Examining the Evidence Teaching With Brenda Documents BeymerChapman

Examining the Evidence: Teaching With Brenda. Documents Beymer-Chapman Director of Social Studies and Personal Financial Literacy

What Do You Think…? Do you see any of your students in the picture? Would they see each other? Or themselves? Why was this picture taken? Who is the adult standing next to the kids? Are the kids wearing the kind of clothes you wear? Same? Different? When was this picture taken? Do you think you could find out when this picture was taken by looking at the fashion and the haircuts that were in style? In the 20 s – where would African-American and white children have gone to school together?

What Do You Think…? Choose one of the children in the photograph and write about what you think he or she is like. Give the child you choose a name and an age – tell about what he or she thinks and feels. What can you tell about this class from the picture?

Primary Source This is a primary source. This class photograph that was dated 1960, is a clue to United States history. It is an opportunity to be a detective. We know students learn and remember best, not by what they are told, but by what they discover for themselves. We are being asked to expose students to the very documents that make history.

Reading Visual Information Another emphasis is on the use and interpretation of visual information, whether or not that visual information is a primary source. The modern world demands that students be able to navigate a reality dominated by visual information. Sight is the dominate sense, and modern communications media increasingly appeal to that sense. This means that students need to become visually literate, that is to develop the ability to look at an image, analyze it, and decode it. Students need to read images in the same sense they read text.

Authentic Voices Readers and audiences of all kinds respond emotionally to authentic voices. These evidences of our past evoke a personal reaction – of anger, of compassion, of sympathy- in a way that straight narrative and lists of facts simply cannot.

What Do You Think? What do you think is the first thing students notice about this photograph? “He’s really buff. Look at his delts! He’s got muscles. ” Which leads easily into – How old do you think he is? Do kids of 7 or 8 usually have muscles like that? How do you think a kid that age gets muscles like that? What is he doing in this picture? How hard do you think he has to work? Why do you think a kid that age has to work that hard?

Historical Context When the students look at this photograph in that way, they are finding out about conditions in this child’s life in 1938 Missouri for themselves, using the kind of evidence historians use. Delving into the image brings home the reality of a painful period in our history in a way that the average narrative in a textbook just can’t do. When you add historical context, even more interesting things happen.

Pair Picture With Text Place this photo in the Great Depression then ask older students - Is this what you think of when you hear the words ‘Great Depression’? Pairing this picture with a piece of text enriches the experience. “My dad was shell-shocked in WWI. After they confirmed that, he got a pension and the children got a pension. And I think ours was $80 a month. That was all the cash there was at Grandma’s house, where we lived after mother died. We had some food that was raised there on the farm, but there wasn’t much cash. That’s when there was for two families and later on three families, when Aunt Emma and her husband children come and live with us. ” Interview with Frances Tracy – teenager in Western OK

What Do You Think…? • Why did the Tracy children go to live with their grandmother? • How did they manage to live on so little money? • Why do you think Aunt Emma and her family ‘had to’ come live on the farm?

What Do You Think…? What do you see in the photograph? What are they doing? What time of year? Where are they? Caption reads – community garden Why would people in Chicago make gardens in their neighborhoods? Why do you think the people in the photo want to work in the garden?

Strategies • Decide what you are actually looking at. (primary or secondary – where might it have come from) • Purpose/Audience (example – photographer vs. documentary film) • Bias (author or artist bias – could be culturally bias) • Examine closely the source itself (what is in the picture/prior knowledge) • Find more information/compare sources • Consider your role (If you really want to understand what you are looking at, you need to examine how you are coloring it. )

Visual Analysis/Political Cartoons T Time When was this created? Occasion? A Action What is happening? C Caption What textual clues are included? O Objects List every item you can identify? S Summary What is the message?

OPTIC O – Overview – What kind of visual is this? P – Parts – What do you see? Details/elements T - Title – Subject covered? I - Interrelationships – What is happening – how do parts relate C – Conclusion – What is the message of the visual?

Overview Parts Title Interrelationships Conclusion What question do you want to ask?

Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley (1936) by Dorothea Lange • O: _______ • P: _______ • T: _______ • I: _______ • C: _______ What question would you ask?

What conclusion can be supported by both of the graphs? A. B. C. D. Population growth is causing a water shortage. Climate change is creating water-use problems. Agriculture needs to improve methods of water use. Industry needs to improve methods of water delivery.

Based on the information, what conclusion can be made about the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC)? A. B. C. D. OPEC members have unlimited access to oil reserves which impacts the global price of oil by reducing the demand for consumers. OPEC members control the majority of world oil reserves which impacts the price of oil by determining the amount of oil produced. OPEC members affect the global supply of oil by adding new members which increases the total amount of oil reserves. OPEC members affect the global demand for oil by producing goods which require large quantities of oil.

Based on the map, which conclusion can be made about the Sahara Desert? A. B. C. D. It enables speedy travel to many countries due to its central location. It aids trade between countries due to its vast network of trade routes. It politically unites the continent by joining the people in the Sahel tribes of North Africa and the rest of the continent It physically divides the continent by creating a barrier between the Arab culture of North Africa and the rest of the continent.

SOAPS Analyzing Political Cartoons Subject – general topic or event dealt with in cartoon Objects – describe the objects and even the people you can identify in the cartoon Audience – Who do you suppose the artist wants to see his cartoon and leave with a message Perspective – what is the artist trying to say in the cartoon? Describe viewpoint. Symbols – what symbols does the artist use to represent an idea or group of people? Is this an appropriate symbol?

APPARTS A = AUTHOR • Who is the speaker? • Who created the source? • What do you know about the author? • What is the author’s point of view?

APPARTS P = PLACE AND TIME • Where and when was this written? • What else was going on at the time? • How might the where and when affect the meaning of the source?

APPARTS P = PRIOR KNOWLEDGE • What else is going on? • What other historical events are connected to this? • What do you know that would help you further understand this source?

APPARTS A = AUDIENCE • Who is the intended audience? • For whom was the source created and how might this affect the reliability of the source? • Who is being spoken to?

APPARTS R = REASON • What is the purpose? • Why was this written? • Why was this source produced at the time it was produced?

APPARTS T = THE MAIN IDEA • What is this about? • Summarize the author’s point? • What is the central message of the document?

APPARTS S = SIGNIFICANCE • Why is this important? • What impact did it have? • What inferences can you draw? • So What? • What should a student of history or politics take away from the analysis of this document?

• Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. • Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

• But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863

SEEP S – Social Aspects Family, life, social classes, racial or gender issues and how people interact with one another in society E - Economic Aspects Impact on human, or technological resources or decisions regarding trade, the flow of goods and services, changes in stability of a nation’s economy

SEEP E - Environmental Aspects - impact on the environment, the use of natural resources, the short and longterm effects on the quality of life based on the changes brought about to the environment, both positive and negative. P - Political Aspects – Government issues, changes in power, the legal or judicial systems, political parties

SPRITE S P R I T E Social Political Religious Intellectual Technological Economic

PERSIA P E R S I A Political Economic Religious Social Intellectual Artistic

H – historical context What was going on when this document was written? How does this affect the message of the author? How does this help you better understand the document? HIPPOing a Document I – intended audience Identify a person or group the author expects to inform or influence? How does this impact the author’s/authors’ message? P – point of view Who is the author? How did the author’s background (gender, race, socioeconomic status, position, experiences, etc. ) impact their written perspective? P – purpose Why did the author create the source? O – outside information What specific historical information outside of the document can you connect to the document? How does it help you better understand the document? O could also be for organization and use – how are you going to use the information you compiled – how does it advance your argument?

CLOSE READING Activity • Read through the article and write a one sentence summary at the bottom of the page. • Read through the article again and use the yellow highlighter to highlight any facts in the article. • Read through the article again and use the pink highlighter to highlight any examples in the article. • Read through the article again and use the green highlighter to highlight any reasoning in the article. • Add the chart to the information collected.

Document Based Question (DBQ) Thinking is hard work and it requires practice. Writing is thinking on paper. Writing allows the student to clarify their thinking and back up their thinking with evidence. All of this allows a student to make an argument that is clear and supported with evidence. A DBQ requires students to compare several documents and glean the information out of these documents that supports their point or supports the other point of view. The students are involved in inquiry centered research that requires them to critically compare information across documents. Examples to share.