Students' Historical Thinking

We had great discussions about the students' ability to demonstrate historical thinking through their writing.  I was so impressed with how well the students do when verbally expressing their opinions about things, but was VERY impressed with how well they demonstrated their historical thinking in their writing.  Our students were supposed to write a persuasive essay on the different theories that came with the disappearance of the Roanoke colony and they truly supported their opinion.  It is amazing how they can connect to events in history.  I think that when the students work on the next writing project - a double speak poem from two different perspectives of the same event in history (leading up to the Revolutionary War).  I am very eager to see how they do with using primary source documents.