Primary and Secondary Source/Document Analysis
Textual analysis is not only a basic tenet of Common Core, but a major focus of historical inquiry as well. The level of learning and subject mastery in my class deepened exponentially when my students started analyzing primary source documents. Students need to interact and yes, even struggle, with a document before they can uncover its true meaning. Given that most documents that we will be studying were written well over two hundred years ago, this activity presents an even greater challenge. Therefore I will provide excerpted documents at an appropriate length and complexity for a middle school audience. By the time that we arrive at this unit, students will have learned how to do close readings of primary sources to engage the historical narrative and extract the crucial information while deciding how they will use it as evidence to support their position.
Two of the main primary sources that I will use will be the Treaty of Paris of 1763 and in response to Pontiac’s War, the Proclamation Act of 1763. I will also employ texts from George Washington, General Edward Braddock, General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, and Chief Pontiac. (Public Domain)
In terms of secondary sources, I will draw from the sources of my research for this unit, namely Fred Anderson’s Crucible of War, Anthony Wallace’s The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca, Alan Taylor’s American Colonies, and Charles Mann’s 1491. Obviously these texts are above a middle school audience and will have to be heavily excerpted, scaffolded, and supported with graphic organizers.
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