Historical Thinking in the Third Grade

This article shares findings of how two third-grade children who have systematically studied history in grades K–3 analyzed historical sources on a topic about which they had no prior knowledge. In think-aloud interviews, the children analyzed written documents on the 1887 Dawes Severalty Act. One of the children, who tested on the third-grade level for reading, demonstrated extensive use of the sourcing heuristic and analogical thinking to contextualize and interpret the documents. Care and imagination seemed to facilitate the child's deployment of historical thinking. Both children informed their judgments about the Dawes Act by referencing the evidence. These findings suggest that curriculum, rather than age, is the strongest limit on U.S. elementary students’ engagement in historical thinking. The findings also provide evidence of gifted and talented ability in the specific domain of historical thinking and suggest that analogical thinking deserves greater attention in our efforts to understand and teach dimensions of historical interpretation.