When teaching history, it is very easy to get caught up and lost in all the details of a particular lesson. Especially drawn to political, diplomatic, and military history, I have found myself spending far too much time in my Western Civilization courses on the fine points of the diplomatic maneuverings of the Congress of Vienna or of the tactical skill of Hannibal during the Second Punic War. To ensure that my students have the big picture:
- At the outset of the course, I ensure that they understand the critical overarching themes and questions of the course;
- At the start of each lesson, I indicate which of these are present in the day's lesson; and finally,
- I require each student to have a "BIG IDEAS BOX."
At the beginning of all my history courses, I present my overarching themes including the types of history that we shall be studying such as political, economic, social, cultural, military, technological, religious, and intellectual history. In addition to these themes, I also indicate that we shall be using our author's (Jackson Spielvogel) expanded definition of "civilization" in which he specifies the six themes that all civilizations tend to share: urban focus, a distinct religious structure, new political and military structures, a new social structure, the development of writing, and new forms of significant artistic and intellectual activity.
Second, I introduce the two overarching questions which a critical mind should have at the ready, no matter what type of history, no matter what level of history: the "WHY" Question and the "SO WHAT?" question. The first helps us to plunge deeper in the historical matter beyond the who, what, where, and when to deeper levels of causal analysis, an important skill for all students of history to develop. I have found the more the students understand causality, the more interesting they find history. The second question forces us to
