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Oftentimes students can find historical documents to be dry and become bored when reading them. In a field that often requires deep dives into sources in order to justify a position in a paper, students may feel overwhelmed, but there are a few strategies that junior historians can use to make the process much more simple.

1) Students should consider the Who, When, Where, What, and Why of the document. Especially when it's a contemporary source. Before they even begin reading students should consider who wrote it and when. Was it written during or after a major event? Was the author there or were they operating on widely available information?

2)Students should also consider the validity of a source. Not all writings from the past, even contemporary first person accounts are necessarily factual. Students should compare and contrast key points from two different sources if possible and ask themselves which one might be telling the truth, or if accurate information lies somewhere in the middle. When writing, they should consider the bias of those who provided them with the information they're reading.

3)Oftentimes students struggle with ancient history when they're unable to mentally put an important event into context. Looking at events that immediately proceeded it, or events that led up to it can give students a chronological baseline to see how a certain issue affected life for both the average person, and for those in power.

But how can we teach students to engage with the text that much even if they don't want to read it? Here are a few tips.

1) If the assessment is a small, in-class or informative assessment provide them with only the necessary information. Don't overload them with too much or ask them to just look something up and write about it, or even worse hand them a bunch of text and tell them to find something out. Give them truncated, specific excerpts from established sources and ask them to write about them.

2) If the assignment is a major project, provide a few examples in class to prime the students into the textual sleuths they need to be. For example in the fictitious historical blog assignment students would be shown an example beforehand, and would be led step by step through the process of finding relevant information from quality sources. This scaffolding would provide demonstration for students before they begin working on the assignment themselves.

In the Washington assignment for example, we would read through excerpts about Washington's actions in the first Continental congress in class, and brainstorm ways to convey this information succinctly in the students historical blogs.

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There are some tips for encouraging historical literacy that are more generalized, and can apply to many different types of assessments in the classroom. Although they're general, it's still important for students to remember.

1)Previewing information is important in any field, but in history it can be especially important. Students should be able to go into an assessment with some general knowledge about the subject. To that end instructors should preview the information with the class. Open with an anecdote, set the stage, give an example or two. Ask questions about what students know about the time period or event beforehand to gauge how much you need to go over.

2)Content mapping is a useful skill that allows students to break down information into easy to read, concise chunks and then organize them via a graphic organizer. Teaching students to organize their information will let them structure their papers better and understand the information in a digestible manner.

3) Encouraging students to stop, take a breath, and reapproach the content from a different angle. When students are handed several pages worth of excerpts or information, or an assessment instructions and rubric that completely overwhelm them they might just mentally shut down. Encourage them to stop, divide the assessment or information into manageable sections and attack them one at a time.

Going back to the fictional Blog assignment, the first day we would go over it in class students would sketch out an idea for their blog on a piece of paper before they even get to the website to begin working. This is so that students will have a content map of how they want to structure their project, and can ask for additional help or instruction/ examples before they get so far into their project that it seems insurmountable.

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Not all aspects of historical literacy have to do with dissecting historical documents, the actual papers the students write should be concise and coherent as well. Despite not being ELA courses students should be instructed in some vocabulary as well as strategies for creating a coherent paper.

1) When researching for and writing a historical paper students will often come across words that they just don't understand. Either because the document is written at a higher level than they're used to or uses words or phrases that are out of date in the modern lexicon. They should always consider the context in which the word is spoken, and see if it is used often throughout the work.

2) When writing a paper most of the time dated words or phrases are not necessarily needed unless they're specific place names or concepts relevant to the topic. When writing, students shouldn't be afraid to rephrase flowery language into something more concise and easily understandable unless they're directly quoting from a source. Direct quotations are one thing, but the rest of their papers are written in their own words. And their own words could and should be in modern, academic vernacular.

3) Students should make sure their paper flows logically from one point to another, and in most cases this means chronologically unless otherwise specified, such as writing about events in order of importance. Students should re-read their paper every so often and ask themselves if the information is presented in a relevant, easy to follow manner.

But how should teachers instruct their students to engage in disciplinary best practice when it comes to writing papers?

1) Prime students with vocabulary whenever necessary. When describing vocabulary be sure to explain it's relevance both to those living at the time and to future historians looking back. If you're giving students excerpts to read with vocabulary they might not understand, provide a word bank.

2) Give students examples of proper citation. If you're providing a handout before a larger assessment and the handout contains images or quotes for example, have them cited properly there so that students have a frame of reference for what is expected.

3) Timeline assignments are a good way of providing students with a frame of reference for a larger series of events and how they influenced one another. A good strategy to teach students is to divide relevant information into timeframes and move through their paper chronologically, building on how each previous set of examples led to the next through their paper.

For example in the example student blog project about Washington, students were shown an example historical blog about Abraham Lincoln that detailed major events in a first person perspective. This was done to provide students an example of what to include in their own assignment.

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The historical discipline requires more literacy than just reading sources. As preservice teachers it is important to know what is expected of our future students and what strategies we can share with them to increase their effectiveness in historical literacy. To help them move on from simply reading and regurgitating facts about history to carefully appraising multiple documents and coming to their own conclusions.

To that end I designed a barebones lesson plan for students that incorporates the Edublog technology. Students will be tasked with researching major events in the life of a prominent historical figure and rephrasing them into an educational blog. complete with sourcing and properly cited images.