"Miners Have Class" - Socioeconomics and Mining in Colorado

Level: 4th and 5th grade

Time Frame: 5 one-hour sessions

Focus: Students will learn to utilize both primary and secondary sources to examine the life of miners in different socioeconomic classes in the early 1900's in the Cripple Creek mining district (This includes the towns of Cripple Creek, Goldfield, and Victor, Colorado) to determine the differences there were in the lives of miners from high vs. low socioeconomic levels. An emphasis will be on the Portland Mine on Battle Mountain in Goldfield.

Standards Addressed:

Reading/Writing Standard 2: Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Benchmark: Generate topics and develop ideas for a variety of writing and speaking purposes (for example, telling a story, publishing a class newsletter, writing a letter to an adult, writing or orally presenting a book report, creating and producing a play, introducing a speaker or an event, narrating a presentation.)

Reading/Writing Standard 5: Students read to locate, select and make use of relevant info from a variety of media, reference and technological sources.
Benchmark:
4th grade * sorting information as it relates to a specific topic or purpose
5th grade* locating and selecting relevant information

Information Literacy Standard 1: The information literate student access information efficiently and effectively.

Standards Assessed:

History Standard 2: Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry
Benchmark: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources of historical information.

Information Literacy Standard 2: The information literate student evaluates information critically and competently.

Assessment:

The students will construct a scrap book that will contrast socioeconomic levels. In selected photographs, students will identify high and low socioeconomic levels of the miners pictured. They will then make inferences based on what they see in photographs about the life of each category of miners and write descriptive captions to communicate their inferenced ideas. The rationalizations for placement of photos within the scrapbook, as evidenced by captions, will assess their critical thinking skills. Look for:

1. At least 4 photographs are chosen and placed neatly in the scrapbook.
2. Accurate categorizations based on clothing, facial expressions, body language, environment, etc.. The student's rationale is essential to support the placement of the photo in the correct category.
3. For the captions, students use descriptive writing to portray the socioeconomic background of the pictured miners. Inferences should be expressed through some direct quotations from at least one of the miners pictured. The ability to contrive the quotations would be considered a higher level thinking skill.
For an example of captions and quotations, see the web site Doing History Keeping the Past: http://hewit.unco.edu/dohist/themes.htm


Materials/Teacher Preparation:

1. Computers, internet access (for each pair of students) and printer
2. Computer projection system (optional)
3. Bookmark the following sites: (Can be printed as hard copies if computers are not available)

4. Primary and secondary source material examples to share with the students: photos, maps, reference books etc. (Students would love to see real artifacts, etc. from your own personal collections! An extension field trip to the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum would be a great idea. They provide lessons on recognizing primary sources and their value.)
5. Bookmark primary and secondary sources about the Cripple Creek Mining District (These can be printed ahead of time if computers are unavailable- This is highly suggested when you get to the scrap book to save time rather than having each child print them out)

Secondary Sources: (Text descriptions of photos are the secondary sources)

The Portland Mine: http://www.cripplecreekhistory.com/portland_history_1.htm (print out one copy of these story to read to the students)

Primary Sources:

(Students should choose at least one site from each category. Mix up the categories when giving them to the students so they can use their critical thinking skills to determine which photos best illustrate high and low socioeconomic levels of miners. There are a few photos in the last category that show miners from both classes. These photos make it easy to see the differences!)

6. Scrap book ( Be as creative as you want! It can just be a folder with blank pages or a journal with burned edges to give it an old rustic look)
7. Pencils and black markers (Use for writing captions and note taking)
8. Glue
9. Scissors


Possible Procedures:
Hour #1: Introduction to Primary Sources
1. (Students should be in pairs) Because it will be the first time students will have heard the vocabulary, primary and secondary sources, it would be a good idea for students to investigate the differences between them. They should go to The Library of Congress, American Memory at http://loc.gov. When there, click on the Learning Page and then lesson plans. After clicking on lesson plans, then go to "The Historian's Sources". Specific lessons to focus on should be:
*Student Lesson Section 1: What are Primary Sources?
*Student Lesson Section3: Types of Primary Sources.
*Student Lesson Section 2: Analysis of Primary Sources.
*Walk around to guide the discussions and to help the lower readers. Grouping low reading level readers with higher levels would work really well!)
2. Show students examples of primary sources both on the computer and in person if possible. Maybe even bring in personal examples of maps, pictures, diaries, artifacts, etc. This is to reinforce and transfer knowledge learned in the above discovery.

Hour #2: Introduction to Secondary Sources
3. (Students should be in pairs for this activity) Show examples of secondary resources both on the computer and in person: reference materials, encyclopedias, bibliographies, periodicals, etc. (Remember to tell them that sites can have both together. The pictures are considered primary sources and the text is a secondary resource)
Use the site of the Portland Mine to illustrate this point. This site has many examples of pictures and text that describes the photos. Later, students will see the some of the photos again! http//www.cripplecreekhistory.com/portland_history_1.htm. In partners, have them go through the site and skim and scan the information about the mine. They should become familiar with the people and the existence of this mine. They will use this as background knowledge later. Emphasize that the photographs are primary sources, but the text is considered a secondary source.
(The students will only have time to investigate about the first three pages of the saga. Print out a version so as to use the rest of the story as a read aloud later in the classroom. The kids are interested, and it builds background knowledge. If you want them to read it on their own, it would take a much longer period of time to facilitate that and it is difficult for them to attend for too much longer than the hour in one sitting)

Hour #3: Practice Analyzing Photographs (Hint: I have had difficulty getting on to this site at my school, but can easily get on it at home. If that happens to you, guide the students though a virtual tour of their own photo albums or those of other people and ask them to make judgments about the people in the photos based on the listed items below, or print out examples from this web site from home. After that, go on to hour 4's activity following the virtual tour. You will need to facilitate the discussion more about what the purpose of a caption is and how to use quotes to illustrate the point. Students likened this experience with reading a newspaper. They got the point of this hour's lesson, but if possible, use the below site. It is very engaging!)

4. (Students should be in pairs for this activity) The teacher should take the students to this web site to model how photographs can be analyzed. Doing History Keeping the Past's web site is: http://hewit.unco.edu.dohist/themes.htm. When there, go to Colorado Miners. Choose a photo under Miner's Food, Clothing and Shelter like "Interiors" and investigate "About The Photo" and "Their Own Words" which are located on the left side of the screen. Llead the students to notice:
Clothing
Facial Expressions
Material Possessions
Dental Health
Posture
Environment
After practicing the analysis process, the students will not only know how to analyze a photograph as a primary source, but will also have seen how to write captions and quotations for their scrap book project. This activity really shows students how to give the photograph a "voice." This site is great for students to experience. Let them practice on other photographs as much as time permits.


Hour #4: Analyzing Photographs
5. Review with students how to analyze a photograph using the Photo Study Guide from the Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/98/brady/photo.html . Let them know that they will be doing the process again with other chosen photographs independently.
6. (Students should work independently) Students should practice using the Photo Study Guide with at least 3 of the cited photographs. (Refer to the 3 categories of photographs) Remember to refer back to the types of things that we looked for in Hour 3. This will focus and guide their observations. When they begin to think about writing the captions about their photographs, they should refer to the "Deductions" section of the Photo Guide. "Deductions" will help them know what information should be included in the captions or quotations in their scrap books . (Guide students through this process for the first one. To save computer printed paper, have students divide notebook paper in to quarters and have them take notes on what they observe for each heading. Students can just take about three observations for each heading to get the point. The top margin can be used for the title of the picture and a splash of questions that come up for the students while they are analyzing the photo.)


Hour #5: Making the Scrap Book
7. Once they have analyzed the photographs, they will choose at least 4 photos from the given categories. There should be at least one photo included from each category. In their scrap book, they should identify miners as either high or low socioeconomic levels. The photos that show a combination of both classes can be in a separate category. I also had them choose one they thought would be biased and explain why.
8. Students should print the actual photographs to include in the scrapbook (or your provide copies for them to choose from.)
9. Students should use the "Deductions" section of the Photo Analysis Page to create captions for each one of the photos. Remind them they saw this done on the Doing History Keeping the Past web site. They can revisit it if it helps. The captions should tell the audience inferences made about the socioeconomic status of the people in the photographs. Students could be creative and even include a likely quote from one of the miners to bring the scrap book more alive! They really love being the author of the story behind the photograph. It is a chance for the really creative to shine through!
(Hint: Before letting students glue photos on pages, I had them lay out the photographs and tell me where the caption and quote were going to go. This gave them an opportunity to work on their spatial skills. I suggested to those who wanted to place two large photos on one page to make two separate pages so as to give more room for the caption and quotation. This worked really well. I also helped them edit their writing ideas before they wrote on the actual scrapbook page to avoid a lot or erasing. They really look professional. These pages become a wonderful display item for the classroom!)
10. The scrap books should be graded based on the student's ability to categorize miners in to low and high socioeconomic levels based on clothing, non-verbal body expressions, work environment, etc.. The student's critical thinking should be evident in the captions where they express what they believe to be happening in the photo.


** As a further extension, students could present their scrap books or display them in the library.

By: Patricia Dennard, Prairie Winds Elementary School, Monument, CO

 

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