For a time early in my teaching career, I lived in the historically black neighborhood in St. Augustine, FL, known as Lincolnville, which had been the home to prominent black civil rights leaders Henry and Katherine "Kat" Twine as well as the location of several stops by Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1950s and 1960s. About three blocks from my house was the Excelsior School which served black students from the neighborhood and surrounding areas from the early 20th century to the late 1960s. I passed by the building every day on my way to teach history at a high school some 30 years after integration. After living in the neighborhood, I learned that the Excelsior building had ceased operation as a school after the 1967–68 school year when its students were finally integrated. The state took over the building some time after and used it for offices during the 1980s, but it was vacant for much of the decade before I moved into the area.

I had an idea to use a room or two in the building to provide some after-school tutoring. You see, several of my students lived in this neighborhood. Some had struggled academically and a few had dropped out. I would see them, unemployed and idle on the streets at all hours. This neighborhood, which had seen hard times economically and socially since its heyday in the 1950s as an African American business hub was, by then, riddled with drugs and occasional violence. My goal was to operate a class to prepare my former students and any other neighbors for a high school diploma through the GED test. In my search for access to this historic building I learned that a former teacher and school board member was just beginning the process of renovating the property to become a museum and cultural center for the neighborhood. As I began the program, I learned more about the school and the education its teachers provided. I learned that many prominent black leaders were educated at this school. I learned that (when allowed) this school not only competed favorably with surrounding white schools in athletics, but academics as well. The artifacts, including photographs, newspaper articles, and yearbooks that were being gathered for the museum, presented a vibrant school with classroom and hallway walls covered in empowering posters and exemplary student work, a decorated debate team, Latin club, and more.

As a history teacher I was intrigued. The narrative of segregated education as presented in the textbook I used showed none of this. In my undergraduate studies in history education, I learned little beyond the traditional narrative. My students came away from my classroom with the idea that, without qualification, black schools were inferior, and I was complicit in their misunderstanding. The message was that only with integration were black students given the opportunity to get a quality education. I realized that this message failed to dig deep enough. It failed to present the complexities that existed in these disparate systems, to recognize the education that was occurring in spite of remarkable challenges. Students need opportunities to challenge the traditional narrative, and this topic is well suited to illustrate that opportunity.

Since my time at Excelsior, I have had the opportunity to talk with some former students, teachers, and administrators who shared stories from their time there. What I found from these interviews echoed the themes discovered by Vanessa Siddle Walker in her extraordinary meta-analysis of articles related to segregated schools from the Fall 2000 issue of the American Educational Research Association journal. Her findings showed that schools in segregated communities were not only centers of education but also often fundamental to neighborhood cohesiveness. Along with fostering nurturing learning environments with high academic expectations, these schools often served as community centers, social gathering places, and information hubs.

In the interest of presenting our students with a more inclusive history, teachers can presents sources to students that challenge the idea that the black community was incapable of providing quality education to their students and that only through integration into the white school system were black students able to receive a worthwhile education. With review of articles such as Siddle Walker's, teachers themselves can become more knowledgeable about the historiography of segregated education beyond the traditional narrative. Through examination of web resources from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and others, teachers can show that even in the face of inadequate facilities and tremendous societal discrimination, many of these schools educated generations of future teachers, doctors, lawyers, civil rights leaders, and informed and active democratic citizens with constructive learning environments and challenging curriculum. For instance, "Education Resources on School Desegregation" on the National Archives website provides useful resources as well as implementation ideas and strategies for the classroom.

Allowing students the chance to discover sources for themselves, which open up this more nuanced paradigm, can also serve as an entry into this topic and provide experience in moving beyond the textbook when examining the past. Students may begin by using keywords such as "segregation and education" in the Library of Congress site to get started in their search to challenge the traditional narrative of African American education.

The notion that a segregated school system is moral or even tenable is nonsensical. Schools that educated black children during the Jim Crow era struggled with inferior facilities and resources. However, in the spirit of good history, teachers have an opportunity, within the theme of racial segregation, to challenge the traditional narrative that separate and unequal education extended to the abilities and desires of teachers, administrators, and parents to provide their students with quality education.

As you enter a classroom ask yourself this question: "If there were no students in the room, could I do what I am planning to do?" If your answer to the question is yes, don't do it. (
—General Ruben Cubero [1])

This quote says a lot about the types of teaching strategies that we should use as history teachers. A passive lecture can be given in an empty room, a PowerPoint explained, a worksheet passed out, or even a reading assigned; but you cannot engage with an empty room. An empty room cannot inquire into an historical event, idea, or person. Because interaction and engagement are the climate to set in a history class, the focus must be on more than teacher-led presentations. A lot more.

As history teachers, we know the importance of having our students wrestle intellectually with primary sources, i.e., learn to investigate history using the words and ideas of people of the past. However, it is essential that we keep in mind that the use of primary sources must be part of larger investigations in the history classroom, just as it is with historians. In an interview for Social Education, Professor Keith Barton told me “[primary sources] are not meaningful in their own right; they’re just a means to an end—they’re evidence in a broader investigation.” (2)

When you make the decision to use primary sources within a broader unit, how can they best be presented to students? Over the years, both as a secondary history teacher and now a middle school history teacher, I have found two strategies combined help students make the best use of primary sources in the context of the investigations we are conducting in class.

The first strategy that I combine to help my students understand and interact with primary sources is the DBQ strategy. DBQs, Document-Based Questions, have been long used in Advanced Placement exams. A DBQ asks students to analyze a series of six or so textual and visual primary sources in order to write an essay that addresses a historical question. (3) One adaptation that I make with DBQs in my teaching is that I do not use them as an assessment so much as a strategy for instruction with a unit.

To do this, I fold the ideas behind a particular DBQ together with the teaching strategy known as Response Groups. The Response Groups strategy was developed by the Teachers’ Curriculum Institute as a part of the History Alive! program. In this strategy students receive written and/or pictorial information and consider open-ended questions on that material. Presenters are then chosen to share their group’s ideas prior to opening the discussion to the entire class.

As an example of one of my uses of the strategy, I will site my lesson The Roman Antecedents of American Government. (4) In this lesson, my 7th graders, in groups of three or four, receive a folder with two papers with primary source quotations and visuals. The lesson has students examine the writing of a well-known Roman historian (Polybius) on the nature of government in the Roman Republic. The second paper contains quotations from the Federalist Papers. Both papers also contain visual elements (a picture of a statue of Polybius, a photocopy of a section of the Federalist Papers, and a painting of Alexander Hamilton).

In putting these two excellent strategies together, I make the following adaptations: (1) rather than use six or more documents in the DBQ, I use two or three, and (2) in addition to having written questions that I have developed to which the students respond after examining the sources, as done in both DBQs and Response Groups, I have students develop some questions as well that they wish to pursue prior to examining the sources.

On the face of it, developing questions prior to examining documents might appear difficult, but if you have heightened students’ interest in the historical period/question being studied, discussing what they wonder about out loud isn't problematic. Students developing their own questions is, of course, a basic premise of Donna Ogle’s KWL strategy—what students Know, what they Want to know, and what they have Learned.

1. Collect materials for group activity
   Essential to the response group is to have primary source information for students to read and react to. It's not hard to find social studies and history curriculum materials ripe with these types of resources. In addition to the Internet and sites like Teachinghistory.org and the Stanford History Education Group, excellent commercial curricular materials are available from organizations such as Jackdaw, the National Center for History in the Schools, and the DBQ Project.
   
   In developing the sources for examining the connections between the governing system of the Roman Republic, I did an Internet search on Roman government until I found the writings of Polybius. Finding quotations from the Federalist Papers was, of course, no problem.
2. In addition to the questions that are developed by the teacher, consider having students design group questions for the source material in order to guide their investigation
   As mentioned above, my preference has been to have my students develop some of the questions that they wish to explore (as is done in the KWL strategy). This way, the primary source materials become a part of the investigation. The development of questions by the groups for their own consideration is very important in this strategy, as it lays the groundwork for the subsequent work and discussion. The questions should be stated in an open-ended manner in order to invite discussion among the students in the group, and, later, within the entire class.
   
   As an example, an open-ended question that I have developed in the paper on Polybius is why do you feel that Polybius felt that the powers of the Roman government must be divided. This is the type of question that is referred to as “an author and me” (5) question in that the quotation that I have chosen does not specifically state the reason Polybius felt the powers of government must be divided.
3. Ask groups to report to the class
   After the groups have had time to discuss the questions and write their answers, it is time for the whole class discussion to begin. There are a number of ways to facilitate this discussion, but my preference is to use a strategy such as Numbered Heads Together. (6)
   
   During the discussion, it is important to encourage groups, and the whole class, to respond to each others’ ideas. This can be done by asking the presenters from each group to begin with “We agree/disagree with your idea because…” or by asking presenters who have not yet spoken to consider the ideas already mentioned and respond to them.
4. Individual response
   In concluding a lesson that utilizes this strategy, students should engage in individual writing about the ideas generated in the groups and the discussion.
   
   While students are working together with the primary sources, the key expectation of the teacher is the growth of each student. For this reason the cooperative learning principle of individual accountability should be incorporated in response to group work. An individual writing assignment can provide this element.

As a believer in using primary sources with my 7th-grade students, and as a practicing teacher I am in agreement with Professors Sam Wineburg and Daisy Martin when they write that we must strive to provide all students with access to the rich voices of the past. (7) This means judicious adaptation of those sources and quotations so that students have access to them while explaining what I have adapted and how I have done it. I also show them (via my Smartboard) the original source. Using primary sources is important in the teaching of history, not as an end in itself but as a means to involve students in investigation and inquiry into historical topics. Melding the basic ideas of DBQs and Response Groups and adapting them in your own classroom is a wonderful way to have your students grapple with the ideas provoked by what they study.

As classroom teachers, we often have a textbook we use in our curriculum. In my next blog, I will share a strategy that I have found most helpful in helping students think about, interact with, and get meaning from their text.

To teach history without primary sources is analogous to building a house without walls. Without the structure of authentic historical references, student understanding will collapse if it is confined to the subjectivity of teachers, texts, and the modern world around them. Albeit, most teachers and texts attempt to provide a balanced delivery of content, but nothing beats the analytical dissection of an actual primary document and the historical truth that can be garnered from it. As an added bonus, primary-source activities can augment the redevelopment of history curricula that are finally beginning to recognize the significance of these critical resources.

So who am I? Most likely, I am just like you! I have been teaching U.S. history (AP and regular) for 15 years and I have had some pretty nice successes. I've incorporated primary sources into my lectures, projects, and PowerPoints; I have asked students to periodically find their own content-related primary sources; I have used Document-Based Essay questions to help prepare kids for the AP exam; and recently, I even combined primary source research with a Wiki assignment (see my earlier blog entry). Overall, I feel like I have met or exceeded my district and state standards and my students are certainly exposed to a wide array of primary sources throughout the year. But, I still feel like there is a gap in my student's learning. I think they know what primary documents are, but I'm not sure they understand why they are important. For some, this might seem like a hair-splitting point, but for me, it is the difference between providing a busywork time-killer and demanding high-level critical analysis. It is at the core of historical thinking and a skill that I feel obligated to expose my students to before they go off to college. Luckily, I attended a seminar offered by the Teaching American History (TAH) Grant project "Ties That Bind" that provided an adaptable template for me to follow when I am attempting to evaluate and analyze primary sources with my students.

Created by Professor William Virden, founder of the Colorado Institute for Historical Study and a professor at the University of Northern Colorado, and his partner Mary Borg in 2000, Go To The Source (GTTS) Activities are basically teacher-created questionnaires that are focused upon a single primary source or a small collection of primary sources. Since they are teacher generated, the documents and artifacts can be hand-selected for age-appropriateness, relevance, and wow factor. In addition, teachers can differentiate the process for all levels and abilities.

In creating my "Go To The Source" activities, I started with a general topic like "The West" and worked with local college libraries and museum archives, to augment the internet resources that I found. I found that preparation was the key to getting the most from my research time. I contacted librarians and archivists ahead of time and they happily pulled resources before I arrived. They typically love their collections and are passionate about helping researchers, so utilize their expertise. Most of the information I used was from the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum and the Pikes Peak (Carnegie) Library.

One of my favorite pieces was a Poster from the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Click the link and go to pages 8 and 9 to see the poster and my GTTS activity associated with it. Keep this activity open in another window for reference.

I chose the poster because I thought it addressed a number of the themes I was trying to elucidate to my students about the allure of the American West, specifically the romantic notions that were associated with it. My students seemed to agree when they took part in the GTTS activity associated with it. They really liked it and actually asked to do more of them.

Prior to the lesson, I tried to contextualize the poster, by teaching most of the traditional history associated with the West. In an attempt to dive a little deeper, I tried to help the kids understand that modern notions about the West are often glorified, embellished, and romanticized by movies, literature, and other forms of media. So much so that many of the stereotypes that we see as "western," have been transferred across the globe and have been woven into the histories of Australia, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, etc. The Buffalo Bill poster serves as a wonderful piece of evidence in this discussion.

My next step was to analyze the poster and deduce all of the components that I wanted the kids to draw from it. Once I knew what I wanted them to learn, I wrote questions to help them dissect the poster like a historian.

In GTTS activities, these questions take two forms. The first questions establish who, what, why, when, and where. The answers to these Lower Order Thinking (LOTS) questions should be easily identifiable and relatively simplistic for students, but provide them with important information necessary to analyze and evaluate the document. (See questions 1-5 on the GTTS activity for examples of LOTS questions.)

Once the students get into the document, now it is time to help them see the real significance of it. This can be done by transitioning to Higher Order Thinking (HOTS) questions. These should challenge students to: explain, compare, contrast, predict, hypothesize, infer, value, judge, and justify. Often these questions begin with Why, How, In what ways, Imagine, Suppose, Predict, If…then, Defend, Justify, or Judge. Once students have completed these, they should have a grasp of not only the who, what, and where of the document, but of its historical relevance and significance. (See questions 6-9 on the GTTS activity for examples of HOTS questions.)

TIP: Do not neglect the LOTS questions! I have a tendency to jump right to the HOTS questions because I am much more interested in the deeper analysis of the source (especially with my AP classes); however, students often need the LOTS questions to build their deductive reasoning skills. Because we, as teachers, are more versed in looking at historical sources, we analyze the basics very quickly. Students usually don't. The LOTS questions will allow them to practice this fundamental component of historical thinking. Try to write questions that help them do this.

Once you have engaged your students with a compelling and relevant primary source, it might be fun to offer an extension exercise. These allow students to apply the information gathered from the GTTS exercise by asking them to create a tangible end product that demonstrates how effectively they conceptualized the significance of the sources they analyzed. Some potential lessons could include essays, graphs, charts, webbing, diagrams, historical fiction short stories, timelines, newspapers or magazines, predictions for the future, small group presentations or PowerPoints, maps, posters, games, dioramas, letters or telegrams, compare and contrast activities, and even the creation of document-based questions. Let your teacher magic flow through!

Lastly, I think it is important that I thank Professor Virden for his generosity and his undying passion in helping teachers realize the significance of primary sources in the classroom. His hard work, along with that of his assistant Tom Carson and all of the wonderful lecturers at the seminar, allowed me to grow as an educator and historian and for that I am sincerely grateful. I know Bill is fond of saying "nothing that can be memorized is history," and with these GTTS exercises, my students are beginning to see the truth in those words.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns about this process. I'd be happy to share my experiences with you.

Ron Gorr
Air Academy High School
Colorado Springs, Colorado
rmgorr@comcast.net

Doing math seems to come more naturally to many students than doing history. After all, everyone knows you "do" math, but who's heard of "doing" history? With a little creativity we can find authentic ways for students to “do history” and learn that it's as natural as "doing" math or science!

One way for students to "do" the past as historians is to research their family’s past. Researching family history helps students create context for studying the past and helps students develop a sense of place in the present. In addition, a family history project can help foster connections with students’ guardians at home and help us, as teachers, better understand our students’ backgrounds. A student genealogy project is certainly not a new idea, but new online tools make it easier than ever to uncover family records and connect distant relatives.

Ultimately the goal of any genealogy project is to have students develop the research skills needed to complete it. Equally important is that students learn to make connections between their own family histories and the broader history of the representative era. To familiarize students with genealogy and teach students about generations, asking them to create family trees may suffice. An Internet search shows many free sites like FamilyEcho.com or Geni.com where students can create a simple family tree by entering in vital information. Students would need to interview a family member to collect information for, say, three previous generations. Students could then print their family trees from these sites. Depending on the level of your students, you may wish to take the project a step further and have them integrate family photos or artifacts into the digital family trees they create. Sites like MyHeritage.com allow users to integrate multimedia in their family trees for free.

It is also possible for students to further sharpen their historian skills by doing a little archival research. Whether that archive is in the family attic or online, students will have to use proper search techniques to find what they are looking for. A project that asks students to locate a marriage certificate, gravesite, or immigration record of a relative provides students an opportunity to explore the past as a historian might. Websites like Ancestry.com contain an abundance of information and resources including service records, ship manifests, and marriage certificates. Ancestry.com is an expensive site, but you can get two weeks of free access, enough time for students to complete their research. In addition, some public libraries have a subscription to the site.

There are a variety of ways for students to showcase their genealogical findings beyond the simple family tree diagram. Students could write narratives of their family histories (see example), which can help students learn to conduct oral history and devise appropriate questions. Students could also compose family narratives online at OurStory.com. This site allows students to link to other family members' narratives and insert relevant links or photos. A family history project also lends itself to having students create a VoiceThread with family photos, documents, and narration. With VoiceThread, other relatives could collaborate on the project as well and record their own memories or feelings.

Part of the success of projects that examine students' backgrounds comes with students feeling valued in their classroom. We must remain flexible in designing these types of projects and approach the projects with respect for diversity. We should be cognizant of students who do not live with two biological parents and recognize the variety of ways families arrived in America. So long as we keep the focus on the historical content and the historical research process, the project will be rooted in building student historical understanding rather than making students uncomfortable.

For example, a “generations project” allows students to explore genealogy while remaining sensitive to the needs of students who may not live in traditional families. With this project each student chooses a historical topic of interest and researches and reflects on how the topic has affected the lives of two individuals who have some connection to the student and are from two different previous generations. This project allows students to explore previous generations, but is not restricted to interviewing members of their families.

Whether you assign a family tree project, oral history project, or generation project, students will make meaningful connections to the past. Students will see both similarities and differences across time and will feel more connected to national and world events that influenced their relatives.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Since 1994 and the signing into law of the King Holiday and Service Act, the holiday is a "day on, not a day off," a national day of service. According to the King Center, King's widow, Coretta Scott King, described the holiday this way:

Every King Holiday has been a national "teach-in" on the values of nonviolence, including unconditional love, tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation, which are so desperately needed to unify America. It is a day of intensive education and training in Martin's philosophy and methods of nonviolent social change and conflict-reconciliation. The Holiday provides a unique opportunity to teach young people to fight evil, not people, to get in the habit of asking themselves, "what is the most loving way I can resolve this conflict?"

Maybe you've given your students background on the holiday and prepared them to get involved in the local community today. But Martin Luther King Jr. Day shouldn't be the only day your students are ready to serve—and King isn't the only topic that can connect service and history education.

President Barack Obama's United We Serve initiative calls on citizens to come together to improve their communities. The government Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service website reflects that call, and provides resources you can draw on throughout the year.

Use this site to familiarize yourself (and your students, depending on their grade level and readiness to organize projects) with service opportunities in your area. Search by city, state, or zip code; register your own project; or read up on planning a project with the site's detailed Action Guides.

Now consider your curriculum and your local community. Don't limit yourself to Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, or to the third Monday of January. Think about the Great Depression, the New Deal, the Progressive Era, the women's rights movement, the victory gardens and scrap drives of the World War II homefront, the Berlin Airlift. What sorts of projects might you guide students in initiating (or at least considering) for any of these topics or time periods that would also help them learn—and feel connected to—historical content?

Helping to preserve history can be service, too! Listen to teacher James Percoco speak on teaching with memorials and monuments and think about your local history. Are there places that need young volunteers? Locations that students could research and then prepare their own interpretive materials?

Use Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a reminder not just to memorialize history, but to empower students to connect with, interpret, and preserve it in the service of the present!

Sounds good, you say, but maybe you need resources for teaching about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, before you head off onto wider projects. Last year, we recommended a variety of online resources in our Jan. 13 blog entry. Here are those recommendations again—and a few new ones! Remember to search our Website Reviews and try our Lesson Plan Gateway for even more links to great materials.

• King Center — founded in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, the Center works to educate the public on King's life and message and to preserve his spirit of service. It includes information on the history of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute — includes lesson plans and an extensive collection of primary sources in the King Papers Project.
• History Channel King page — videos, speeches, photo galleries, and topical essays.
• Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site — includes lesson plans.
• EDSITEment — lesson plans based on primary sources.
• NARA — pages analyze resources including a court case on who holds copyright to the "I Have a Dream" speech, an original program for the March on Washington, and primary sources related to King's support of Memphis sanitation workers' protests in 1968.
• Library of Congress — the site's Today in History entry for January 15, King's birthday, provides links to related resources elsewhere on the website.