Teaching Montana History

Contact: mkohl@mt.gov

Of special interest to: Teachers interested in high quality PD on digital literacy

Re: Free Professional Development Opportunities 2025 | Digital Inquiry Group

Longtime readers will know how much I admire the Digital Inquiry Group (which used to be known as the Stanford History Education Group). I LOVE their resources (which are free, but registraton is required). They include: 

• Reading Like a Historian Lessons, that engage students in historical inquiries that teach them "how to investigate historical questions by employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading."  
• Printable posters. My favorite is their Historical Thinking Chart, but they also have posters that focus on specific skills: Close Reading, Sourcing, Contextualization, and Corroboration.
• Over 140 examples of what they call History Assessments of Thinking (HATs), "easy-to-use assessments that measure students' historical thinking." Using HATs throughout the year is a great way to measure student growth with specific historical thinking skills.

I'm also a fan of their professional development. Through January 5, they are offering several FREE asynchronous online courses, all of which focus on digital literacy. If you complete a course and send me your certificate of attendance, I will award you renewal units (one unit per course hour.)  

Teaching Montana History is edited (and mostly written) by MTHS Outreach and Interpretation Program Manager Martha Kohl.