DocsTeach

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What is it?

DocsTeach brings together more than 3,000 primary sources and seven online activities, each designed to reinforce specific historical thinking skills. Register for free, search or browse the primary sources, and bookmark any that interest you. Head over to the "Activities" section to plug your sources into any of the site's seven activity templates, and then save your new activities for use in the classroom—or publish them to share with other DocsTeach users. To add a twist, ask your students to make, present, and take activities of their own—activity creation is simple enough and web-savvy students should be up to the task.

Getting Started

Register for the site before beginning to comb its primary sources and activities—it's free and quick. Once you've registered, you'll be able to bookmark primary sources and activities, save activities, and publish activities to share with other users. Browse or search DocsTeach's selection of primary sources, divided into eight historical periods ranging from 1754 to the present, bookmark sources of interest, and then click on "Activities." This section contains tools for assembling seven different online activities. They include:

  • Find a Sequence: Prompt students to arrange primary sources in a predetermined order;
  • Focusing on Details: Pick from five different tools to focus student attention on specific sections of a primary source;
  • Making Connections: Arrange primary sources in a particular order, and have students write in their arguments for why one source leads to another;
  • Seeing the Big Picture: Match primary sources in related pairs. As students successfully make the matches, they reveal pieces of a larger picture;
  • Interpreting Data: Call out particular data points on primary sources incorporating charts and graphs, and embed comments and questions in the source;
  • Mapping History: Use a modern or historical map as a background, and have students place sources in the location they come from or discuss; and
  • Weighing the Evidence: Present students with primary sources on a particular historical issue, and have them decide whether they support one interpretation or another.

Assemble the sources you've collected into one or more activities, following the step-by-step automated process, and then either save your activity and/or publish it. If you choose to publish an activity, other registered DocsTeach users can find it in the website's collection of activities and use it in their own classrooms.

Examples

DocsTeach offers examples of possible use for each activity model in "Learning Objectives and Historical Thinking Skills" essays. Educators could use the "Making Connections" activity, the website suggests, to track the history of African American integration into the U.S. military, prompting students to explain how primary sources showing changes in policy—whether segregationist or desegregationist—led from one to the other. Students could analyze primary sources related to Douglas MacArthur in a "Weighing Evidence" activity, deciding whether each document supports or refutes a view of MacArthur as a strong leader.

The National Archives team models their own version of the latter in their pre-assembled activity "What Kind of Leader Was General Douglas MacArthur?" The site includes dozens of activities sorted into period-based subjects, from ‘Analyzing the Cotton Gin Patent’ in Revolution and the New Nation to ‘Birth of the Environmental Protection Agency’ in Contemporary United States (1968 to the present). As educators sign up for the site and publish their own work, look for the activity database to grow.

Jamestown: The Starving Time

Teaser

Only 60 settlers out of 600 survived the winter of 1609–1610 in Jamestown Virginia. Was "the Starving Time" due to natural circumstances or planned extermination?

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H.S.I. Historical Scene Investigation
Description

Students analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to determine the cause of the Jamestown starving time during the winter of 1609–1610.

Article Body

This lesson provides a great opportunity for students to engage in real historical inquiry with prepared sources. The lesson is displayed in three locations on the site: the student view, which guides the student through the activity; the teacher view, which provides additional background information; and a PDF file that contains scripted instructions for the lesson.

Students first read a textbook passage about the Jamestown colony in 1609 and 1610. They then discuss how the writers of the textbook might have obtained their information, and go on to analyze primary source documents that expand upon the textbook account. Students essentially "do history" as they use a variety of sources to answer a clear, concise historical question—one that can be answered in multiple ways with the given data.

Another strength of this lesson is the document collection itself. A wide variety of primary sources offer greater insight into the reasons for the food shortage that resulted in the death of over 400 colonists in Jamestown during the winter of 1609–1610. Particularly helpful to teachers with struggling readers is the fact that the lesson includes not only the original documents, but also "modern" versions of the documents, written in language much more accessible to students.

While the detective log graphic organizer included in the lesson provides space for students to record source information, and the lesson itself provides a great exercise in sourcing, the documents themselves contain little source information. We recommend that teachers support students in using the available information about each document to understand its perspective and meaning. In general, the lesson provides good opportunities to engage in historical inquiry, to open up and go beyond the textbook, and to use primary sources to analyze the causes of an event.

Topic
Jamestown
Time Estimate
2-3 class sessions
flexibility_scale
5
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes
A passage from Joy Hakim's Making Thirteen Colonies is included in both the student view and the teacher view of the lesson.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes
Teachers will want to support students in using information about the perspective of the various sources as they interpret each document's significance and meaning.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes
Documents are included both in their original form, and in an adapted "modern version" that will be more easily accessible to most students.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

Yes
No assessment criteria are included, but the final writing assignment provides a great assessment of students' understanding and historical thinking.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes

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Mind Mapping: Visualizing Historical Thought

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What is it?

Mind Mapping applications are tools that allow students to develop a physical representation, a blueprint of their thinking that goes from the concrete to the more abstract. Mind Maps provide a clear and organized visual snapshot of how the ideas and information are outlined in one’s head. This way one can see where ideas need to be further developed and how all the information is linked. This snapshot is developed and analyzed by the student. He or she identifies the logical flow of ideas connecting one to the next and building on each in a web-like form. Mind Mapping is truly a revolutionary way of thinking and learning!

One Teacher's Experience:

As an educator I have found the electronic tool of Mind Maps to be pivotal in the success of some of my students, particularly when looking at students who are visual learners and mathematical/logical learners. I have also found that students in the special education classroom benefit from Mind Mapping. The tool allows them to demonstrate their understanding without the rigor of extensive writing. It also allows them to monitor their own understanding, and thus helps them continue to build toward metacognition . . . every educator’s dream.

Getting Started

Below are just a few of the many Mind Mapping sites available. I happen to be partial to Mindjet, but click on the links and check them out for yourself.

Examples

Furthermore Mind Mapping can be used in the following ways. Please note: this list details just a few ways to use this tool. There are countless ways to incorporate it into your classroom.

  • Vocabulary development—detailing what the word is, what it’s not, and examples
  • Outlining an essay or other form of writing
  • Viewing and analyzing differing points of view of two historical figures/events in history
  • Developing a timeline of a historic event
  • Comparing and contrasting events and people in history or present day issues
  • Identifying the main event and detailing the cause/s

Historical Thinking Poster!

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Note: Thank you for your interest in our posters. We no longer have the Historical Thinking poster in stock, so please visit our interactive poster or print a copy. Please be sure to check out our 2011-12 interactive poster, How Do You Piece Together the History of the Civil War? Are you a K-12 U.S. history or social studies teacher, librarian, or teacher educator? Looking for ways to promote thoughtful, critical reading of primary and secondary sources in the classroom? Teachinghistory.org now offers a poster to help you out! Our double-sided color poster features definitions of primary and secondary sources and guides students through the process of historical inquiry. What questions should you ask when examining a primary source? Where should you look for reliable secondary sources? How do you use the evidence you've gathered to make an argument?

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Bright illustrations and snappy captions present history as a mystery for elementary students, while the flip side asks middle and high schoolers how historians know what they know about the past. Both sides feature clear visual examples of primary sources.

Whiteboard Basics

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In this video (14 min.), UK teacher Simon Botten looks at basics in whiteboard use, aimed at elementary-school teachers. He includes exploring and using the software suite that comes with the board, incorporating images and video into lessons, and avoiding overloading students with content and special effects.

Though the presentation was created in the UK and features UK students, the content applies multinationally.

Using Visuals to Build Interest and Understanding

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For more information

Kathryn Lindholm-Leavy and Graciela Borsato, “Academic Achievement,” in F. Genesee (Ed.), Educating English language learners (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 192.

Cruz & Thornton, "Social Studies for English Language Learners: Teaching Social Studies that Matters," Social Education, in press.

See Cruz & Thornton book, 2009; see also, Jennifer Truran Rothwell, History Making and the Plains Indians, Social Education, 61, no. 1, pp., 4-9, 1996.

Teaching history to English Language Learners poses special challenges owing to its conceptual density and assumed cultural knowledge. It seems obvious that ELLS need additional support and materials to understand content, yet many social studies classrooms are ill-stocked in this regard.

Here we outline how visuals can help ELLs build interest and understanding.

Rationale

Life, Liberty and Property: What’s the Big Idea?

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For more information

Ideas for this lesson were inspired by:

  • Jean Fritz, Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution. New York: Putnam, 1987. 64 pp. Illustrated by Tomi dePaola.
  • Center for Civic Education. We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, Level I. Calabasas: Center for Civic Education, 2003.
  • “I Signed the Constitution.” An original lesson plan: National Constitution Center. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Visit the website at the National Constitution Center for printable copies of the Constitution, other free primary sources, and lesson ideas. You can also find ideas and resources at the Center for Civic Education.

Quick Overview
This tried and true lesson, a blend of history and civics, guides students through a process of evaluating John Locke’s theory of “living in the natural state” as a basis of our Constitution. Students discuss and learn about the three basic freedoms (rights) in our Constitution: life, liberty and the right to own property. Students will “lock in” these concepts through an exciting mix of brainstorming, framed discussion, and writing techniques designed especially for English Language Learners.

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