Learn About the Past
How can we learn about the past?
Historical Period
Skills and Conceptscontributing partners
The past is everything that happened before right now. And history is the story we tell about the different people and events in the past. There are lots of ways to learn about history. You can read about history in a book. You can also look at diaries and letters. In a diary, someone writes about their daily life and the world around them. And a letter is a written message sent by one person to another.
Letters written by George Washington during the Revolutionary War can help people understand what he thought and felt at that time. You can also learn about the past from looking at photographs and videos. Photographs and videos can show what clothes people wore; what jobs they did; and how they traveled.
Another great way to learn about history is by visiting a museum. Many museums are filled with objects from the past. You can also learn about history from a person. Historians are people who study the past.
Many teachers are historians and you can be one too. How would you like to learn about history?
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About
We can learn about the past by reading letters, looking at photographs, and examining objects that reveal what life was really like long ago.
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Learn About the Past
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Comprehension Questions
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Gist
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What is the past?
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What are some ways to learn about history?
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We read different kinds of stories. What story does history tell?
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What does a historian do?
building ideas
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How are letters and diaries the same? How are they different?
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What can people learn about history from letters and photographs?
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How could you learn about the history of your family or community?
synthesis
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What is something good that happened in your past?
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What could you learn about the past from a photograph of your teacher at your age?
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What are some questions a historian might ask about life in the past?
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