Spark Student Interest With History Hooks

Getting students interested in history can feel like an insurmountable task at times.

All those dates, names, facts, and figures often overwhelm and exhaust students, many of whom also find the information totally disconnected from their own lives and interests.

The way in which we history teachers present the information may, at times, compound the problem. Educators have a tendency to tell history in a straightforward, chronological manner. That seems to make the most logical sense.

Be that as it may, a slight adjustment to the way in which historical topics are presented can serve to spark student interest. I call them “history hooks”—stories that grab students’ attention and offer a chance to get them curious about history.

What’s a History Hook?

A history hook is a riveting story that pulls students into history by wowing them. Just like English teachers asking students to use “hooks” in their essays, history teachers need to think about hooks that exist in historical topics.

One example of a hook that I use when teaching about the French and Indian War is young George Washington’s encounter with Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville. During that tense moment, Washington, who was working for the British Crown, encountered a French patrol in the woods of Pennsylvania. A violent skirmish ensued, and one of Washington’s Native American allies murdered a French Canadian military officer. The moment is full of suspense and action. This is a hook by which I draw students into the topic.

Identifying History Hooks

History hooks are moments in history in which the subject matter we are conveying comes alive. They suck students in and leave them wanting more. These can be moments of violence, romance, terror, mystery—anything that keeps the mind racing and the heart pounding.

Analyze the history you’re trying to teach and identify a point that has cinematic qualities. I like to think of history hooks as spellbinding movie moments that hold audiences on the edge of their seats. We’ve all seen a motion picture with a scene we can’t stop talking about, the one that had us fixated on the screen.

Starting from the middle, or even the end

Often, a history hook doesn’t start at the beginning of the subject matter we’re teaching. Sometimes, history hooks are in the middle or even the end of the “story.”

This can be both fun and challenging for history teachers, especially those who like to present the past as an unambiguous, easy-to-understand series of chronological events.

History teachers might have to start thinking like fiction writers who begin a story in the middle or end—and then return to the beginning. In fact, one piece of advice is for history teachers to read some good fiction books. Think about how the authors present the material. Is everything chronological—or do they use a hook at the beginning that isn’t necessarily narratively sequential?

If history teachers use a history hook, they have to present just enough contextual information that it makes sense to the students, but not enough that the “story” is weighed down by a lot of dense background information.

Introduce the characters and just enough of the story for it to be coherent—don’t start from the beginning and dump all the information on the students. Yet.

For example, a history teacher presenting the Battle of the Bulge can start with the famous quote by Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe. Surrounded by the German army in December 1944, McAuliffe responded to an enemy surrender ultimatum by replying, “NUTS!” This act of brave defiance became famous for representing American grit in the face of overwhelming odds.

Unorthodox History Hooks

Sometimes history hooks aren’t so obvious. I’ve written about using local urban legends and ghost stories as history hooks. Begin with the legend and then give background, context, and the kernel of truth that often generates and influences such stories.

Here’s one example of what I mean. A 1966 story about a local UFO sighting is a compelling way for me to talk about the Cold War and fears of aerial surveillance and weaponry. The incident was so concerning for authorities that the U.S. Air Force got involved and investigated the sighting.

Personal stories can be useful as history hooks, too. Think of your own experience as an educator living through a historical event or visiting a historical site. In my discussion on 9/11, I opened one section discussing my own memories as a high school junior hearing about, and then watching, the attacks. I was speaking to a class of high school students, so this story resonated with them.

Telling Stories

In Why Don’t Students Like School?, Daniel T. Willingham goes into a lengthy discussion about the manner in which storytelling can be used to shape and empower lessons.

He writes, “The human mind seems exquisitely tuned to understand and remember stories—so much so that psychologists sometimes refer to stories as ‘psychologically privileged,’ meaning they are treated differently in memory than other types of material.”

However, there is an important caveat. Willingham warns that a bell-ringer can be too good (which sounds a little odd, right?). An attention grabber that grabs too much attention may hinder the rest of the lesson. He uses the example of a teacher dressed in a toga. The students remembered very little else beyond the funny attire. With this in mind, create history hooks that usher in the lessons—but aren’t the lessons themselves.

Humanizing History

Sometimes history can feel so big that we forget it involves real people who lived normal lives in which they experienced great successes and setbacks, victories and defeats, as well as blessings and tragedies.

History hooks can help us humanize the past by giving a voice to the voiceless and a face to the faceless. These stories compel teachers to think about the people whose lives were profoundly shaped by the history we teach.

If you’re looking for good history hooks that help grab students and humanize history, consider reviewing oral histories, such as Studs Terkel’s Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, Christian Appy’s Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides, Garrett M. Graff’s The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, or the online oral histories on Japanese American internment. These present captivating (sometimes gut-wrenching) stories that students could even read before a lesson.