Historical Practice and Authentic Assessment in an Introductory World History Course

Abstract

World History classrooms are ideal environments to introduce students to authentic assessment using museum websites. Student-created podcasts place students in the position of a curator, who must select a focal artifact, observe and analyze it, and contextualize its use and meaning with both primary and secondary sources. This article tracks the introduction of a scaffolded series of activities that aids students in conducting artifact-based analysis. These activities introduce students to close examination of museum artifacts, inference by comparing artifacts, and contextualization with scholarly secondary sources. As this article shows, the activities resulted in students using museum websites to select useful comparative artifacts, employing more secondary sources in their analysis and more scholarly sources. Using this series of activities will help instructors guide students toward successfully employing the historian’s best practices and assessing students in ways that are authentic to the discipline of History.