I have a pdf of the Calder article. Let me know if you are interested in reading it.
Although the article focuses on college-level courses, the uncoverage concept could apply just as well to middle- and high-school classes, which are almost always taught as survey courses.
Too often, history survey courses focus only on "what happened," without stopping to consider the work that historians do or to inquire into the writing and reading of history.
I would be interested in the article when you get the chance. Thanks for the great info Eric. I'm excited to be able to adapt this for some of my classes.
In the year 900, by far the most robust and impressive philosophical tradition was found not in Europe, but in the Middle East. Islamic scholars there had embarked on a wholesale program to recover the traditions of Greek philosophy (particularly the works of Aristotle), translate them into Arabic, and rethink their message in light of the newly revealed teachings of the Qur’an.
Eventually, however, the center shifted—first to the western part of the Islamic world in northern Africa and southern Spain, and then north to Christian Europe. What we call the Middle Ages was, in Islam, the great classical era of philosophy and science. After several centuries of flourishing, however, the study of philosophy and science faded in Muslim countries, even while it was being pursued with increasing vigor in the Latin West.
Averroës devoted much of his scholarly efforts to a series of commentaries on Aristotle, producing both brief epitomes and exhaustive, line-by-line studies.
Many of his works no longer survive in Arabic at all, but only in Latin or Hebrew
like all the great philosophers, Averroës arrived at his share of heterodox views.
despite the brilliant development of philosophical thought in the early days of the Islamic caliphate, by the later Middle Ages it and other fields of secular learning were regarded with deep suspicion and given almost no institutional support.
By the middle of the thirteenth century, that philosophical curriculum had become thoroughly Aristotelian, and the great guide to Aristotle was none other than Averroës, who became known in the Latin West as simply “the Commentator.”
Amazing how history has been rewritten, in the past and present, and then when old truths are unearthed, people are so reluctant to believe them. The power of the written word!
Fabulous resource:) I do a music history w/ narrative of WWI ( so more primary sources) that I created for my masters (eons ago!!). This unit gets so scrunched I barely touched on it.
This clip has primary source photos and was shown in my son's class at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. They lyrics are sung to Willie McBride, a WWI soldier.
Jolson's version of the classic song with primary source images illustrating the words. Jolson's rendition has a little more bite, a little less pathos than Bing Crosby's
Rubrics for evaluating critical thinking with primary sources. I haven't looked at it closely yet, but partners include Stanford History Education Group and Library of Congress. All US History as a result