Chinese Immigration to New York

The Chinese Immigrant Experience in America. Unit designed by Liz Wong, PS124, Manhattan.

• Intended Audience: 5^th grade
• Established Goals:
  • Standard 1: #3 Study about the major social, political, economic, cultural, and religious developments in NYS & U. S. history involves learning about the history of the U. S. and NY
  • Standard 1: #4 Explore different experiences, beliefs, motives, and traditions of people living in their neighborhoods, communities

Understandings

1. Ethnic communities/neighborhoods are formed for a variety of reasons (anti-immigrant sentiments; emotional support; longing for the familiar such as eating familiar foods, celebrating traditions & holidays, speaking the same language, etc.)
2. The character, lifestyle, and experiences of an ethnic community is shaped by economic opportunities and laws passed by the government.
3. Immigrants find ways of meeting their needs (opium addiction to address loneliness, paper sons to gain citizenship status, San Francisco earthquake led to citizenship documents being destroyed allowing Chinese to claim they are citizens, family/kinship associations that provided support for new immigrants such as assisting in communication between Chinese in America and their families in China)

Essential Questions

1. What were the experiences of Chinese-Americans throughout their history in the U. S.?
2. What acts/laws affected the Chinese in America, and how did this lead to the formation of a Chinatown?
3. What have been the contributions of Chinese-Americans to the U. S.?

Knowledge

• 1882 - The U. S. passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, suspending the immigration of Chinese laborers to the U. S. and denies Chinese the right to become American citizens. It is the first U. S. restriction on immigration based on race & nationality, and stops large scale Chinese immigration for 60 years.
• 1898 - In "Wong Kim Ark v. U. S.", the U. S. Supreme Court concedes that a child of Chinese descent born in the U. S. is an American citizen.
• 1943 - Repeal of Exclusion Laws. Quota of 105 Chinese per year set.
• 1965/68 - Racial quotas system for immigration is abolished. Beginning of a new influx of Chinese immigrants and expansion of New York's Chinatown.
• Students will know what a primary document is and how historians use primary documents to construct stories of history
• Students will investigate some of the ways that immigrants joined together in social groups to help make their lives in a new culture easier.

Vocabulary

ghetto, bachelor, society, exclusion, quota, influx, nationality, citizenship

Skills

1. Students will be able to name several different kinds of primary documents (i.e., photographs, legal texts, diaries, etc.)
2. Students will learn how to ask critical questions of a variety of primary documents (visual and textual documents) and consider different opinions and perspectives presented in primary documents
3. Students will learn to draw conclusions from studying primary documents and nonfiction texts.
4. Students will determine the cause and effect of acts passed by the government barring and limiting Chinese immigration.

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Performance Task

1. Create a museum exhibit of photos, paintings, etchings by collecting them from various books and websites. Write your own captions for each illustration telling what it depicts of the history of Chinese immigration.
2. Drama activity: Create a dialogue between two Chinese immigrants who are living in NY's Chinatown in 1890. What would they discuss about their lives in America compared to their lives in China? Act out dialogue.
3. Write a letter home from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant telling your family about your experiences in the "Gold Mountain". What hardships and successes have you experienced? Explain why the Chinese moved from the west to the eastern part of the U. S.

Other Evidence (quizzes, observation tools, journals, etc.)

• Students write a journal from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant in the 1880s. Describe a typical day (your work, what you do in your free time, who you spend time with, etc.)

Learning Activities

• Looking at a photo circa 1890. Describe what you see: who is in the photograph, what objects are in the photograph. Based on what you see, make a guess about what life was like for New Yorkers in 1890. Look at several different photographs of Lower Manhattan, especially Chinatown, and describe each of them. Then, using the information from these several photographs, draw a conclusion of who lived in Chinatown in 1890. Can you tell what kinds of jobs Chinatown's residents held? Were they men, women, children? Families or individuals?
• Using the internet, find images of Manhattan's Chinatown today. (Or, if you happen to live in New York City, take your students on a tour of Chinatown and have them take photos of the place themselves.) Then, place these contemporary photos side by side with the photos from the 1890s. Compare and contrast what Chinatown looked like in 1890 and what it looks like now. How did the buildings change? How did the streets change? Can you tell lives in Chinatown today? Men, women, children? Families? Individuals? Can you tell what kinds of jobs residents of today's Chinatown hold?
• Look at the photo of a man smoking an opium pipe and read its caption. Look at photos and read journals regarding Chinese interracial marriages. Describe the Chinese-American experience from these primary sources. Tell how Chinese immigrants in America felt about living here. Describe how they coped and how they met their needs of combating loneliness.
• Describe how they fought back against unfair laws towards the Chinese through court cases. (Wong Kim Ark v. Supreme Court, Fong Yue-Ting v. U. S.)
• Read Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (may have to be rewritten into kid-friendly language). Determine the cause of this act. Determine its effect on the Chinese
• Construct a timeline of the events/acts that are crucial to the Chinese-American immigrant experience.
• Write a play/skit about a single event/act and how the Chinese and the Americans may have reacted to it.

Shared Reading

• We Are Americans: Voices of the Immigrant Experience pp. 120 - 121 (quote from Chinese immigrant expressing the importance of Chinatown), 125 (bachelor society), 95 - 96 (anti-Chinese immigrant sentiment leads to Exclusion Act of 1882),107 -108 (paper sons, 1906 San Francisco earthquake), 148 - 149 (1943 quota came about because China was an ally of the U. S.)
• Coming to America: The Chinese-American Experience pp. 40 - 41 (Chinese-American Women & "bachelor societies"), p. 54 "End of Exclusion" (1943 quota)
• The Peoples of North America: The Chinese Americans by William Daley, Chelsea House Publishers: 1987. pp. 13 - 15 (formation of Chinatown, reasons women stayed in China), pp. 57 - 67 ("Life in America" - 1888 Scott Act, Paper Sons, Familiar Associations, Christina Missionaries, Breaking the Grip of Prejudice); Photos: p. 32 (Panning for Gold), p. 36 (Chinese mining), p. 38 (violence directed towards Chinese laborers), p. 39 (Building the Railroad)

Videos and Web Resources

• CNN video: Richard Lui's "Paper Sons" aired May 17, 200
• Video of Angel Island from Angel Island website (www.aiisf.org)
• Museum of the Chinese in the Americas (http://www.moca-nyc.org/MoCA/content.asp.

Resources Needed

1. We Are Americans by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler
2. Coming to America: The Chinese-American Experience by Dana Ying-Hui Wu and Jeffrey Dao-Sheng Tung
3. Chinatown Historical Map & Guide A New York Chinatown History Project Production (http://www.moca-nyc.org/MoCA/content.asp?cid=12 )
4. Timeline: 400 Years of History of Chinese in the Americas (http://www.moca-nyc.org/MoCA/content.asp?cid=12 )
5. Videos: CNN & Angel Island
6. Coolies by Yin and Chris Soenpiet (picture book about Chinese building the railroad)
7. Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep (novel about Chinese building the railroad)
8. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord (explores the idea of citizenship, Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, the Chinese immigrant experience)
9. Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation: http://www.aiisf.org/
10. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=47 )
11. Chinese American Portraits (Personal Histories 1828 - 1988) by Ruthanne Lum McCunn
12. The Peoples of North America: The Chinese Americans by William Daley

Oral Histories of a Young, Post-1965 Immigrant

This lesson uses a series of drama exercises in combination with text from Janet Bode's book New Kids in Town: Oral Histories of Immigrant Teens (Scholastic, 1991) as a way to get students thinking about the experiences of immigrants who cam to the US in the aftermath of the federal immigration reforms of 1965. Developed by Dr. David Montgomery with assistance from Rachel Mattson and Terri Ruyter.

• Purpose: Students will examine the reasons why immigrants left their countries and the challenges and successes they faced in coming to America by looking at one young person' story: the oral history of a teenage from India named Amitabh.
• Standards:
  • NYS Social Studies Standard 1 Elementary: The study of NY State and US history requires an analysis of the development of American culture, its diversity and multicultural context, and the ways people are unified by many values, practices, and traditions.
  • H1: know the roots of American culture, its development from many different traditions, and the ways many people from a variety of groups and backgrounds played a role in creating it.
• Materials: Copies of "The Story of Amitabh" for each student. The link to the handout of the text that will be used in this session is at the end of this document.
• Number of class periods needed: 1-2

Connection

Explain to students the purpose of the lesson and how it links to what they have been learning in this unit so far.

"So far in our study of immigration, we have learned that.... Today, we are going to read an oral history and engage in some drama exercises that will help us consider the challenges and successes real families face when they immigrate to the United States. In this drama, you will need to use all that you have learned about immigration so far, and maybe draw upon some ideas you have inferred from our study so far."

Procedure:

• Hand out section of oral history of Amitabh. The class reads the following passage aloud, with each participant taking one sentence. Note that each segment of text is broken into chunks on the handout for easier reading. (5 minutes)

  "I couldn't always understand why we had come here. Why would my parents leave a country where they had been born, where their children had been born? Bhaunagar was a modernized city on the northwest side of India. It had a lot of factories, apartment houses, and private homes. Our home was three stories high and we lived together with my uncle, my aunt, and my grandparents. My grandparents had another house in a small city called Mehsana. Every summer and during other vacations we'd go there."

  "The weather was very warm. In the winters it would get cool enough to wear sweaters, but that was it. No snow. It also used to rain quite a bit. There was a dry and rainy season, with monsoons that occurred every year at a certain time. We had a good life there."

  "I know that people think that in India everybody is poor, that everything is backward. It's not that backward, and probably improved since I've been here. We had electricity and running water and traffic jams. I went to a good school. They taught the same subjects as over here, like art, general science, and math and also some of the different languages of India. I think there are fifteen or sixteen languages. At home we spoke Gujarati and I learned how to speak Hindi too. I was happy. I knew the way things were done in India. I knew the food. I loved cooked okra, the vegetable, and pouri, the bread. I had a favorite kind of curry. I knew my future. My parents said, though, that we were going to move to America because..."

• Then, Turn and Talk with a partner: Why do you think Amitabh's family decided to come to the United States? Participants will discuss possible reasons; i.e. lack of opportunity, financial hardship, and the pursuit of better living conditions. (3 minutes)
• Then the facilitator reads two sentences about what really happened to Amitabh's family:

  "My parents said that we were going to move to America because us kids would have more opportunities for the future. This was a long time planning."

• Pairs are grouped with two other pairs to form a group of six. Because each pair has discussed possible reasons why the family left India, they should have enough information to improvise the following scene:

  Groups improvise the moment Amitabh's parents tell him and the rest of the family they are going to move to America. In a group of six, there will be the mother, the father, Amitabh, and three more siblings or other family members. Groups improvise simultaneously for 3 minutes. Stop. Decide on 10 to 30 seconds of the improvisation you just did to share with the rest of the class. Each group shares their 10 to 30 seconds. This entire section should last no more than 7 minutes.

• Give a second hand-out which will be read aloud with the following bit of information from Amitabh on it:

  "It was really bad for us in the beginning. We were six in a two room apartment. Every day my parents would get up and go out to look for jobs. They knew they had to start all the way at the bottom, that people here didn't count experience from India. But my father had been a biologist. My mother was a chemistry professor at a university. In India they were both making good money. Now, though, they would come home every evening and they wouldn't have found anything. They would be very, very sad. They didn't know the bus systems or the subway systems here. They'd get lost. They'd get to some place and it would be too late. The job would be gone. They'd go another place and the answer would be no. One day my parents said, "This is a dead end. We can't find jobs. We don't have any more money. Nothing. We're going to have to jump into the river." I want to think that they were not being serious, but I still would feel so sad for us." (5 minutes)

• Brainstorm what kinds of jobs Amitabh's parents might be able to get in NYC? Elicit conversation about what factors go into the task of finding and getting a job. Altogether go through the information we have about the parents' educational status, their ability to speak English, and various other things we know about the world at large that might affect the sorts of jobs they might seek and find.
• Role-play a job interview in pairs (A and B). Amitabh's mother or father (A) applies for a job. B is the interviewer. Afterwards, ask the A's of the pairs to stand up while the B's remain seated. Ask the A's to walk to the next seated B partner and sit down next to them. Now, B will be the Amitabh's mother or father applying for a job, while A is the interviewer.
• Facilitator says: "Eventually both parents got a job. Can we see how this happened? Improvise the interview where the mother or father is offered a job for another two minutes, and then decide on 10 to 30 seconds to share with the class." (15 minutes)
• Discussion: What did it feel like to be interviewed? What were some of the themes or issues that emerged? (5 minutes)

• The participants receive a third hand-out and read about what really happened to Amitabh's family (5 minutes):

  "My father worked as a messenger, more a job for a boy than a man. He delivered letters and carried packages all over the city. Again, he would get lost the way he had when he was looking for work. He lasted about three or four months doing that until he found another job and another job. All small jobs. Then he met an Indian man who owned a laboratory who hired him. Now he's sort of back in the area of biology, where he used to work. My mothers started working at a store. She had to fold clothes, mostly. Then she got a better job watching patients at a senior citizens' home. Eventually, she became the dietician there. Now we live in a house with four bedrooms. I have my own bedroom and my middle brother and I have a computer. I'm in the tenth grade, and my older brother is in college the University of Maryland. He wants to be a surgeon. My father wants to become a U.S. citizen. My mother wants to stay Indian. Still, we are all changing...."

• Discussion: How are the members of Amitabh's family changing? (5 minutes)
• Ask students to create a tableau with their groups to show how your group thinks they are changing. Share. (10 minutes)

• Afterwards, facilitator hands out a fourth and final passage to read aloud (5 minutes):

  "Still, we are all changing. When we lived in Bhaunagar, my mother wore a sari. She used to put a bindi, that little dot, on her forehead. Now only when we go to some festival, like every August 15 is Indian Independence Day and there's a big parade, then she will wear her sari and have a bindi. Mostly, she just wears pants and a blouse. I'm more Americanized than my parents. I still speak Gujarati at home, but now there's English mixed in a lot. I'm trying to get out of my accent as much as possible. And now I have what I guess you could call an American mouth. I have braces. I'd never seen braces in India. I hate wearing them!!! Just like American kids." 

Assessment

Listen in to student conversations for evidence that students:

• are identifying reasonable challenges faced by Amitabh and his family
• are drawing upon prior knowledge of immigration issues in their interpretation of the narrative
• are making connections to and deepening understandings of the diverse stories and experiences that make up the community in which they live

Written Assessment:

Students can draw or create a written comparison chart of how Amitabh's family changed as a result of their immigration to the US and how they held on to their traditions.

Graphing Sugar Consumption, 1600-present

Context

Sugar is a relatively new commodity in the history of Western food. Unknown in Europe until the interaction between Arab and European worlds as a result of Muslim conquest and Christian Crusades. At first sugar was extremely rare (King Henry II of England was only able to acquire four pounds at a time—and he was the king!) and expensive. by the 1700's sugar was starting to trickle down into the diet of the upper classes of Europe who quickly developed a taste for sugar. Extravagant decorations were created from sugar to demonstrate wealth. By the 1800's with the increase in sugar production sugar was becoming more common in the middle and poor classes. With the onset of the industrial revolution and tax incentives supported by the British government, sugar became affordable and a major source of calories for the working class.

• Purpose:
  • E9: make hypotheses about economic issues and problems, testing, refining, and eliminating hypotheses and developing new ones when necessary
  • E10: present economic information by developing charts, tables, diagrams and simple graphs.
• Standards: Social Studies Standard 4 -Economics, Key Idea 2: Economics requires the development and application of the skills needed to make informed and well-reasoned economic decisions in daily and national life.
• Materials: Graphing worksheet
• Number of class periods needed: 1

Connection

In social studies, we have been learning about the history of sugar and how it influenced world events. We can look at how people's diets changed over time and use our knowledge of history to think about what might have caused this change. Today, we are going to look at some historical data, graph it, and then think about what we can learn from it.

Procedure

• Hand each student a copy of the worksheet.
• Review instructions and guide students in setting the graph as needed.
• Have students complete the graph in small groups or individually.
• Share out descriptions and hypotheses about the change in sugar consumption over time.

Assessment

• accuracy and neatness in presentation of graph
• accuracy in mathematical description of graph
• use of prior knowledge, information from class timelines and in notebooks to generate and support hypotheses
• ability to revise or confirm thinking based on the ideas of others

Hell: Life on a Sugar Plantation

Context

Life on a sugar plantation was brutal and the work was unrelenting. Because of high worker mortality rates on sugar plantations, large numbers of enslaved Africans were brought to work in the Caribbean. Slaves, many armed with machetes for harvesting sugar cane, vastly outnumbered the free whites and workers. Economies of scale, the need to process sugar quickly, and the fear of slave rebellion resulted in the overwork and mistreatment of the Africans. By the early 1800's, the moral conscience of many consumers was starting to be pricked. Abolition was becoming a powerful political and social issue. Frederika Bremer and Olaudah Equiano both wrote about and published descriptions of the experience of enslaved workers. Coming from very different lives -- educated Scandinavian woman and freed slave seaman, their descriptions are different; each powerful in its own way.

• New York State Standards:
  • Standard 1: New York and US History Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
  • Key Idea 4: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.
• Purpose:
  • H10: consider different interpretations of key events and/or issues in history and understand the differences in these accounts
  • H12: view historic events through the eyes of those who were there, as shown in their art, writings, music, and artifacts
• Materials:
  • The texts and the analysis sheet.
  • Watercolor paper, watercolors and brushes, black fine line permanent markers
  • History notebooks
• Number of class periods needed: 3

Connection

We have been studying the story of sugar and how it has played an important part in history. The difficult work of growing sugar and the high mortality rate of sugar workers resulted in a new trade network. The "triangle trade" brought Africans to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations, sugar to the United States and Europe in exchange for other goods that either were from those places (for example, wood from the United States) or were brought to those places from far away (for example, tea came from India to England and then on to the United States). Today, we are going to begin reading two different descriptions of life for the enslaved Africans. By reading these documents, we will develop a deeper understanding of what life must have been like on the plantation.

Procedure

• Students work in groups to read the documents. It is recommended that the students read one document by itself, share and discuss what they learned, and then read the second document. After reading each document, engage the class in a discussion of the author's point of view of life on a plantation with consideration of what the author is trying to say and the evidence provided to support that point of view.
• After students have completed reading both documents ask them to create a water color and ink drawing of an image that these documents generated for them.
• What images do these two documents create in your mind? What words or phrases help to create that image? Using art supplies provided create an image that expresses the contrast between the two documents or
• These images can be ‘representational' (you try to make them look realistic) or ‘symbolic' (you use shapes, lines, colors, etc. to create an image that conveys ideas or feelings.)
• When you have finished, write an artist's statement about your picture. What does it show? Why did you decide to make this image the way you did? What parts of the texts were especially influential?

Assessment

Look for evidence that students are engaging in the procedural practices of history:

• Noticing and considering the role of authorship and date of publication/creation
• Placing the document in historical context
• Differentiating own ideas from the ideas expressed in the text
• Asks questions, makes connections ot other parts of life refers back to the original text to support opinions/interpretations

The Haitian Revolution and U.S. History

Choral reading is an often overlooked strategy for building reading fluency. It is also a powerful tool to help students "hear" the voices of history and to provide a basis for learning about historical events. This learning experience as presented here focuses on the Haitian Revolution and its impact on American history. Quotes were pulled from websites, secondary sources and a book of primary source documents, Slavery, Freedom, and Law in the Atlantic World: A Brief History with Documents. All sources are cited in the section on Sugar Resources.

• New York State Social Studies Standards: Key Idea 1.2: Important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions from New York State and United States history illustrate the connections and interactions of people and events acrss time and from a variety of perspectives.
• Purpose: This lesson provides students with the opportunity to "hear" the voices of people that were connected to the story of the Haitian Revolution and to begin to think about how the story of the Haitian Revolution is not an isolated event but is connected to the larger sweep of world history. The selection of quotes highlights the impetus of the Revolution and the response to this revolt in American history. All quotes have approximate or actual dates.
• Materials:
  • Word Document of quotes.
  • Copy of quotes cut into strips.
  • A timeline constructed on a classroom wall. The earliest date on the time line should be 1490 or 1495 depending on your scale. The most recent date on the time line should be at least 1940. Determine the scale of your timeline based on the space available in the classroom.
• Number of class periods: 1

Connection

"We have been learning about how the sugar trade influenced and was influenced by events in the Caribbean and the wider world. The Haitian Revolution was a key moment in the story of sugar. Today, we are going to share out quotes from people who were involved in this event or who felt affected by it. While we are reading the quotes, remember to be thinking like a historian: Ask yourself how this fits with what you already know, what questions it raises for you, and how events are linked, and how different people's voices are important in this story."

Procedure

1. Provide each student with a quote.
2. Have students higlight the date on their quote and read their quote silently several times. This rehearsal will help students read aloud smoothly and with confidence. You may also want to have students practice reading their quote aloud for a partner.
3. When students are ready, explain to them that they will be reading quotes aloud in time order. The earliest quote is 1496. After they read their quote aloud, they should affix it to a prepared timeline in the room.
4. After everyone has shared, debrief the experience with the students. Consider some of the following questions to guide the conversation:
   • What did you learn about the Haitian Revolution from this reading?
   • Did you hear anything that surprised you? Perhaps things that didn't match the story as you knew it from before?
   • What questions do you have about what you heard?
   • What patterns or trends do you notice on the timeline.
   • Was there any unusual language, words, or phrases that surprised you? Why?

Extensions

• You can have students try to sort the quotes by content or time frame. What other patterns do they notice?
• Students can select parts of the quotes and create a found poem with the excerpts.

Assessment

In the conversation that results from this exercise, listen for evidence that students understand that the Haitian Revolution was not an isolated event. It was influenced by a series of events and the actions and responses from diverse people from around the globe that preceded it. It had a profound impact on American history as a result of its success.

Written reflection

Have students work in pairs or small groups to complete the following statements:

• I used to think..., but now I realize....
• I used to think..., but now I wonder....

Timelines of Sugar

Context

Sugar originated in Southeast Asia and, by the time of Alexander the Great, sugar had arrived in Persia. In the 600's AD, Muslims began to conquer Persia to the east and to spread across Africa. They would ultimately arrive in Spain. As they conquered these different areas, they adopted and adapted new technologies, foods, and forms of knowledge. They also introduced these things to their new homes. Through trade and conquest, cultures came in contact with each other providing opportunities for peoples to learn from each other and to generate new knowledge and technologies.

• New York State Standards:
  • NYS Social Studies Standard 2 Elementary, Key idea 2: Establishing timeframes, exploring different periodizations, examining themes across time and within cultures, and focusing on important turning points in world history help organize the study of world cultures and civilizations.
• Purpose:
  • Performance Indicator H17: develop timelines that display important events and eras from world history
• Materials:
  • Blank map of world for each student (http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/world_cont.pdf)
  • Wall map of the world (preferably one that can be written on)
  • Illustrated timeline of the story of sugar
  • Large timeline on the classroom wall that covers 8000 years. This time line should be somewhere that it can stay up for the whole unit. The scale should be such that it allows for dates to be added as the class continues the study. Indicate 6000 BC at one end of the time line, the year "0", and 2000 AD at the other end.
• Number of class periods needed: 1

Connection

This series of lessons launches a study of the history of sugar and how it contributed to history. Typically, we think of historical events in isolation. In reality, many historical events are linked in ways that can challenge how we view the unfolding of history. For example, on his way back to the "Indies" on his second voyage in 1493, Columbus stopped off in the Canary Islands where he procured some stalks of sugar cane from a plantation. This plantation was developed by Muslims. Sugar, which was to become a powerful economic force, would enrich many lives and cause unimaginable deprivation and misery for others.

Procedure

Have students respond in writing or with partners to the guiding question:

Where does sugar come from? What do you think you could learn about the history of people by studying the history of sugar?

Mapping the voyage of sugar.

• Each student, or small group of students, should receive one segment of the illustrated time line of sugar (date, description, and image).
• Each student should receive a blank world map.
• As the class creates the time line and identifies key places on a world map in the classroom, individuals should take notes on their blank maps. They can use arrows to indicate the spread of sugar and code events in the margins. They should indicate: Key dates of the story of sugar; Important stories or events relating to sugar in a certain place; and Key place names related to the history of sugar.
• Have the student(s) who have the earliest event (6000 BC, sugar cane used in Papua New Guinea) add the date to the time line and locate Papua New Guinea on the classroom world map. Put a #1 and the date on PNG. Model how they should do this on their maps with a key for the event number.
• Continue having students come up to add their information to the timeline and world maps in order. Have them indicate with arrows, the spread of sugar. They should continue to take notes in their notebooks and on their maps as well.
• As the class constructs this time line together, have them discuss observations and raise questions about how knowledge is spread and to think about how events across time and place influence each other.
• Upon completion of the time line, have students reflect on the following prompt:
• Go back to your thinking about where sugar comes from that we wrote at the beginning of this project. Given what we have learned, write a new response to these questions. Where does sugar come from? What do you think you could learn about the history of people by studying the history of sugar? How has what we have learned changed your thinking?

Assessment

Look closely at student work for evidence of:

• Sequencing
• Question asking
• Curiosity
• Use of evidence to support thinking

Railroads and US History

Railroads appear briefly on the fifth grade New York State Social Studies curriculum.  A brief search on the internet for information demonstrates that this topic provides rich conceptual and thematic connections beyond the story of the immigrants who helped build the nation's rail system.  Primary sources that can be used to teach the railroad include broadsides, advertisements, folk songs, photographs, diaries and letters.

The development of railroads spurred transportation and communications across the growing nation and helped to consolidate national identity.  It also proved to be an invaluable resource during the Civil War.  The darker side of railroads include the implications for concentration of wealth during the Gilded Age, heightened tensions and violence between Native nations and the US, and the use and abuse of railroad labor. 

 To begin, learners studied a set of documents on the impact of the railroad and used the See/Think/Wonder protocol from Project Zero's Visible Thinking website (http://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt) .

 Students then broke up into small groups to analyze document sets created from materials available online and excerpts from trade books on the impact of the railroad on Chinese Laborers, Irish immigrants, Magnates, Native Americans, Trade and Transportation, and Anglo Settlers. They used the criteria of teaching historical significance described in Making Sense of History to guide their discussion of railroads and US history. Links and references are attached as a word file.

The Erie Canal: Thinking About Historical Context

Children today are so used to the speed of modern life that they find it hard to imagine life when four miles an hour was considered "high speed."   The development of the Erie Canal was really a turning point in US history.  A vast and contentious government funded project, "Clinton's Ditch," as it was known, became the nation's first super highway linking the farms and produce of the developing midwest and the urban and international markets available on the Eastern Seaboard.  It also provides a logical point of entry for teaching students about how to determine historical context.

 I discovered Myra's chapter on teaching historical context at the same time I discovered Martha Kendall's engaging book, The Erie Canal.  This book is beautifully written to allow students to identify literary techniques that establish historical context.    These include the "Extended Now and Then Contrast," "The Mid-Narrative Jolt," "Sensory Descriptions of the Unfamiliar," and "Thought Experiments."  These techniques are described in detail in Making Sense of History.  After trying out the ideas described in the book, teachers identified additional authorial craft that might be used to highlight historical context including using questions to encourage tentative thinking and quirky anecdotes to highlight a key point and to portray the humanity of the participants in history.

We began by examing some photographs from a JackDaws kit on the Erie Canal.  Each group was given a separate set of photographs and asked to note what was familiar and what was unfamiliar.  Participants filled out a t-chart (in the attached file) to note their observations.  These observations were shared with the class. Having built some prior knowledge and some relevant vocabulary, students then broke into groups to read sections from Kendall's book.  Their purpose was to identify different techniques the author used to create a sense of the historical context. We began this portion by demonstrating the point through a shared reading activity.  Finally, students wrote a letter from themselves to a child living along the Erie Canal.  All guiding sheets, as well as a list of references, are included in the attachment.

Historical Fiction and Pheobe the Spy: Thinking About Historical Truth

Teachers often have students read historical fiction as part of units of study in social studies.  For many students, historical fiction can be an engaging entry point into distant history.  It can also pose challenges.  Frequently, students are confused by what is truth and what is fiction.  Additionally, many struggle to use visualization, an important comprehension strategy, when reading about the distant past. 

When we read historical fiction with our students to learn about history, Myra Zarnowski suggests four basic questions that can be used to guide student thinking:

1. How does this book help me to understand daily life in the past?

2. Could the events described have happened? How do I know?

3. Which events really happened? How do I know?

4. Which characters really existed? How do I know?

 The common challenge faced by many young students in beginning this work is the lack of prior knowledge of the topic or era.  In order to build needed prior knowledge, we used primary documents, informational texts and museum collections to assist children in understanding and critically reading Phoebe the Spy and New York City during the Revolutionary War. 

Claire Moore, a museum educator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, led us in an exercise in which we studied excerpts of Phoebe the Spy that described setting. We then visited a colonial house in the museum's collectin to examine artifacts that might have been similar to those that Phoebe encountered. A sample excerpt and the worksheet Claire devised are attached.  

Teachers also spent time completing a three column chart, titled Fact/Fiction/I'm Not Sure to separate out the fact from the fiction as they read Phoebe.  Although most teachers had read the book frequently, this exercise caused them to read with a new purpose and they found many pieces of "information" that they had overlooked before.  Using their questions and a set of primary and secondary sources, they created a question-answer book as described in Making Sense of History to reflect new learnings.  Instructions and templates are attached.

Biographies of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth: Thinking About Perspective

Often, when we use biographies in the elementary classroom, we use them to teach about the lives of important people and what qualities or characteristics they had that influenced their lives.  In her books History Makers and Making Sense of History, Myra Zarnowski challenges us to use biographies as tools in teaching critical reading.  By reading across biographies, as we have written about in the section on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and by identifying the different perspectives of people who interacted with the main person whose life we are reading about, we can consider how different authors give us different insights into a person's life and how different people in history might have viewed that person. 

Another advantage of teaching biography in this way is that we can focus on a key force in history, in this case the abolition movement, in a way that provides access for the diverse learners in our classrooms.  We chose Douglass and Truth to study because there are books about them that are written at various readability levels -- from lower level texts at an L or M level up to the narratives they wrote about their own lives. 

 As groups of learners engaged in the sets of biographies, they were asked to first identify the different voices in the narrative and to see if they could determine, together, what this person's role was in society.  For example, in reading about Sojourner Truth, we met Master Hardenbergh who was a rich New Yorker who owned slaves.  We then wondered what thier thoughts and opinions on abolition might have been and identified evidence in the texts that supported our initial ideas.  Since Master Hardenbergh as a slave owner, we thought that he was pro-slavery since he made money from selling enslaved people.  Finally, we thought about what he might have said about young Isabelle.  Readers spent some time reading the various texts together and completing the attached graphic organizer on voices in history. 

Groups then wrote books on the person they studied. Using Nikki Grimes' book Talkin' About Bessie  as a model, we wrote introductory pages that established the person and the context, and then wrote pages on what different individuals in this person's life might have said about the person we were studying.  Greater description of this activity is in chapter 5 of Making Sense of History. 

An interesting twist that arose during tihs process happened in one group that was studying about Frederick Douglass. This group became quite fascinated by the story of Sophia, the woman who taught Douglass to read. Over the course of her life, she changed from questioning slavery to becoming adamantly pro-slavery.  Instead of writing a book about the different perspectives on Douglass, this group decided to write about Sophia instead.  Sharing the outcomes of these discoveries added to the group's overall understanding of the complexity of US societal views on slavery and abolition in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Lewis and Clark and the Voyage of Discovery: Integrating Historical Context and Historical Accounts

The voyage of the Corps of Discovery is a topic rich with possibility for the elementary school learner. In addition to geography and the natural resources of the American continent, this narrative provides opportunities to learn about the early years of our country's history and to go beyond the simple narratives of Sacagawea and Lewis and Clark to address how diverse peoples and individuals played roles in this unfolding story.

We began with a brief overview of the historical context and then read the letters from Thomas Jefferson to Meriwhether Lewis and then from Lewis to Clark that launched the journey.  Since the Corps was charged with exploring "the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it's course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, ...may offer the most direct & practicable wter communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce" (Thomas Jefferson was still searching for the elusive Northwest Passage) and to learn about the people and resources in the west, we focused on three key elements in this study.

1. While reading excerpts of President Jefferson's letter to Meriwhether Lewis and reading portions of trade books, we determined the goals of the Corps and the historical context of the time.  We wrote up and illustrated brief summaries of this context using a template that is attached below.

2. We conducted scientific observations of animals as described in a lesson available through the Smithsonian's education website. To do this, we studied one of Clark's  journal descriptions of an animal and then practiced the skill of description by visiting and studying relevant dioramas in the   Hall of North American Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History.

3. We broke into groups to study native cultures that the Corps encountered.  Groups visited dioramas and museum displays of cultural artifacts from a nation in the Plains Indian Hall at the AMNH and then read about the Corps' encounters with these people in various trade books and on line (a resource list of websites and books is attached.) As a result of this study, we sketched out a story board of an event we read about and then wrote a letter to President Jefferson describing what we learned. 

To synthesize our learning, we used a lesson we found in Making Sense of History on adding to a historical account.  I took excerpts from David Adler's  A Picture Book of Lewis and Clark and we added information we learned to the text.  This process required the learners to pull together information from across the unit of study. It also made visible the process of how we bring prior knowledge to a text to understand and question it. 

Choral Reading Exercise

Choral reading is an often overlooked strategy for building reading fluency. It is also a powerful tool to help students "hear" the voices of history and to provide a basis for learning about historical events. This learning experience as presented here focuses on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Quotes were pulled from websites and Russell Freedman's 2006 book, Freedom Walkers. Quotes from primary sources from any event in history can be used.

• New York State Social Studies Standards:
  • Key Idea 1.3: Study about the major social, political, economic, cultural, and religious developments in New York State and United States history involves learning about the important roles and contributions of individuals and groups.
  • H9: identify individuals who have helped to strengthen democracy in the United States and throughout the world.
• Purpose: This lesson provides students with the opportunity to "hear" the voices of people who lived through the Montgomery Bus Boycott and to begin to develop the understanding that history is the lived experience of diverse peoples. Through participation in this lesson, students will be able to place the Rosa Parks story within a broader, more accurate context and to begin to see the Montgomery Bus Boycott as a campaign for social change that didn't simply "happen" but that came about because large numbers of people participated in and contributed to this major social and political development.
• Materials:
  • Download our list of quotations. Feel free to edit them or to add any quotations about the boycott that you come across in your reading and research, as well.
  • Copy of quotations cut into strips.
• Number of class periods: 1

Connection

You should explain to the students the purpose of the day's lesson and how it fits into the broader context of the unit for study. You might say something like this:

"We have been learning about the Civil Rights movement in school. As part of this study, we have been learning about key events in the Civil Rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was one important event. We often think about Rosa Parks when we think about this event. Today, we are going to share out quotes from people who were involved in this event or who remember it. While we are reading the quotes, remember to be thinking like a historian: Ask yourself how this fits with what you already know, what questions it raises for you, and how different people's voices are important in this story."

Procedure:

1. Provide each student with a quote. (A sample of quotes from the Montgomery Bus Boycott follows. If you create your own, you should try to provide attribution for each quote).
2. Have students read their quote silently several times. This rehearsal will help students read aloud smoothly and with confidence. You may also want to have students practice reading their quote aloud for a partner.
3. When students are ready, explain to them that they will be reading quotes aloud in "popcorn" fashion -- there is no particular sequence. Students should just read their quote aloud when they are ready. The only rules are that only one person can read at a time and that they should read loudly enough for all to hear.
4. After everyone has shared, debrief the experience with the students. Consider some of the following questions to guide the conversation:
   • What did you learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott from this reading?
   • Did you hear anything that surprised you? Perhaps things that didn't match the story as you knew it from before?
   • What questions do you have about what you heard?
   • Was there any unusual language, words, or phrases that surprised you? Why?

Extensions:

• You can have students try to sort the quotes by speaker, by content, or by time frame. What other patterns do they notice?
• Students can select parts of the quotes and create a found poem with the excerpts.

Assessment

In the conversation that results from this exercise, listen for evidence that students understand that the participation of many people was necessary for the Boycott to succeed.

Written reflection

Have students work in pairs or small groups to complete the following statements:

• I used to think..., but now I realize....
• I used to think..., but now I wonder....

Comparing Biographies: Rosa Parks

In teaching history, we want to help our children to build understanding of big historical concepts and ways of thinking. One important literacy skill we can help students develop is through social studies instruction is to critically question texts while reading.

When historians read, they pay close attention to sources of information, draw upon their knowledge of the historical context, and are constantly asking questions of the text and themselves to verify evidence. In using trade books in the social studies classroom, we want to enable students to read critically and not just to acquire information from a text unquestioningly.

Through reading several biographies about one person, students can begin to question the versions of the texts they are reading and begin to uncover the authors' purpose or bias in creating these different versions.

There are many biographies available on Rosa Parks. These biographies are written with different levels of complexity. By providing students with diverse versions, and scaffolding their critical reading of these texts, we can begin to foster a questioning stance in our readers. An additional benefit to providing these different versions is that they provide us with an authentic, differentiated task that allows all students to participate in rigorous learning experiences.

Most of the books on the following list are solely about Rosa Parks. Two books, Freedom Walkers, by Russell Freedman, and Let It Shine, by Andrea Davis Pinkney, have chapters specifically relating to Rosa Parks.

Students should read the biographies in small groups or clubs and then work together to complete the worksheet. It will help your students if you complete one book together before sending them off to work on the rest of the texts independently or in groups.

To guide the discussion after students complete the chart(s), consider using the following questions[1]:

• Did the biographers use different sources (pictures, stories, etc.)? Are primary sources included in the book? Are sources cited?
• Did the biographers use different information or different versions of events? How does this change your understanding of the story? What questions does it raise for you?
• How was the information organized? How did this help you or make it more difficult for you to read the biography?
• Did the biographers emphasize different ideas or themes?

Sister Rosa Parks

by The Neville Brothers
D. Johnson, C. Moore, C. Neville, C. Neville, Jr., J. Neville
L. Neville Irving Music, Inc. obo Neville Music, Inc.
Johnson Music; Wm. Claffey & Associates
(p) 1989 A&M Records
Courtesy of A&M Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

December 1, 1955, our freedom movement came alive. And because of Sister Rosa you know, we don't ride on the back of the bus no more.

Sister Rosa Parks was tired one day
after a hard day on her job.
When all she wanted was a well deserved rest
Not a scene from an angry mob.
A bus driver said, "Lady, you got to get up
cuz a white person wants that seat."
But Miss Rosa said, "No, not no more.
I'm gonna sit here and rest my feet."

Chorus
Thank you Miss Rosa, you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.
Thank you Miss Rosa you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.

Now, the police came without fail
And took Sister Rosa off to jail.
And 14 dollars was her fine,
Brother Martin Luther King
knew it was our time.
The people of Montgomery sit down to talk
It was decided all gods' children should walk
Until segregation was brought to its knees
And we obtain freedom and equality, yeah

Chorus Thank you Miss Rosa, you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.
We'll sing it again
Thank you Miss Rosa, you are the spark,
You started our freedom movement
Thank you Sister Rosa Parks.

So we dedicate this song to thee
for being the symbol of our dignity.
Thank Sister Rosa Parks.

Chorus 2x

Photographs of the Boycott: Tableaux

Context

This activity is organized around an group of photographs taken during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956. In small groups, students study photographs from the Boycott, and then engage in a series of activities based on these images. In the first place, each small groups re-enacts their image in tableau form—that is, in a live, frozen picture, and then their classmates examine and reflect upon what they see in this frozen picture. From there, the teacher go in any number of directions, depending on the larger goals of his or her less. These activities can be used to amplify and enrich students' study the democratic process, racial injustice, and/or the political changes that were won by black Americans in the middle of the twentieth century; to raise questions about how change happens in a democracy; or to ground and demythologize the work of Rosa Park and the victories of the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement (and thus suggest to your students that they have power to change the world around them.)

• New York State Social Studies Standards:
  • Key Idea 1.4: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.
  • H10: consider different interpretations of key events and/or issues in history and understand the differences in these accounts
• Purpose:
  • Students will understand that Rosa Parks did not act alone or spontaneously. That the Boycott was the result of many years of planning and vigilance.
  • Students will also learn that although Rosa Parks' actions was an important catalyst, the Boycott only succeeded because of the sacrifice and hard work many people, mot of whose names we do not remember. These participants were a diverse group of people who came together around a cause.
  • Students will begin to generate questions about who tells stories in history, how the creator of a text (words or images) has a particular perspective that they want to communicate, and that they should investigate many sides of even common historical stories in order to get a fuller picture of what happened and why.
• Materials: Photographs of ordinary people from the Montgomery Bus Boycott. You will need a different photograph for each of your small groups, but enough copies of each photo so that each member of each group can have his or her own copy. (This is in part for the sake of the students' learning and in part for the purposes of written assessments at the end of the experience). There are many good and provocative photos in Russell Freedman's young adult book, Freedom Walkers. You can also find some electronic images online by following the links in the Resources section of this website.
• Number of class periods needed: 1

Connection

You should explain to the students to the purpose of the day's lesson and how it fits into the larger context of the work in which they are engaged. You might say something like:

"Recently in social studies, we have been studying biographies of famous Americans. One American we studied as a class was Rosa Parks. We learned that authors of biographies include different information about her and her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Today, we are going to be historians and closely examine some photographs that were taken during the boycott. We can use this information to understand the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in new ways."

Procedure

1. Break students into groups of 4-6. Give each group one copy of one photograph. They should not share their photograph with other groups. Explain to them that they need to get together and find a way to recreate the image in their photograph using all the members of their group. They may not have enough people in the group to represent each person in the photograph. They will need to decide who (or what) they should represent. Tell them that they can choose to literally represent the image in their hands—or that they can do something more abstract, in an effort to represent the mood or larger meaning of that image.
2. Give students about 10 minutes to work on this in their groups. Then reconvene the whole group and one by one ask each group to show the rest of the class their re-enactments. Ask each group to hold their tableau for about one minute so that the rest of the class can look it over carefully. Then, after a minute, tell them to relax, and ask the audience questions about what they saw: What do we see? What do you think is the mood of this image? Where does the power lie in the interaction represented? What do you think is happening here?
3. Once each group has gone (and gotten feedback from their audiences), ask students to go back into their groups and rework the images based on what they are hearing. Then come back and share again. This time, as each group presents its new image, begin to ask the "characters" what they are thinking as the photographer is snapping the photograph. Discuss.
4. After you've gone through each group a second time, ask students to get back into their groups and create a short scene illustrating the minute before the image was taken. The scene should end with the frozen image. Alternately, you could ask them to recreate the minute after the image, starting with the frozen picture. Then discuss these new scenes. What issues emerged from the pictures? Why do you think people felt the way that they did? What historical information did you learn from these enactments?

Click for a quick overview of how to set up and debrief tableaux

Assessment

Listen in on student conversations as they set up the tableau and to the discussions and questions about the tableaux once they are presented. In particular, listen for:

• insights into how images are created to tell a certain story
• insights into different points of view in history
• comments that show an understanding of the role of individuals in the Boycott

Written reflection

Glue your photograph in your notebook. Pretend you are the photographer. Write a letter to a friend that explains what you were thinking when you were taking this picture. Why did you choose to frame the image as you did? What made you want to take this particular shot? What point were you trying to make? What photographs didn't you take because you were taking this one? 

10 days of 45 minute lessons

Developed by Lisa Jaffe, PS43X and Suzanne Tallarico, PS220X

Context

Best practices in social studies ask teachers to include the analysis of primary source documents into the curriculum. Through the use of primary documents, students can experience how history is more than a seemingly random list of facts, dates, and names. Instead, they can begin to experience the work of historians as they analyze documents for bias and credibility and construct a narrative that is supported by the evidence.

• Goals and Standards:
  • NYS ELA Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding
  • Listening and reading to acquire information and understanding involves collecting data, facts, and ideas; discovering relationships, concepts, and generalizations, and using knowledge from oral, written and electronic sources
  • Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one's own words, applying information from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely, and comprehensibly.
• NYS Social Studies Standards:
  • Standard 1, Key Idea 4: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.
  • Content standards will vary depending on primary materials selected for study.

Understandings

• Historians study documents and artifacts to learn about and construct a historical account.
• History is a version of what happened. This version is created on a set of documents and represents the historians best understanding of what happened from one particular point of view.

Essential Questions

• How do historians know about the past?
• How do primary source documents help us tell a story?

Knowledge

• Historical content is flexible depending on the needs of the classroom and the curriculum.
• A primary source document is a document, artifact or other source of information that was created at or near the time being studied.
• Primary sources include: photographs, letters, census data, maps, cultural artifacts or material culture, drawings, diaries, cartoons, etc. Historians study primary sources to learn about events in the past, to understand what motivated people to act the way they do, to learn about different points of view of events.

Skills

• Describe (through words, drawing, etc) a document
• Comparing different topics on the same topic. Using information around the text (caption, author, date, etc.)
• Differentiating between fact and opinion Analyze documents by asking the following questions:
  • S - What kind of source is this?
  • O - What's the occasion?
  • A - Who is the audience?
  • P - What is the purpose of the document?

Resources

• Listening in on Student Conversation assessment checklist
• Primary document analysis sheet
• http://www.boondocksnet.com/
• http://www.politicalcartoons.com/
• A set of primary sources. Ideally, these sources will work together so that students can construct one story across the set of documents.

Teacher-made Strategy Charts

• How to Be a Historian
  • Ask questions
  • Demand evidence
  • Be curious
  • Think about other points of view
• How to Analyze a Document
  • S - What kind of source is this?
  • O - What's the occasion?
  • A - Who is the audience?
  • P - What is the purpose of the document?

Learning Experiences

Day 1: How do we know about things that happened a long time ago?

Mind Walk activity: Click for detailed instructions. (You can do this either as a series of freewrites or partner turn-and-talks.)

• Ask your students to free write everything they've done in the last 24 hours.
• Share out as a group.
• Now ask your students to go back and write down what kinds of "evidence" or "traces" they created in doing those things. Give them examples-- did you buy something that you got a receipt for? did you take a test or fill out a form? did you write a letter or a diary entry? did you use your metrocard? did you throw things away? what, in short, did you leave behind?
• Again, share out as a group.
• Again, ask students to imagine a historian 100 years from now finding those bits of paper and information. What would they learn--about your life, about "American life in 2007"-- from this evidence? What WOULDN'T s/he learn? --Would they learn about your dreams? Desires? Would they learn about your eating habits?
• Share out again.

Day 2: How do we look at a primary source?

• Bring in class picture and have students describe what they see.
• Give each group a primary source from teacher's life and have students list what they see, and what they know about the teacher from looking at the source.
• Homework: Students will bring in a primary source from their own life (photo, letter, receipt, religious object, flag, or article of clothing)

Day 3: What do we learn about people from looking at their sources?

Students will swap primary sources with each other and answer the following questions:

• What is it?
• Where did he/she get it or find it?
• Why is it important to him/her?
• What do you learn from the object?

Day 4: How do we look at photographs as a primary source?

• Teacher will show photo of a child from long ago. Try to choose a photograph that has attribution and a caption describing the context. Teacher will guide students through process of analyzing a document using SOAP and the primary source worksheet.
• Students will analyze similar type sources in partners. Share out.

Day 5: How do we look at advertisements as a primary source?

• Teacher will show an advertisement (broadside) from long ago. Teacher will guide students through process of analyzing a document using SOAP and the primary source worksheet.
• Students will analyze similar type sources in partners. Share out.
• Day 6 How do we look at political cartoons as a primary source?
• Teacher will show a political cartoon. Teacher will guide students through process of analyzing a document using SOAP and the primary source worksheet.
• Students will analyze similar type sources in partners. Share out.

Day 7: How do we look at political cartoons primary source?

• Teacher will show a different political cartoon. Teacher will guide students through process of analyzing a document using SOAP and the primary source worksheet.
• Students will analyze similar type sources in partners. Share out.

Day 8: How do we look at maps as a primary source?

• Teacher will show a map (natural resources). Teacher will guide students through process of analyzing a document using SOAP and the primary source worksheet.
• Students will analyze similar type sources in partners. Share out.

Day 9: How do we look at newspaper articles as a primary source?

• Teacher will show an excerpt from a newspaper article. Teacher will guide students through process of analyzing a document using SOAP and the primary source worksheet.
• Students will analyze similar type sources in partners. Share out.

Day 10: Assessment

Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze different types of primary sources: photograph, advertisement, map, newspaper excerpt, and map by answering a series of questions about 5 different sources.

Primary Sources and Everyday Life

Adapted from The Library of Congress Historian's Sources Lesson Overview

• Purpose: This lesson introduces students to the idea that people leave behind traces of their lives. These traces can be found later by historians and used to reconstruct events that occur and how people feel about and respond to those events.
• Standards:
  • New York State Social Studies Standard 1: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.
  • H10: consider different interpretations of key events and/or issues in history and understand the differences in these accounts
• Materials: Paper and pencil or student notebooks
• Number of class periods needed: 1

Connection

You should explain to the students to the purpose of the day's lesson and how it fits into the larger context of the work in which they are engaged. You might say something like:

"This year in social studies, we are going to learn to study the past like historians do. Historians look at something called the historical record to figure out what might have happened in the past. Since we don't always have people who we can ask (and lots of times people disagree!), historians look for evidence and then piece together what might have happened, kind of like on CSI type TV shows. Today, we are going to begin to think about what kinds of evidence historians might use as they try to understand what happened in the past.

Procedure

Extension

Now think about a more public event currently happening (a court case, election, public controversy, law being debated), and answer these questions:

• What kinds of evidence might this event leave behind?
• Who records information about this event?
• For what purpose are different records of this event made?

Assessment

Since this is an introductory lesson to primary sources of information, you will be assessing student responses to the above work and the written reflection in their notebooks. Look for evidence of student ability to:

• identify a range of primary sources
• infer information based on these sources
• use multiple pieces of evidence to corroborate an interpretation.

Written Reflection

Pretend you are a future historian and you found materials described in this Mind Walk. What could you infer or conclude about this person's life? What might the materials tell historian about the family, community, region, and/or nation of this person? What would they be unable to learn about both the person's life and life in the U.S. from these documents?