How to teach source evaluation? - 70 views
started by David Hilton on 27 Jul 09
started by David Hilton on 27 Jul 09
started by David Hilton on 27 Jul 09
started by David Hilton on 27 Jul 09
I have a dilemma with some of my classes at the moment and was wondering if anyone has any ideas about how to approach the problem. In the Queensland syllabus, where I teach, source evaluation is an extremely important part of student assessment. Yet I'm finding that no matter what approach I take, most of my students remain unable to evaluate sources effectively. They still give me bland, generalised statements that could be applied to any source. We are required to evaluate the source for reliability, motives of the author & context, accuracy, relevance, corroboration, representativeness, etc.
I've tried going through it with them in class, providing them with examples, developing students' knowledge before they start the assignments and making them research their authors, amongst other things. I'm at the end of my tether. Does anyone have any insight they could share with us all about how to train high school students to evaluate sources accurately and precisely and using historical thinking? I'd be extremely appreciative and I'm sure others would too.
Anything that helps train my students to not just 'deconstruct' the sources is helpful - they seem to simply look for evidence of social injustice rather than historical information. I guess I'm expecting them to be able to do detailed evaluations right off - best to start a bit more basic and build from there.
Thanks very much for your help.
Just came across a good quality guide for students on how to read and evaluate primary sources at http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/hst300q3.htm. Worth a look.
So - the author is from the upper class - what is his point of view about the situation?
Does this represent a female point of view?
etc etc
The problem I find is that there often are NO alternative voices, and anything we create is so artificial or one-dimensional - We really don't know how ancient people thought about particular things; so we don't know what they thought was important, or even 'true'.
I often use the old Geoffrey Robinson's "Hypothetical" style of roleplay to set up the right kind of mindset for historical analysis - set up your base scenario and let the students play it out, without telling them the real names or events/people. Set constraints/opportunities similar to those enjoyed by historical periods, and see how different/similar your students' solutions are. This rarely needs more than a whiteboard and good stage management...
Theatre is always a great way to teach anything -- especially history. Living history programs and projects are everywhere. You can read a short article I wrote on how to create an historical character at: http://www.squidoo.com/characterEVE
Creating characters and whole scenarios is a great way to get involved in analyzing the source material as well. Of course, it also brings in writing and reading skills. Theatre gives a great perspective to historical events as it lets the student actors actually "walk a mile in my shoes."
Bette Lou
Ben Pope wrote:
> I know I've just caught up with this thread, but I have to say I LOVE the berkeley link, Bette-Lou. I also teach History (Ancient) in Qld, and I know where you're coming from, David. The problem (I think) is made worse in Ancient History, as we have comparatively few sources, and so much conjecture about them. I often feel like I am repeating myself along these lines:
> So - the author is from the upper class - what is his point of view about the situation?
> Does this represent a female point of view?
> etc etc
>
> The problem I find is that there often are NO alternative voices, and anything we create is so artificial or one-dimensional - We really don't know how ancient people thought about particular things; so we don't know what they thought was important, or even 'true'.
>
> I often use the old Geoffrey Robinson's "Hypothetical" style of roleplay to set up the right kind of mindset for historical analysis - set up your base scenario and let the students play it out, without telling them the real names or events/people. Set constraints/opportunities similar to those enjoyed by historical periods, and see how different/similar your students' solutions are. This rarely needs more than a whiteboard and good stage management...