Primary Source Literacy

Alex Dreier, Scott Hertrick, Katharine Millet

Introduction to Context

Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School

Cambridge, MA

Principles of our Unit

Make the past relevant for kids

Forge interdisciplinary connections

•Strict chronology inhibits creativity

•Curriculum need not be static, absolute, nor separated into discrete subjects

•Making connections across disciplines connects learning with community and prepares students for civic engagement

-- Kincheloe, Slattery and Steinberg (2000)

Throughlines

Critical Reading of Primary Sources

Past/Present Connections

21st Century Skills Framework

National Standards for History

(Historical Thinking Skills)

Targets of DifficultyReading Primary Sources

Critically Reading Anything!

Collaboration

…complaints which are excited by many unwarrantable

encroachments and usurpations, blah, blah, blah…

Generative Topic: Declaration of Independence

Bottomless - ideas and implications are still debated today.

Interdisciplinary - engaging for both History and Philosophy classrooms.

Past/Present Connection - Healthcare Debate

“[Generative topics] are connected to multiple important ideas within and across subject matters and approachable through a variety of entry points.” – Wiske (2005)

Declaration of Independence: Idea ChainStudents will understand how documents like

Declaration of Independence are tied to the context in which they were created and the history of events and ideas

An “idea chain” connects ideas over time:

“…no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” – John Locke (1690)

“…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

– Thomas Jefferson (1776)

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services […].” – Article 25, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Healthcare Reform Debate (2009):

“A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to healthcare, food, or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This ‘right’ has never existed in America.”

– John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods

Declaration of Independence: Idea Chain

Unit Understanding GoalsCritical Reading of Primary Sources

21st Century Skills: Information, Media & Technology

Essential Question: What rights do we have as U.S. citizens and humans and how are they ensured?

Analysis of Historical Antecedents

Documents of Independence

Critical Reading of Primary Sources (Methods)

21st Century Skills: Information, Media & Technology (Forms)

Essential Question: What rights do we have as U.S. citizens and humans and how are they ensured? (Purposes)

Analysis of Historical Antecedents (Methods)

Documents of Independence (Knowledge)

Boix-Mansilla & Gardner (1998)

Performances of Understanding

Goals and ThroughlinesTargets of Difficulty

Technologies are not merely tools for learning but processes of learning – Yelland (2007)

Affordances of particular technologies: properties that

encourage specific learner behaviors – Koehler &

Mishra (2008)

Ongoing Assessment

“Authentic performance – a necessity, not a frill” – Wiggins & McTighe (2005)

Ongoing assessment “focuses on criteria more than norms, on

improvement more than ranking, and on collaboration

more than competition.” (Wiske, 2005)

Wiki: Introduction and Rationale

A collaborative document (or series of documents) housed on the web and editable by anyone with a web browser (Reich and Daccord, 2008)

Offers students the opportunity to collaborate with one another in analyzing important historical documents

Ideas can be generated between different classes (interdisciplinary), as well as built upon in successive years

Wiki: Addressing Goals & Throughlines

Connects Historical Antecedents and Documents of IndependenceUses hyperlinks to make concrete connections

between documents, ideas, thinkers and events

Addresses Essential Question in an Iterative ForumDiscussion forum allows for students to bounce ideas

off one another and improve their understanding in a collaborative way, through distributed cognitive responsibility

21st Century SkillsWorking creatively & collaboratively with othersCommunicate clearlyCreate media products

Wiki: Addressing Targets of Difficulty

Facilitates an Understanding of Primary SourcesObscure words and phrases defined

(primary documents no longer read as if in a foreign language)

Different ideas can be linked to reinforce relationships, and secondary sources can be linked to provide context

Improves Critical Reading SkillsSupplies context, which generates understandingFacilitates awareness of opposing and affirming

viewpointsProvides forum for critical discussion

Fosters CollaborationOffers an opportunity to develop 21st century

communication skills in a relevant environment

Wiki: Potential PitfallsPotential Overload

Multiple classes accessing the wiki simultaneously would prove frustrating and potentially project-threatening

Internet Access IssuesObviously a reliable Internet connection is a prerequisite

Trust and Ownership IssuesStudent pairs could erase one another’s contributions if

they had conflicting ideas about the final product

Logistical Issues Related to Housing Information on the Web If Wikispaces were to begin charging annual fee or were

to cease supporting the platform, information would potentially be lost

Wiki Collaboration Process“He has dissolved Representative Houses

repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.” [ 1 ]

Representative Houses: Many of the American colonies formed representative government bodies to oversee local matters, print paper money, and levy taxes. These included the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Maryland Assembly of Freemen.

Manly firmness: Jefferson uses language of force and masculinity to assert the strength and righteousness of the American message, and to further denigrate King George for his violation of the rights of citizens who were merely acting as any men with integrity would.

[1] Here, Jefferson states that George III has issued several edicts forbidding the meeting of colonial assemblies and argues that the King did so because the assemblies tried to defend the rights of their citizens against the Crown. One example of such a violation occurred in 1768 when the representative assembly of Massachusetts circulated a letter to other colonial legislatures protesting the Townshend Acts. When Lord Hillsborough, the first secretary of state for America, learned of the letter he ordered it recalled and directed other colonial governors to forbid their assemblies to read the letter. When the Massachusetts assembly refused to recall it, the governor of Massachusetts, Francis Bernard, dissolved the assembly. Other governors followed suit when the letter was read in their colonies. The patriots felt that representative government was an essential right of every citizen, and that the dissolution of the assemblies was a gross violation of that right.

Wiki Assessment ProcessRevision History (Wikipedia Entry for “Declaration of Independence”)

Revisions

Wiki Discussion Forum

InsightsFlexibility of Our Design

Framework can change from year to year, discipline to discipline, teacher to teacher

Possibility of Distance Collaboration

Role of the Wiki Initially a culminating performance, now a step we

leveraged toward greater understanding

Donation ConceptDistributed cognitive responsibility

PuzzlesHow to account for/mitigate against teacher

inexperience with directing collaborative digital projects?

How to refresh the framework year to year?

How to work out logistics of timing over distance or even within the same school?

How to modify the design for a school with less resources, less motivated students, lower attendance rates?