Dr. Katy Swalwell's "Pedagogy: What Are Historical Texts" presentation for Power of Place Teaching American History, Summer 2012

1. Pedagogy:
What Are Historical
Texts?
Katy Swalwell, Ph.D.
George Mason University
June 19, 2012

2. 1:00 – 4:30
Objectives
Introductions
Reading & Historical Thinking Review
Practice Sourcing
BREAK
Reading & Digital Primary Source Review
Practice Searching

3. Objectives
Define and practice historical thinking
Inspire an idea for a “historical thinking
question” you would like your kids to wrestle
with /answer
Anticipate challenges and possibilities with
regards to engaging your students in
historical thinking
Become familiar with online historical
archives

4. Introductions
State your…
NAME
SCHOOL
GRADE LEVEL
If you could go back in time to
witness one historical event for
yourself, what would it be and
why?

5. What is NOT “historical thinking”?
Thinking that history is …
GIVEN
NEUTRAL
INACCESSIBLE
SYNONYMOUS WITH THE PAST

6. What IS “historical thinking”?
Thinking that history is …
EVOLVING
CONSTRUCTED
ACCESSIBLE
DISTINCT FROM THE PAST
Reading, analysis, and writing that is necessary to
tell stories about the past.
What do we know and how do we know what we
know?
Why do particular histories persist?

7. Historical “Binoculars”
She was tired
Rosa and wanted to
sit down
Parks Started the
195
Arrested 5 sitting on a bus
for
Montgomery
bus boycott

8. Source 1 (1954): “A letter sent to Mayor
Gayle.” In Jo Ann Robinson’s The
Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women
Who Started It. Knoxville: The University of
Tennessee Press, 1987. p.viii. Available at
http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/rosaparks/1
/sources/19/fulltext/
Source 2 (1955): Abernathy, Ralph.
“Recollection of the First MIA Mass Meeting.”
In Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery
Bus Boycott. Edited by Stewart Burns. Chapel
Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina
Press, 1997. pp. 93-95. Available at
http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/rosaparks/1
/sources/22/fulltext/
Source 3 (1955): Azbell, Joe. “5000 at
Meeting Outline Boycott: Bullet Clips Bus.”
Montgomery Advertiser.
http://www.archives.state.al.us/teacher/rights/l
esson1/doc2.html
Source 4: Photo of Claudette
Colvinhttp://www.montgomeryboycott.com/img
/biophotos/bio_colvin2.jpg

9. Historical “Binoculars”
She was tired
Rosa and wanted to
sit down
Parks Started the
195
Arrested 5 sitting on a bus
for
Montgomery
bus boycott

10. Historical “Binoculars”
Leaders were unsure if boycott
Claudette Colvin would work
She was tired
Rosa and wanted to
sit down
Parks Started the
195
Arrested 5 sitting on a bus
for
Montgomery
bus boycott
Consciously chosen as symbol for being
JoAnn Robinson married, Christian, “respectable”

11. How do you teach
historical thinking?
DEVELOP A HISTORICAL QUESTION
SEEK OUT MULTIPLE PRIMARY ACCOUNTS &
PERSPECTIVES TO ANSWER THE QUESTION
“SOURCING”:
Identify, Attribute, Judge Perspective, and Assess
Reliability
(READ, QUESTION, CONTEXTUALIZE, and
ANALYZE)
What does the source say?
What did sources have to lose or gain by their
accounts?
For what audiences were the sources written?
How are accounts similar different? (VanSledright, 2004)

12. Which of these steps is
most complicated for you?
Which of these steps is
most complicated for your students?
What makes it difficult to teach history this
way?
-- DEVELOP A HISTORICAL QUESTION
-- SEEK OUT MULTIPLE PRIMARY
SOURCES
-- “SOURCE” THE SOURCES
-- CONNECT CLAIMS WITH EVIDENCE

13. Let’s Practice…
Foundations Course Questions:
How have schools been segregated (by race)?
What strategies have been tried to desegregate
schools?
Which strategies have been effective and why?
Strategy: Court Cases
Example: Brown v. the Board of Education
What was the response to the “Brown Decision” in
Virginia?
Watch Stacy Hoeflich in action, then complete TASK

14. Task One Review
What claims do you think you could make?
How did Virginia respond to the Brown
decision?
What was challenging about this task?
Intriguing? New? Inadequate? Helpful?
How would you adapt this activity for your
students? How would you scaffold their
historical thinking?
-- DEVELOP A HISTORICAL QUESTION
-- SEEK OUT MULTIPLE PRIMARY SOURCES
-- “SOURCE” THE SOURCES

15. In grade level partners or
small groups, discuss…
What historical thinking do you want your
students to be able to do by the end of your
unit/lesson?
How should you appropriately scaffold each
of the steps in historical thinking?
What challenges do you anticipate?

16. How do computers and the
Internet make teaching
historical thinking easier?
How do computers and the
Internet make teaching
historical thinking more
challenging?
(Eamon, 2006)

17. Task TWO
In grade level-alike groups, start to brainstorm
historical thinking questions that could guide your
students’ inquiry.
Use the links under the Local Resources tab and
the Teaching American History Institute link at the
bottom of this website
www.elementarysocialstudies.weebly.com
to begin searching for primary documents that
may be appropriate for your historical questions
and students.
If there is time, share a document you found with
the group and identify its scaffolding needs for
use with your students.

18. Questions?
Email:
katyswalwell@gmail.com