Introduction
How many times have you heard the idea that if we do not know our history we are doomed to repeat it? I have noticed in my students a lack of engagement with the complexities of history beyond just knowing some famous people and some specific events that may be important to the publishers of social studies texts. I noticed in using a fictionalized account of the Valley Forge encampment last year that the students were struggling with the discrepancies between what was said in their text book and some of the primary source quotes in this narrative. Knowing the history of the country in which you live is a key to being an active and involved citizen of that country. I want my students to go beyond just the rote memorization of facts, people and places. I want them to interact with the history of the United States of America and, as citizens, to connect history and current events.
Many of my students are very capable academically, but they do not always make the connection between historical facts, people and places, and their current lives. My goal for this unit is to develop their critical thinking skills in analyzing image-texts, and drawing conclusions based upon that analysis. I also want them to be able to discuss their suppositions with other students in a Paideia approach to Socratic seminar format. Students will also work on writing a traditional five-paragraph essay to practice the constructs of this type of writing. In keeping with the seminar’s theme of image-text relationships, students will look at a copy of a picture book and the Bayeux Tapestry to see the relationship between text, image, and image-texts.
This is why the focus of my unit will be the winter spent at Valley Forge during the American Revolution. In keeping with our theme I will use two key texts with students: the narrative text of Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, and the image-text George vs. George, The American Revolution as seen from Both Sides by Rosalyn Schanzer. To present the analysis of visual literacy, I will use two paintings, “Washington bids Adieu to Lafayette” by Frederick Kemmelmyer, and “March to Valley Forge, December 19, 1777” by William Trego. I will include excerpts from Founding Myths, Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past by Ray Raphael. Additionally, portraits by John Trumbull, Valley Forge: March, 1777 by Felix O. C. Darley, and broadsides from this era will be used to make the image-text connection. These image-texts will provide multiple perspectives and a chance for students to engage with each media in reference to a critical time in the war for independence from Great Britain. It will give students the opportunity to see that history comes from multiple perspectives and this unit of study will encourage students to connect their own life with history and provide their own perspective.
The image-text connection is relevant to our study because my site is an Oklahoma A+ Demonstration school. The Oklahoma A+ process is a blending of the arts within curricular units whereby students and teachers are using creativity daily (music, dance, theater, art, and story-telling) to express what and how they are learning.
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