Why these questions? Why not others? These questions are important because they reflect the kinds of questions that historians ask, and they require students to think about how a historian decides what is significant and what is not, determines cause and effect (impact), and wrestles with interpretations of the motivations of historical actors (attitudes of European colonizers) in order to characterize a period of time or series of events. The focus of literacy goals is on helping students to engage in the critical thinking necessary to answer these questions