As a high school history teacher and a graduate student in history, Bain found he was torn between the disciplinary rigor of history and the passive understanding of history by students.  In this article, Bain discusses his attempt at implementing a cognitive approach to history instruction in which students’ thinking about historical inquiry is privileged.  He uses excerpts from students’ journals to illustrate their thoughts about their thinking as they were introduced to elements of expert historical thinking.  He also emphasizes that permanent classroom resources emphasizing the process of historical inquiry and collaborative questioning of historical material aid students in maintaining a disciplinary focus throughout their study of history.