Cross-checking Sources and Testing Hypotheses

In this 107-second video clip, we see a high school student checking his ideas against the available evidence. In reading a leaflet from the civil rights movement, he encounters a name from a previous document and assumes that she is a white civic leader. The second document, however, raises questions for him about the woman’s position. Flipping back and forth between sources, he comes to a reasoned conclusion about who Jo Ann Robinson is and develops a more nuanced understanding of what the civil rights movement was like. The accompanying written commentary points out the clues that the student uses to inform his reading. Find the documents the student reads here (see “Robinson” and “Leaflet”).
Related Topics
Freedom's Story: Teaching African American Literature and History

Slavery, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement—you have to teach these topics, so check out these essays to enrich …
Reading for Context

If students lack historical context, they can miss the substance of a reading. Watch a high school sophomore use what he …