Reading in History

1
Reading in History

• Cynthia Shanahan, UIC

2
What is history reading? Reading of texts that
include
Memoir Biography Historical fiction Political map Thematic Data Tables Textbook Juried Essay Polemic Essay Editorial News story Political Cartoon Graphic Novel Graph, chart, table Artwork Interview Documentary Video Trade books Legislation Legal Documents Photographs Historical artifacts Translations Blogs, tweets Primary Sources artifacts, documents, recordings, etc. from time period Secondary Sources interpretations of primary sources Tertiary Sources Interpretations of secondary sources
3
What is history reading?

• Reading that embodies ways that historians
  interpret the world
• Historians create categories of historical study
  such as
• Political
• Ideological
• Social
• Economic
• Artistic
• Historians study basic systems (feudalism,
  monarchy, etc.)

4
What is history reading?

• Historians study relationships among these
  systems and categories
• Contingency
• Chance Coincidence
• Chronology
• Historians study change over time.

5
Contingency

• Out of the conversations grew Bunau-Varilla's
  conviction that if the Panamanians tried to
  declare their independence, the United State
  would use force.
• Because people had difficulty finding work during
  the depression, Roosevelt created a number of
  works programs.

6
Chance Coincidence

• The balance is certainly struck in the history of
  decisive battles Those most contingent of
  events whose effects alter the parameters of
  possibility. In this context, the great men of
  history such as William the conqueror do not
  control and predict the uncontrollable and
  unpredictable. Rather they are those best able
  to take advantage of the chances thrown their way
  and make things happen.

7
Chronology

• 1790
• By the American Revolution, 20 percent of the
  overall population in the thirteen colonies was
  of African descent. The legalized practice of
  enslaving blacks occurred in every colony. The
  economic realities of the southern colonies,
  however, perpetuated the institution, which was
  first legalized in Massachusetts in 1641. During
  the Revolutionary era, more than half of all
  African-Americans lived in Virginia and Maryland.
  Most of these blacks lived in the Chesapeake
  region, where they made up more than 50 to 60
  percent of the overall population. The majority,
  but not all, of these African-Americans were
  slaves. In fact, the first official United States
  Census, taken in 1790, showed that 8 percent of
  the black populace was free. Edgar A. Toppin.
  "Blacks in the American Revolution" (published
  essay, Virginia State University, 1976), p. 1.
  Whether free or slave, blacks in the Chesapeake
  established familial relationships, networks for
  disseminating information, survival techniques,
  and various forms of resistance to their
  condition.

8
How do historians think about history?

• History is an interpretation
• There are competing narratives
• History is an approximation of the past
• History is contested and contestable
• To understand history, one must have historical
  empathy
• Historians care about historical significance
• Some events and issues are more significant that
  others

9
How do historians read?

• They engage in
• Sourcing (determining where information came
  from)
• Contextualization (determining what the
  circumstances were when the information was
  written)
• Corroboration (determining the extent of
  agreement and disagreement across sources)
• In order to evaluate the credibility and
  trustworthiness of what they are reading

10
Sourcing

• I saw, ohI dont know him very well, but he the
  author is part of a right-wing group of southern
  conservatives who is a secessionist. Im not sure
  that the best model for thinking about Lincoln as
  a president is one that comes from a racist. So I
  have my critical eyes up a little bit, so its a
  bit of a stretch to be friendly to, so I wanted
  to make sure to read it fairly.

11
Contextualization

• Id want to take up this book. Its a 1984 book,
  and in Lincoln scholarship, thats ages. There
  have been many books written since, and I would
  want to know how the arguments changed since
  1984.

12
Corroboration

• How does it relate to the other piece I just
  read? The title in the Oates book doesnt imply
  a particular perspective, except to say that it
  is published by Harper and Row, so it is for a
  popular audience interested in history. It may
  also be trying to reach the professional audience
  as well. Many historians try to write to both
  audiences simultaneously. When you compare that
  with the Bradford piece, its a very different
  impression. The title indicates that the author
  is writing from a particular perspective
  southern and conservative. Immediately, that
  colors how you read the piece. You expect it to
  be critical of Lincoln. If anyone is critical, it
  would be a southern conservative. A southern
  scholarly press means it was probably not
  intended for a wide audience like the other book.

13
How do historians read?

• Historians question how inclusive the
  interpretation iswhat perspectives are included
  and what is left out
• Historians question the coherence of the
  historical argumentswhether or not they make
  sense
• Historians look at word choice as a signal of an
  authors perspective
• Historians try to find out where a story begins
  and ends (periodization)
• Historians read history as an argumenta
  presentation of warrants, claims, and evidence,
  even if the text has a narrative structure

14
What are the characteristics of history texts?

• Textbooks commonly combine narrative, exposition,
  and description
• Texts use conventions of chronology (before,
  after, next, In date, later)
• Texts borrow technical vocabulary from the other
  social sciences (economics, political science,
  sociology, etc.)
• Texts have a lot of difficult general academic
  vocabulary.
• Texts employ metaphorical language (e.g. The
  gilded age)
• Primary sources often use outdated language and
  ideas that are difficult and sometimes
  uncomfortable to read.

15
What are the characteristics of history texts?

• Sentences are complexthe information can be
  buried in long noun phrases
• The enlargement of the nations industrial
  capacity, including the making of barbed wire and
  the advent of western train transportation,
  served the demands of the west.
• Sentences are about time, place, and manner (over
  the next decade they gathered in Philadelphia,
  their harsh stands made enemies)
• There are participants/actors, processes, and
  goals

16
Place, Actors, processes, goals, manner

• At the same time, George II and his ministers
  made enemies of many moderate colonists by their
  harsh words.

17
Example of history text

• By 1932 the unemployment rate had soared past 20
  percent. Thousands of banks and businesses had
  failed. Millions were homeless. Men (and women)
  returned home from fruitless job hunts to find
  their dwellings padlocked and their possessions
  and families turned into the street. Many drifted
  from town to town looking for non-existent jobs.
  Many more lived at the edges of cities in
  makeshift shantytowns their residents derisively
  called Hoovervilles. People foraged in dumps and
  garbage cans for food.
• The presidential campaign of 1932 was run against
  the backdrop of the Depression. Franklin Delano
  Roosevelt won the Democratic nomination and
  campaigned on a platform of attention to the
  forgotten man at the bottom of the economic
  pyramid. Hoover continued to insist it was not
  the governments job to address the growing
  social crisis. Roosevelt won in a landslide. He
  took office on March 4, 1933, with the
  declaration that the only thing we have to fear
  is fear itself.

18
Example of history text

• The high level of unemployment, the decrease in
  national income, and the falling price level
  during the Great Depression seemingly caused the
  federal government to intervene to reduce this
  crisis. President Franklin Roosevelt stated in
  his 1933 inaugural address Our greatest primary
  task is to put people to workIt can be
  accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the
  Government itself In fact, his desire to use
  the government as a quick remedy to the
  Depression was so strong that he also stated in
  his address that if Congress failed to follow his
  recommended policies, he would request broad
  Executive power to wage war against the
  emergency, as great as the power that would be
  given to me if we were in fact invaded by a
  foreign foe. Although these statements indicate
  a strong desire to strengthen government powers
  to soften the economic downturn, the severity of
  the economic contraction cannot necessarily be
  deemed the direct cause of the rapid growth in
  government spending since the 1930s.

19
Purposes for reading history texts

• To be informed about the past
• To learn how to think critically about multiple
  perspectives
• To inform understanding of the present
• To understand the discipline of historywhat
  questions can be asked and answered by a study of
  the past
• To engage in argumentation based upon historical
  evidence

20
Why is reading history important?

• All historians are dependent upon reading
• The documents and artifacts used to construct
  history require nuanced and critical reading
• The study of documents allows students to
  evaluate different perspectives on the past (and
  present)

21
Why is reading in history important?

• Reading is required for the reading portion of
  the ACT.
• After the opening of the Erie Canal in1825, the
  Legislature of New York directed a land survey
  for a state railroad that was to be constructed,
  at public expense, through the southern tier of
  counties from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The
  unfavorable profile that the survey indicated
  apparently prompted the legislature to abandon
  the project. But, the notion of an east-to-west
  railroad spanning nearly the entire breadth of
  the state continued to hold sway over the minds
  of many New Yorkers, and the significant benefits
  that the Erie Canal had brought to the Mohawk
  Valley and surrounding country led the southern
  counties to demand a rail route that would work
  similar wonders in that region. This growing
  sentiment finally persuaded the legislature to
  charter, in April 1832, the New York and Erie
  Railroad Company, and to give it authority to
  construct tracks and regulate its own charges for
  transportation.

22
ACT Questions

• As it is used in the passage, the word
  subscriptions (line 72) most nearly means
• F. an agreement to order a specified number of
  issues of a newspaper.
• G. receiving discounted tickets for a series of
  railway trips.
• H. contributions of a specified amount to a
  project.
• I. a membership fee paid regularly.

23
ACT Questions

• Which of the following statements best describes
  the authors method and purpose for addressing
  his subject?
• A. Presenting a comparative history of
  railroads to justify the success story of the
  Erie Railroad
• B. Constructing an argument for the construction
  of the Erie Railroad based on the sentiment of
  the people of the state of New York
• C. Presenting the authors own personal
  experience in the field of railway construction
  in order to acquaint the reader with the
  financial hurdles faced by the Erie Railroad
  project
• D. Presenting a series of researched facts in
  order to provide a detailed chronological history
  of the Erie Canal

24
ACT Questions

• The passage provides clearest support for which
  of the following statements?
• F. Constructing the Erie Railroad is a remarkable
  feat of engineering.
• G. The construction of the Erie Railroad was a
  disaster of unimaginable proportions.
• H. Subsequent surveys changed the planned route
  during construction.
• J. The proposed route for the railroad was
  successfully completed and expanded upon

25
Why is history reading important

• It is a large part of the Common Core Standards

26
Literacy in History/Social Studies (6-8, 9-10,
11-12) Key Ideas/Details

• Cite specific textual evidence to support
  analysis of primary and secondary sources.
• Determine the main ideas or information of a
  primary or secondary source summarize the
  source, basing the summary on information in the
  text rather than on prior knowledge or opinions.
• Identify key steps in a texts description of a
  process related to history/social studies (e.g.,
  how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are
  raised or lowered).
• Cite specific textual evidence to support
  analysis of primary and secondary sources,
  attending to such features as the date and origin
  of the information.
• Determine the main ideas or information of a
  primary or secondary source summarize how key
  events or ideas develop over the course of the
  text.
• Analyze in detail a series of events described in
  a text and the causes that link the events
  distinguish whether earlier events caused later
  ones or simply preceded them.
• Cite specific textual evidence to support
  analysis of primary and secondary sources,
  connecting insights gained from specific details
  to an understanding of the text as a whole.
• Determine the main ideas or information of a
  primary or secondary source provide a summary
  that makes clear the relationships between the
  key details and ideas.
• Analyze how ideas and beliefs emerge, develop,
  and influence events, based on evidence in the
  text .

27
Literacy in History/Social Studies (6-8, 9-10,
11-12) Craft Structure

• Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a
  text, including vocabulary specific to domains
  related to history/social studies.
• Identify how a history/social studies text
  presents information (e.g., sequentially,
  comparatively, causally).
• Identify aspects of a text that reveal an
  authors point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded
  language, inclusion or avoidance of particular
  facts).
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a
  text, including the vocabulary describing
  political, economic, or social aspects of
  history.
• Explain how an author chooses to structure
  information or an explanation in a text to
  emphasize key points or advance a point of view.
• Compare the point of view of two or more authors
  by comparing how they treat the same or similar
  historical topics, including which details they
  include and emphasize in their respective
  accounts.
• Interpret the meaning of words and phrases in a
  text, including how an author uses and refines
  the meaning of a key term over the course of a
  text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in
  Federalist No. 10 and No. 51).
• Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is
  structured, including how key sentences,
  paragraphs, and larger portions of the text
  contribute to the whole.
• Evaluate authors differing points of view on the
  same historical event or issue by assessing the
  authors claims, evidence, and reasoning.

28
Literacy in History/Social Studies (6-8, 9-10,
11-12) Integration

• Integrate graphical information (e.g., pictures,
  videos, maps, time lines) with other information
  in a print or digital text.
• Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned
  judgment in a historical account.
• Analyze the relationship between a primary and
  secondary source on the same topic.
• Integrate quantitative or technical information
  presented in maps, time lines, and videos with
  other information in a print or digital text.
• Assess the extent to which the evidence n a text
  supports the authors claims.
• Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic
  in several primary and secondary sources.
• Synthesize ideas and data presented graphically
  and determine their relationship to the rest of a
  print or digital text, noting discrepancies
  between the graphics and other information in the
  text.
• Evaluate an authors premises, claims, and
  evidence by corroborating or challenging them
  with other sources of information.
• Integrate information from diverse sources, both
  primary and secondary, into a coherent
  understanding of an idea or event, noting
  discrepancies among sources.

29
The Lessons

• Essential Questions
• What is the purpose of our government?
• Has the government become too large and/or taken
  on too much power?
• Has the government become too involved in
  economics?
• What is the governments role in our current
  economic situation?
• What, or who, is to blame for our current
  economic situation?
• What was the cause of the first Great Depression?
• How is the first Great Depression related to the
  economic situation today?
• Explicit Instruction Modeling/explanation,
  guided practice, independent practice, feedback,
  transfer

30
The Texts

• Szulczyk, K. (2010). The Economics of
  Government
• Brinkley. An American History A Survey
• Davis, K. Great Depression
• Taylor, N. (2010). A short history of the Great
  Depression. NYTimes.com
• Zemike, K. Generation OMG. NYTimes.com
• Baker, P. Obama to Wall Street Join us instead
  of fighting us. NY Times
• Thomas, G. Institutions and Government Growth
  Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review
• Obama, B. (2010) The right thing to do.
• McIntyre, D. (2009). The recession America
  needed. Newsweek
• Lai, D. (2010). The great crash of 2008. Cato
  Journal

31
Vocabulary
Economy Economics Socialism Democracy Communism Laissez-faire Monopoly Black Market Barter Tax Subsidy Depression Volatile Inflation Recession
32
Examples of Strategies

• Before Reading
• Quickwrites
• Magnet Words
• Smart
• Anticipation/Reaction
• During Reading
• Summarizing
• Annotation
• Discussion Web
• After Reading
• Save the Last Word
• The Most Important Word
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Collaborative Annotation
• Cause and Effects Chart

33
Writing Activities

• Writing to learn
• Summarizing

34
What will teachers need to do to teach the unit?

• Decide how to introduce and frame/reframe the
  essential questions as they relate to each of the
  readings
• Decide before teaching how the strategies can be
  used to help students understand the history
  texts, especially in relation to the essential
  questions and the practices of historians as they
  read history
• Choose strategies that make sense for the
  discipline of history
• Find a way to help students make connections
  across texts and to keep track of the different
  perspectives these texts represent.
• The teacher provides the glue!

35
Text Example

• By September of 1929, nervous investors began
  selling stocks in order to get out of the market
  while prices were still high. As the volume of
  selling increased, stock prices began to fall in
  October. On October 24 (Black Thursday) and
  October 29 (Black Tuesday), prices fell
  drastically as sellers panicked. By December, a
  staggering 40 billion in stock value had been
  lost. Hoover and business leaders attempted to
  calm Americans by assuring them that the
  country's economy was fundamentally sound. J.P.
  Morgan and other bankers bought 20 million of
  U.S. Steel to try to restore confidence, but to
  no avail. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 did not
  by itself cause the American economy to collapse.
  Many factors contributed to a situation so
  precarious that this event was but the first of a
  cascade of collapses on many different fronts
  around the entire world.

36
Text Example

• One weakness in the American economy was lack of
  diversification. Prosperity of the 1920s was
  largely a result of expansion of construction and
  automobile industries and their corollary
  industries such as the petroleum industry. Older
  businesses, such as coal, declined.
• Poor distribution of income and purchasing power
  among consumers also contributed. By 1929, the
  top 10 percent of the nation's population
  received 40 percent of the nation's disposable
  income, but this 10 percent did not purchase the
  mass quantities of food and goods that were being
  turned out in the nation's farms and factories.
  Many farmers and factory workers, on the other
  hand, were unable to make the purchases of cars
  and houses that would have sustained economic
  growth. Farm income actually declined 66 percent
  from 1920 to 1929.

37
Text Example

• Overproduction of goods and farm products
  compared to the public's ability to pay for them
  dragged the economy down. Panicked farm and
  business owners plowed what profits they made not
  into wages of workers who would have been
  customers, but into ever-less-profitable plants
  and acreage. Industrialists, rather than increase
  wages, put their money into new production
  capacity. Massive business inventories (up 300
  percent from 1928 to 1929) and food surpluses
  drove prices ever downward. As farms and
  businesses faltered, unemployment rose cutting
  the nation's purchasing power even more.
  Overproduction drove down prices, and things were
  cheap, but farmers and workers were too strapped
  to buy goods at any price.

38
What should a teacher consider?

• What does this piece say in regards to the
  essential questions? (Last two about the
  depression are the ones highlighted in the ex.
  text)
• What stylistic features are in this text that
  your students should know? (chronology,
  cause/effect description, narrative)
• How is this text structured? (argument
  structurefew headings and subheading, graphics)
• Which before, during, and after activities make
  most sense for your students?
• Who wrote the text? For what purpose and from
  what perspectives? When was it written? Is it a
  trustworthy account?

39
Before Reading Anticipation/Reaction Guide

• Teacher constructs questions that have a yes/no
  answer.
• As students read, they revise their answers.

Agree Dis- Agree The depression was only in the U.S., and not global Pgs. Evidence Agree Dis- Agree
At least people could go back to the farm if they lost their city jobs
President Roosevelt ended the depression
40
Before/During Reading Magnet Words

• Have students read a short section and identify
  magnet words.
• Put magnet words on the board. Students write
  magnet words on index cards.
• Students recall important details related to the
  wordsthen check recall by returning to text.
  Put details on index cards.
• Students finish reading the text, identifying
  magnet words (3 or 4).
• Students add details in groups.
• Students turn details in to summary statement,
  using magnet word.
• Students combine magnet word summaries into a
  single summary in a group and then share.

41
Magnet words

• Overproduction
• Details
• Industries and farms overproduced goods but did
  not raise wages
• The wealthy did not buy up the oversupply
• The others didnt have enough money to buy the
  goods and farm products
• Summary
• Industries and farms overproduced goods that the
  wealthy did not buy and the others, because their
  wages werent raised, couldnt afford.

42
After Reading Save the Last Word

• Students get in groups of 3-5
• Students write a quote on one side of index card
  and why they think it is important on another.
• Individual shares quote only. The group responds
  with their own ideas.
• Individual shares what he or she wrote on the
  back.
• Example Overproduction drove down prices, and
  things were cheap, but farmers and workers were
  too strapped to buy goods at any price.
• Wages must have been very low, because usually,
  when prices go down, sales go up.

43
StrategiesDuring (and after) Reading
Discussion Web

• Reasons for Yes
• Source 1
• Source 2
• Source 3

• Reasons for No
• Source 1
• Source 2
• Source 3

The government is too involved in our economy
today
Our Answer
44
Other things to consider

• Help students use sourcing, contextualization,
  corroboration in evaluating the information they
  are reading in the texts
• Help students keep track of the different
  perspectives they are reading in relation to the
  essential questions. Perhaps put the essential
  questions on one grid of a chart and the texts on
  the other, having students write information that
  relates to that question in the box.
• Help students look at word choice in the text as
  an indication of an authors perspective.

45
Remember the purposes for reading history

• Common Core Standards
• ACT
• Helping students to make sense of the past and to
  think critically about historical evidence
• THANKS!!!
• Cyndie Shanahan
• chynd_at_uic.edu