As I wrote in one of my previous posts, I am really trying hard to make the questions I ask my students more complex. I went over an exam I made last year, and I could really see that I am slowly getting there. I master the subject matter better than last year, so I am able to play with it and look at it from an entirely different angle. The simple reproductive questions who, what or where are slowly being replaced with why questions. Students have to show relationships between different events, and explain causes and outcomes. After having been trained in historical thinking in college, I am now slowly learning how to convey this way of thinking to my students.
This week midterm exams will start, so this weekend I am enjoying the fact that I don’t have any exams to grade (yet) and I am writing the exams that my students will have to take. One of the assignments in my German history exam is an essay-question. The students will have to write an essay on the historiographic debate that is going on in Germany, called the Sonderweg (‘special path’) discussion.
Some historians in Germany argue that the events that occurred in Germany between 1933-1945 were unique, and couldn’t have occurred anywhere else. Other historians hold the opinion that there is a logical explanation for the rise of Hitler, such as economic depression, late democratic traditions and feelings of defeat following the treaty of Versailles. The word Sonderweg refers to the first group of historians, claiming that Germany followed a separate path in history, which can not be compared to any other country’s history.
My students will have to use their knowledge on the period 1871-1935 to provide both sides of the Sonderweg debate with valid arguments. Afterwards they will have to choose sides. I can’t wait to read their work and see what they think about it.
And now let’s hope my students haven’t discovered this blog yet…
