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Chapter 1 Basic - Introduction
1.1 Introduction
This book provides high school U.S. History teachers and students with sets of primary
and secondary sources about important topics. Some teachers will use it as a supplement
to a traditional textbook. For those looking to leave the textbook behind entirely, it will
provide a course with basic structure and continuity, and will reduce the burden of finding
new primary sources for each class meeting. However, it is not yet comprehensive enough to
meet the coverage requirements of, for example, an Advanced Placement test.
Reading Like a Historian
The methods used in this book draw on the latest research in history education, and particularly on the work of Stanford professor Sam Wineburg and the Stanford History Education Group. Wineburg has shown when reading documents, historians consistently engage in several characteristic behaviors that non-historians do not—sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, and close reading.
- Sourcing – When reading a primary document, historians look first to its source information, anticipate its perspective, and consider its trustworthiness. Sourcing questions should be answered after reading the source information and headnote but before reading the document. Who created the document? With what purpose? What was the intended audience? Is the document trustworthy?
- Contextualization – As they read and interpret a document, historians consider the historical context within which it was created. What was going on when this document was created? What were people doing? What did people believe? Why might this document not provide the whole picture? 1 www.ck12.org
- Close reading – As they read and interpret a document, historians also try to understand the argument being made within the document and the rhetorical strategies being employed. What is the argument being made in this document? What evidence is presented? What specific words are used?
- Corroboration – After reading multiple documents, historians consider how they relate
to each other. Do the sources agree with each other or are they in conflict? Are they
reliable? Considering all of the sources available, what can we say about the issues
they address?
The texts in this book have been selected to cover important and interesting topics in U.S. history that allow students to practice these reading skills. The book is divided into chapters, each of which covers a historical period (e.g. the Civil War) and contains sections that address specific topics (e.g. the New York City Draft Riots). Each section contains approximately 2-5 documents, which have been selected to be read as a group. Each document is followed by questions for students to answer, most of which correspond to one of the four historical reading skills listed above—sourcing, contextualization, close reading, and corroboration. Some sections include 'section questions' which are more global and address all of the documents in the set.
Advanced and Basic Versions
Document-oriented history teachers quickly learn that historic sources often use dated language
that challenges some students and stymies others completely. To address this difficulty,
the book is available in advanced and basic versions. The advanced book is a straightforward
collection of excerpted documents. The basic book, however, requires a bit more
explanation. Most documents in the basic version have been modified from the original
text—sometimes radically—to make them more accessible to less proficient readers. Some
difficult words have been replaced, while others are underlined and defined below. Complicated
syntax has been simplified and sentences rearranged, but we have strived to preserve
original meanings. Documents at the beginning of the book are more heavily modified than
those at the end, both because older documents are usually more difficult and because students'
reading skill is expected to improve as the course progresses. We encourage teachers
of the basic book to explain to students that the documents have been modified, to have
copies of original documents (i.e. the advanced book) available, and to periodically read
aloud or distribute copies of the original documents to convey the flavor of the language,
and to make clear exactly what is preserved and lost in modification. The questions that follow each document are identical in both versions.
The documents in this book were selected and modified by Stanford Ph.D. candidate Abby
Reisman, as part of her doctoral research, under the supervision of Sam Wineburg. The curriculum
was piloted in four San Francisco classrooms during the 2008-2009 school year, and
post-tests showed statistically significant gains in both historical reasoning and general reading
ability. A short promotional video, which includes interviews with students participating
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in the San Francisco pilot, is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWz08mVUIt8.
Classroom-tested lesson plans for most of the documents in this book are available at http://sheg.stanford.edu, although there may be minor divergences between the sourcebook and lessons. The website also contains document sets extending from 1923 to the
present that are not currently included in the sourcebook.
We have chosen to end this book in the year 1923 because documents from before that year
belong to the public domain. After that point, the legal doctrine of 'fair use' permits the
inclusion of limited excerpts from documents. Additionally, audio and video sources become
important. As of this writing, such capacities are just beginning to be supported by CK-12's
Flexbook format, and most history education research has focused on the use of text and
images. We hope eventually to extend the book's coverage through the rest of the twentieth
century.
Adding Sections
In the period from colonization to 1923, this sourcebook covers major events, but not all
topics are addressed and coverage could be improved. Users of the textbook are invited to
submit additional document sets, which we will review for inclusion in the next edition of
the book.
New document sets should address topics commonly mentioned in state or AP history standards.
The documents selected should not merely address the same topic but should be
selected to be read as a group and to facilitate the historical reading behaviors included
above. Document sets should include (1) An introductory paragraph to provide background
information and frame students' reading, (2) Source information for each document (3) Documents,
excerpted as necessary to reach an appropriate length. Documents may include
text, images, sounds, or video, but their inclusion in the book must not violate copyright
law. Eligible documents include those in the public domain, under a Creative Commons
license, or available under legal 'fair use' doctrine. (4) Questions addressing the sources
individually and as a group. Most questions should correspond to one of the four historical
reading skills described above.
To Learn More
A further explanation of the teaching strategies used here can be found at http://historicalthinkingmatters. org/, particularly in the introductory video, Why Historical Thinking Matters (http: //historicalthinkingmatters.org/why/). Much of the research informing this method is available in the book Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, a collection of papers by Sam Wineburg.
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