"Teaching with Colorado's Heritage"
Module 11: Using Documents and Texts
Documents and texts include manuscripts, letters, posters, broadsides and songsheets, oral history transcripts, and cartoons. Using documents can enrich traditional, textbook-based units, such as a unit on the Civil War.
Activity
Choosing and using documents
Because of the use of historic language that is often challenging for a student to read, it is important to choose documents carefully and use a variety of literacy strategies to support comprehension.
Exerpting
When choosing a text, make sure it is age-appropriate for the students. One way to present documents without overwhelming students is to use excerpts of the original text. But, be careful when excerpting, as it is very easy to take an excerpt, or any document out of context.
Activity
Activating prior knowledge
Choosing a document about an already familiar topic and activating prior knowledge about that topic will help promote learning, as new information is linked with what the student already knows. This activates the student's interest and curiosity.
It is useful to determine the level of prior knowledge by having students brainstorm what they know about the topic. This will help to decide how much more background the students will need on a topic. Filling out a K-W-L chart on a particular topic as a class or as an individual is another way to help activate prior knowledge:
- Students list what they think they already KNOW about the topic.
- Students list what they WANT to know about the topic.
- Students read or research the information, and then list what they LEARNED about the topic.
When choosing a document, try to select a document that will mean something to the student and to their particular background or culture.
Literacy Strategies
Using documents and texts with students can also promote literacy skills, by teaching students a variety of strategies to improve their reading and writing comprehension. Using a variety of strategies will not only help your students understand the reading better, but also helps them to gain the skills to improve reading comprehension for future reading material. In this way, even a history lesson becomes a lesson in literacy. Literacy strategies are useful tools to use before, during and after introducing primary source texts to your students.
New Vocabulary
When reading a document, students can get bogged down by unknown words or terms since historic documents can use archaic language and or difficult vocabulary. To avoid this obstacle, use vocabulary strategies to introduce new vocabulary to students. The following activity uses a strategy called a 'Word Splash' that is used before beginning the reading.
Activity
- Complete the following activity called "Word Splash" (scroll down to Part 1).
Inferences/Conclusions
Learning how to make inferences and draw conclusions is a challenging yet very important part of reading comprehension. In the following activity, student letters are read and analyzed to make important inferences about how it was to be Japanese-American during World War II.
Activitiy
- Complete the following activity called "It Says, I Say, and So" (scroll down to Part 2).
Extension: Using primary source documents to improve writing
Primary documents can also be used to teach writing. The following documents demonstrate the traits used in 6 Traits of Writing (note: some documents are examples of more than one trait) (Stout, 2002)
We Conquer or Die by James Pierpont: Voice, Word Choice
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/dukesm:@field(DOCID+@lit(ncdhasm.conf0430))>
We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks: Word Choice, Ideas
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/rbpebib:@field(NUMBER+@band(rbpe+33901800))>
Songs of the Shirt: Word Choice, Organization
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/99/suffrage/shirt.html>
Stamp Em Out: Word Choice, Ideas
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/wpapos:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3b49042))>
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: Sentence Fluency
<http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gatr2.html>
Records of a California family; journals and letters of Lewis C. Gunn and Elizabeth Le Breton Gunn: Voice
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk020div8))>
Memo from President Truman stating that Israel's government had been finally recognized, May 14, 1948: Word Choice
O Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman: Word Choice, Conventions, Voice
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mcc&fileName=055/page.db&recNum=0>
Autumn by Helen Keller: Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Ideas
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mcc&fileName=064/page.db&recNum=0>
Dental Annual: Organization
<http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/broadsides/B02/B0230/B0230-01-150dpi.html>
Search for other documents that will be useful in your curriculum. Identify which writing trait the document demonstrates.
References
Stout, C. 2002. Using Primary Documents to Improve Writing. Teaching With Colorado's Heritage.
