Document Cameras

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Photo, Lumens Desktop Document Camera, June 19, 2007, AV-1, Flickr
What is it?

A document camera makes a great addition to a history classroom with a video projector or TV. A document camera captures anything under its lens and projects it on the screen. While this technology has been around for a few years, it has been a little slow to catch on for a variety of reasons.

Some teachers may be hesitant to embrace the document camera because they believe it to simply be a glorified overhead projector. The document camera beats the old overhead projector in many ways, the first being that the document camera does not require one to make transparencies. A teacher can project artifacts, photos, worksheets, and anything else that can fit under the camera lens. In addition, students are better able to see the image produced by a document camera as it is much brighter and clearer than the image produced by the overhead projector. Best of all, you no longer leave school covered in overhead marker!

Getting Started

The cost of the document camera may also make this teaching tool seem out of the reach of many teachers and districts in these lean budget years.

It is also possible to obtain grant money for document cameras from places like DonorsChoose.

While document cameras range in price from $200 to $2,000, this should not preclude one from having their own document camera. You can find a used document camera on eBay or a surplus property store for under $100. Another option is to make a document camera yourself using a webcam and available USB port. The only drawback to this setup is you have to be able to load software on your computer attached to the video projector in your classroom. A ready-made version of this runs about $69. It is also possible to obtain grant money for document cameras from places like DonorsChoose.

Once you have your document camera installation is straightforward. Some document cameras come with a freeze image button which is a great feature to capture a page in a book or map that might be difficult to hold in place. If the document camera does not have this feature, you can hook up the document camera directly to the video projector, which often has the ability to freeze an image. If your document camera is not one that hooks up to your computer via USB, you can also set up the document camera directly to your projector. This allows you to toggle between the image on your computer screen (assuming it too is attached to your video projector) and the image from your document camera. You can also connect most document cameras to a television using an S-video cable or component video cable. It should be noted, however, that the clarity is not as crisp when using the S-video cable or component video cable compared to using a VGA or DVI connection.

Examples

The document camera has vast instructional possibilities. I have used my document camera every day in my history classroom. One of the benefits of having a document camera in a history classroom is having the ability to analyze primary sources together as a class. I am able to zoom in on important components of a photograph or text and can invite students to the document camera to annotate pictures or text without bulky markers or transparencies. I am also able to share maps in books easily with students, in color. Students are able to share work they have created immediately with the class without having to scan an image or make a transparency of the document.

My favorite use of the document camera is allowing me to spotlight and share exemplar student work.

This means that jigsaw activities work very efficiently, with each group able to share what they have written on nothing larger than a worksheet. Collectively, classes have created essay outlines and timelines together. The document camera allows students to share storybooks they have created, projected large enough for the class to see. From a classroom management perspective, the document camera allows me to easily show students the worksheet we are working on or the question I want them to focus on. I am also able to place my stopwatch under the camera to show students how much longer they have to complete a task. Finally, my favorite use of the document camera is allowing me to spotlight and share exemplar student work. I am able to give specific praise to a well-written essay or project.

For more information

Interested in looking at specific cameras currently available? Read product reviews for document cameras in this article from Scholastic.

Let's Get Folky bhiggs Wed, 11/10/2010 - 12:39
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Photography, Coolest Bluegrass Beard, Greg Robbins, 2007, Flickr CC
Question

I need ideas for constructivist lesson plans that teach American history through folk music. Can you help?

Answer

Music can be a great resource for American history teachers. Just like textual primary sources, songs have historical meaning that students have to work to uncover. A song, no less than a presidential address, reflects the time in which it was created, as well as the perspective of its author. Consequently, you’ll want to ask students to consider who wrote the lyrics, what those lyrics mean, who the audience for the song was, and what was going on in the United States at the time. You might want to pair the song with other sources—newspaper clippings, radio addresses, photographs of protests, etc.—that students can piece together to better understand a particular historical era.

PBS’s brief history of American folk music might be a good place to start…

Folk music, of course, is distinct from popular music in one general regard: unlike music created by professional recording artists, folk music is generally made by ordinary people and integrated into everyday life. So, while many well-known artists like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan certainly played folk music, it can often be used as a way of better understanding the lives of people frequently left out of history textbooks. PBS’s brief history of American folk music might be a good place to start, establishing the unique nature of the genre and helping you focus your search for resources.

As always when looking for classroom resources, teachinghistory.org can help. Our Teaching in Action section, for instance, includes an example of how a song might be used in the classroom, providing links to videos in which 4th grade students learn about John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry by analyzing the song “John Brown’s Body.”

Our Using Primary Sources section also has some appropriate resources for you. One entry on Making Sense of American Popular Song highlights a website that provides questions to ask when using music in the history classroom, a model interpretation of a popular song, and links to resources. Another entry, on Document Analysis Worksheets, includes a link to the National Archives, which has a special “Sound Recording Analysis Worksheet.”

Beyond the Teachinghistory.org website, you might want to look at some of the other usual suspects for high quality materials and lesson plans.

Beyond the Teachinghistory.org website, you might want to look at some of the other usual suspects for high quality materials and lesson plans. EDSITEment—a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities—is always a good place to look. They have a lesson entitled “Music from Across America” that explores the intersection of music and popular song. The Library of Congress is always a good resource, and they have a full page of links, as well as some specific lesson plans like one on California folk music in the 1930s. Finally, PBS’s American Roots Music website has four lesson plans as well as a bibliography that you might find useful.

There are also some specific music-related sites worth exploring. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also has a page of lesson plans dedicated to teaching with music. You might also want to explore Smithsonian Folkways to see what music they have available.

Integrating Technology into the Classroom

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Photo, "ICT's in Education," pmorgan, March 17, 2005, Flickr
Question

How and where do I find technology content for the history classroom?

Answer

Teaching history with technology can be a great way to engage students while also building bridges between the history classroom and the technology department at your school.

Classroom Technologies

One good place to start is by exploring some of the technologies available to you in the classroom. The National History Education Clearinghouse, for instance, has an article on the use of digital whiteboards in the classroom, which you might find useful. "Wiki Wisdom," an article from Education Week, focuses on how teachers can use wikis in the classroom, emphasizing their ease of use, and listing considerations accompanying their integration into the classroom. Reel American History, a project at Lehigh University, is a site that encourages teachers and students to think about the ways movies help us construct understandings of history. The site includes a list of films dealing with history, as well as suggestions for how to use them. (Check back in the coming weeks and the National History Education Clearinghouse will also have new resources about using film to teach history.)

Teaching history with technology can be a great way to engage students while also building bridges between the history classroom and the technology department at your school.

In terms of blogs, the American Historical Association has an article on how blogs connect students outside the classroom that might be useful for your purposes. Social studies teachers, particularly those who focus on current events, may also be interested in digital storytelling. Edutopia has a great article about digital storytelling that will direct you to additional resources.

Technological Resources Specifically for History Classrooms

Another angle you can take in looking for resources is to pursue sites that specifically explore technology-related content for the history classroom. One great resource is National Council for the Social Studies Community Network which has a variety of resources for teaching with technology. You can also join their Teaching with Technology group to be connected with other teachers who are interested in integrating technology into history and social studies classrooms. Many other sites have resources to help you.The Center for History and New Media’s Episodes page, for instance, has multimedia resources for a number of different historical periods. SCORE, the Schools of California Online Resources for Education webpage, also has some great materials that utilize technology in the history and social science classroom. The page has a virtual web museum, virtual interactive projects, and virtual field trips. Science, Technology, and the CIA, a project of the National Security Archive, provides 44 government documents that track the organizational and operational history of various CIA departments designed to coordinate science and technology research with intelligence operations.

Another way to approach your question is to look for models of projects merging technology and history. On the National History Education Clearinghouse site, there’s a blog entry describing a project conducted at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in which students used a host of new technologies to explore the history of Harpers Ferry and John Brown—definitely worth checking out.

Good luck with your lesson planning!

Making Sense of Maps Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/17/2008 - 15:57
Article Body

Making Sense of Maps offers a place for students and teachers to begin working with maps as historical evidence. Written by David Stephens, this guide offers an overview of the history of maps and how historians use them, a breakdown of the elements of a map, tips on what questions to ask when analyzing maps, an annotated bibliography, and a guide to finding and using maps online.

Website
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/maps/
Making Sense of Oral History Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/17/2008 - 15:28
Article Body

Making Sense of Oral History offers a place for students and teachers to begin working with oral history interviews as historical evidence. Written by Linda Shopes, this guide presents an overview of oral history and ways historians use it; tips on what questions to ask when reading or listening to oral-history interviews; a sample interpretation of an interview; an annotated bibliography; and a guide to finding and using oral history online. Linda Shopes is a historian at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Website
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/

Historical Context and Roleplaying

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Teaching with Role Playing
Article Body

This website's videos document the practice of a 5th-grade teacher in New York teaching a unit titled Colonial New York: Developing Perspectives through Historical Role Play. This 14-week, standards-based unit covers colonial America up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The site provides a rich cache of materials documenting the teaching of the unit, including the teacher's initial plan; video clips of classroom activities and teacher reflections; classroom handouts and historical sources; and student work.

The site provides examples of two promising practices:

  1. Establishing an understanding of historical time and place before engaging in roleplaying activities or simulations; and
  2. Continuing to build student understanding of historical context as students elaborate roles and take on perspectives.
Understanding Daily Life

The teacher begins the unit with activities designed to establish a "sense of time and place" and help students understand colonial "daily life." Students then create colonial characters. Notably, the teacher structures activities so students are transported back into the colonial world before they are asked to identify and elaborate their imagined roles and lives.

To accomplish this, she plans trips to local historical sites, uses primary sources, and uses questions to frame individual lessons such as: What did colonial New York look like? What jobs did people have in colonial New York? How did people get what they needed?

Analyzing Issues and Events

After students create a colonial character, they learn about important issues and events of the time period, including the impact of the French-Indian War on British colonial policies, the colonists' responses, and the road to revolution. Students learn how taxes work, look at mercantilist laws, hold tavern meetings, and read Patrick Henry's famous speech and the Declaration of Independence. Threaded throughout this instruction is a back-and-forth between what happened and how students in their colonial roles would have experienced and thought about these events.

What's New?

Many history teachers use roleplaying activities. What is less commonly done, however, is what we find here: structuring learning activities so students' roles are closely tied to the time and place within which they are imagined. This website uncovers not only the deep exploration of historical context necessary to make roleplaying more historically accurate, but also some ways for teachers to structure and plan those necessary activities.

On the website, there are additional promising features, including a focus on the way the teacher adjusts her initial curriculum plan in response to what she learns about students' understanding through both formal and informal assessments.

Teachers' Use of Primary Sources

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Copies of the Constitution on a classroom table. NHEC
Article Body

To what extent do history/social studies teachers use primary sources in their classrooms? What impact has the availability of Web-based primary sources had on their practice?

To find out, David Hicks and Peter Doolittle of Virginia Tech University and John K. Lee of Georgia State University surveyed 158 high school history teachers. Their study revealed that even though most teachers used primary sources, there was no consensus about how to use such documents. Is the purpose of using primary sources to reinforce what is taught in the textbook, or is it to teach historical thinking? Are Web-based primary sources the same as text-based ones? And finally, how can teachers be well prepared to use primary sources?

Historical Information vs. Historical Interpretation

It is well known that primary sources are important for teaching historical thinking skills. Many teachers find them useful for engaging students in such tasks as historical interpretation. More frequently, however, documents are used to enrich a textbook account or to help students focus on essential facts and concepts. This study sought ways that teachers could work together to devise new approaches to using primary sources, including teaching historical thinking.

. . . documents are used to enrich a textbook account or to help students focus on essential facts and concepts.
Text vs. the Web

Many of the teachers surveyed were unfamiliar with several well-developed and notable digital resource centers. Most teachers, for instance, were unaware of sites like the Library of Congress’s American Memory site, the digital National Security Archive, History Net, and the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder. In addition, most had never used videos or photographs available from internet resources, primarily because they were unsure how to find them. This highlights the need for better dissemination of information to help teachers locate useful (and usable) primary sources.

. . . most had never used videos or photographs available from internet resources, primarily because they were unsure how to find them.
Obstacles and Dilemmas

Most teachers said they needed no additional training on how to use or locate primary sources, or in understanding the unique aspects of Web-based sources. Still, many indicated a desire for assistance in helping students develop historical thinking skills, and some teachers didn't consider the Web to be an organized repository of primary sources. Based on these responses, the study authors wanted to know how administrators could support history/social studies teachers in terms of ongoing training and professional development. When it comes to using primary sources to teach historical thinking and locating primary sources on the web, what specific things might help teachers enhance their skills?

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Screenshot, American Experience Homepage, Wyatt Earp
In the Classroom
  • Explore a few excellent collections of primary sources like the Library of Congress's American Memory, Our Documents, the National Archives, Digital History, and PBS's American Experience.
  • As you browse through available sources (don't forget these include photographs!), try to think of a historical question which the documents can help students answer. Would the documents, for example, allow students to answer a question about why the American Revolution was fought, or what caused the Great Depression? Look for primary sources that demand close reading or analysis for understanding, illuminate facets of a historical context, or lead to more questions.
  • Use Teachinghistory.org resources to help you find and use primary sources effectively. Search Website Reviews by topic or time to find primary source collections. See Using Primary Sources, Teaching Guides and Lesson Plan Reviews for methods and ideas about how to use primary sources with your students.
Sample Application

In responding to a question on why teachers didn't use Web-based historical primary sources, the three most frequent answers were:

  • "No time to search the web for primary sources."
  • "Too many web sites to locate suitable primary sources."
  • "Inappropriate preparation to use primary sources."

While the first two call for more resources that can help teachers navigate web-based primary sources, the third answer indicates a need for more professional development using primary sources. Consequently, school leaders and administrators should seek professional growth activities which not only help history/social studies teachers use primary sources effectively, but focus particularly on using Web-based resources.

Bibliography

David Hicks, Peter Doolittle, and John K. Lee, "Social Studies Teachers' Use of Classroom-Based and Web-Based Historical Primary Sources," Theory and Research in Social Education 32, no. 2 (2004), 213-247.

Action in the Past: What Can Elementary Students Do?

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An elementary student listening to her teaching during class. NHEC
Article Body

In "Just Another Emperor," Peter Lee, Alaric Dickinson, and Rosalyn Ashby studied how students explain the actions of historical figures. Understanding how people from the past thought and believed, and relating that to the actions historical figures took, is central to the discipline of history. These authors wanted to know if elementary and middle school students were up to the task.

Understanding how people from the past thought and believed, and relating that to the actions historical figures took, is central to the discipline of history.

For a project funded by Great Britain's Economic and Social Research Council, Lee, Dickinson, and Ashby worked with 320 children aged 7–14. The kids were shown an illustrated story of the Roman invasion of Britain and asked to explain what led Emperor Claudius to invade Britain. They were given a host of reasons why the invasion was more trouble than it was worth, from the cost of the invasion to the resistance the Romans encountered, and then told Claudius had gone ahead and invaded anyway. How would these young students explain his actions?

This is what they found: Rather than answering that Claudius invaded Britain because he wanted to, most of the children, regardless of age, chose to offer explanations for his behavior.

Three Kinds of Explanations

The students' answers were grouped into three main categories.

  • Basic answers that explained Claudius’s actions in personal terms, i.e., Claudius was a man who wanted power.
  • Context-aware responses that focused on the fact that Claudius was an emperor who invaded Britain due to his leadership position.
  • Complex explanations that rested on a specific understanding of the situation in which Claudius operated. Such explanations recognized contextual problems or opportunities that Claudius faced, noting not only his title of emperor, but the fact that he was a particular emperor in a specific situation. These students saw the past as a different kind of world and sought to understand it.
Explanations Vary by Age Group

Older middle-school students relied less on personal explanations and more on situational analysis. In other words, Claudius’s actions were shaped more by historical context than individual desire. This was less true for younger students, who were more likely to rely on personal explanations. This told the researchers that understanding how historical context influences people's actions is learned over time, as students developed and practiced the skills of historical thinking.

. . . understanding how historical context influences people's actions is learned over time. . .
What Seven Year-Olds Can Do

Despite the fact that students aged 7 and 8 relied more on personal explanations, at a certain level they were still able to understand historical actions. Young children possess everyday knowledge of how people behave; even elementary-age children can come up with simple but plausible reasons for someone's behavior. These explanations can provide a jumping-off point for thinking about motives in a historical context.

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Print, "Claudius I, emperor of Rome," New York Public Library
In the Classroom
  • Identify a decision made by a historical figure—Claudius’s invasion of Britain, for instance—that you want your students to examine.
  • Seek out a range of sources that describe the context in which decision-makers were operating at the time.
  • Ask students to explain why historical figures made the decisions they did. You can give your students the readings first, and tell them to look for any factors that might have influenced these decisions. Or ask for explanations before you assign the selected readings. Next, have students read the sources and explain how the readings helped them come up with a better answer.
  • When students rely on personal explanations ("Because that’s what emperors do," etc.) help them see that specific historical factors can shape how people behave. Send them back to the texts; model for students how they can do this kind of historical detective work themselves.
Sample Application

The students in this study gave three kinds of explanations, depending on grade level, for why Roman Emperor Claudius invaded Britain. Some students' explanations focused on personal reasons:

Claudius wanted to invade Britain and if he did he could take over other [countries]…and then the world.

For others, the emperor's actions were influenced by his position. Asked why he invaded Britain, they explained this behavior would be expected from an emperor:

I think Claudius decided to invade Britain so he could prove he was a great Emperor; an Emperor that could be better than other Emperors.

Finally, there were some students who saw the specific situations in Britain and Rome as both a crisis and an opportunity:

I think that Claudius decided to invade Britain in AD43 because at that time there was peace in the rest of the empire. The Kings of Britain who were friendly towards the Romans were becoming few and far between. Maybe Claudius wanted to gain total control before wavering control was lost altogether.

As these excerpts show, explanations for historical action can vary widely among students, with the more advanced employing historical context along with other factors to give reasons for actions in the past.

For more information

See Teachinghistory.org's Teaching Guide Historical Agency in History Book Sets for more on historical thinking at the elementary-school level.

Bibliography

Peter Lee, Alaric Dickinson, and Rosalyn Ashby, "'Just Another Emperor': Understanding Action in the Past," International Journal of Educational Research 27 (3), 1995, 233–244.

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