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History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

Historical Inquiry and Source Criticism

Before studying world history to 1500, learners examine how we know about the distant past at all. They trace how ancient texts survived through copying and translation, test Herodotus's famous numbers for the Persian invasion against logistics and other evidence, search the record for the voices of workers, women and the enslaved, and evaluate period labels such as 'the Middle Ages' as arguments rather than facts.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 minutes
  • Source criticism check: 9 questions
  • Ways to answer: fill in the blanks, choose an answer, estimate, highlight a text, match pairs and type a number
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What learners will discover

  • Explain how ancient texts were transmitted (copying, manuscripts, translation) and how transmission affects their use as evidence.
  • Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of an ancient narrative by testing its claims against logistics, other sources and archaeology.
  • Identify silences and biases in the historical record and explain methods historians use to recover less-documented voices.
  • Explain periodization as an interpretive argument and evaluate common period labels.

Lessons

  1. How ancient texts reach us 6 steps3 practiceabout 30 min
  2. Testing a famous number 6 steps4 practiceabout 30 min
  3. Silences in the record 5 steps2 practiceabout 30 min
  4. Periodization is an argument 5 steps4 practiceabout 30 min
  5. Source criticism check 9 questions at the end

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Guide for grown-ups