Documents, Documents, Documents

“Been there, done that”

• Solution?

• Documents, Documents, Documents, Documents, Documents, Documents,

What are Historic records?

• Reports, Maps, Photographs, Letters, Drawings, Diaries, Journals, Newspapers, Magazines, scrapbooks, Report Cards, Notebooks, Political Paraphenalia, Wills, Birth Certificates, Tax records, Video, Film, etc.

How are Historic records Helpful in

Teaching?Interpret,Explain, Apply, Clarify, Analyze, Evaluate, Assess, Describe, Form Opinions, Empathize, Identify , Compare and Contrast, Develop Self-Knowledge, Establish Perspective, Identify Contradictions, Determine What is Accepted as Fact and What is Rejected as Fiction, Draw Conclusions, Weigh Generalizations, Recognize Multiple Interpretations, Examine Evidence, Analyze Raw Data, Develop Confidence in Their Ability to Gather Information, Draw upon Visual, Literary and Musical Sources, Develop a Sense of Excitement about Learning about History

How can Historic Records be Used in a

Classroom?• As a way to integrate interdisciplinary

learning across a wide range of curriculum issues.

• As a hook to capture the interest of students at the beginning of a lesson.

• As a point maker in the middle of a lesson • As the central theme or focus of a lesson. • As a surprise reward at the end of a lesson. • To provide valuable data or context for a

lesson. • As a way to make learning more fun for the

students. • As a way to make teaching more fun for the

teacher.

Considerations:

• Make sure that the use of historic records makes sense in your overall curriculum plan. Using too many, or in the 'wrong' places could cause them to lose their impact.

• Be sure that your records are coming from an appropriate records repository - one that will not mind you looking at their records. Grandma may not be ready to have her old Love letters dragged down from the attic and read by your 4th grade class.

• For obvious reasons use copies not originals.

Considerations

• Be sure the record is readable and age appropriate to your class.

• Make sure the record is long enough to provide the information you want your class to get, but not so long that it overwhelms them.

• Select materials and activities that are likely to motivate and inspire your students. If they like baseball find a record that uses baseball to make your broader points.

• Don't let the record become the star of the show, it is there only as a supporting actor to the theme/focus of your presentation.

What to do?

• Selecting Sources– Interest– Reading Level– Length– Point of View– Variety of Sources– Location

What to do?

• Organizing Instruction– Activity Type– Classroom Management– Time– Assessment

Focus Activities

Generate one or two well crafted questions about the sources. Use the questions to spark a class discussion or as a task for pairs of students to answer

After reviewing one or two primary sources, have small groups of students generate a list of questions about the upcoming topic of instruction

Focus Activities Use contemporary primary sources to

focus instruction on a historical period. For example, use a modern newspaper editorial on immigration, minimum wage, or welfare reform as a springboard into exploration of those issues in the past. Ask students to make predictions about historical debates based on what they have read in contemporary editorials. Similarly, a historical source on a recurrent topic can be used to spur inquiry into current debate on that recurring topic.

Focus Activities

Ask students to freely write their reactions to a thought-provoking document. Then, as a class, compare different reactions prompted by the document.

Inquiry Activities

Provide students with a set of primary sources on a topic, concept, or time period. Students can use the internet and other research tools to assemble sets of primary sources for themselves.

Use primary source sets as the focus for a series of inquiry activities. Have student use primary source sets to answer questions about historical era, generate and test hypothesis, and derive conclusions.

Surviving the Great Depression

Application Activities• Challenge students to apply what

they’ve learned from primary sources. Have students expand or alter textbook explanations of history based on primary sources they study.

• Provide students with the entire text of a primary source that has been excerpted in their textbook. Based on the full text of the primary source, ask students to defend or refute conclusions drawn by the textbook author. Then have students search online and in other sources for additional documents that support their conclusions.

Application Activities

• Present a set of primary sources in sequence. Ask students to consider how new documents support or challenge information and understanding garnered from other documents. Have students refine or revise conclusions based on their study of each subsequent primary source.

Spy’s Dilemma

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/applications/dilemma/dilemma.html

Assessment Activities

• Write an essay about a primary source document. Explain how the source supports or challenges a commonly accepted conclusion about a time in history.

• Based on analysis of several primary sources, prepare an oral presentation taking a stand on an issue in history.

Assessment Activities

• Select primary source documents to create a museum display about an historical topic. Write captions for the items and justify the documents that were selected

• Write a response to a primary source (speech, news article, sermon) taking the position of someone who lived at the time the source was created.

Assessment Activities

• Prepare a visual display (poster, magazine cover, illustrated timeline) that highlights the most important points to be gained from the primary source under study.

• Participate in a Graded Oral Discussion.

Resources:

Task:

• Using this criteria for assessment of a document based lesson, evaluate your lessons:

– Are the documents appropriate?– Are the documents readable?– Do the documents help?– Are the questions clear?– Can students answer the questions from

the document?