Caren Saunders
Kent County High School, Kent County Public Schools
1. How can I build new activities around primary sources?
My current plan is to build two new activities for my classroom: (1) a first week activity based on historic maps of Kent County and Chestertown, and (2) an activity similar to the “Document Exercise” that we, as participants, experienced. For a long time I have been in search of an assignment to use at the beginning of the year that involves LOCAL history – a way to get the students “hooked” onto history through a lesson linked to their own lives. At the workshop I discovered the digital Sanborn maps – a perfect resource for my lesson. One of the presenters showed us how we could take these historic maps and overlay them over a current map through the Google Earth program. By fading the historic maps in and out students can get a visual feel for where things were located during other time periods. This combination of technology and historical primary sources was exactly what I had in mind – and will certainly grab my students’ attention as they literally SEE what used to be where their current hangouts are today.
2. Where can I supplement some of my current lesson plans with primary sources?
In the past two weeks – since I have returned from the seminar – I have used 9 primary source documents in class with my students. The searchable databases accessible to workshop participants are invaluable. I have been able to find a primary source for just about every lesson in the past two weeks. Just today, I was able to use “America’s Historical Newspapers” to find an article in support of AND against US participation in the 1936 Olympics. I have also found that my students are now starting to ask for “the real thing!” They are starting to ask questions like, “How do we know that?” and “Where’s the proof?” They are also starting to really get the hang of analyzing the documents – looking for purpose and tone, audience and occasion, perspective and bias. I have been using the “Document Analysis Worksheets” provided at the workshop for each type of primary source. Just over the past two weeks, my students have become skilled at dissecting images – looking for details and thinking about why the artist would include such details.
3. How will I use the local source I selected at the workshop to teach my students about the history of their own community?
During the workshop, I came across a newspaper from 1792 that has a remarkable juxtaposition. The far left column is the “Constitution of the Chester-Town Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of the Free Negroes, and others, unlawfully held in bondage.” This short advertisement outlines the beliefs of the society and also lists by name the officers. However, the far right column of the same paper – the same page – has three ads for rewards for runaway slaves (two in Baltimore and one from Annapolis). This amazing primary source document could be used to teach my students about the local efforts to fight slavery as an institution while at the same time admitting the abhorrent realities. A lesson might start by telling the students that they will be given a page from an 18th-century newspaper. The students could be told to examine the highlighted/marked part of the newspaper – but half of them would be marked for the Abolition ad, the other half for the runaway slaves. After analyzing their assigned documents students could be paired to discuss what their assigned document reveals about attitudes and perspectives of the time period. Similar to what we did during the workshop, students could be asked to create a short skit in which one of the men from the “Society” meets one of the men who placed the ad for the runaway slave – and the two have a discussion about the institution of slavery in Kent County in the late 1700s.
