The Student as Historian

DBQ strategies and resources

Presented by Peter Pappashttp://peterpappas.com

Election Day by CW Guslin, (1909)

This SlideShare accompanies my workshop in “Teaching with Documents.”

Don't think of it as presentation. It's a online guide to resources and includes a few strategy illustrations from my workshop.

My workshops are very interactive- I model what I preach. (They don’t fit on a slide share.)

My PD approach: “Essential Questions for the Successful Staff Developer” http://bit.ly/r9KvgK

Learning is relevant when the student:

understands how this information or skill has some application in their life.

has an opportunity to follow their own process rather than just learn “the facts.”

is not just learning content and skills, but is reflecting on their work and their progress as learners.For reflective prompts see:

The Reflective Student: http://bit.ly/uQT0xl

Check out one of my free DBQiBooks at iTunes

The student as historian in action!

http://bit.ly/1bmjWnX

Here’s a DBQ iBook designed by my students

The student as historian in action!

Free at iTuneshttp://bit.ly/1dURzeE

Read more about creating DBQs with iBooks Author

Free at iTuneshttp://bit.ly/TZziZP

I’ve also documented Portland Oregon’s historic Japantown

My free iOS walking tour app

http://bit.ly/1fDs8R2

My free iBook http://bit.ly/SLJe86

Example: The traditional lesson “Should the Constitution be ratified?” The students is asked

to learn (memorize) the arguments of the historic debate.

Reframe the lesson with an essential question - “How strong should the central

government be?” Now students can master the historic content

in the context of an enduring debate.

Teaching history?

It shouldn’t

be teaching as

telling

Our natural, unexamined model for teaching is Telling.

... to carefully and clearly tell students something they did not previously know.

Knowledge is transmitted, we imagine, through this act of telling.

~ Donald Finkel

the students

should be the historians!

Some basics:

How to look at a

visual document

Home washing machine & wringer (1869)LOC LC-USZC4-775

1. List people, objects, and activities in the

image

2. Who do you think they are? What’s going on?

Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection (NDSU, Fargo, N.D.)

190-?LOC 2028.046

http://tinyurl.com/3ac2wum

More study guides for all types of documents: http://tinyurl.com/322j6kr

More resources at my DBQ site: http://www.edteck.com/dbq/

Subject: History of

Transportation

What makes for a good

document?

Golden Spike Promontory, Utah 1869

You need background knowledge to “read” this

one

Erie Canal and BridgeRochester NY 1894

rpf00328.jpg Rochester Public Library local History Division

Little background knowledge needed

to “read” this.

Street scene Rochester NY 1910

No background knowledge

needed to “read” this.

From: Albert R. Stone Negative Collection Rochester NY Museum and Science Center

With the “right” document, the student can be the historian

Simply put - are you willing

to ask students

what THEY are thinking?

DBQs and Summarizi

ng

Evaluating what’s important.Sharing what you’ve learned.

Using DBQs to

summarize

Allow students to make their own judgments about what’s important (instead of just repeating the details the teacher highlights)

Students need to be able to share what they’ve learned with an audience other than the teacher.

Let students use drawings to summarize what they think is

important

"Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." Frances F. Palmer (1868)

2nd graders get creative with summarizing skills

After creating their own visual summaries, 2nd graders said:

People were moving west. They moved by wagon at first, then but train, which is faster.

The Indian could see the people coming. They knew their lives were changing.

The railroad split the old way from the new way.How to Teach Summarizing: A Critical

Learning Skill for Students http://bit.ly/n8Fze4

Text Structure

Description Cue Words

DescriptionDescribes a topic by listing characteristics, features, and examples

for example, characteristics are

ComparisonExplains how two or more things are alike and/or how they are different.

different; in contrast; alike; same as; on the other hand  

Cause / effectLists one or more causes and the resulting effect or effects.

reasons why; if...then; as a result; therefore; because

Problem / Solution

States a problem and lists one or more solutions for the problem.

problem is; dilemma is; puzzle is solved; question... answer

SequenceLists items or events in numerical or chronological order.

first, second, third; next; then; finally

Students need to be able to share what they’ve learned with an audience other than

the teacher.

Description: listing

characteristics, features, and

examples

Cause / Effect: one or more

causes and the resulting effect or

effects

Organizers for text structures

DBQs Comparin

g Classifyin

g

Evaluating similarities and differences.Sharing what you learned.

Comparing meets evaluating

You work for Life Mag in the ‘30s.

Which photo would you use to illustrate an article on the plight of the migrant workers?

#1

#2

#3#4

from Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother"

LC-USF34-9093-C

There is no correct answer. Let students share their opinions. Close up showing details? Long shot showing bleak setting? ...

Student are using docs to explore a full range of higher order skills: analyzing photo elements, evaluating what’s important (to them) and creating a rationale to be shared (and defended) with peers.

Historic thinking is higher order thinking

Creating -generating new ideas

Evaluating - justifying a decision or choice

Analyzing - breaking into component partsApplying - using information in a new setting

Understanding - explaining idea or concept

Remembering - recalling information

Combine documents to consider point of view - Ask HS students, “Did the artist

think this was a good or bad development?”

The tribes were warlike and bloodthirsty, jealous of each other ...they claimed land for their hunting grounds, but their claims all conflicted with one another... they are always willing to sell land to which they have the vaguest title.

[Can we] consider the dozen squalid savages who hunted at long intervals over a territory of 1000 square miles as owning it out-right?~ Teddy Roosevelt 1889 Annals of America Vol 12

Then let them read this ...

Theodore Roosevelt in 1885 by G.G. Bain LC-USZ62-23232

After reading TR... Did the artist think this was a good or bad

development?

Using DBQ’s to compare and classify

We must ask students to develop the comparison, not just learn and repeat the model that we present to them.

Student must share what they learned from the comparison.

Traditional Writing is Assigned

Students are asked to write only on the

teacher's topics.

Student writes for the teacher.

Teacher gradestheir writing.

Writing Assigned with Choice

Students can develop topics that

matter to them.

Audience and purpose for writing

is identified.

Students are asked to reflect on their growth.

For more strategies see http://bit.ly/nQTXbQ

My sample DBQ sets supporting:

Literacy SupportCritical Thinking

Essential QuestionsStudent

Engagement

Essential questions meet literacy

support in:

“Homefront America”

http://bit.ly/tjAHz5

by Weimer Pursell, 1943Printed by the Government Printing Office

NARA Still Picture Branch NWDNS-188-PP-42)

Critical Thinking

"12 Great Debates in American

History"

http://bit.ly/w1RKpJBertha the sewing machine girl;

or, Death at the wheel! By Francis S. Smith.

[Louisville, Ky.?] [c. 1871].LOC rbpe 0230010c

Explore historic point of view with:

“What did Europeans ‘see’

when they looked at the

New World and the Native

Americans?”

http://bit.ly/sOavHf

Explore the History of the Bicycle: Zoom into a Prezi DBQ -

http://bit.ly/qHxfXh

Start forging young historians with:

DBQs and CRQs

for Elementary Students

http://bit.ly/vcUslg

Explore Work, Culture and Society in

Industrial America:

Teaching History With DBQ's

http://bit.ly/v7P05J

for DBQs and History

We b 2 . 0 Re s o u r c e s

Analyze Text Docs and Build Literacy Skills

with

Wordle

http://bit.ly/tQFCMN

Analyze word frequency in published works with Google's Books Ngram Viewer

http://bit.ly/qeZpOS

Create timelines with DipityLesson plan http://bit.ly/v2gc45

Explore Countries and Visualize Data at Gapminder

World

A “how-to” video at:

http://bit.ly/s3240u

A “how-to” video at: http://bit.ly/rQh1od

Historypin: Make DBQs that

layer image, story, time, location

Europeana

Online resources: Paintings, music,

films and books from Europe's galleries, libraries, archives

and museums

http://bit.ly/vgXQNL

View and tag historic photos at the Flickr

Commonshttp://www.flickr.com/commons

Download free project guide

PDF

87 Free Web 2.0 Projects For the K-12 Classroom -

http://bit.ly/tkmwjs

Peter PappasK-12 faculty / admin trainer

Literacy Across the Curriculum

Teaching for Rigor and Relevance 

Technology and Literacy

Instructional Leadership

Classroom Walkthroughs

CurrentWorkshop

s

http://peterpappas.com

Follow me at twitter/edteck