Michael Yell Motivates Students with the Mystery Strategy

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Photo, Michael Yell's classroom
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The word history comes from the Greek historein—meaning “to inquire.” Recommendations for using inquiry [for learning history] have a long tradition.

People learn through inquiry. . . . inquiry is an approach consistent with current theory and research on human learning. When understanding is needed, inquiry appears to be one of the best ways to get there.

–Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik

Teaching History for the Common Good

As teachers of history and social studies teachers, I am convinced that we can regularly experience the motivating effects of having students ask questions, think, and interact while inquiring into historical events, issues, people, and ideas. To deeply involve our students in the study of history, inquiry is indeed the best way to get there. And posing historical questions as mysteries is an excellent way to involve the students in discovery.

This strategy presents a mystery, but does not provide answers—rather students develop answers for themselves by analyzing clues.

Having our students get involved in the process of inquiry is not a matter of simply telling them “here is a problem, here are some sources, now go for it.” That approach will prove no more motivating to most than simply telling them to open their notebooks and then listen to a lecture. However, there are practice-proven strategies that are available to the teacher in order to thoughtfully engage their students in the inquiry process. Mystery, along with Discrepant Event Inquiry (explained in my previous blog), is a highly motivating strategy that will do just that.

Your students are in groups of four discussing topics about the colonization of what would become the United States, and you bring up the lost colony of Roanoke (perhaps in a Discrepant Event Inquiry). Students express an interest in the topic and begin to pose questions that they would like to answer about the colony. When the students next come into class, each group is given a manila envelope containing 12 strips of paper each with a Roanoke fact that they will put together as clues, discuss, and use as they hypothesize on what might have happened to the lost colony.

Using the Strategy

This strategy presents a mystery, but does not provide answers—rather students develop answers for themselves by analyzing clues. Using the strategy of mystery is not only sound in terms of student interaction and thinking—it is motivating and fun. Mystery combines cooperative learning with inquiry as small teams work together to share and analyze clues and develop tentative hypotheses, as the strategy presents the mystery to be solved, but not the answer. In using the mystery strategy you will find student’s curiosity is piqued, they are motivated and interact, and they are thinking and inquiring,

They must develop tentative hypotheses that would explain the phenomena they are studying.

As with Discrepant Event Inquiry, students have been confronted with a puzzle, but in this case, they are also given historical evidence, in the form of clues. In working with these clues, students begin by organizing the clues according to similarities and common attributes, and developing a label for each category. It is then that the groups must begin to identify and explore relationships between the clues and go beyond them by making inferences as to how they fit together and what they mean. Finally they must develop tentative hypotheses that would explain the phenomena they are studying. Finally, the class discusses and evaluates the various hypotheses that have been developed.

Breaking the Strategy Down

Prior to beginning the strategy, peak student interest in something unknown or mysterious in the historical era that you are studying (such as the lost colony of Roanoke) and have them begin to develop the questions that they would like to try to answer.

There are three steps in the Mystery strategy:

  1. Prepare a set of clues for a mystery that will be given to each group (I develop about 12 clues and each group will receive the same set). Although the clues can take many forms (quotations, short primary source documents, pictures, charts or graphs), I begin by using short written clues that contain basic information about the topic in question. For example, the Roanoke mystery might contain clues such as “three years after John White left the Roanoke he returned to find it empty,” “there was no trace of the colonists,” “on a post was carved the word CROATOAN,” “there was a nearby tribe called the Powhatans,” “there was no sign left by the colonists that they had fled from danger,” etc. There must be enough clues to help students begin to formulate a number of hypotheses. The information can come from readings you have done, resources that you find via the Internet, from DVDs—even from the textbook
  2. Pass out a set of the clues to each group. The group members then distribute and share clues amongst themselves, organize the clues into groups by similarity, label the groups, compare them, and use the information to develop a hypothesis about the Mystery topic.
  3. You select a format for the presentation of student hypotheses. This can take the form of a class discussion and/or through written products. Whatever format you choose, students should share and defend their ideas and the class should engage in a synthesizing discussion.
Final Thoughts

Organizing information, making sense of data, and developing reasonable hypotheses and explanations based upon evidence are all essential components of inquiry, and all essential skills and habits of mind for our students.

Using inquiry in the classroom does take some work, but it is good work.

To engage our students in this type of thinking, in this type of work, is not only more important than recall alone, it is more fun for them and for us as teachers. With such strategies as Discrepant Event Inquiry and Mystery we help our students develop questions and reason through information in attempting to answer those questions.

Using inquiry in the classroom does take some work, but it is good work. The journey from teaching history as a body of content to be memorized to teaching history as inquiry, as a way of thinking and questioning, is a powerful one. It is important for history teachers to incorporate primary sources into their lessons, not as an end in itself, but as a means to further students’ inquiry into eras, people, and ideas of the past. In my next blog, I will share one of the strategies I have found is excellent for the use of primary sources in the history classroom.

Bibliography

Barton, Keith C. and Linda S. Levstik. Teaching History for the Common Good. Routledge, 2004

Harvey F. Silver, et al. The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2007.

For a complete description of both the Discrepant Event Inquiry and Mystery strategies, see Yell's article "Engaging World History Students in Inquiry: Using Our Thinking Factors” in an upcoming issue of Social Education.

For more information

For more on Discrepant Event Inquiry, another strategy that engages students with history mysteries, check out Yell’s blog entry "Developing a Climate of Engagement".

In the Teaching Guide "Mystery Strategy for Elementary Students," former elementary teacher Lisa Cooper explores a strategy for introducing younger students to history investigation.

Conference-going for the Educational Professional

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Photo, conference participants, submitted to Teachinghistory.org
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Networking, power lunches, panels, name badges, exchanging information on the newest developments in the field and listening to the biggest names describe their paths to success—that's the business of business, isn't it? Not necessarily!

The word "conference" may bring up images of smoothly exchanged business cards and sales professionals competing to make the best impression, but conferences aren't just a boardroom cliché. Every field has organizations that bring members (and interested outsiders) together to socialize, discuss the state of their work, and exchange ideas—from science to business to the arts to, of course, education!

Attending a Conference

Maybe you've never been to a conference for educators. Attending a conference can take some time, money, research, and planning, but the investment can pay off in new colleagues, new ideas, new knowledge, and new skills. Plus, you can snag some free giveaways in the exhibition room!

Conferences usually take place over a full day or several days, and are arranged around a general theme. One year might be "Diversity in the Classroom" and the next, "Great Debates: Engaging with Controversy." Registration allows you to take part in all of a conference's main activities.

Come home inspired and ready to try out what you've learned!

Attend the keynote address (usually presented by a notable historian, author, educator, or other figure with experience and knowledge relevant to the theme). Engage in sessions presented by educators, organizations, and experts sharing content, tools, and strategies. Stroll through the exhibit halls, learning about websites, books, and other resources that might help you in your teaching. Meet educators who share your passion for growing as a professional in informal lunches and mixers. Come home inspired and ready to try out what you've learned!

Remember to register as early as you can. Most conferences offer discounts for early registration, as well as discounts if you're a member of the organization hosting the event. Plan ahead, and you may also be able to book a hotel room for a reduced rate—many conferences take place in hotel conference centers, and set aside a block of reduced-rate rooms just for attendees. These can fill up fast!

Planning ahead may also let you sign up for extra, ticketed events. Maybe the conference offers half-day workshops on the day before the conference officially opens. Maybe you can pay to attend special-interest breakfasts, lunches, or dinners. Maybe you can buy tickets for guided tours of local historic districts or group excursions to museums. Conferences often take place in large cities, and this could be your chance to take in some of the sites while you're in town.

Finding Conferences

Conferences take place across the country at the local, state, national (and international!) levels. Here are some to consider:

  • National social studies and history education organizations host annual conferences, drawing hundreds of attendees. The National Council for the Social Studies's annual conference takes place in Washington, DC, in December of 2011, and the National Council of History Education's annual conference will explore "The Causes and Consequences of Civil Wars" in Charleston, SC, from Mar. 31–Apr. 2, 2011.
  • Historical organizations organize conferences annually and on special topics. Check their programs ahead of time, but many of these include sessions and workshops designed for teachers as well as content that can be helpful in the classroom. The American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians both host conferences with teacher-focused sessions.
  • Other organizations for K–12 educators organize conferences that can help you keep abreast of new tools and techniques that aren't content-specific. The International Society for Technology in Education's annual conference draws crowds of more than 10,000 and promotes thoughtful, innovative use of the many new technological tools constantly becoming available to schools and teachers.
  • State social studies and history education organizations often organize at least an annual conference—some organizations may host two per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Usually on a smaller scale and less expensive than national conferences, these may be easier to attend if you're tight on time or budget. Multi-state regions may also organize conferences.

And conferences wouldn't go very far without presenters. If you have a strategy or resource to share, look for calls for proposals on conference websites. These deadlines cut off months before the dates of the conferences, so plan ahead. Follow the guidelines and submit a proposal that is clear, succinct, attention-grabbing, and matches the stated theme of the conference.

Jennifer Orr on Making Technology Work for Primary Students: Part One

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Photo, Computer Lab 1st Grade, Oct. 12, 2009, lewiselementary, Flickr
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History and technology are both challenges with primary students. Let's tackle history first. Young children struggle to understand anything that they can't see, so comprehending people and life in the past is difficult. Also, they've only been alive for a few years so time spans of centuries are beyond their understanding. As a result, you often hear children ask, "Is George Washington still alive?" or "Were Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. friends?" Deeper comprehension of conflicts or realities is even more difficult.

Securing the Benefits of Technology for Young Students
Children, no matter their age, should be able to continue and direct their own learning and exploration.

The challenges faced with the use of technology stem from young children's pre-literacy. Many of the tools we use with students, such as blogs and wikis, require an ability to read and write, and to do so reasonably well. When I moved from teaching 4th and 5th grades to teaching 1st, this was a significant concern of mine. The ongoing conversations students were having on blogs and the recording of their learning, to which they could return throughout the year, on wikis seemed impossible with children who were still learning to read and write.

But I wanted those benefits. Children, no matter their age, should be able to continue and direct their own learning and exploration. They should not be limited to the time and ideas I set forth for them during class. So many things for young children are limited by the adults in their lives; I wanted to find ways to open up their learning as much as possible.

Feeding a Passion for History

In spite of the challenges inherent in using technology in the primary grades, I clearly believe it is important.

Finally, young children feel righteous indignation at the wrongs of the past.

That is also true for history. All children should have the opportunity to learn how people like them contributed to the world in which they live. They should also be exposed to things about which they could become passionate, even if for only a brief time. Many children love to have an area of expertise, something about which they know more than their peers or even some adults. I've watched little ones become obsessed about Greek myths, the Titanic, presidents of the United States, and Rosa Parks.

Finally, young children feel righteous indignation at the wrongs of the past. They are truly appalled by the idea of slavery, segregation, assassinations, and the need for the suffrage movement. I believe there is value in children coming to understand the past through a lens of righteous indignation. They are less likely to allow such treatment of others in their own lives when they have confronted their feelings about it through history.

Based on a firm belief in the importance of history and technology, I was determined to find a way to integrate the two with primary students. I will write more about ways to do so in an upcoming post, so keep reading. . . .

For more information

Jennifer Orr looks at other tricky topics in primary-level teaching in her entries on teaching Thanksgiving and Columbus Day.

For an introduction to Web 2.0 tools like those Orr mentions, browse our Tech for Teachers section. Articles introduce general tools, like Wikis and blogs, and more specific ones like Skype and Facebook.

Anthony Pellegrino: Reexamining Pre-service Field Experience

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Photo, Joe Jelen in his classroom, taken by Teachinghistory.org
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Entering the Field

For secondary education majors including those concentrating on history/social studies, each college semester begins with education courses which require some sort of field experience. These students are tasked to spend time observing in a classroom as an introduction to the world of a teacher and his or her students. The field experience offers students a chance to gain some understanding of the preparation and presentation of history/social studies teachers. Typically, the requirements are between 10 and 30 hours per course.

I recall my field experiences including little interaction with students. I spent my time observing . . . nothing specific, just observing. While some programs provide their students with more specifics and guidance—observation strategies for starters—many students today get much of the same as I did. I remember going into the classroom expecting to see students involved in a great lesson, then getting an opportunity to talk with the teacher about her methods and reflections on the class. I’m convinced, however, that sometimes the teacher didn’t even see me.

I’m convinced, however, that sometimes the teacher didn’t even see me.

I sat at an empty desk at the back of the room, took a few notes, and went on my way until my next scheduled visit. My students have often said they felt similarly anonymous and their observations ineffectual. Moreover, the time spent in these classrooms is quite short, and with some students shuffled around to several teachers in various content areas, the time can seem even shorter. Seeing effective teaching under these circumstances is challenging indeed.

What are Internships Teaching Teachers?

But fear not . . . education majors near completion of their studies will nearly always begin a comprehensive internship experience typically for a semester or an entire school year. In this internship each future teacher will be involved in a transition process beginning with more (hopefully targeted) observation climaxing in a period of time (often four to six weeks) where the intern becomes the full-time teacher: preparing lessons and assessments, dealing with classroom management and parent and student communication, grading assignments, attending meetings (faculty, IEP, PLC, and so on) and taking on teacher duties including monitoring the cafeteria, bathrooms, or hallways. This internship is supposed to be the experience where the prospective teacher is able to synthesize theory and practice—where innovative lessons are realized and teachers are made.

The problem is that too often these experiences . . . do not provide prospective teachers with the environment to observe or practice effective history/social studies teaching.

The problem is that too often these experiences, like those of the more limited field experience, do not provide prospective teachers with the environment to observe or practice effective history/social studies teaching.

Not only does the nomenclature vary—these students are referred to as interns at one university and student-teachers at another, and field experience is called practicum for some—but far more importantly, the experiences themselves vary widely. Teacher and school placements are at the heart of the problem. Some get lucky and are placed with a teacher interested in methods to instill profound student learning, but others are placed with a teacher mired in mediocrity. My former major professor—also a wonderful history educator—and I recently commiserated about the frustration of spending considerable time instilling in prospective history/social studies educators the idea that middle, high school, and even elementary students can engage in “doing” history: they are able to effectively analyze sources (both primary and secondary) for evidence of causation and bias and deal with the cognitive discord which often results from these historical thinking endeavors.

Yet more often than not, these future teachers would report that their field experiences were filled with observations of basic fact memorization, lecture, textbook activities, and worksheets. And even more troublesome, many reported that efforts to discuss ways in which to get students to “do” history were met with scoffs and disparaging comments about how “in the real world” of teaching, there’s no time for such high-level thinking; students need to know the facts to pass the tests (both teacher-made and state-mandated).

Improving Connections
An environment where prospective teachers can translate theory into practice is crucial to teacher development.

The complexity of teaching history and social studies is such that an environment where prospective teachers can translate theory into practice is crucial to teacher development. It is with a clear message of effective methodology coupled with the cooperation of effective mentor teachers that we can hope to improve the practice of teaching history and improve the place of history/social studies in the schools. Opportunities for prospective teachers to observe effective teachers and interact with students are precious . . . we ought to get a handle on this process.

In subsequent postings, I will revisit this important topic and discuss some specific ways education faculty and colleges of education are addressing field experience. Some solutions involve the development of deeper ties between teacher preparation programs and the K–12 schools where these interns are placed. These school partnerships foster teacher training and education research to improve teaching and student achievement in history and other content areas. Other approaches involve changes to teacher preparation programs, including more coursework and longer internship requirements. And still other proposed solutions eschew face-to-face student/teacher interaction and embrace technical innovation, allowing prospective teachers the opportunity to engage in computer-simulated classroom experiences. This cutting-edge technology, already in place in some universities, allows students to teach classrooms full of virtual students and deal with the presentation of lessons, classroom management, and student assessment even before their internship.

For more information

Read more by Anthony Pellegrino in his blog entry on using music as a primary source: "Let the Music Play!...in Our Classrooms."

Teachinghistory.org asks six experts what role university history departments should play in educating history teachers, in this roundtable.

Elizabeth Schaefer on Mental Maps in American History

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Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
Photo, Mental map, American Indian History, Elizabeth Schaefer, 2010
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In a world where kids are extremely familiar with a robotic "Turn left," and may have never actually seen a road atlas, geography has never been so important in the history classroom. Until mental maps, geography lessons did not often win the battle against history standards for precious time in my classroom. Now instead of being a sideshow, I consider maps a necessary step in teaching and checking for comprehension. Learning history content needs to be partnered with visualizing the environmental influences. After all, in order to understand how America was shaped, knowledge of the land is crucial.

Mental maps add another dimension to the history classroom. If you are not utilizing them to teach American history concepts, I recommend that you read below to discover how they help to build connections, incorporate different learning styles, and check for depth of understanding.

What is a Mental Map?

A mental map is a rough sketch of the world simplified enough that the outline can be remembered and repeated. The outline of the map can then be labeled with physical, political, or historic details.

How Do I Teach Mental Maps?

(The map described draws USA and its immediate neighbors.)

The Set-Up:

The teacher simply needs an overhead projector and some wet erase markers to begin (colors help!). The students need a piece of lined or computer paper and a writing utensil.

Before starting to draw, it is important to emphasize that no two mental maps will look identical.

First, I recommend figuring out a folding system that works for you. Folding the paper before beginning keeps the maps more proportionate. I like my students to divide the paper into six parts. Draw imaginary fold lines across the overhead to help orient the students.

Before starting to draw, it is important to emphasize that no two mental maps will look identical. Students can have trouble accepting that, and for the perfectionists this can be a particular challenge.

The Story:

The most important step to teaching mental maps is creating a story that will aid in memory. Tell the story using the overhead projector as a visual guide. After telling each part of the story, draw the corresponding piece of the map on the overhead, have the students repeat the steps, and periodically check their papers. Once they learn the outline, we use it throughout the year again and again so they have a very good understanding of our basic geography.

Many different stories could work and I have experimented with a few. This year, I told the story of "Norbert Americus, Zookeeper Extraordinaire." The story goes: Mr. Americus wanted to make the best zoo possible so he started collecting the biggest animals that he could. (If you prompt the students, you may find that they are very good at guessing the animals.) First he collected an elephant and a giraffe. Then he decided to get the very biggest animal even though he lives in the sea. Add a whale's tale to the top.

A little prairie dog wandered over from the deserts of America to see these big animals. He saw them and panicked. He took one look back and scurried all the way to the edge of the paper.

When the prairie dog arrived in Alaska, another nervous animal was there—a turtle. The turtle popped his head out when he saw the prairie dog.

The prairie dog and the turtle had each other now. They realized they had reached the West Coast so they decided it was time to chiiiiiiill out. Actually they chilled out so much that they were all the way down the Baja Peninsula before they knew it!

Just about then, the turtle and the prairie dog started talking. The animals in Mr. Americus's zoo seemed nice enough. In fact, none of those animals even eat turtles or prairie dogs. They turned back around and asked if they could be part of the zoo. The big animals liked the small animals and they of course said- "Y not?"

And that is the story of the Mr. Americus's Zoo!

In the first map that I teach, we draw the 2001 USA so we add an animal from way down low and way up high to the zoo—a snake and a bird—to outline the three major countries.

For American history, I do not include all of North America for simplicity's sake and I also exaggerate the size of America compared to Canada in order to fit features throughout the year. These two factors should be pointed out to the students, and you should show them a real map and discuss the purpose of a mental map versus a real map.

How Does This Apply to American History Specifically?

In world history, mental maps had been a great way to teach all of the different continents, so when I began U.S. history, I was concerned about the efficacy of repeating the USA map. I have discovered that not only can the single outline work, it is also beneficial to establish that one outline early on and recycle it so the focus can move to the details. Also, this helps to connect the historic pieces. For example, adding the Treaty of Paris land, then the Louisiana Purchase, and then the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the students can really visualize the growth of our nation.

As you view the maps, please note that they also help orient the students to their country. Many of my DC students have never made it to see the White House, let alone making it past Maryland or Virginia. So they can establish the basic size and geography of our country in relation to places that they have heard of or seen on television.

Some of the maps I have used include:

Top 5 Reasons I Recommend Mental Maps
  1. Mental maps are accessible. The students have fun as if they have learned a neat new trick, and yet pretty soon they can easily locate the land America gained in the Treaty of Paris or describe the length of the Trail of Tears.
  2. Mental maps provide an avenue for students with different talents to shine on an actual test. Often times these talents show up in projects or classwork, but this aids that talent to come out in more rigid assessments as well.
  3. Mental maps force some traditionally excellent students to stretch their brains and skills outside of their comfort zone.
  4. Mental maps are simple to modify. I provide a few special education students the basic map outline and allow them to fill in the details important to the unit.
  5. Mental maps allow the teacher to check the difference between test memorization and actually comprehending the material. If they are able to answer that the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States on a multiple-choice question but then make that land a mere sliver on the map, the teacher knows that they have reached a level of regurgitation rather than of actual learning.
For more information

Students having difficulty visualizing the geographic concepts they're mapping? What does a butte look like? How about a mountain pass? In their TAH project, educators Terri Ruyter and Michele Yokell brought geography to students in three dimensions. Watch the video here.

Interested in another sort of mapping? The Tech for Teachers entry Mind Mapping explores concept maps as an aid for memory and understanding.

For more by Elizabeth Schaefer, check out her blog entries on the Interactive Declaration of Independence and the impact of 9/11 in the classroom.

Joe Jelen on Document Cameras

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

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, I have noticed 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!

How Can I Afford One?

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. I bought mine at one such surplus property store, associated with the
University of Maryland, for $25. 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.

How Do I Set It Up?

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.

How Can I Use It?

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.

I hope you are able to get your hands on a document camera and share your tips and tricks with others. You can find product reviews for document cameras in this article from Scholastic.

For more information

Looking for more suggestions for creative overhead, smartboard, or document camera activities? Jelen demonstrates a technique for introducing students to visual primary sources in our video "Zoom-in Inquiry".

From MP3 players to Skype, our Tech for Teachers section examines other tools appropriate for classroom use.

National Archives Launches DocsTeach

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Detail, DocsTeach
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With the National Archive's DocsTeach, educators can find primary sources and the tools to present and interpret them on the same website.

Officially launched September 20, DocsTeach brings more than 3,000 primary sources together with seven online activities, each designed to reinforce specific classroom skills. Register for free, and log in to browse or search the site's photographs, speeches, letters, drawings, memos, video clips, maps, and other sources, dating from 1754 to the present day. Bookmark those that interest you, and head over to the site's "Activities" section.

Here, you can incorporate your chosen sources into online activities adaptable to students at all grade levels. Save activities to access later—including in the classroom.

Activities include:

  • Find a Sequence: Have students arrange primary sources in a particular order. DocsTeach suggests using this activity to prompt students to determine the chronological order of sources, or to order steps in a process (for instance, which documents represent which steps in the veto process? In the drafting of the U.S. Constitution?).
  • Focusing on Details: Use five different tools to focus student attention on specific sections of a primary source. Do you want your students to focus on a certain facial expression before being distracted by the rest of a photograph? Use "Zoom/Crop,” "Spotlight," or "White Out/Black Out." How about removing a few key words from a document and having students determine, from the context, what they might be? Or pointing out the date and other contextualizing evidence in a handwritten letter?
  • Making Connections: Arrange primary sources in a particular order, and have students write arguments for why one source leads to another. Choose sources that lead up to a major historical event—a telegram on the shelling of Fort Sumter might lead to Abraham Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, for instance. Or maybe your sources are thematically related—a 1918 poster using a woman in uniform to recruit male Marines leads to a 1942 WACC recruitment brochure leads to a 1990 poster calling women to join the U.S. Army
  • Seeing the Big Picture: Match primary sources in related pairs. As students successfully make the matches, they reveal pieces of a larger picture. How do the matched pairs relate to, say, the image of the Declaration of Independence or the 19th Amendment?
  • Interpreting Data: Call out particular data points on primary sources incorporating charts and graphs, and embed comments and questions in the source. Guide how students react to the data they see and lead them to ask who gathered it, how they gathered it, and why.
  • Mapping History: Use a modern or historical map as a background, and have students place sources in the location they come from or relate to. Where do sources locate New Deal projects? Major battles of the Civil War? Protest marches throughout U.S. history?
  • Weighing the Evidence: Present students with primary sources on a particular historical issue, and have them decide whether they support one interpretation or another. Try the causes of the Civil War. Which documents support an economic cause? Which support slavery as a dividing issue?

Write introductions and conclusions to any activity, and publish them to share with other DocsTeach users, if you choose. Or check out the National Archives' sample activities.

At present, only 28 pre-made activities are available, but check back as more users register at the site and share their work.

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Picturing America

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Picturing America homepage, NEH
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The Picturing America website, created by the National Endowment for the Humanities, presents 27 iconic images in American history designed specifically to encourage educators to use images as primary source documents in the classroom. The images range in time from 17th-century depictions of the Catholic mission in San Antonio to the contemporary art of Washington, DC native Martin Puryear.

The printed materials are no longer available, but you can read more about the online resources here.

Model Professional Development: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Video Overview

Ford's Theatre Society's Sarah Jencks leads a group of TAH teachers through analysis of Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. After taking a close look at Lincoln's techniques in the speech, the teachers engage in a roleplaying activity, suggesting the reactions of a selection of historical characters to the speech and to Lincoln's assassination.

Video Clip Name
Fords1.mov
Fords2.mov
Fords3.mov
Fords4.mov
Video Clip Title
Analyzing the Second Inaugural: Part One
Analyzing the Second Inaugural: Part Two
POV Activity: Part One
POV Activity: Part Two
Video Clip Duration
7:03
7:58
7:05
7:27
Transcript Text

Sarah Jencks: First take: What are some of the things you notice, both about the content, what he’s saying, and also about the way he goes about saying it? Just a quick phrase or what words or phrases stick out to you here?

Teacher: Well, there’s some old Biblical references.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, he calls on the Bible a lot, absolutely

Teacher: That’s strange for us in the 21st century

Sarah Jencks: And he also, it’s clear he assumes people know that those quotes are from the Bible, right, because he doesn’t say these are Bible quotes, he just does it. What else?

Teacher: He brings sort of a why he said some things in the first inaugural address and how this is going to be different, lays out and prepares for what he’s going to say.

Sarah Jencks: He definitely starts off by saying this is a new day, this is a different time. Absolutely. What else? What other things do you notice in here? Yeah.

Teacher: Malice towards none is sort of the start of the Reconstruction.

Sarah Jencks: So yeah. So at the very end of the speech, he’s definitely moving forward and he’s setting a tone for what his expectations are. Absolutely. What else?

Teacher: I think he reaffirms the notion that we’ve seen since the Emancipation Proclamation, that originally the war was about preserving the Union, but now he’s very clear that it was about ending slavery.

Sarah Jencks: Absolutely. Yeah, he really states it. He even goes further than that. We’ll talk a little bit more about that. What else? What else do you notice? Anything about the structure?

Teacher: I’m just struck by the rather severe comment that God wills the retribution.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, there’s nothing light or casual about this middle paragraph. Anything else? Okay, let’s try to take a second pass at this, and as we’re doing it, I want you to think about those things, about the references, the Biblical references, and let’s also—we’ll pay attention to these different paragraphs. He starts by saying it’s a new day, then he goes into talking about what it was like in the country at the beginning of the Civil War in the next paragraph, and then he goes into this really intense paragraph about slavery and about why this war—he’s got an idea why this war happened. And then moving us towards post-war times. And just quickly I want to remind you, do you all know what the day was that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated? Do you remember?

[Murmuring answers]

Sarah Jencks: April 14th. He was assassinated on the 14th, he died on the 15th. And what is this date right here?

March 4th. So it’s how much earlier? Yeah, just like a month and a half. It’s not much. He hardly had a second term.

Teachers reading: Fellow-Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

Sarah Jencks: Okay, let’s stop for a second and talk about some of the things he’s doing in this first paragraph. It’s funny, I’ve been doing this for three years, and I just noticed a new thing, so what, what are some of the—he’s very skilled in the way he’s structuring this. What are some of the things that he’s doing in this first paragraph. How is he—what is he trying to do as he introduces this speech? What do you see?

Teacher: Well, ’high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.’ Like, he has a plan, he’s not quite sure how it’s going to go and how it’s going to be accepted.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, and, you know, that’s the part that I just noticed something for the first time. He doesn’t ever say in this speech, and the Union is going to win, which was clear by then. It was clear by March 4th that the Union was going to win. Why wouldn’t he say that? Why might he choose not to say that in this speech? Given what else he knows?

Teacher: He feels he’s a president of all the states.

Sarah Jencks: He doesn’t want to stick it to the South. He’s specifically saying no prediction is ventured, I’m not going to go there. It’s an interesting way for him to start this.

Teacher: So he’s already thinking about healing.

Sarah Jencks: Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah, we’re not going to start this speech by saying we’re winning, we’re doing it.

Teacher: Well, he even has sense before, ’reasonably satisfactory,’ he doesn’t go jump and say that we’ve won, pretty much, it’s very—

Sarah Jencks: I just heard, I’m sorry, I don’t know—yes. Yeah. And very measured. He’s very careful how he does that.

Teachers reading: On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

Sarah Jencks: Okay, let’s stop again. Um, he’s still talking about the previous inauguration and the beginning of the war here, and he does a lot of this ’then and now.’ If you notice, in the first paragraph, he says ’then the statement seemed fitting and proper, now, we don’t need it anymore.’ So, what do you notice about this paragraph, what are some of the things you notice about what he’s saying at this paragraph? I’m going to say one—are there any hands back there that I’m missing? Yes.

Teacher: I was just going to say he’s very balanced. He’s not placing blame. And, you know, in these last few sentences, he states what one party did, then what the other party did, and then response one party did, and the other party did. He’s very—it gives a very balanced perspective.

Sarah Jencks: And what’s the—this is just a little grammar thing that I sometimes do with kids when I’m looking at this. In that very last clause of the paragraph, who’s taking the action?

Teacher: The war itself.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah. Isn’t that interesting? It’s not a person on either side. It’s the war is the subject.

Teacher: And he also does a similar thing by saying that insurgent agents, he’s not saying the whole South, the government, you know, or the leaders of the South, like agents, like I know it’s not everyone, it’s just these few.

Sarah Jencks: And he also says in that second sentence, notice the way he says all dreaded it, all sought to avert it. Nobody wanted war.

Teacher: I think he does nail, though, who he feels started it.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, yeah. It’s true.

Teacher: Makes it clear.

Sarah Jencks: It’s true. He says one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive. And the other would accept it. No, you’re absolutely right, you’re absolutely right. I mean, he’s not saying nobody’s responsible here, but he is really being careful about the way he phrases it. Um. We’re ready to keep going.

Teacher: Okay.

Sarah Jencks: Okay.

Teachers reading: One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.

Sarah Jencks: Okay, I’m going to stop us here, because this is a really long paragraph. What’s he doing here? He’s moving on from talking about what happened at the beginning and who was responsible. He’s going a little deeper here. What’s he doing?

Teacher: He’s kind of always said that the cause of the war was to save the Union, but here he’s saying that even though we always said it was to save the Union, we knew that this was slavery and this institute had something to do with it.

Sarah Jencks: And who knew? According to him?

Teacher: Everybody.

Sarah Jencks: Everybody. He does it again. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of war. He’s not letting anyone off the hook here. What else? Do you recognize any language here, from other studies of slavery or anything?

Teacher: A peculiar institution.

Sarah Jencks: Exactly. A peculiar and powerful interest. Absolutely. And I think it’s really interesting the way he says to strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object to which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war. I love that image, his use of that word, to rend the Union, because I always think of sort of tearing fabric or something.

Teacher: He’s also in the next part of that sentence talking about, you know, I didn’t say that I was going to abolish slavery at the beginning, I was not—I was going to let the states deal with it, the territory. He says, hey, you know.

Sarah Jencks: Other "than to restrict the territorial enlargement." Part of what I like about this speech also is that it sort of like gives you like, the whole history of, you know, the early part of the 19th century. He addresses so many issues that you can then make connections to.

Okay, let’s keep going.

Teachers reading: Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease.

Sarah Jencks: Okay, stop for just a second. What is he saying here? He’s addressing something that happened in January 1865 here. The cause of the conflict should cease before the conflict itself should cease. Does anybody know? Do you remember from down—

Teachers: The Emancipation Proclamation.

Sarah Jencks: The Emancipation Proclamation, yes, that was in 1863. January 1865, the Congress passed the 13th Amendment. And so it hadn’t been ratified yet, it wasn’t ratified until December 1865, but it had been passed by Congress. And so he lived to see that happen, and that was yet another sign that it was—we were in the endgame.

Teachers reading: Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.

Sarah Jencks: I love that sentence because the kids often, they think, they’re not used to these words being used in such a powerful way. A result less fundamental and astounding. Just changing the whole country. Keep going.

Teachers reading: It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.

Sarah Jencks: Okay, let’s stop again. So he’s making a transition here from determining what the cause of the war was to what? What’s going on here?

Teacher: It’s in God’s hands.

Sarah Jencks: It’s in God’s hands. Where do you see that?

Teacher: It’s just the [unintelligible] that I’m getting from the actual—the whole Bible and everything else, it’s just kinda like this is fate now.

Sarah Jencks: He’s doing something more here with that. The way he was using 'all' before, he’s using—do you see he’s using that here as well? What words does he use here to bring people together?

Teacher: Neither.

Sarah Jencks: Neither and also—does anybody see anything else?

Both. Yep, neither and both. He’s bringing everybody—he’s saying, we may not be seeing this from the same perspective, but we’re all seeing it together.

Teacher: And I take that both sides here have lost. Neither side is jumping for joy.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And he really is bringing everybody together. Let’s talk about that dig for a second. What’s his dig here?

Teacher: That the prayers of both could not be answered.

Sarah Jencks: The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. They could—we can’t—we’re not—we’re not going to be satisfied. What’s he—his previous sentence, though, may seem strange.

Teacher: Yeah.

Sarah Jencks: What’s going on in that sentence? Anybody want to read it aloud again? Somebody just go ahead. Go ahead.

Teacher: Uh, okay. ’It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged.’

Teacher: Is that a dig against slavery, then?

Teacher: Yeah.

Sarah Jencks: What’s he—how do you take that?

Teacher: You’re making money from someone else’s work.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah. But who do you think he’s talking to there?

Teacher: I think to the South.

Sarah Jencks: You think he’s talking—okay, tell me more about that.

Teacher: Slaveowners.

Sarah Jencks: Slaveowners. Okay. And the workforce. Think about the Northerner here, for a second. Why might that sentence—and I’m just thinking of this right now, so don’t think I’m so far ahead of you here. Why might that sentence be addressed to a Northern audience?

Teacher: He’s critical in that the Northerners really didn’t maybe speak up more loudly against it, that they even have labor issues themselves.

Sarah Jencks: Remember he quotes the Bible here, though. He says it may seem strange that slavery exists, but, let us judge not, that we be not judged. So yeah, he’s bringing up issues of labor in the North, and he’s saying hey, you Northerners, you abolitionists, you may think those Southerners are pieces of white trash, but let us judge not so that we be not judged. You’re not God. It’s interesting because he’s got many many audiences here, and we’re going to be playing with that in the minute.

Teacher: I was thinking similar to the reference that he used, let he who casts the first stone be without sin, so, you know, it seems like another Biblical reference or reference to that part of the Bible.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, absolutely. Let’s keep going. Let’s go.

Teacher: Woe—

Sarah Jencks: My apologies for cutting you off.

Teacher: It’s okay. ’Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.’

Sarah Jencks: What does this mean? What does this Biblical quote mean? Let’s break it down, because it’s not an easy one. ’Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.’

Teacher: I mean, to go back to the Biblical language, he’s saying something along the line of it’s a shame that we have to live in a world of sin, this is a sinful world, so we should feel sorry for ourselves, and this is a place where sin is going to happen, but God help the sucker who commits the sin.

Teacher: Yeah.

Teacher: Bad things happen, but this could have been avoided.

Sarah Jencks: Right, and also you’d better not be the one who’s actually doing it. Yeah, absolutely, and what he’s doing, it almost looks here like he’s setting up the South, but then let’s see what comes next.

Teacher: You wonder if there’s a little confusion in the speech. He starts out saying it’s about saving the Union, then he ends up saying, well, this is really about retribution for slavery. Which is it?

Sarah Jencks: It’s the big question of the Civil War, isn’t it?

Teacher: It strikes me, realistically, you can’t have it both ways, even though he wants it that way.

Teacher: Couldn’t you read it, though, as more of a superficial understanding—

Teacher: Superficial is my middle name.

Teacher: No, no, I mean, the whole thing about preserving the Union, that sort of, you know, the reading of it, initially, but then, you know, we spent the whole week studying Lincoln and how he agonized over this stuff in his summer retreat and then at a deeper level, he’s looking for a more meaningful way to frame the whole thing, so that it’s not necessarily contradictory, but just deeper readings of the same situation.

Sarah Jencks: I would throw out to you also that Abraham Lincoln was the consummate politician. He was a great leader. That’s separate from his having been a great politician. And that he was very conscious of the laws of the land and the way that he handled this war in the first half of the war. And in the second half, he started to become much—he was looking for a deeper meaning. For himself, with the death of his son and the death of all of these soldiers, whom he was mourning. And he really started drawing on—looking for a deeper meaning in a different way. So that doesn’t answer your question.

Teacher: Back in the 19th century, didn’t most Americans, or at least, you know, the elites believe that democracy was a divine act? I mean, Reagan wasn’t the first person to say that United States was a city on the hill. You know, you’ve got Melville[?] and all these other guys referring to it that way, so for Abraham Lincoln, couldn’t that also be the case. That to preserve the Union was to keep God’s purposes, God’s will going on Earth, because as long as democracy was there, justice could be done.

Sarah Jencks: That’s really interesting. Yeah, and that was, it was Winthrop, it was that early on, the city on the hill concept started.

Teacher: Remember that, yesterday, talking about how the Declaration of Independence was the apple, yeah, the Constitution is the rain. Goes right back to that.

Teachers reading: With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Teacher: I mean, this is what brings the whole thing full circle. From the introduction, what Mike said about it started out trying to preserve the Union. Yes, slavery was a major part of it, but, I think, you know, events change people. You’ll have a belief when you’re a younger person and then as you get older and as experiences start to mold and shape you, you start to—especially having a child or something else—it makes you think differently. And this war, with the loss of his own child and the loss of all these mother’s children, changed him. So he needed to get back to a place that brings us back together.

Sarah Jencks: I see also that he’s using this whole Biblical kind of exegesis almost to set up what he says in the last paragraph. Because if none of us are responsible, then we have to move forward, we have to strive on with malice towards none and charity for all. We can’t hold it against anyone.

Teacher: Especially when he said back a few sentences before that both sides have committed sins during the course of this war.

Teacher: Yet does he really say that nobody’s responsible, or does he say that we’re all responsible. I sort of get the sense he’s saying that we’re all responsible.

Sarah Jencks: Yes, I agree with you. I totally agree with you. We are all responsible.

Teacher: But he still names the insurgents.

Sarah Jencks: Yes.

Teacher: We’re still pointing the finger somewhere.

Teacher: I still wonder, to what degree does Lincoln himself take personal responsibility for all this tremendous loss. I mean, in the first inaugural, I lot of you are remembering, he said, I’ve taken an oath to preserve the Union. So I’m this passive agent, essentially, and I must follow my oath. But of course he didn’t have to follow his oath exactly as he saw it. He had other choices.

Teacher: And I think—

Teacher: What do you think?

Teacher: He wasn’t passive. You know, he used the Constitution to his benefit and that other times he expanded powers in it and stretched things and kind of toyed with it in order to achieve a goal. And you’re saying he’s a master politician, he wasn’t just—he wasn’t, in my opinion, this ’I’m a moral person that’s just following my oath,’ he was very deliberate in what he did, he was very calculated in what he did, and the way things that he followed in the Constitution, things that he chose to kind of stretch a little bit, it was all for his kind of for his goal to win the war.

Teacher: Very Machiavellian. Ends justify means.

Sarah Jencks: One of the phrases that I find really powerful from—I don’t know if you all are ever trying to make these connections, I can’t imagine you’re not, but I’m always looking for those threads that sort of go through the 19th century or follow from the Declaration, you know, the different political threads, through to the Civil War and beyond, and Lincoln was a great follower of Daniel Webster, the Whig politician. And one of Webster’s phrases, or his sayings, which is actually on the wall of the National Constitution Center if you ever get to go up there in Philadelphia, it’s ’one country, one Constitution, one destiny.’ And they were struggling with these same issues in, you know, the middle and the early part of the 19th century, too. It didn’t just happen.

Teacher: [Unintelligible]—time we were a country—

Sarah Jencks: Yeah. You’re absolutely right. And so Webster said that. Well, if you go down to the coat in the lobby, Lincoln had those words, ’one country, one destiny,’ embroidered in his overcoat. Literally, an eagle of the Union, with the words ’one country, one destiny,’ embroidered in his overcoat.

Sarah Jencks: So what I’d like to do is to start off by looking at some of the things, specific things that might have been, you know, when we hear presidential speeches and other speeches today, commentators and even regular people can see things, and then you think, oh my gosh, I see they said that, that’s going to be—that’s a buzzword or there’s that kernel of an idea, it’s going to keep going forward, I know it’s going to be an issue.

And so the idea here is to partner up and to look for, to try to articulate, we’ve talked a lot about these, but the theory, the sort of proposition about the war that Lincoln makes, and then, secondly, what the policy is that he’s proposing. He makes a statement of a proposition of what the war was all about, and then he proposes a policy.

Teacher: These two people get along fantastically—this person didn’t want to fight the war at all. This person didn’t want a war that would disrupt the institution of cotton and slave [uncertain], because his livelihood would be

Teacher: Right—

Teacher: But he could always turn a blind eye to how the cotton was being produced.

Teacher: Alright, so the theory we’re going with is that there’s blame to go around, right?

Teacher: Right, and the South is not going to be punished. And I guess that’s what she was getting to, in order to understand what happens next, why Lincoln’s assassination was a tragedy is because we know that Reconstruction went in a million different directions.

Teacher: The war is God punishing us for slavery.

Teacher: No, all parties are [unintelligible].

Teacher: Right. Because, I mean, he’s really not talking a lot here about the war to preserve the Union, to preserve states’ rights, he’s really focusing on the slavery issues a lot more.

Sarah Jencks: I call these the POV cards, your point-of-view cards. I want to first ask you, does anybody feel particularly good about what you wrote, not to show off, but you feel like you could—you’d be willing to share with us either your theory or your policy and/or did it bring up any questions that anyone wants to raise with the—

Teacher: We kind of felt that people of the North who really felt that they were sort of fighting to fight would see this as controversial. What do you mean we shared the blame, you know, we don’t have slavery, we’re trying to preserve the Union, and now you’re telling us that we’re partly to blame. I think maybe that’s where some of the controversy lies.

Sarah Jencks: Interesting. Okay. Yes.

Teacher: We also felt that neither the North, kind of going on what Nancy said, that neither the North nor South is going to be happy with his plan of no blame and that, you know, he wanted to move quickly, like the South now is going to be forced to join the Union, which they’re going to be upset about, and the North is going to be angry that they’re not, you know, held as this victorious winner, that he’s really got enemies on both sides now.

Teacher: Northerners don’t want to accept Southerners, Southerners don’t want to accept Northerners, and that 10% loyalty cutoff[?] of which 90% of the population in that Confederate state doesn’t want to be there.

Sarah Jencks: Did any—I don’t know how much you all got to talk about or you read about in the basement museum the election of 1864. What were Lincoln’s chances? What happened? Can anybody sort of revisit that?

Teacher: I think it depended on victory.

Teacher: Yeah.

Sarah Jencks: I’m sorry, say it again?

Teacher: Well, it depended on victory.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, military victory. So, how was he doing before Sherman started succeeding in the fall? Yeah, it was not looking good. It was all over.

And there are amazing images, again, of what happened on the Library of Congress website and on other places, in Atlanta and Savannah. And at the same time just remember, you know, if he hadn’t done that, where would we be? It’s a conundrum. It’s a little bit like the conundrum, when you investigated, of should we have dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima?

Teacher: Well, Grant as well. I mean Mike was talking about should Lincoln take the responsibility of the death toll, where if you look at a Sherman or a Grant, their strategy was attrition and just keep throwing bodies at the problem until they run out of bullets.

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of controversy over what the best military practice is here. We do a play called The Road from Appomattox and it’s a meeting between Grant and Lee the day after the surrender, which we know took place. We don’t know what happened in it, but we know it took place. Or at least in their memoirs they both say it took place. And one of the things that Lee says is this is the last war that will ever be fought according to conventional rules of war as we know them. And I think that was true in many ways. So.

Sarah Jencks: What else? What else is coming through here, in terms of the controversy of his theory, his controversial theory, or what his proposal was. What is the policy that he’s beginning to articulate here? Maybe we can move on to the policy. Yes.

Teacher: The whole ’malice towards none, charity for all’ is remarkable.

Sarah Jencks: So what’s he saying there? If you were thinking of it from policy terms?

Teacher: Well, it’s directed towards the South. We’re not going to hang the leadership like many wanted to do up north, and after four years of hell, that’s pretty remarkable, that he would keep that focus, on reuniting the country.

Sarah Jencks: Just to repeat myself, is it just directed towards the South, do you think? I mean, what about those Northerners?

Teacher: Stop looking for revenge.

Sarah Jencks: And the border states, it was a really big issue. As you begin to look at Andrew Johnson, one of the issues that we come up against with Andrew Johnson is that he was from a border state. He had been holding out for four years, as a member of the Union, as a legislator and a senator from a state that, essentially, had seceded. But he was maintaining his presence, which was why he was named vice president in the 1864 election. From a state that essentially had seceded from the Union, Tennessee. He was full of vengeance. He couldn’t have been more the opposite of Lincoln.

Sarah Jencks: So having thought about these two, having articulated this theory and then the resulting policy he’s proposing, I want you to take a look at these different Americans—almost all of them are Americans, one is not an American—that you have in front of you on these POV cards. And by the way, I have one more—if anybody needs one, I have one more. And take a moment to think both about how they would have responded to the speech and then, as a follow-up, how they would have responded to the assassination.

Abraham Lincoln’s family was from Kentucky, originally, and they—his parents left their Baptist church because it was pro-slavery and they were not. So these are—and even if you can’t make a clear decision, start to think of what the questions are, you know.

Okay, in his very last speech before he was assassinated, Lincoln proposed that what he described as ’very intelligent Negroes’ and those who had fought for the Union should be eligible for the vote.

Teacher: Okay.

Sarah Jencks: So. . . .

Teacher: That would give hope, but—

Teacher: Yeah.

Teacher: But this is after the assassination, right?

Sarah Jencks: What happened in South Carolina afterwards actually was that it became the state with the most black legislators during Reconstruction.

Teacher: Right.

Sarah Jencks: Right, so. . . .

Teacher: And that only lasts about 10 years.

Sarah Jencks: Right. Not even. Alright, so. Good questions you guys are bringing up, though.

I’m not going to ask you to tell—to go around and say what your person would have thought. But instead, if you want to reflect on some of the questions that you were struggling with or that came up or some of the issues that you had to ask—

Teacher: How about if we know what the person would have thought?

Sarah Jencks: If you know? If you feel certain, then I think you should say what were some of the things that made you know. Okay?

Alright. Go ahead. Whoever wants to start, raise your hand or just shout out. Anybody? Okay.

Teacher: Well, we got Andrew Johnson the [unintelligible] legislator from Tennessee, so we already know that he was a little angry and wanted revenge, but was politically-minded enough to go with Lincoln until, you know, his time came.

But then because I mouthed off, she gave me another one. And this one was a white merchant in San Francisco, formerly of Delaware. Apparently Delaware was a very small, slaveholding state—

Sarah Jencks: Yeah, but border state.

Teacher: —and this gentleman moved to San Francisco, obviously probably during the Gold Rush, so our idea was we really don’t think this guy cares. He’s in San Francisco, he’s trading, he’s involved with all sorts of ethnic groups and nationalities and he’s there just to make money. So I really don’t think his political opinions are going to be very strong, since he moved from a very small state to a state with more people where there could be more opportunity.

Sarah Jencks: But California came—was strongly in which camp during—

Teacher: In the free state category—

Sarah Jencks: In the free state category.

Teacher: —since the Compromise of 1850.

Sarah Jencks: Okay. Excellent. Good thoughts. What else? Who else? What did you—what were you thinking about as you were going through this process?

Teacher: Right. We were a white Georgetown DC dockworker. We’re wondering why we were unable to fight, but—

Sarah Jencks: Maybe you had like a leg that had a—you broke your leg when you were little.

Teacher:: You have to build your character.

Teacher: Our options are really limited, so we’re really worried now with the freeing of slaves, because all this cheap black labor is going to be coming up from the South and if this—if what you’re saying is basically our case, we have very few options economically to turn to. So if we lose this job. . . .

Sarah Jencks: Not to mention that the Potomac River is about to silt up and there isn’t going to be a dock in Georgetown in 10 years, but you don’t know that.

Teacher: Man.

Sarah Jencks: What else?

Teacher: I just thought it was interesting how you guys think about their reaction to the speech and then to the assassination, and the role that we had was a Massachusetts writer with strong abolitionist ties. And we have very different reactions to the speech and the assassination, that, you know, they’re disillusioned by the speech, and this is not enough. You know, you’ve soft-pedaled down, you’ve taken more of a centrist stance. But the assassination still devastates them because this is, you know, your revered leader who did speak out.

Sarah Jencks: Interesting.

Teacher: We also struggled as an abolitionist with the idea of, you know, having a religious sort of approach to this whole thing, would we have been insulted that, okay, now we’re being lumped in with the sinners who perpetrated this horrible institution, and how dare you try to make us be with them. And then maybe we become more zealous once Lincoln was assassinated—see, now you didn’t want to punish them, now they killed the president on top of it, just sin upon sin on the South, and I’m not part of that. You know, even more stronger regional identity of not wanting to be seen as part of that bigger—

Sarah Jencks: Yeah. Very interesting.

Teacher: And one of our controversies was, just because you’re an abolitionist didn’t mean you believed in equal rights.

Sarah Jencks: So true. That’s so true. Absolutely. There were a lot of Northerners who did not—we sort of tend to say that the Northerners were oh, they were antislavery. Not so much, you know. That was unusual. Absolutely.

So the last thing I want to ask you all is if you were to take this into your classrooms, what kinds of things might you want to do to enhance your ability to assess students and/or to develop this into something that would actually work for you. And I know this is really fast, but let’s just quick do some popcorn ideas about this. And the last piece is if you were to use this, is there anything that you feel like you would need to do to scaffold it differently? Yeah.

Teacher: I mean, I teach global, so we were thinking of ideas, possibly doing this with, like, the French Revolution and giving out different characters, or Caesar or any revolution for that matter, and really, you know, coming up with different types of characters and seeing what the kids do.

Sarah Jencks: It does require some research, though. Because as you noticed as I was going—it can be your research or the kids’, you can decide, sort of. You can use it as an assessment tool, or you can give it to them and then say you need to go find out more about these people.

Teacher: We had an Illinois regimental soldier, [unintelligible] Taylor, and we were trying to think what battles that soldier would have fought in. So that would be a springboard to do a little more research about that regiment, get background on—

Sarah Jencks: One thing that has occurred to me just while we’ve been doing this here is that you could potentially do this in part as a Google map activity. You could use Google maps to actually pin where each of the different people were from, and to upload, you know, something so that you’re creating a class project as a result that might allow you to—everybody can make use of it as a tool, ultimately.

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