reading in history cynthia shanahan, uic. what is history reading? reading of texts that include:...
TRANSCRIPT
Reading in History
Cynthia Shanahan, UIC
What is history reading? Reading of texts that include:
What is history reading?
Reading that embodies ways that historians interpret the world: Historians create categories of historical
study such as Political Ideological Social Economic Artistic
Historians study basic systems (feudalism, monarchy, etc.)
What is history reading?
Historians study relationships among these systems and categories: Contingency Chance; Coincidence Chronology
Historians study change over time.
Contingency
Out of the conversations grew Bunau-Varilla's conviction that if the Panamanians tried to declare their independence, the United State would use force.
Because people had difficulty finding work during the depression, Roosevelt created a number of works programs.
Chance; Coincidence
The balance is certainly struck in the history of decisive battles: Those most contingent of events whose effects alter the parameters of possibility. In this context, the ‘great men’ of history such as William the conqueror do not control and predict the uncontrollable and unpredictable. Rather they are those best able to take advantage of the chances thrown their way and make things happen.
Chronology
1790
By the American Revolution, 20 percent of the overall population in the thirteen colonies was of African descent. The legalized practice of enslaving blacks occurred in every colony. The economic realities of the southern colonies, however, perpetuated the institution, which was first legalized in Massachusetts in 1641. During the Revolutionary era, more than half of all African-Americans lived in Virginia and Maryland. Most of these blacks lived in the Chesapeake region, where they made up more than 50 to 60 percent of the overall population. The majority, but not all, of these African-Americans were slaves. In fact, the first official United States Census, taken in 1790, showed that 8 percent of the black populace was free. [Edgar A. Toppin. "Blacks in the American Revolution" (published essay, Virginia State University, 1976), p. 1]. Whether free or slave, blacks in the Chesapeake established familial relationships, networks for disseminating information, survival techniques, and various forms of resistance to their condition.
How do historians think about history?
History is an interpretation There are competing narratives
History is an approximation of the past
History is contested and contestable
To understand history, one must have historical empathy
Historians care about historical significance Some events and issues are more
significant that others
How do historians read?
They engage in: Sourcing (determining where
information came from) Contextualization (determining
what the circumstances were when the information was written)
Corroboration (determining the extent of agreement and disagreement across sources)
In order to evaluate the credibility and trustworthiness of what they are reading
Sourcing:
I saw, oh…I don’t know him very well, but he [the author] is part of a right-wing group of southern conservatives who is a secessionist. I’m not sure that the best model for thinking about Lincoln as a president is one that comes from a racist. So I have my critical eyes up a little bit, so it’s a bit of a stretch to be friendly to, so I wanted to make sure to read it fairly.
Contextualization
I’d want to take up this book. It’s a 1984 book, and in Lincoln scholarship, that’s ages. There have been many books written since, and I would want to know how the arguments changed since 1984.
Corroboration
How does it relate to the other piece I just read?… The title in the Oates book doesn’t imply a particular perspective, except to say that it is published by Harper and Row, so it is for a popular audience interested in history. It may also be trying to reach the professional audience as well. Many historians try to write to both audiences simultaneously. When you compare that with the Bradford piece, it’s a very different impression. The title indicates that the author is writing from a particular perspective — southern and conservative. Immediately, that colors how you read the piece. You expect it to be critical of Lincoln. If anyone is critical, it would be a southern conservative. A southern scholarly press means it was probably not intended for a wide audience like the other book.
How do historians read?
Historians question how inclusive the interpretation is—what perspectives are included and what is left out
Historians question the coherence of the historical arguments—whether or not they make sense
Historians look at word choice as a signal of an author’s perspective
Historians try to find out where a story begins and ends (periodization)
Historians read history as an argument—a presentation of warrants, claims, and evidence, even if the text has a narrative structure
What are the characteristics of history texts?
Textbooks commonly combine narrative, exposition, and description
Texts use conventions of chronology (before, after, next, In [date], later)
Texts borrow technical vocabulary from the other social sciences (economics, political science, sociology, etc.)
Texts have a lot of difficult general academic vocabulary.
Texts employ metaphorical language (e.g. The gilded age)
Primary sources often use outdated language and ideas that are difficult and sometimes uncomfortable to read.
What are the characteristics of history texts?
Sentences are complex—the information can be buried in long noun phrases The enlargement of the nation’s
industrial capacity, including the making of barbed wire and the advent of western train transportation, served the demands of the west.
Sentences are about time, place, and manner (over the next decade; they gathered in Philadelphia, their harsh stands made enemies)
There are participants/actors, processes, and goals
Place, Actors, processes, goals, manner
At the same time, George II and his ministers made enemies of many moderate colonists by their harsh words.
Example of history text: By 1932 the unemployment rate had soared past 20
percent. Thousands of banks and businesses had failed. Millions were homeless. Men (and women) returned home from fruitless job hunts to find their dwellings padlocked and their possessions and families turned into the street. Many drifted from town to town looking for non-existent jobs. Many more lived at the edges of cities in makeshift shantytowns their residents derisively called Hoovervilles. People foraged in dumps and garbage cans for food.
The presidential campaign of 1932 was run against the backdrop of the Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the Democratic nomination and campaigned on a platform of attention to “the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” Hoover continued to insist it was not the government’s job to address the growing social crisis. Roosevelt won in a landslide. He took office on March 4, 1933, with the declaration that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Example of history text
The high level of unemployment, the decrease in national income, and the falling price level during the Great Depression seemingly caused the federal government to intervene to reduce this crisis. President Franklin Roosevelt stated in his 1933 inaugural address “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work…It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself…” In fact, his desire to use the government as a quick remedy to the Depression was so strong that he also stated in his address that if Congress failed to follow his recommended policies, he would request “…broad Executive power to wage war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” Although these statements indicate a strong desire to strengthen government powers to soften the economic downturn, the severity of the economic contraction cannot necessarily be deemed the direct cause of the rapid growth in government spending since the 1930s.
Purposes for reading history texts
To be informed about the past
To learn how to think critically about multiple perspectives
To inform understanding of the present
To understand the discipline of history—what questions can be asked and answered by a study of the past
To engage in argumentation based upon historical evidence
Why is reading history important?
All historians are dependent upon reading
The documents and artifacts used to construct history require nuanced and critical reading
The study of documents allows students to evaluate different perspectives on the past (and present)
Why is reading in history important? Reading is required for the reading portion of
the ACT.
After the opening of the Erie Canal in1825, the Legislature of New York directed a land survey for a state railroad that was to be constructed, at public expense, through the southern tier of counties from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The unfavorable profile that the survey indicated apparently prompted the legislature to abandon the project. But, the notion of an east-to-west railroad spanning nearly the entire breadth of the state continued to hold sway over the minds of many New Yorkers, and the significant benefits that the Erie Canal had brought to the Mohawk Valley and surrounding country led the southern counties to demand a rail route that would work similar wonders in that region. This growing sentiment finally persuaded the legislature to charter, in April 1832, the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and to give it authority to construct tracks and regulate its own charges for transportation.
ACT Questions
As it is used in the passage, the word subscriptions (line 72) most nearly means:
F. an agreement to order a specified number of issues of a newspaper.
G. receiving discounted tickets for a series of railway trips.
H. contributions of a specified amount to a project.
I. a membership fee paid regularly.
ACT Questions
Which of the following statements best describes the author’s method and purpose for addressing his subject?
A. Presenting a comparative history of railroads to justify the success story of the Erie Railroad
B. Constructing an argument for the construction of the Erie Railroad based on the sentiment of the people of the state of New York
C. Presenting the author’s own personal experience in the field of railway construction in order to acquaint the reader with the financial hurdles faced by the Erie Railroad project
D. Presenting a series of researched facts in order to provide a detailed chronological history of the Erie Canal
ACT Questions
The passage provides clearest support for which of the following statements?
F. Constructing the Erie Railroad is a remarkable feat of engineering.
G. The construction of the Erie Railroad was a disaster of unimaginable proportions.
H. Subsequent surveys changed the planned route during construction.
J. The proposed route for the railroad was successfully completed and expanded upon
Why is history reading important
It is a large part of the Common Core Standards
Literacy in History/Social Studies (6-8, 9-10, 11-12) –Key Ideas/Details
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
Determine the main ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; summarize the source, basing the summary on information in the text rather than on prior knowledge or opinions.
Identify key steps in a text’s description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are raised or lowered).
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
Determine the main ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; summarize how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text and the causes that link the events; distinguish whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
Determine the main ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide a summary that makes clear the relationships between the key details and ideas.
Analyze how ideas and beliefs emerge, develop, and influence events, based on evidence in the text .
Literacy in History/Social Studies (6-8, 9-10, 11-12) –Craft & Structure
Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.
Identify how a history/social studies text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).
Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text, including the vocabulary describing political, economic, or social aspects of history.
Explain how an author chooses to structure information or an explanation in a text to emphasize key points or advance a point of view.
Compare the point of view of two or more authors by comparing how they treat the same or similar historical topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
Interpret the meaning of words and phrases in a text, including how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10 and No. 51).
Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, evidence, and reasoning.
Literacy in History/Social Studies (6-8, 9-10, 11-12) – IntegrationIntegrate graphical information (e.g., pictures, videos, maps, time lines) with
other information in a print or digital text.
Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a historical account.
Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.
Integrate quantitative or technical information presented in maps, time lines, and videos with other information in a print or digital text.
Assess the extent to which the evidence n a text supports the author’s claims.
Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
Synthesize ideas and data presented graphically and determine their relationship to the rest of a print or digital text, noting discrepancies between the graphics and other information in the text.
Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other sources of information.
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
The Lessons
Essential Questions: What is the purpose of our government? Has the government become too large and/or
taken on too much power? Has the government become too involved in
economics? What is the government’s role in our current
economic situation? What, or who, is to blame for our current
economic situation? What was the cause of the first Great
Depression? How is the first Great Depression related to the
economic situation today?
Explicit Instruction: Modeling/explanation, guided practice, independent practice, feedback, transfer
The Texts Szulczyk, K. (2010). The Economics of Government
Brinkley. An American History: A Survey
Davis, K. Great Depression
Taylor, N. (2010). A short history of the Great Depression. NYTimes.com
Zemike, K. Generation OMG. NYTimes.com
Baker, P. Obama to Wall Street: ‘Join us instead of fighting us.’ NY Times
Thomas, G. “Institutions and Government Growth: Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review
Obama, B. (2010) The right thing to do.
McIntyre, D. (2009). The recession America needed. Newsweek
Lai, D. (2010). The great crash of 2008. Cato Journal
Vocabulary
• Economy• Economics• Socialism• Democracy• Communism• Laissez-faire• Monopoly• Black Market
• Barter• Tax• Subsidy• Depression• Volatile• Inflation• Recession
Examples of Strategies
Before Reading Quickwrites Magnet Words Smart Anticipation/Reaction
During Reading Summarizing Annotation Discussion Web
After Reading Save the Last Word The Most Important Word Reciprocal Teaching Collaborative Annotation Cause and Effects Chart
Writing Activities
Writing to learn
Summarizing
What will teachers need to do to teach the unit?
Decide how to introduce and frame/reframe the essential questions as they relate to each of the readings
Decide before teaching how the strategies can be used to help students understand the history texts, especially in relation to the essential questions and the practices of historians as they read history
Choose strategies that make sense for the discipline of history
Find a way to help students make connections across texts and to keep track of the different perspectives these texts represent.
The teacher provides the glue!
Text Example
By September of 1929, nervous investors began selling stocks in order to get out of the market while prices were still high. As the volume of selling increased, stock prices began to fall in October. On October 24 (Black Thursday) and October 29 (Black Tuesday), prices fell drastically as sellers panicked. By December, a staggering $40 billion in stock value had been lost. Hoover and business leaders attempted to calm Americans by assuring them that the country's economy was fundamentally sound. J.P. Morgan and other bankers bought $20 million of U.S. Steel to try to restore confidence, but to no avail. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 did not by itself cause the American economy to collapse. Many factors contributed to a situation so precarious that this event was but the first of a cascade of collapses on many different fronts around the entire world.
Text Example
One weakness in the American economy was lack of diversification. Prosperity of the 1920s was largely a result of expansion of construction and automobile industries and their corollary industries such as the petroleum industry. Older businesses, such as coal, declined.
Poor distribution of income and purchasing power among consumers also contributed. By 1929, the top 10 percent of the nation's population received 40 percent of the nation's disposable income, but this 10 percent did not purchase the mass quantities of food and goods that were being turned out in the nation's farms and factories. Many farmers and factory workers, on the other hand, were unable to make the purchases of cars and houses that would have sustained economic growth. Farm income actually declined 66 percent from 1920 to 1929.
Text Example
Overproduction of goods and farm products compared to the public's ability to pay for them dragged the economy down. Panicked farm and business owners plowed what profits they made not into wages of workers who would have been customers, but into ever-less-profitable plants and acreage. Industrialists, rather than increase wages, put their money into new production capacity. Massive business inventories (up 300 percent from 1928 to 1929) and food surpluses drove prices ever downward. As farms and businesses faltered, unemployment rose cutting the nation's purchasing power even more. Overproduction drove down prices, and things were cheap, but farmers and workers were too strapped to buy goods at any price.
What should a teacher consider?
What does this piece say in regards to the essential questions? (Last two about the depression are the ones highlighted in the ex. text)
What stylistic features are in this text that your students should know? (chronology, cause/effect; description, narrative)
How is this text structured? (argument structure—few headings and subheading, graphics)
Which before, during, and after activities make most sense for your students?
Who wrote the text? For what purpose and from what perspectives? When was it written? Is it a trustworthy account?
Before Reading: Anticipation/Reaction Guide
Teacher constructs questions that have a yes/no answer.
As students read, they revise their answers.
Agree Dis-Agree
The depression was only in the U.S., and not global
Pgs. Evidence
Agree Dis-Agree
At least people could go back to the farm if they lost their city jobs
President Roosevelt ended the depression
Before/During Reading: Magnet Words
Have students read a short section and identify magnet words.
Put magnet words on the board. Students write magnet words on index cards.
Students recall important details related to the words—then check recall by returning to text. Put details on index cards.
Students finish reading the text, identifying magnet words (3 or 4).
Students add details in groups.
Students turn details in to summary statement, using magnet word.
Students combine magnet word summaries into a single summary in a group and then share.
Magnet words
Overproduction Details:
Industries and farms overproduced goods but did not raise wages
The wealthy did not buy up the oversupply
The others didn’t have enough money to buy the goods and farm products
Summary Industries and farms overproduced
goods that the wealthy did not buy and the others, because their wages weren’t raised, couldn’t afford.
After Reading: Save the Last Word
Students get in groups of 3-5
Students write a quote on one side of index card and why they think it is important on another.
Individual shares quote only. The group responds with their own ideas.
Individual shares what he or she wrote on the back.
Example: Overproduction drove down prices, and things were cheap, but farmers and workers were too strapped to buy goods at any price. Wages must have been very low, because
usually, when prices go down, sales go up.
Strategies—During (and after) Reading: Discussion Web
Reasons for Yes
•Source 1
•Source 2
•Source 3
Reasons for No
1.Source 1
2.Source 2
3.Source 3
The government is too involved in our economy
today
Our Answer:
Other things to consider:
Help students use sourcing, contextualization, corroboration in evaluating the information they are reading in the texts
Help students keep track of the different perspectives they are reading in relation to the essential questions. Perhaps put the essential questions on one grid of a chart and the texts on the other, having students write information that relates to that question in the box.
Help students look at word choice in the text as an indication of an author’s perspective.
Remember the purposes for reading history
Common Core Standards
ACT
Helping students to make sense of the past and to think critically about historical evidence
THANKS!!!
Cyndie Shanahan