A Tale of Two News Shows

I know YOU know that people are often judged based on their choice of news outlets. “I don’t believe the liberal media” or “he heard that on Fox News”.

Did you know that this isn't new? Before the US Civil War, there were separate mailed newspapers that went to people with different political views. This whole Fox News vs. MSNBC thing isn’t new. There were entire newspapers devoted to journalistic obliteration of Andrew Jackson and entire newspapers devoted to supporting him. Often the separate newspapers were actually funded entirely and openly by political parties!

There are always multiple views on any issue, particularly on political and social “hot topics”.. There are always different ways to look at an issue or an event.

Just ask four different kids about the most recent campus fight and you will get four different stories. Add in the AP or nearby teacher or hall monitor and you have another set of stories.

Then, wait a week and ask about that fight again. Chances are, with time and perspective, that you will have some slight variations on that fight.

Then, ask someone’s mom. Or a student from another school. And you will get yet another side to the story.

Finding the middle ground between multiple sides of the story is what CORROBORATION is all about.

Corroboration is about establishing what is most probable by comparing the documents together. It recognizes disparities between accounts.

How can I teach my kids to look at corroboration between documents and accounts?

Here are some good prompts/questions to use to help kids dig into the corroboration...

• What do other documents say?
• Do the documents agree? If not, why?
• What are other possible documents?
• What documents are most reliable?
• The author agrees/disagrees with . . .
• These documents all agree/ disagree about . . .  
• Another document to consider might be . . .

This is, again, a Civic Literacy skill. It’s a reading skill. It’s what Common Core asks for. It’s what the LAFS ask for. It’s what the FSA asks kids to demonstrate. It’s what we want our voters to do. IT’s what we want ALL citizens to do -- not just the “advanced” kids or the “magnet kids” or the college-bound.

We want ALL kids to understand and master the skill of corroboration!

How can we continue to give kids intentional practice corroborating? As always, I love to hear from you! Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy

Context

My kid went nuts when we couldn’t find his blue shorts. It had to be THOSE blue shorts. Both of my kids stayed up waaaaay too late. They looked ridiculous. So did I. I let them roam all over someone else’s neighborhood and talk to strangers who looked weird. They ate more sugar than their small bodies could handle and wound up literally running in circles to work some of the sugar out of their systems. Some neighbor had a scary movie playing on a projector on the outside wall and both my kids had nightmares. We went home at the obscene hour of nine o’clock, it was too late for baths,  and the whole family was in tears by ten.

It was so much fun!!!!

“It” was, of course, Halloween.

Context. It makes all the difference.

The difference between “#parentingfails” and “pretty average” is in the context. The question of  Halloween or Regular Wednesday Night has a pretty big impact on your understanding.

Context is an area where a lot of our kids struggle. We as teachers struggle with teaching context sometimes, too. It’s hard to tell the difference between context and content.  What “stuff” about history or government or economics is the important “stuff” and which is just contextual “stuff”.

If you’ve ever showed your students a throwback Thursday picture, only to have them giggle and wonder at your hair or clothes, you know how important context is.

Context is JUST as important in social studies, too.

• The Constitution did not originally give every adult citizen the right to vote, of course.  Originally, the states determined who could vote, often choosing only land-owning, white men over age 21, often about 6% of the population.

The context behind that is a powerful piece of that understanding. The context of gender, race, power, money, and language in the original electorate was essential to understanding that limited enfranchisement

• The beginnings of Buddhism as a reaction to Hinduism is a huge reason that Buddhism caught on in the first place. That context of a stratified Hindu society is what makes Buddhism stand out. It’s different. It’s a reaction to its historical context.
• The Scientific Revolution is only a “revolution” in the context of the previously religious understanding of the universe.

Without context, it’s impossible to understand an “impact” or an “effect” -- because there has to be some context, some THING to be impacted or effected.

So, every single time we bust out a document in class, kids should use some context. There are plenty of ways to do this (APPARTS, Doc Analysis Sheets, etc.) but here are the questions that SHEG (Stanford History Education Group) asks us to use ...

• When and where was the document created?
• What was different then?
• What was the same?
• How might the circumstances in which the document was created affect its content?

If you’re looking for some quick prompts to practice contextualizing documents, SHEG gives us a few to start with:

• Based on the background information, I understand this document differently because ...
• The author might have been influenced by ___ (historical context).
• This document might not give me the whole picture because...

If you read last week’s WW email, you know we talked about Sourcing. Contextualization is interwoven with sourcing as we look at the people and circumstances around the CREATION of the document to inform our understanding.

Again, this is not just a HISTORICAL Literacy Skill. It’s a Civic Literacy Skill. It’s a Citizenship Skill. It’s a Media Literacy Skill. It’s a Social Media Skill. It’s a Personal Relationship Skills.

It’s a life skill.

Looking at the context of a document is crucial to understanding it. We need to help our students use context when they read the news or a listen to a candidate or watch something online.

Let’s get them in the habit of asking those context questions every time they come across a document. I think it can be powerful in understanding history and current events.

How do you ask your kids to contextualize? Do you do it frequently? How can you tuck in these questions every time you bust out a document?

AS always, I love to hear from you. And Happy Halloween. Don’t let the Candy-Hangovers get you down tomorrow!

-Tracy

The Source

Imagine that you got a letter in the mail (with students, I pretend that they found a note in the  hall or in their lockers). Imagine that this letter or note said horrible things about you. Imagine that it accused you of doing terrible things and it called you awful names.

Now, think about who wrote it. You would deal with that letter or note differently if it was from a friend you had a disagreement with ... differently if it was from your ex ... differently if it was from your current significant other (and you thought everything was ok) ... differently if it was from your sibling ... differently if it was from a coworker  ... differently if it was from ANOTHER coworker... differently if it was from a complete stranger!

Sourcing matters.

It matters when you look to see what news outlet a Facebook link comes from. It matters which parent sent which email. It matters what author said which quote. It matters which individual made which comment on your social media. It matters what think tank funded which study. It matters which PAC paid for which ad. It matters which organization sponsors what website.

It also matters whether the document is from the Egyptian pharaoh or the Egyptian slave or the Kushite trader or the Israelite slave in Egypt or the British historian or the Greek enemy.

Sourcing matters.

For every document, we always ask:

• Who wrote this?
• What is the author’s perspective?
• Why was it written?
• When was it written?
• Where was it written?
• Is it reliable? Why or why not?

The way we read and understand a document (or even a secondary source, really) depends on sourcing. Just as in the letter/note example, you would deal with that mean and nasty letter differently if it was your ex than you would if it was a coworker.

How would you react if it was your ex that wrote that letter (for some of us it might have been a long time ago and we might be surprised that they even remembered that we exist!)

How would you react if it was your sibling that wrote that letter? (it probably depends on how that relationship with your sibling is these days)

How would you react if it was your significant other wrote that letter? (assuming that things were generally good between you)

It depends on what you know about the author -- or about his time period or about her culture about his location or about her group/organization.

Sourcing matters.

It is the first step in our historical thinking skills AND it is a crucial piece in the civic literacy -- AND it is the a big part of the ELA/LAFS standards.

If I can challenge you this week to do one thing it’s this:

Have your kids dig into the sourcing information of EVERYTHING THEY READ.

They need to be in the habit of looking at the source for Social Studies, for ELA, and for Civic Life.

Teach them how to look at the source of current events, historical documents -- even textbooks!

Did  you read the article a few years ago about the Texas textbook that said that enslaved persons fought FOR the South in the Civil War?

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/10/20/130693482/va-textbook-claims-blacks-fought-for-south-in-civil-war-source-the-internet

Uhhhhh ....  No.

That textbook writer (OMG that was a textbook writer!!!) pulled info off a Sons of the Confederacy website that has no evidence to support its claim.

It can happen anywhere that people are not careful. If we don’t look at the sourcing information, we don’t understand the author’s point of view.

That doesn’t mean we’re sourcing documents to see if they’re RIGHT or not, TRUTHFUL or not. It means we’re sourcing them to see where the author is coming from.

If you have never seen the SHEG Lunchroom fight lesson on sourcing, it will make this sourcing stuff make MUCH more sense. https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/lunchroom-fight . You need a login, but it’s free and some of the highest quality Historical Thinking stuff out there!

Goal for the week: Be more intentional about sourcing everything with kids -- including secondary sources! If you make it a good habit, kids will get in that habit too!

Questions? Thoughts? Awesome ways you source documents? As always, email me. I want to hear all about it!! newmantr@pscb.org

Hurricane History

* please forgive my typos and mistakes. I'm typing from the car. 

First and foremost, I hope you and your loved ones are safe and ok. 

It has been a wild week, hasn't it? The evacuations, the hunkering down, the junk food (that wasn't just me, was it?), the usage of our collective armature meteorology skills, the lack of power, the brush-clearing, the constant Florida sweating, the waiting for power.

We have all just lived through a major historical event. Together. 

Irma was historic in many ways: the 37 continued hours at 185+ mph, the largest evacuation in American History, the largest power restoration effort in American History, the longest stretch of no-school hurricane days in MY memory, the widespread damage from the Keys to Jacksonville to Naples and even into Georgia and South Carolina.

Even if Tampa Bay "dodged a bullet", as all the news reports keep saying, it was still a big darn deal to all of us. 

When kids come back to school Monday, many of them are going want to swap Irma stories. Heck, most adults I know are going to want o swap Irma stories. 

And some kids won't want to talk about it. And that's ok, too. 

This is a chance to teach about the many different stories that make up historical events. 

This would be a great opportunity for your kids to write about their Irma stories and compare a few (being SUPER sensitive about kids who may have been genuinely traumatized either personally or by connection)

You may consider sharing your Irma story and sharing another Irma story (maybe a student volunteer or one from the news). 

Then, discuss whose story was the "true" or "real" story of Irma. 

Chances are, your students can tell you immediately that there is no one "true" or "real" story of Irma. Instead, major events are made up of many different perspectives that are complied to make History-with-a-capital-H. 

And that's the point to history. History is never ONE narrative, written by ONE person to create The Textbook. 

Instead, History is created by thousands of stories, complied together to create a bigger picture. 

We were all a part of history this week. Until we are 100+ years old, we will remember where we were during Hirricane Irma and what our communities were like. What effects they felt. How they acted.

And while we're discussing this week as History, remember how many variations exist. Not everyone evacuated. Not everyone lost power. Not everyone suffered damage. Not everyone boarded up. Not everyone hunkered down. 

This is history. 

And if kids can understand history in this way with Irma, it will make it easier when they look at the many varied stories that make up the American Revolution or the Plague or the Great Migration. 

On a personal note, I'm writing this as I ride "shotgun" as we head home from Tennessee, where we evacuated. I-75 is closed due to flooding in North Florida, so we're learning all different back roads today. 

My story is different from your story. But added together, we make the story of Florida (and Georgia and Souh Carolina) during HurricaneIrma. 

This is how History is written - many different stories. And every one of us is a part of history, particularly this week. 

How can you use Irma to discuss history and geography and government economics this week? 

And if you want some more thoughts about teaching after Irma, check out these thoughtful ideas from a counselor who worked with schools after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita - https://m.facebook.com/patti.m.ezell/posts/10214304169257010 

My favorite was the "don't rush to catch up on pacing" one. 

Again, I hope you all are well and getting back to normal! 

 See you soon! 

-Tracy

Start With Skills

It’s the beginning of the year. You’re still learning kids’ names. You’re still teaching classroom procedures. You’re still waiting for everybody to have their supplies. You’re still feeling the back-to-school total exhaustion.  

You’ve just started content and realized that your kids have no historical thinking skills. They look at you blankly when you even suggest that such a thing as “historical thinking skills” exist (even though you KNOW their social studies teacher from last year and you KNOW that they learned those skills.)

How do you know that they have no historical thinking skills (yes, those skills do exist!)? People who struggle with historical thinking skills often...

• ...Believe that there is only one answer to historical questions
• ...Talk about history in terms of “good guys” and “bad guys”
• ...Think history is boring and are bored with facts
• ...Wonder why  we need to learn history at all
• ...Think that all history is knowable (and that it’s all in the textbook)
• ...Believe that there is only one side to the story
• ...Can’t distinguish a good source from a blog by a weirdo
• ...Don’t have evidence to back up their claims

It’s time to adapt

The Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) has put together some fantastic, adaptable, brief mini-lessons that are fun and engaging -- and that teach historical thinking skills.

Some you could do in 10 minutes as a turn-and-talk and then debrief. Some would be more in depth.

But if you want to set the stage for the year and teach your students historical thinking skills explicitly and intentionally -- I would try these.

--Side note! These will make everything you try to do with historical thinking easier throughout the year. The will give the kids the skills they need in your class and on The Test.  

Check it out.

*Disclaimer. You will need to set up a free account with SHEG, if you haven’t done so already. Don’t worry. They won’t spam you or annoy you with email.

1. Lunchroom Fight: A fight breaks out in the lunchroom and the principal needs to figure out who started it. But when she asks witnesses, she gets conflicting accounts. Helps students understand how we know what we know about history and gets into using and evaluating sources.
2. Snapshot Autobiography:  What is history? And why do historical accounts differ? In this lesson, students create brief autobiographies and then reflect on the process to better understand how history is written.  
3. Evaluating Sources:  Are all historical sources equally trustworthy/ How might the reliability of a historical document be affected by the circumstances under which it was created? In this mini-lesson, students sharpen their ability to source documents and learn to think critically about what sources provide the best evidence to answer historical questions.
4. Make your case!: This lesson is about the skill of corroboration. To practice this historical thinking skill, students  evaluate and corroborate different accounts of who vandalized a locker room and who started a fight in a lunchroom.

Like building your classroom culture and your relationships with students, building historical thinking skills is something that takes a little time in the beginning of the year but that pays off greatly as the year goes on.

Try one and let me know how it goes! As always, I love to hear from you! newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy