Cherokee Law of Blood

Bibliography
Image Credits

Video Two

  • Photo, "Reconstructed Cherokee Council House," May 2004, J. Stephen Conn, Flickr.

Video Three

  • Library of Congress
  • North Carolina Museum of History
  • Tennessee History for Kids
  • Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library
Video Overview

Historian Malinda Lowery analyzes an 1833 record from the Cherokee Nation's Supreme Court to untangle a complicated story of identity, legal authority, slavery, and the Cherokee Law of Blood. Lowery models several historical thinking skills, including:

  • (1) close reading of the court document to piece together the story from the names and individuals mentioned;
  • (2) drawing on prior knowledge of life in the early 19th-century, cultural contact, and the Cherokee Nation; and
  • (3) placing the court case within a larger context of racial identity, slavery, and relations between American Indians and the U.S. government.
Video Clip Name
Malinda1.mov
Malinda2.mov
Malinda3.mov
Video Clip Title
Reading the Document
Understanding the Document
Teaching Strategies
Video Clip Duration
4:25
4:07
3:12
Transcript Text

The source comes from the Cherokee Nation's Supreme Court Records. In 1833, a lady named Molly Hightower claimed that a woman named Chickaua, who is the primary person mentioned in the document, that Chickaua and her sons belonged to Molly Hightower. And this claim was based on a transaction between another man named Sam Dent, to Molly Hightower's father. Sam Dent had been married to a Cherokee wife some time prior to the Revolutionary War, and he actually beat and killed his Cherokee wife. According to the Cherokee Law of Blood, the Deer clan sought revenge on Sam Dent for the death of their family member, because his wife had been a Deer clan member. And instead of subjecting himself to Deer clan punishment, he purchased a slave named Molly, who then became Chickaua, our main character in this document, to replace his dead wife. So, he gifted the Deer clan with the slave that he had purchased as a way of meeting his obligation for killing his wife.

The Deer clan adopted the slave named Molly, gave her the name Chickaua and, as the document says, she has by herself and descendants, been ever since recognized by said Nation, the Cherokee Nation or clan, the Deer clan, as a Cherokee. That's what allowed her sons to then also be members of the Deer clan and full-fledged members of the Cherokee Nation.

So, then later on, in 1833, Molly Hightower comes into the picture and says that Sam Dent sold Chickaua to her father, and that she actually owns Chickaua and Chickaua's descendants, Chickaua's sons. As the document says, "Her father was also an Indian trader who lived many years near the descendants of Chickaua and who never advanced or set up any claim to Chickaua and her son, Cunestuta," who is also called Isaac Tucker in the document. And this document is interesting, because it has a number of different names. You have English names, you have Cherokee names, you have a variety of different identities that are represented in the one document, in addition to this interesting transaction over slave property.

The Deer clan objected to Molly Hightower's claim, and decided to petition the Cherokee Supreme Court to prevent the return of Chickaua and her son, Cunestuta, to slavery. The Deer clan petitions them to, "Resist this oppression and illegal wrong attempted to be practiced on our brother and sister by the Hightower, Molly Hightower, in carrying into slavery two of whom have ever been and considered Native Cherokee." So, what that particular statement represents is an affirmation by the Deer clan that Molly is their kin, that Chickaua, Molly-slash-Chickaua, is their kin and belongs to them. It's really an affirmation of the adoption process and how seriously the Cherokees took their Law of Blood to bring in someone who had been an outsider to their community, and adopting them, making them full-fledged family members and not wanting them to return to the condition of slavery.

Ultimately, the document indicates that the Supreme Court sided with the Deer clan, saying that since Chickaua's adoption she has, quote, "continued in the Nation and enjoyed the liberty of freedom and that her two sons, Edward and Isaac Tucker, were born at the beloved town called Echota on the Tennessee River"—that was one of the main towns of the Cherokee Nation, what they call their beloved town—"and has ever been free and resided in the Nation."

Well, it's a very rich document on a number of levels. The primary thing that strikes me about it is the confusion over names. When you read it the first time, you're not sure who's who and who's talking about who. There's two Mollys. There's sort of what I think of as the first Molly, who was bought by Sam Dent, the trader, and then given to the Cherokee Deer clan. Her name then becomes Chickaua, and that's how she's referred to throughout the rest of the document. The next Molly is Molly Hightower, she who claims that her father actually owns Chickaua and Chickaua's descendants.

But there's—the fact that Chickaua obtains her name after her adoption into the Cherokee Nation, also means that her personal name is a marker of affiliation with a state, with a nation and a state, the Cherokee state. So, it's a great example of how names can mean many different layers of identity.

Another thing that we see in the document is how racial identity is shifting. We think of slaves as being of African descent, and we don't know, of course, that Molly, who became Chickaua, was not of African descent. In fact, we presume that she was. So, her identity shifts from being a black slave to an Indian free person, although obviously she herself does not change. It reminds us of how racial identity is constructed, how it has a history by itself that's worth examination.

Clan membership in Cherokee society, in many southeastern Native societies, was matrilineal, so you were only affiliated with the group through your mother's line. It's that matrilineal line that affirms everything about Cherokee identity and also Cherokee law.

This Law of Blood was based on the idea that clan members could avenge the deaths or other incidents happening to their kin, and women often made the decisions about how those deaths were to be avenged. And it was a way of making sure that people in Cherokee society lived in harmony with one another, because it was very clear what the consequences would be if you committed such a violent act.

Just because Chickaua escaped re-enslavement here doesn't mean that she was forever secure, because 1833 was a very critical time in the history of Indians in the southeast and well, indeed the whole nation. What we now know of as the old South, the sort of cotton culture of the antebellum South, would not have been possible without Indian removal, and the race relations, the intensity of black/white relations that developed prior to the Civil War, would have been very different had Indians remained in the southeast. This case is coming at a critical time, not just for the Cherokee Nation, but for questions of racial formation in the United States.

You don't understand very much about Cherokee removal from this particular source, but when you look at the date that Molly Hightower makes this claim in 1833 (October 18, 1833, is when the Supreme Court ruled on it), that date by itself triggers for the historian, a whole set of associations around the tensions of Cherokee removal, and the kinds of decisions that Congress was making, that President Andrew Jackson was making, that the Cherokee principal Chief John Ross, and the Cherokee General Council were making, around these issues of removal.

Because it is a fairly complex document, I introduced it to the students simply by asking them to identify the different names and to do a little genealogy of who the players are and how they're related to one another. So, on the one side they have Molly Hightower, they have Molly Hightower's father. On the other side, they have Sam Dent. They have his Cherokee wife. They have his purchase of Molly, the slave. Molly the slave then becomes a Cherokee.

The idea of tribes and nations that we operate with today when we talk about Native Americans, didn't always exist in its current form. What we see in this document is a world in which family, clan membership, kinship affiliation, was kind of the dominant logic of the society, and to understand that dominant logic you have to understand the names, and you have to understand the relationships. So, it's sort of a window into not only the time period, but also a method of doing history that speaks to the power of history itself, how it helps us understand another society that's different from our own.

I think students, they ask, they assume that because Sam Dent was a white man that he would have felt no responsibility to the Deer clan, that he would have felt no sense of loyalty or allegiance to the Cherokee Nation. But, I think what they need to understand is that the reality at this time was very different. Sam Dent made his living off of trading with Cherokee people, and under—most English traders understood that in order to trade with an Indian Nation, you had to have a kinship affiliation with that Nation. So, that's probably why Sam Dent married a Cherokee, was that his marriage to that woman enabled him, in fact, to make a living.

And one of the things that we feel we understand about American society is that whether right or wrong, European Americans have held the balance of power firmly in their hands over time, and this document is an example of a time period in which European Americans were not holding the balance of power. In fact, Cherokees at this time and place, certainly the time and place in which Sam Dent made these decisions, were holding the balance of power. This document reminds us how the Cherokee Supreme Court was alive and well. It was doing its job and acting on behalf of the Cherokee Nation, without regard to the United States and to the property laws of the United States that might have legitimized Sam Dent's sale to Molly Hightower's father.

Pictures of World War II

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Annotation

This National Archives and Records Administration online archive offers selected photographs depicting Americans' activities during World War II. The 202 photographs, drawn from the Still Picture Branch of the National Archives, primarily came from the records of the Army Signal Corps, Department of the Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and the Office of War Information. They represent all aspects of wartime preparation, from military training to combat and support services, as well as the homefront activities of civilians and war agencies. They are grouped into 22 subjects, including eight regions of Europe and the Pacific in which Americans fought, and other topical categories such as: the Homefront; Rest and Recreation; Prisoners; The Holocaust; Death and Destruction; and Victory and Peace.

Images include leaders like Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Adolph Hitler, as well as posters from homefront rationing and war bond campaigns, Rosie the Riveter posters, combat photographs of invasions and scouting missions, and images of entertainers like Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby visiting the troops. Each photograph is accompanied by a 15-25 word caption with the title, photographer, location, and date the photograph was taken. This site is ideal for those interested in illustrating reports or lectures on Americans' contributions to World War II.

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Historical Agency in History Book Sets (HBS)

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Article Body
What Is It?

A strategy that combines fiction and nonfiction texts to guide students in analyzing historical agency.

Rationale

Authors of historical fiction for children and adolescents often anchor their narratives in powerful stories about individuals. Emphasis on single actors, however, can frustrate students’ attempts to understand how collective and institutional agency affects opportunities to change various historical conditions. History Book Sets (HBS) that focus on experiences of separation or segregation take advantage of the power of narratives of individual agency to motivate inquiry into how collective and institutional agency supported or constrained individuals’ power to act.

Description

History Book Sets combine a central piece of historical fiction with related non-fiction. By framing a historical issue or controversy in a compelling narrative, historical fiction generates discussion regarding the courses of action open not only to book characters, but to real historical actors. Carefully chosen non-fictional narratives contextualize the possibilities and constraints for individual action by calling attention to collective and institutional conditions and actions.

Teacher Preparation
  1. Select a piece of well-crafted historical fiction that focuses on a historical experience of separation or segregation (NCSS Notable Books is a good    place to start). The example focuses on Cynthia Kadohata’s (2006)  Weedflower—a story that contrasts a young Japanese-American internee’s    relocation experience with a young Mohave Indian’s reservation experience.
  2. Select two pieces of related non-fiction that provide context for the historical fiction. Non-fiction should include courses of action taken by    groups and institutions, as well as individuals. This example uses Joanne Oppenheim’s (2007) “Dear Miss Breed”: True Stories of the Japanese    American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference and Herman Viola’s (1990) After Columbus.
  3. Select photographs that visually locate the events in the literature. Duplicate two contrasting sets of photographs.
  4. Reproduce templates for poem (Template A) and recognizing agency chart (Template B). The recognizing agency chart works best if students begin    with an 8½x11 chart and then transfer their work to larger chart paper.
  5. The time you need will depend on whether you assign the historical fiction for students to read or use it as a read-aloud. Reading a book aloud    generates conversation, ensures that everyone has this experience in common, and lessens concerns about readability. If students read the    book independently, plan on three class periods.
In the Classroom
  1. Recognizing Changing Perspectives. In making sense of historical agency, it helps if students recognize that different people experience historical    events differently. For instance, the main fictional characters in the example have quite distinct views of relocation camps. The packets of    photographs help children interpret changing perspectives, and the biographical poem provides a literary structure for expressing their    interpretations.
      • Organize the students in pairs. Give half the pairs Packet A (Japanese Experiences); half Packet B (Indian Experiences). Students write captions for the pictures explaining how the experiences pictured influence characters’ view of the relocation camp.
      • Drawing on their discussion and readings, each pair of students writes a biographical poem (see Template A) representing how their character’s ideas and attitudes change over the course of the story.
      • Display captioned pictures and poems where students can refer to them during the next activity.
  2. Recognizing Agency: What Can be Done?
      • Distribute Recognizing Agency chart (Template B). Work through the chart using a secondary character in the historical fiction as an example.
      • Assign pairs of students to a fictional or historical participant. For example, students might investigate the fictional main character or a family member or friend or students could investigate a historical participant.
      • Display charts. Discuss:
        1. Why do some people, groups and institutions seem to have more power than others?
        2. How can people work most effectively for change?
        3. Can you identify strategies used to alter other historical experiences of separation or segregation?
  3. Agency Today. After considering the kinds of agency expressed by people    during the past, students might write an argument for or against    contemporary issues that surround the topic. For instance in the example,    students investigate efforts to restore the relocation camp.
Common Pitfalls
Example
  1. Book selection presents the most common pitfall in developing and using    an HBS. Historical fiction presents a two-pronged challenge: If the    narrative in the historical fiction does not hold up, good historical    information can’t save it. On the other hand, a powerful narrative can    convince students of the “rightness” of very bad history. Never use books    you have not read! With that in mind:
      • Make sure you check out reviews of historical fiction and non-fiction (i.e.    Hornbook, Booklinks, Notable Books) or more topic-specific reviews such    as those provided by Oyate, an organization interested in accurate    portrayals of American Indian histories.
      • Choose non-fiction emphasizing collective and institutional agency that    contextualizes actions in the novel.
  2. Because students’ identification with literary characters can be quite    powerful, use caution in identifying one historical group or another as    “we.” Implying connections between historical actors and students    positions students to react defensively rather than analytically. None of    your students, for instance, placed people in relocation camps or on    reservations, but referring to past actions by the U.S. government as    something “we” did can confuse the issue. Students are not responsible    for the past, but as its legatees they are responsible for understanding    what happened well enough to engage in informed deliberation about the    consequences of past actions.
  3. Historical Book Sets are designed to work against tendencies to    overgeneralize about group behavior (i.e. assuming all European    Americans supported internment). In response to overgeneralization, ask    for (or point out if necessary) counter-examples from the book set.    Occasional prompting encourages students to test their generalizations    against available evidence and to think about within-group as well as    between-group differences.
  4. Historical Agency: Internment and Reservation at Poston. Background for the teacher: Groups and individuals exercise power differently, depending on the social, cultural, economic, and political forces shaping the world in which they are acting. In the case of the internment and reservation systems, for example, the power of Japanese-Americans to resist internment was quite different from the power of the War Relocation Authority to enforce relocation. Or, consider that the options available to Japanese men were quite different from those available to women or to the Native American residents of the Poston reservation. Introducing the concept of historical agency—what action was possible given the historical moment—can be a powerful tool for making sense of past behaviors. Power is a familiar concept to students who, with relatively little prompting, understand not only that larger forces may limit or expand opportunities for action, but that individuals may not all respond in the same way to those opportunities. Beginning by recognizing different perspectives on an event prepares students to consider why people might take different action, and comparing responses to action prepares students to consider available options for expressing agency. This, in turn, reinforces an important historical understanding: nothing happens in a vacuum. By placing so much attention on individual agency (often some hero or heroine), history instruction too often ignores persistent patterns of collective and institutional agency. This is not to dismiss narratives of individual agency. This HBS begins with Sumiko’s and Frank’s story because individual agency captures students’ interest and engenders a level of care that motivates further investigation of the differential agency expressed by the individuals, groups, and institutions that framed Sumiko’s and Frank’s historical choices. * Agency refers to the power of individuals, groups, and institutions to resist, blunt, or alter historical conditions. Differential agency refers to differences in potential for and expression of power within and between individuals, groups, and institutions.
Bibliography

Bamford, Rosemary A. and Janice V. Kristos, eds. Making Facts Come Alive: Choosing Quality Nonfiction Literature K-8, 2nd ed. City: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, 2003.

Levstik, Linda S. and Keith C. Barton. Doing History: Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle Schools. London: Routledge (2005).

Online U.S. History Textbooks

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Question

Do you know of any good online US history textbooks?

Answer

Online textbook options are convenient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. The key is finding one that is reliable, meets the needs of your students, and complies with district standards—so you will want to explore some to find one that fits your needs. We know of a few online textbooks that will help you get started in your search. Digital History, a project hosted by the University of Houston, offers an easy-to-use, high-quality textbook. Digital History is also a good resource for supplementary classroom materials including primary sources, e-lectures, and lesson plans. USHistory.org, created and hosted by the non-profit Independence Hall Association, also offers a complete illustrated U.S. history text that is clearly organized by topic and easy for students to use. A third option is the Outline of U.S. History, which is produced and maintained by the U.S. State Department. The Outline is a fairly comprehensive textbook, and is accompanied by useful supplementary resources, including historian essays and a briefer version of the textbook. Finally, Wikibooks offers a U.S. history textbook that is fairly comprehensive and easy to use. On a cautionary note, Wikibooks is an open source site (like Wikipedia), so teachers will want to carefully monitor the content of the site to be certain that the material is accurate and useful.

Using Blogs in a History Classroom

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What Is It?

Using the technology of blogging in the classroom to improve critical thinking and analysis skills.

Rationale

Using a teacher-created blog in a history classroom is a way to engage students through a different medium. Students of today relate more and more to technology and will welcome a different way of learning. Using a teacher-created blog will also allow you and your students to exchange ideas in an asynchronous environment.

Description

This teaching guide will assist teachers who want to set up their own blogs for their history classrooms. The first part of the guide describes how to create a blog. The second part of the guide suggests activities for improving students’ critical thinking and analysis skills in a history classroom.

Teacher Preparation

screenshot, blogger

  1. Choose a site. There are    several places that a teacher    can go to create a blog. Most    of the sites are free and easy    to set up. A popular site for    creating a blog is Blogger    which is owned by Google.    Other sites include Wordpress    and Edublogs. I have been    using Blogger for three years    and have been very happy    with its ease and reliability.    Setting up an account is    simple and straightforward. Blogger allows you to set up your account    in three easy steps. (See image right.)
  2. For Blogger and Edublogs, create a title and your own URL. The title can    always be modified, but the URL is permanent so create wisely. The URL  will be your choice. With Wordpress, you are    downloading blogging software and then you need to subscribe to a web    host (like Go Daddy), which charges a fee; you can then choose your own    URL.
  3. Once your blog has been created you are ready to begin blogging. You will    want to be clear with students, parents, and administrators about your    expectations and reasoning behind using your blog. Also be sure to review    your district’s Acceptable Use Policy with your students. You will want to    contact your Instructional Technology (IT) department to make sure the    blog will not be caught by your school’s filter. Occasionally access may be    blocked if your school’s filter is too restrictive. If this happens you will    need IT to adjust the filter.
  4. To start out, you will want to be the only one to post a topic for    discussion. This will enable you to establish the topic and provide i    instructions for students to follow when commenting. Once a topic has    been posted with specific instructions, the students can post their    comments. If you are using Blogger, you can regulate who is allowed to    post comments. The "dashboard" in Blogger allows you to restrict    comments to your students. You can also allow parents and members of    the community to post comments by adjusting the settings in the    dashboard of your Blogger account. You need to choose what method fits    your situation best. screenshot, blogger The screenshot above shows what appears after a student clicks on the comment link. To leave a comment, the students type in the comment box, insert the word verification, and then choose their identity (assigned by the teacher). As the creator of the blog, you will be able to edit and remove any comments that you deem inappropriate.
In the Classroom

There are several different ways a teacher-created blog can be used in a history classroom. These include ways to:

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  • Have students post ideas and opinions about topics discussed in class.
  • Have students post potential thesis statements and allow other students    to comment on each thesis. (See example below)

screenshot, blogger

Common Pitfalls

When you decide to create your own blog there are some pitfalls to avoid.

  • Start slow and small; don’t try blogging with all your classes at once. You    will want to focus on one class at a time while getting comfortable with    your blog. Trying to do too much too fast will become frustrating and    overwhelming.
  • Remind students to omit their last name and other personal information    when they post comments. My students use only a first name or a    nickname and their class period.
Acknowledgments

Thank you to Dr. Helen Rallis and Dr. Terry Shannon at the University of Minnesota-Duluth who advised me with my M.Ed with an emphasis in technology and turned me on to blogging.

For more information

Read more about blogging and get examples and best practices from other educators in the Tech for Teachers section.

Bibliography

Admin. "50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers." TeachingTips.com. 21 July 2008.

Olwell, Russell. "Taking History Personally: Connecting Students Outside the Classroom." Perspectives, 2008.

Reynard, Ruth. "Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes Using Blogs with Students." Campus Technology, 2008.

Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2005.

Voelker, David. "Blogging For Your Students." Perspectives, 2007.

Stating Your Case: Writing Thesis Statements Effectively

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Article Body
What is it?

A three-activity lesson teaching students what thesis statements are and how to use them effectively in writing Document Based Questions (DBQs) and other history essays.

Rationale

Students asked to write brief essays on historical topics often lack a clear sense that such essays have a distinct structure. That structure varies with the topic the student is asked to address, but it usually consists of three tasks:

  • Using an introductory paragraph to pique interest and state clearly the    essay's answer to the question it is addressing.
  • Using the essay's internal paragraphs to make the case for that answer,    hypothesis, or claim.
  • Using a conclusion to sum up how well the body of the essay has    addressed the question, along with any qualifications.

A clear thesis statement is crucial to managing these tasks. An effective thesis statement responds to all key components of the question posed. It provides an answer, or hypothesis, which the entire essay will support or explain. In a DBQ (Document-Based Question) essay, the thesis must also be one the primary sources can support. Finally, if the thesis is clear enough, it should suggest a structure for the entire essay, one that will deal with all key facets of the question or problem posed.

Description

This lesson is based on the belief that students cannot master an essay component such as the thesis statement in the abstract, but will best learn its nature by studying it in the context of a concrete historical problem. Therefore, the lesson's activities are based on an introductory essay and a set of primary source documents on one historical topic—the Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago in 1886. The Haymarket episode is a dramatic one that should also hold student interest well. A single DBQ on this topic and several alternate thesis statements are then used in three student activities. These illustrate what makes thesis statements effective, as well some common problems or mistakes in writing clear thesis statements. The lesson consists of the following handouts:

  1. A background essay on the Haymarket anarchists
  2. A set of seven primary sources
  3. Three student activity sheets—What a Thesis Statement Is, What a Thesis Statement Does, Putting the Thesis Statement to Use
  4. Teacher's Answer Key
Teacher Preparation
  1. Ask students to read the one-page background essay provided for this    lesson.
  2. If they are not already familiar with what a thesis statement and a DBQ    essay are, discuss the brief explanation at the end of the background    essay.
  3. Have students study the seven primary sources for this lesson, paying    attention both to the content and the sourcing information for each    source.
In the Classroom
  1. Briefly discuss with students the single DBQ used in all three activities    for the lesson.
  2. Have students complete Activity 1 and Activity 2. In these activities they    will make several choices among alternative thesis statements, all of which    respond to the lesson's DBQ. If they have read the introductory essay and    studied the sources, these activities will not take much time to complete.
  3. Discuss the choices students make for these two activities. The Teacher's Answer Key sheet for the lesson lists the correct choices and offers    additional ideas to discuss.
  4. Ask students to complete Activity 3 by choosing several sources to use to    back up or qualify one of the thesis statements. Either discuss student    choices in class or ask students to use their notes and their thesis    statement in a brief DBQ essay of their own.
Common Pitfalls
  • In writing history essays, students may think their task is simply to    provide as much detail and information as they can, perhaps to prove how    much they know. If they lack a sense of the overall purpose and structure    of such essays, they will not see the central importance of the thesis    statement within that structure.
  • Students in a hurry often fail to tailor the thesis statement to the exact    details and form of the DBQ or other essay prompt. They need to pay    attention to the question's details, and also to its form (e.g. compare and    contrast, explain and describe, assess the validity, etc.), which can guide    the way they structure their thesis statement and the essay as a whole.
  • Students may view the thesis statement as an absolute claim and may    make sweeping assertions they can't possibly prove without qualification.    They need to see a thesis as a tentative hypothesis, one they should    qualify by referring to primary sources that seem to contradict it.
  • Students need to see that a vague or overly broad thesis statement will    make their task harder, not easier. A specific and divided, or segmented,    thesis will delimit the task more effectively and make it easier for the    student to organize the rest of the essay.
For more information

On DBQ essays and thesis statements:
Further tips on writing thesis statements from the Indiana University. This list is typical of checklists on this topic, with much good advice, but without the practice activity that will help students apply the advice.

See more on this topic elsewhere on our website.

Bibliography

Averich, Paul. The Haymarket Tragedy. Princeton University Press, 1984.

Burack, Jonathan. "History Unfolding." Four MindSparks DBQ and Essay Writing Programs. Social Studies School Service. This is a series of learning programs/exercises.

Chicago Historical Society and Northwestern University. The Dramas of Haymarket.

Civilian Conservation Corps

Teaser

Examine the role of African Americans in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

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Website
EDSITEment
Description

Students engage in a sophisticated exploration of the African American experience with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression.

Article Body

The strength of this 2–4 day lesson is that it presents students with primary source documents representing multiple perspectives. These documents can help build students' understanding of the issues surrounding African American employment in the CCC. The documents also provide an excellent platform for students to explore the sticky political and civil rights issues facing the Roosevelt administration as it attempted to hold together a precarious political coalition that included both large numbers of African Americans and conservative Southern Democrats opposed to civil rights reforms. The lesson is comprised of four activities. Each activity is well structured and provides detailed procedures for classroom teachers. Teachers will use class discussions to assess student learning. The lesson closes with a solid writing prompt that encourages students to use documentary evidence to construct a historical argument. The lesson plan does not, however, provide resources for teachers to help students construct a high-quality historical essay. We suspect that teachers may need to provide guidance and assistance for writing the essay beyond that which is described in the lesson.

Topic
Civilian Conservation Corps; New Deal, Civil Rights
Time Estimate
2-4 Days
flexibility_scale
4
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes Historical background is detailed and accurate. Most documents are from the American Memory collection of the Library of Congress.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes Lesson includes a brief overview for students.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Lesson centers on reading and interpreting documents. It ends with a writing assignment that requires students to use textual evidence to support their answers.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes Students use evidence from primary documents to build understanding of the African American Experience in the CCC and its political and social ramifications.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Guiding questions require close reading of both source and perspective.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes Appropriate for 9–12 U.S. history classrooms. Could be adapted for higher-level middle school classrooms.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes Activities 1, 2, and 3 include excellent guided questions for use in class discussion or small group exploration. Activity 3 provides strategies to help students analyze a primary document.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Assessment is conducted primarily through class discussion. However, a final essay question encourages students to use historical evidence. No evaluation criteria are included.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes Activities are clear and explicit. Of course, teachers may need to adapt the lesson to meet student needs. Lesson presents teachers with the option to use electronic tools to help manage documents and student work if they set up a free user account.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes The four activities are well structured and the activities progress logically.

Marbury v. Madison

Teaser

Constitutional or not? Read about this 1803 landmark court case deciding issues of judicial review.

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Website
Street Law, Inc. and the Supreme Court Historical Society
Description

Students examine documents establishing the principal of judicial review in 1803.

Article Body

During the early years of the American republic, the system of checks and balances between the three branches of the federal government was tested and solidified. This lesson examines the history behind the expansion of the Supreme Court's role and the principal of judicial review that came from the case of Marbury v. Madison in 1803. For teachers, one of the helpful things this website provides is secondary background reading and questions at three different ability levels. The easiest level provides help with vocabulary and may be suitable for English language learners. An engaging political cartoon analysis exercise is also included. The cartoon illustrates the balance of powers between the three branches of government, equating the Supreme Court to referees in a football game. In addition, excerpts of the most significant passages and other related texts are provided for students to read and interpret. We think teachers will appreciate the flexibility in the recommended sequence of activities. Activities can be tailored to how much time you have to teach about this important topic.

Topic
Early Republic; Marbury v. Madison; judicial review; Supreme Court
Time Estimate
1-4 class sessions
flexibility_scale
3
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes Materials used in the lesson have been well researched. Content and materials on the site are very thorough.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes Background information and questions are available for students at three different reading levels.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Lesson focuses on reading and answering questions. No large, essay-style question for student writing is included, but students construct brief responses to questions about documents they have read.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes Students analyze documents to answer questions about who has the power to declare laws unconstitutional. The political cartoon analysis exercise centers on analytic thinking.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Emphasis on reading primary sources. Source and perspective understanding are required when considering (for example) Thomas Jefferson's adverse reaction to the decision.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes This lesson is appropriate for a secondary audience, though this is not specifically stated on the site. Teachers may decide the activities and resources are appropriate for an eighth-grade class.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes In addition to the leveled background reading, an opening scenario, a diagram of the case, and excerpts from primary documents also work to support student understanding. Questions included with the sources require varied levels of understanding ranging from basic to quite sophisticated.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Activities do not include assessment strategies other than questions that a teacher could assign to check for student understanding.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The lesson provides adequate instructions for implementation.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

No No learning objectives are explicitly stated; however, the lesson activities progress logically.

Twitter

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What is it?

What is it?

Twitter is a social networking tool for almost-instant communication through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called 'tweets' of 280 characters or fewer. Tweets are available to the general public or communicated more specifically as users join groups—as followers or followed by others in networked communication. Twitter users continue to expand its diversity and application. For teachers, Twitter can offer professional support, instant communication with students, and creative approaches to disseminating course content.

Getting Started

Twitter's own forum, Frequently Asked Questions, gives a concise, comprehensive view of what it is and how to use it. To establish a Twitter account, simply follow the sign up icon to the Registration page where you're asked to enter your name, a username, and password and to agree to the terms of service. Multiple accounts are possible if you choose to separate business, family, and friends.

Examples
Twitter is what you make it. . . . It can be a business tool, a teenage time-killer, a research assistant, a news source.

But does Twitter have value as an educational tool, or is it another cog in the wheel of communication overload?  Quick Start Tips Information includes methods to use Twitter tools and software to enhance Twitter's application. The conclusion: "Twitter is an incredibly powerful tool for your personal learning, connecting with others and complements your blogging." The Power of Educational Technology blog offers Advice for Teachers New to Twitter—including links to other twittering teachers with comments, problems, and suggestions. These tips stress the value of Twitter as a professional communication and development tool. The Twitter4Teachers Wiki helps educators link with others in their specific discipline or field such as social studies teachers, geography teachers, retired teachers, school principals, and more.

Twitter can help direct students' attention to good things . . . Twitter brings great minds together.

Among the reasons Twitter may be more useful for professional networking and professional development than as a classroom tool is cost and accessibility.

As The Wired Campus in the Chronicle of Higher Education points out: Twitter costs money—while it works with internet access, the immediacy of the text messaging facility of mobile phones maximizes its use.

For more information

For some educators, however, Twitter has become a useful classroom tool. Can We Use Twitter for Educational Activities?, a paper presented at the Fourth International Scientific Conference, eLearning and Education (Bucharest, April 2008), focused on arguments for and against the microblogging platform in education. Twitter is about learning, according to authors Gabriela Grosseck and Carmen Holotescu, but they are clear that guidelines and parameters are critical to successful educational application—as they are with any learning tool. The article looks at examples of Twitter in the classroom and concludes with an extensive bibliography of online resources about educational uses of Twitter. For older students, Twitter is another tool that can encourage enthusiasm through communication and promote collaborative learning—as well as provide another opportunity to stress responsible use of networking tools. 

Twitter may be more useful for professional networking and professional development than as a classroom tool.

In Twitter in the Classroom, a Vimeo posting, Christine Morris discusses issues related to uses of Twitter and initial problems with the interface and application—and how these software and training problems were solved. While educators frequently ask about the use of Twitter in the K–8 classroom, examples are few and its value, inconclusive. K-3 Teacher Resources offers an enthusiastic step-by-step guide—including a description of the learning curve and tips on Twitter etiquette. Twitter in the Classroom is a series of educational screencasts on YouTube discussing among other points, the use of hashtags and backchannels.

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