History Connections

Guide

 

History Connections is a brief essay that contains four paragraphs designed to connect the information learned to information you perceive as relevant.  The four paragraphs are 1) History to History, 2) History to Present, 3) History to News, and 4) History to Me.   

 

Rationale:  Research demonstrates that evaluating the information and associating information with knowledge that is relevant increases assigned meaning and retention.

 

Instructions:  Write one paragraph for each type of connection.  Types of connections: comparisons, contrasts, cause/effect, and problem/solution. 

 

1)       History to History: within a history unit or across history units   

2)       History to Present: from the history unit to present day conditions

3)       History to News: from the history unit to current news articles, must have reference and link

4)       History to Me: from the history unit to your personal life

 

General Guidelines

 

·         Make deep insights that are not explicitly stated in the textbook or by the teacher

·         Use different types of connections

·         Make several connections in each paragraph.

History Connections Rubric

possible points

expectations

points earned

2

Employs coherent paragraphs

 

3

Demonstrates understanding of relevant knowledge

 

1

Makes insightful connections

 

2

Makes multiple connections in each paragraph

 

2

Makes different types of connections in each paragraph

 

1

Cites a newspaper article

 

11

 

 

 

History Connections Example

 

History Connections

The Gilded Age

 

History to History:  All events within the Gilded Age have a relation to the expansion of the capitalist system.  Entrepreneurs and inventors took new products to market in new ways, completely changing life as we know it through the process of innovation.  These industrialists became the “nuveau riche” and their savings in banks prompted the financing of yet more business.  That business needed to expand in both size and territory.  Businesses went west to serve and get raw resources from the homesteaders settling the frontier.  Indians were moved or slaughtered.  Immigrants were hired as cheap labor by the hundreds of thousands, and immigrants with no opportunities in Europe took the risk to share in the promise of American life.  The meager wages provided to most meant that communities where the poor lived to a deplorable shape.  Eventually, this amassed capital in the hands of a few individuals found its way back into society through philanthropy: thus most of the educational and cultural institutions of American life were born. 

 

History to Present:  One does not have to look hard to find the parallels between the Gilded Age and today.  First, the gap between the rich and the poor has been growing; many people today are working poor.  Immigrants are coming by the hundreds of thousands to take advantage of the growth of business and job opportunities.  Most of these jobs are qualified as unskilled.  Second, new products have been changing our world.  The PC, most of all, and the software related to it.  Microsoft today is the Standard Oil of yesterday, and just like Standard Oil, Microsoft has been taken to court under anti-trust laws. 

 

History to News:  In today’s newspaper, you can read of the extreme wealth and the immense poverty.  The Gilded Age was a book by Mark Twain that showed how although the news was filled with stories of successful businesses and the power of wealth, most people did not share in the wealth.  The television is filled with shows about the wealthy, the famous, the powerful but it is the downtrodden that are watching it and finding no relationship to their life.  The Democratic Party is planning on using the widening wealth gap as a rallying cry to vote for their candidates.[1]

 

History to You:  I would love to be an entrepreneur one day; so many entrepreneurs like Rockefeller and Carnegie provide good examples for me to follow.  I spend too much money, and Rockefeller was so frugal he was known to pack his lunch when he was the world’s richest man.  When I spend my money, I am a consumer.  I consume all sorts of goods that have roots in the Gilded Age.  I use electricity to read at night and I drive to work in a car that runs on gasoline.  I watch football and baseball, both of which have roots in the Gilded Age.  I go to Department Stores and shop at Chain Stores, and they get me products cheaper because of the increased communication and transportation technology.  I also use the telephone to call people.  Without go-getters like Wanamaker, Sears, Montgomery Ward, Alexander Graham Bell, George Westinghouse, and Thomas Edison, my life would be dramatically different. 


[1]    Soloman, Deborah.  2006, October 3.  The Wall Street Journal.   http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06275/726838-28.stm