Introduction   Enduring Understandings   GEs Directions  Essential Questions Resources   Assessment Credits


Introduction 

Primary sources are those that were written or created during the same time period as an event. These sources might include letters, journals, government documents, maps, pictures, and artwork. Historians study primary sources and piece together the facts in order to help others learn about the past. Historians often apply their work to books, museums, and film.

The Declaration of Independence (1776) "Join or Die" Political Cartoon by Ben Franklin American Nation Text by Davidson and Stoff

How are the 3 resources above different? How are they related?

One of the most significant challenges of being a historian is recognizing bias in historical sources. All events can be seen from two or more points of view. Which facts do we believe? What really happened? Recognizing bias and perspective in sources can help us decide how an event may have happened.


 
Enduring Understandings

(From Franklin West SU Framework)

Numerous historical conflicts have shaped the world of today. The conflicts of today will shape the world of tomorrow.

History depends on what is recorded about an event at the time of the event. Various primary and secondary sources are subject to bias, inaccuracy, or misinterpretation. Each source must be examined through a critical eye.



Grade Expectations

H&SS:9 Students show understanding of how humans interpret history
H&SS:10 Students show understanding of past, present and future time
IT:4 (Communication) Students use telecommunication to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts and other audiences.
IT:5 (Research Problem Solving and Decision Making) Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.


Directions

In this activity you will be a historian and research various primary sources. The information, meaningful quotes, and perspectives you find will be used to create a written account of how the event happened and how it helped cause the American Revolution.

Choose one of the following:
  • The Taxing of Americans
  • Boston Massacre
  • Boston Tea Party
  • Lexington and Concord
To get started constructing the event use primary sources to collect information such as: time, location, setting, sequence of events, and quotes. Whenever possible identify who the author of each source is and their perspective. Example: Patroit, Loyalist, British Soldier, etc. Be careful to balance perspectives, if there are two sides to this story (and there are!), you must do your best to tell both.

Address the essential questions to establish a connection to the beginning of the American Revolution. Format your account of events as a narrative using the detail you find along with quotes to tell the story. If you use artwork of the time period as a source (example: Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre) refer to the work and explain what you see and the conclusions you are drawn to.

Cite the sources that you used to produce the account of the event. Citation Machine is a useful tool to help with this task

Submit your work for peer review. We will set up a class blog for this purpose. I will be providing additional information and assistance for this step. We will use Moodle to post our work and comment on the work of other students. This blog will be accessed and viewed by members of our school only. 

Essential Questions
As class we will create these questions together and they may differ depending on the event you choose. Essential questions will often begin with "how" or "why" and are created to guide your research.

For Example:
How did the two sides see this event differently?
Why were the two sides not able to resolve their disagreement peacefully?

What other essential questions can you formulate?

Resources
Use the following resources as a starting point and then move on to others. Remember to stick to primary sources.

Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

A Web of English History (Click on “American Affairs”)
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/

Digital History Primary Documents
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p1.cfm

Teach U.S. History
http://www.teachushistory.org/Revolution/ps-contents.htm

The American Colonist’s Library
http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/primarysources.html

Boston Massacre Trials
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/bostonmassacre.html

Eyewitness to History
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/18frm.htm

Early America
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/massacre.html

The American Revolution (see writings of the American Revolutions section)
 http://www.ceplovi.cz/matej/cizi/his-story.html

The History Carper
http://www.historycarper.com/


Assessment

Historian Rubric

.

Construction of Event

Research and Sources

Work
Habits

Peer Review
Process

Accomplished

Constructs a detailed account of the event supported  by information and quotes from multiple perspectives. 

Clearly connects event to the Revolution.

Uses three or more resources provided by the teacher as well as additional sources.

Identifies and explains bias in sources.

Uses all time wisely and extends research to enhance work as time allows.

Fully participates in peer review by posting work to the class blog and responding to the work of at least two other students.

Proficient

Constructs an account of the event supported by information  from
multiple perspectives and quotes.

Connects event to Revolution.

Uses three or more resources provided by the teacher.

Identifies bias in sources.

Uses all time wisely.

Participates in peer review by posting work to class blog and responding to the work of at least one other student.

Amateur

Constructs an account of the event primarily from one perspective.

Attempts to connect event to Revolution.

Uses two resources provided by 
the teacher.

Attempts to identify bias in sources.

Uses most time wisely.

Posts work to blog, but does not respond to the work of others.

Beginner

Constructs an account of the event with little support of primary sources.

Relies primarily on a single source.

Uses some time wisely.

Does not post work to the blog.

No Evidence


Credits

Written by Eric Hadd (ehadd(at)gemsvt.org), Social Studies Teacher, Georgia Middle School
This page was created for and inspired by the UVM course Technology and Inquiry Learning (fall semester 2006)
Adobe Photoshop Elements was used for the page header. All images used are either in the public domain of have been used acording to U.S. Copyright guidelines for fair use. The layout was achieved with css code generated by csscreator.com. No html tables are used for layout on this page! All CSS and HTML code was edited using NVU.

Document made with Nvu