary skills used to empower students and feel confident in their thinking, are similar skills I taught early learners and complement each other.

I’d like to leave you with some good news! Thinking Nation is working to develop a curriculum for young learners in the near future and I’m excited to be a part of something that helps students’ ideas feel important and think critically so that they have a voice wherever they go, at any age.

The National Charter Schools Conference – In BOSTON

Last week, Thinking Nation (Spenser, Liz, and I) flew out to Boston for the annual National Charter Schools Conference. As we’ve noted, this is the 2nd year that we partnered with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools to do a themed student art contest and history exhibit for the conference. Naturally, since the conference took place right up until Independence Day in the city many see as the seed of the Revolution, our theme was easy! Below are some pictures of the little exhibit that attendees were able to take in. 

Some of the Student Art Work.
The Mini history exhibit we did with Revolutionary Spaces.

Overall, the conference was so exciting! The exhibit hall was bustling and we had so many great conversations with such passionate educators. The organizers of the conference, in particular Angela Christophe and Patricia Guidetti, truly put on such a wonderful event. We feel so fortunate to play a small, but personally special, part in it.

While at the conference it was great to meet or see again in person so many leaders in California Charter Schools, where we got our start, and in the civics space. Embodied relationships are so refreshing in the virtual world we often live in. 

The team at our booth!

Of course, what would a conference in Boston be like for Thinking Nation if we didn’t incorporate some mini history field trips? The three of us walked the Freedom Trail, which was really a surreal experience given it being the week of Independence Day. Some highlights for me personally, as it’s been a decade since I’ve been in Boston: 

Spenser standing on the site of the Boston Massacre.

1. Visiting the graves of the victims of the Boston Massacre – I don’t take lightly that Crispus Attucks has a named grave in a colonial Boston cemetery. Boston did not outlaw slavery until 1783, 13 years before Attucks, a African-Indigenous man was killed in front of the Old State House and memorialized in the Granary Burial Ground alongside the other four victims. In the spirit of this note, John Wheatley, who enslaved America’s first Black Author, Phillis Wheatley, is also buried there.

Faneuil Hall


2. Visiting Tremont Temple and Faneuil Hall. While these two sites hold great historical importance, those of you who know me know that I spent a year of my scholarly life with the writings of Frederick Douglass, so re-thinking these sites knowing he, too, visited and spoke at them, was especially exciting.


3. Having dinner at America’s oldest restaurant, Ye Old Union Oyster House. Not only did we eat right next to the “Kennedy Booth,” where JFK ate, but while there, I learned that before it was a restaurant (pre-1826), French King Louis Philippe I taught French to Bostonians there! How cool is that?

4. Seeing the beautiful mosaic representing the site of our nation’s first public school. After all, quality public education is why we were in the city!

The site of the first public school in the U.S.!
Hey Wally!

5. Attending a reception at Fenway. Fenway is one of those Baseball stadiums that borders a spiritual experience so any excuse to be alongside the green monster, and as the picture shows, Wally the Green Monster, is a good one.

Boston, you are a great city. It was a great National Charter Schools Conference!

Happy (Fiscal) New Year!

Happy (Fiscal) New Year! I am Spenser Mix, COO of Thinking Nation. We have grown significantly this past year in many ways. I am taking this moment to reflect on some of our larger accomplishments, none of which would be possible without our dedicated staff. Not only has our team grown in size, but through our shared efforts we have also grown closer.

Sample AI Feedback

AI IS HERE!!! The team pulled together and revolutionized our platform in ways previously thought unimaginable. AI has allowed us to offer our services instantly and with more fidelity. In 2020, when earning my MBA, I spoke with an engineer from Amazon about an idea to automate essay grading through AI. I was told AI should not be used in this capacity because (in their limited opinion) it eliminates the human aspect of education. Four short years later, here we are integrating that original idea. Today we understand that AI has the potential to enhance the human experience for teachers instead of depleting it. These tools are in place to lighten teachers’ workload, not eliminate them. As a former teacher, I understand how grading papers on the weekend drained me as a professional and made me a less effective teacher during the week. Thinking Nation embraces these tools so teachers everywhere can be their best selves in the classroom and spend more time living their teaching passions. This is only the beginning of our AI capabilities. Many more projects are soon underway!

Another large accomplishment for us last year was the company rebrand. After many attempts to curate the perfect depiction of Thinking Nation, the leadership team unanimously adopted this new design. The colors are engaging but not abrasive. The logo is simple yet impactful. What do you see first when looking at our logo? Do you only notice the two comment bubbles forming a “T”? Or does your artistic eye notice the “N” formed through the negative space between the two bubbles? The logo is meant to represent the ongoing civil discourse that is necessary to have an informed and active citizenry. A continued dialogue where opposing views can debate for the betterment of democracy. Needless to say, we love our new logo and its embodiment of our nonprofit mission, to cultivate thinking citizens. 

As a side project to this rebrand, we commissioned the creation of historical thinking icons. These icons are basic, yet thought-provoking. Just like the rest of our rebrand, this careful balance of meaning and impact is perfectly executed through these icons. They are quickly becoming a central part of our curriculum and soon to become iconic in their own right. This year we plan to incorporate these icons into student portfolios providing a visually pleasing and effective way for teachers to demonstrate student mastery of historical thinking skills. AI will become central to the creation and implementation of these portfolios. 

The achievements of 2023 are quickly becoming the foundations for 2024’s goals. The best is yet to come!

The Reagan Institute Summit on Education 2024

What can we collectively do to empower every learner? Dozens of government officials, education leaders, and teachers convened at the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington, D.C. to think about the best way to answer that question. This past May 23nd marked the 7th annual Reagan Institute Summit on Education, RISE. 

Zach and Liz at RISE 2024
Zach and Liz at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education

The sheer location of the Reagan Institute, with the White House in sight, presents a sort of urgency to the event. In my job at Thinking Nation, I live in this state of urgency to pursue a better education for our students. Our organization seeks to shift the paradigm of social studies education by equipping teachers to empower their students in disciplinary thinking. We know that when students engage with the past they study, rather than merely remember it, they are empowered to flourish in both civic and economic life. I was anxious to hear how others’ areas of focus overlapped with ours. 

Many of the panels throughout the summit offered provoking ideas and plans of action. However, it was the first panel that I believe set the tone for needed conversations on how we can empower students. Three state leaders in education discussed accountability in schools as they answered the question “Have we reached the low watermark for accountability in schools?” Virginian State Secretary of Education, Aimee Guidera, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, Carrie Wright, and North Dakota State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Kirsten Baesler each offered their state’s approach to cementing high standards and corresponding accountability in their schools.

Wright previously served in this role for the state of Mississippi. During her tenure, the state exponentially increased reading scores as evidenced by 4th graders in the state going from 50th to 21st in the nation on the NAEP reading scores. Now in her home state of Maryland, she offered up key aspects of that success. Data was at the core of it. 

Data has to drive instruction, and teachers need to know how to leverage the data effectively. If they don’t? “Build professional learning,” she noted. Building teacher capacity is critical to empowering students. This clear connection between accountability standards, corresponding data to measure those standards, and teacher capacity to use that data, was echoed by the other two leaders as well.

Guidera acknowledged that we, as the adults, need to hold ourselves accountable to helping students meet high expectations. In fact, Baesler took it further, stating, “There is education malpractice if we don’t believe our students can achieve high expectations.” But, as all three noted, with No Child Left Behind, the high standards were not coupled with building teacher capacity. This key component, professional learning for teachers, is key to the success of an accountability model embodied by high expectations. 

Thinking Nation prioritizes data at the center of all that we do with schools. In fact, we’ve leveraged generative AI to make that data instant and easily digestible by teachers in order to facilitate student growth effectively without overburdening teachers. Discernable data can better equip teachers, align whole departments, increase interdisciplinary collaboration, and most importantly, lead to empowered students. 

To be transparent, as a former middle school history teacher, I questioned the need for data in the classroom. I felt that it just encouraged teachers to teach to a test and weakened the art of teaching. But I was missing the bigger picture. 

Without data, I didn’t have a common language of success to use with my colleagues. As a department head, I struggled to break down the silos of our classroom walls. Collaboration without a shared focus and a way to measure that focus was always well intentioned but difficult to implement. Data has changed that. 

The shared focus exists by rooting social studies in the discipline, rather than the myriad contents contained within. Then, teachers can have a common language to measure success. They can engage in high level conversations about student success by leveraging resulting data from assessments on disciplinary thinking. When built into the accountability models of schools, we’ve found this to be transformative. It gives meaning to the classroom for students and empowers them as thinkers ready to shape the future. 

As the state leaders on the panel noted, we need high expectations in our schools. But building teacher capacity to help students meet those expectations is critical. In many ways, we’ve failed our teachers. We’ve continued to burden them with demands without giving them the tools to meet those demands. I hope that as other leaders and policy makers at RISE reflected on those insights, we can collectively work to enact real and systemic change to give teachers what they need to empower our students. Those students, our communities, and our country deserve it.

Summer Reads for the History Teacher

Grades submitted ✔

Classroom packed✔

End-of-Year Checklist turned in ✔

Now what?

If you are like me, you are hoping to find that elusive balance of relaxation and professional development. After a busy year in the classroom, I always look forward to these weeks to recharge and revitalize some parts of the curriculum that didn’t quite hit the mark last year. 

Both Thinking Nation’s Executive Director, Zach Coté, and I completed our MA in American History through the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!). Deepening our content knowledge had a massive impact on our ability to create engaging learning experiences and ignite our students’ curiosity toward studying the past. 

That’s why the Thinking Nation Team put together a curated list of our top recommendations for your summer professional development. Use this list to find some reads to get you inspired to take your teaching to the next level!

Pedagogy

  • Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning by Jenna Copper, Ashley Bible, Abby Gross, and Staci Lamb
  • Reading Like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle and High School History Classrooms by Samuel Wineburg
  • We Got This: Equity, Access and the Quest to be Who Our Students Need Us to Be by Cornelius Minor
  • Why Won’t You Just Tell Us the Answer: Teaching Historical Thinking in Grades 7-12 by Bruce Lesh

Nonfiction

  • On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
  • Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy
  • The World: A Family History of Humanity by Simon Sebag Montefiore
  • A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
  • The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer
  • The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough

Historical Fiction

  • We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
  • This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
  • Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
  • Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
  • The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah

We hope you find this list of recommendations as valuable as we have. Summer is the perfect time to invest in yourself and your teaching practice. By diving into these impactful books, you’ll not only deepen your own understanding but also bring fresh, engaging content into your classroom next year.

Take this time to relax, recharge, and get reinspired to enter your classroom with newfound knowledge, diverse perspectives, and enthusiasm for studying the past. 

Happy reading and enjoy your well-deserved break!

Annie


*For more book recommendations, join me on Instagram and Goodreads where I host The American History Teacher Book Club.

Integrating AI into Thinking Nation: The Journey and Story Behind Our Innovation

Since December, Thinking Nation has embarked on an exciting journey of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our platform for grading essays. This initiative represents a significant step forward in our mission to transform social studies education by providing detailed, instant feedback to students. For more on AI’s role in the mission, check out this EdSurge Podcast with our executive director. This week, we delve into the story behind the process of developing, implementing, and refining our AI integration.

Developing, Training, and Integrating Our AI System

The journey began with the intricate task of building the AI algorithm. Our team of engineers and data scientists worked tirelessly to develop a robust infrastructure capable of assessing complex writing tasks. This involved extensive coding and system design to ensure the AI could accurately evaluate essays based on our rubric standards.

Training the AI with past data was a critical phase in the process. We fed the system thousands of previously graded essays, allowing it to learn from a wide spectrum of writing styles and proficiency levels. This training enabled the AI to recognize various writing patterns and understand and apply the rubrics and argumentation criteria.

Once the AI was adequately trained, we moved on to rigorous testing. This phase involved running numerous simulations to evaluate the AI’s performance and accuracy. We made iterative adjustments based on the results, fine-tuning the algorithm to enhance its reliability. This extensive testing was essential to ensure that the feedback provided by the AI was both precise and meaningful.

After the AI demonstrated consistent and accurate performance, we integrated it into our platform through an API. This integration was designed to be seamless, allowing the AI to interact efficiently with our existing systems. The API ensures that once a student submits their essay, the AI can instantly grade it and provide detailed feedback within seconds.

Even after integration, the work didn’t stop. Continuous fine-tuning is essential to maintain and improve the AI’s performance. Our human graders play a crucial role in this process. They review the AI’s feedback to ensure it aligns with our rubric standards and to identify any potential biases and inaccuracies. This ongoing moderation helps refine the algorithm, ensuring that the AI’s assessments remain accurate and unbiased over time.

Survey Results and Case Study Insights

To evaluate the effectiveness of our AI integration, we conducted surveys and case studies. The results highlighted several key benefits of our AI-powered feedback system:

  1. Understanding the Rubric: 68% of students reported a better understanding of the rubric due to the detailed feedback provided by AI.
  2. Enhancement of Literacy Skills: 70% of students observed significant improvements in their writing skills, attributing this growth to the precise and actionable feedback from AI.
  3. Accuracy of Feedback: AI grading proved to be 77% more accurate than human grading. This increased accuracy is largely due to the elimination of human biases and the consistent application of standardized rubrics across all essays, leading to fairer and more objective assessments.
  4. Comprehensive Feedback: The detailed feedback provided by AI, allows for longer explanations and deeper analyses. This demonstrates promise for enhancing students’ understanding of assignments, offering clearer insights into strengths and areas for improvement.

These findings underscore the transformative impact of integrating AI on student learning and teacher effectiveness (full report here). The instant and detailed feedback provided by AI empowers students to reflect on and improve their writing skills in real-time. This not only enhances their understanding of historical thinking but also boosts their overall academic performance. After all, we want to ensure that we use AI for human flourishing.

As we continue to improve our AI system, we look forward to sharing more updates on this exciting journey and the positive impact it will have on social studies education.

Welcoming our Summer Intern, Elena Quiroz

[Note from Zach: Elena joins us as an intern for the next 8 weeks and we are really excited! I asked her to take over this week’s blog and newsletter to share more about herself, her internship , and her goals. Enjoy!]

My name is Elena, and I’m currently a rising junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I was born in New York but moved to Peru when I was five and lived there my whole life until I moved back to the US for college. Growing up in Peru, I was able to see the political and social divide and instability, which motivated me to study Political Science and History. 

I’m currently living in Washington DC and staying here for most of the summer as a part of the Academy for Civic Education and Democracy (ACED) program at the Ronald Reagan Institute. The program focuses on creating the next generation of civic leaders, something which resonates with my passion for civic engagement. The program includes incredible opportunities to network with peers, listen to speakers, and visit organizations all around DC. Alongside this program, I’m thrilled to be interning at Thinking Nation. Coming from Lima, Peru, my journey to this point has been heavily shaped by witnessing firsthand educational disparities and societal divisions and seeing how these can limit opportunities for people across the country. Growing up, it was clear how unequal access to quality education impeded the ability of many to become engaged and involved citizens. My background is the main reason why I am enthusiastic about involving myself in initiatives that create fair learning opportunities for everyone. Thinking Nation’s mission to create critical thinkers aligns perfectly with my strong belief that education can empower individuals and create a powerful impact on society. 

During my internship, I will primarily focus on one of my main projects involving creating comprehensive unit overviews and ensuring Thinking Nation’s resources meet educational standards. This hands-on experience will help me sharpen my research and analytical skills, and help deepen my understanding of curriculum development. 

Choosing to join Thinking Nation was an easy decision for me. The organization’s commitment to empowering students to become thoughtful and active thinkers and citizens aligned perfectly with my values. During my internship, I hope to gain practical experience and tools to address the challenges in education. I’m incredibly excited to make an impact on students’ lives. Whether it’s refining curriculum materials or advocating for educational equity, I am really driven by the idea of helping students reach their full potential. I believe my upbringing in Peru has made me appreciate diversity and the power of education more and I’m excited to talk with colleagues who share the same dedication about creating a social impact. Through this experience, I am eager to learn and contribute to meaningful projects. 

Looking ahead, I see this experience with Thinking Nation and through the Academy for Civic Education and Democracy as a crucial step in both my personal and professional growth. Being able to be involved in projects that have an impact on the real world is something that will help me deepen my understanding of civic engagement and social unity. As I start my journey with Thinking Nation, I am filled with excitement and optimism to learn, grow, and be able to contribute to a mission that aligns with what I’m passionate about.

AI for Human Flourishing

Last week, I read The Atlantic article, “The Big AI Risk Not Enough People Are Seeing: Beware Technology That Makes Us Less Human” by Tyler Austin Harper. His primary case, that AI must be used for human flourishing, is one that I have often made in AI circles the last year. Harper has recently been one of my favorite journalists to read. His cultural commentary consistently verbalizes things I’ve been thinking about in ways I couldn’t have done so effectively. I’m thankful to the Atlantic for prioritizing his writing regularly. 

I want to take today’s post to dissect his claims a bit and also elaborate on how we take those claims seriously at Thinking Nation internally, as well as how we uphold the vision behind those claims in our collaborative work in the civics space. Generative AI has upended life as we know it, and it will only continue to do so. Not all upending is bad, though, so we must take into account how we use it in order to promote human flourishing. What we can’t do, as Harper so helpfully describes, is let it use us to detract from human flourishing.

Harper explores a space that we in the civics and history education space are perhaps not that up to speed in: online dating (disclaimer: I met my wife in HS, so have not had to navigate this space). In a growing “innovation” in that space, AI-run algorithms can weed out all the likely wasted first dates so that you can have the highest chance of relational success from the get go with the person you swiped right for. At its core, it’s a way to make the dating process much more efficient, but Harper points out the dehumanizing qualities that should really be the focus.

Harper marks the 20th century as one empowered by the onslaught of “disabling professions.” These professions took common skills to a community (medicine, schooling, child-rearing) and exported them to professionals. He calls these “disabling professions.” In some cases, such as medicine, this saved lives. But it also weakened human ability to cope with many aspects of life that had been inherent to human life for centuries (education) or even millennia (child-rearing). This “standardization and professionalization of everyday life” disabled normal human life.

In the 21st century, with the help of AI, these disabling professions were replaced by “disabling algorithms,” he argues. The latter being much more ominous for the future of humanity than the former.

He writes,
” Disabling Algorithms as tech companies simultaneously sell us on our existing anxieties and help nurture new ones. At the heart of it all is the kind of AI bait-and-switch peddled by the Bumble CEO. Algorithms are now tooled to help you develop basic life skills that decades ago might have been taken as a given: How to date. How to cook a meal. How to appreciate new music. How to write and reflect.”

Later in the article, he writes of the consequences of these disabling algorithms and how we need to have a clear understanding of our humanity to parse out the good algorithms from the bad. “We can’t take a stand against the infiltration of algorithms into the human estate if we don’t have a well-developed sense of which activities make humans human,” he posits. This is key. 

CivXNow AI Working Group

Back in the fall, I had the opportunity to serve on a working group under CivXNow around the intersection of civic, social cohesion, and AI. My constant push in every meeting was that our conversations around the barriers we should set around AI are all irrelevant if we don’t have a common understanding of what it means to be human. Without first defining the ontological characteristics of humanity, any sort of walls around AI are too flexible, constantly adjusting to the whims of society at any given moment. 

Harper addresses this need succinctly, “Without some minimal agreement as to what those basic human capabilities are—what activities belong to the jurisdiction of our species, not to be usurped by machines—it becomes difficult to pin down why some uses of artificial intelligence delight and excite, while others leave many of us feeling queasy.” If we don’t know what it means to be human, how will we know whether AI contributes to or detracts from human flourishing?

I had the opportunity to author the introduction and conclusion of the CivXNow Report that came out of our working group’s meetings. The report, titled “Unchartered Waters: Education, Democracy, and Social Cohesion in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” gives some recommendations for how we can work together to ensure AI’s support of humanity, rather than its replacement. You can access some of the resources developed here.

In the introduction, I start with the famous line of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” as it sets a tone of human equality (and therefore some definition of humanity) that AI must must be seen in light of, especially in a civics space. My portion of the introduction ends with this, “As a community, we must be willing to honestly think through the various uses of AI and its implications in order to successfully wield its power without compromising our own humanity.” These discussions are imperative as AI becomes more ubiquitous in our daily lives. Otherwise, we don’t run AI, it runs us.

AI and Thinking Nation

Sample AI feedback on a Student Essay.

At Thinking Nation, we think deeply about how to use AI on our platform. Currently, we use it to grade student work to provide students with instant feedback and teachers with clear data on student growth. Since all of this feedback and data enhances the teaching of history as a discipline and better facilitates students ability to engage with the past, it also enhances their own flourishing. We incentivize this approach to teaching social studies because we know this way empowers students with the agency they need to actively engage with the world around them. There are many uses of AI that we choose not to entertain as it could cloud the difference between human and machine and blurry distinctions are no distinctions at all.

Sample Teacher Data Report from AI-generated grading

I was incredibly encouraged by Tyler Austin Harper’s piece in The Atlantic. He is calling our attention to the intense ramifications of AI that are hidden in the mundane aspects of our lives. This calling attention to is critical as we move forward in the age of AI. I’ll leave a portion of the CivXNow report’s conclusion here as I hope to continue the conversation around AI, human flourishing, and education:

“As leaders in the civics and education spaces, we know that just because something can be done, does not mean it should be. One of the core aspects of being a good citizen is to think about what is best for the community, not just oneself. At the core of that civic aim is really a question of our humanity.

As people, we are inhumane when we detract from human flourishing; we are humane when we contribute to it. These are the terms in which we should think as we consider how to harness the power of AI in a way that centers our own humanity and, conversely, how AI might be used in ways that lessens that humanity.”

Concluding AP Exam Season and Embracing Civic Learning Initiatives

Wrapping up AP Exam Season

Last week marked the end of the AP Exam testing season (unless you have students taking the late test). After piloting our Mock AP Exams last year with a few schools, we were excited to officially launch them for hundreds of students this year.

It was an intense endeavor that included the creation of authentic and aligned full-length practice exams for AP European, United States, and World History, as well as, AP American Politics and Government. Then, utilizing the expertise of our Business Analyst Valentina Carvajal-Bueno, we developed an AI program for immediate grading for teachers and students. Our tech team worked diligently for months to generate robust reports to provide targeted feedback to aid in the preparation for these high-stakes exams.

It was truly a group effort for Thinking Nation and it was exciting to see the strengths of our team members shine as we seek to consistently improve our offerings for teachers and students.

After completing the exams, we asked students and teachers to provide us with some feedback about the process and exams.

Here are a few highlights:

  • 90% said the feedback and scores were helpful in preparing for the AP exam.
  • 100% said the questions were representative of the topics covered in the AP exam.
  • 100% of respondents recommend taking our Mock AP Exam.

With these positive results, we hope to provide even more schools and students with access to our Mock AP Exams in the 2025 testing season. For information about how to make sure your school is set up for next year, please reach out to our Chief Operating Officer Spenser Mix at spenser.mix@thinkingnation.org.

Calling all Teachers Advancing Civic Learning!

Thinking Nation is a proud partner of the CivXNow Teachers Advancing Civic Learning (TACL – pronounced “tackle”) project, an effort to build an ongoing movement and advance policy within their schools, their districts, their states, and nation. We encourage educators interested in being part of this peer community to join the TACL effort. 

As part of this effort, we are joining our partners to implement a quarterly educator training/webinar. Join us on May 28 at 7 p.m. ET (REGISTER HERE) as we hear from Lindsay Sobel, Chief of Policy, Planning, and External Affairs at one of the nation’s leading organizations emphasizing teacher leadership, Teach Plus. Together with CivXNow partners collaborating on the TACL project, we’ll provide you with tools and strategies to make the case for stronger civic learning policies within your school and district, among parents, and with decision-makers at the local, state, and national levels.

Empower yourself to champion #CivicLearning

Join the TACL Policy Primer and learn how to advocate for civic learning initiatives in your school, district, and beyond!

Closing out the School Year

While we know some of you are concluding your school year this week, others still have several weeks left with your students. As always, please reach out if you would like support with any end-of-year assessments. Additionally, if you’re going to the AP US History reading in Kansas City in early June, let’s make sure to connect! I always enjoy meeting people in person from our vibrant virtual community.  

Best, 

Annie Jenson

Our Platform Got a Refresh!

If you’ve been on our platform in the last couple days, you’ve noticed that we got a platform refresh! As a small nonprofit organization entering a space with many VC-backed edtech companies, it is always exciting when we can streamline the edtech side of things to be more user-friendly and helpful for our teachers and students. It’s always for the mission!

I wanted to take today to highlight some of these new changes for those teachers wondering about the changes. Let’s explore!

First, the teacher portal:

In addition to making the look feel cleaner and more intuitive, there are minor adjustments for teachers. For instance, the Icon Key is now on every page at the bottom, but with the option to minimize it to have more room to view your rosters.


Also simple changes, like the icons matching our brand colors have been updated, too. It’s the little things for this little organization, folks!

Now, if you ever want to unsubmit an assignment that is past the due date, you can. Before, teachers could only unsubmit active assignments, but thanks to your feedback, we’ve realized that sometimes that second chance comes for a student well after the assignment was due (I see you end-of-year make ups!). Hopefully, this will make it easier for the student to demonstrate their growth mindset and raise their scores! So teachers, just hover over any assignment that a student has turned in, and you can unsubmit it on their behalf.

We’ve also made the resources tab a lot easier to navigate! With buttons and more visible drop down menus, we hope it will be easier for you to find that resource you were looking for! Also, stay-tuned, in the next couple months, this tab will go over a 2.0 makeover as we sort the resources by historical/content topic, rather than type of resource. We hope that it will help you see all of the types of resources for each corresponding topic, rather than having to hunt around for them on the platform. Once again, thank you teacher feedback!

Students, too, have a more streamlined experience. On their homepage, the layout is much easier to see, and depending on which sources they want to see, they can simply click the buttons on the top of their screen. If a resource type is in green, it will show up, if it is gray, it won’t be visible. Hopefully this can help students focus on the task they need to first, as well as sort through the assignments as the year goes on and the resources accumulate.

The “Notes” and “Chat” features are more visible and easy to use, too. For both teachers and students, don’t forget that you can annotate or ask questions via chat when working on any assignment on the platform. Notifications for the chat will always show up in the top right corner of your homepage.

As you navigate the platform refresh, you may notice other subtle changes not addressed here, but hopefully they all provide a more user friendly experience. And of course, we’d love to hear more feedback if you have it teachers. Just send a help desk ticket once on your portal and let us know what you want to see!