RLH vs. GUM

Reading Like a Historian (RLH) vs. The Great Unsolved Mysteries (GUM)

RLH:

Using primary source documents to engage students in history curriculum. Develop perspective on historical events rather than memorizing dates and facts. Formulate opinions rooted in documentary evidence, rather than a teacher telling students what happened. Using the skills that historians use like context, type of documents, and source. Turns history into a series of questions, rather than a series of answers.

GUM:

Using primary documents to teach history curriculum. Critical and imaginative thinking to analyze documents. Engaging student interest by having them view documents like a historian. Gain context and opinion of the documents, rather than learn dtes and facts from teacher.

I think that GUM and RLH are accomplishing the same thing for history curriculum. The objective of giving students the tools to develop their own opinions and judgements for different historical events. RLH offers a broader concept that allows you to employ this method for any historical event, it also seems to be American focused in it's development. GUM is Canadian focused, but is more specific for the unsolved events in history.

Both frameworks can expand far beyond the history curriculum and can be a valuable tool for other curriculum areas. Science for example, can use primary sources to develop context and understanding for a unit on flight, if they were to examine historical documents from the Wright Brothers!

Sources:

- http://www.educ.ualberta.ca/css/Css_39_2/ARSandwell_unsolved_mysteries.htm

- https://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh

- Reading Like a Historian: Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/reading-like-a-historian-curriculum

- Reisman, A. (2012). Reading like a historian: A document-based history curriculum intervention in urban high schools. Cognition and Instruction, 30(1), 86-112. doi:10.1080/07370008.2011.634081