Teaching with Primary Sources Brent Modak Why

Teaching with Primary Sources Brent Modak

Why bother? “Instruction must be designed not to put knowledge into learns’ heads, but to put learners into positions that allow them to construct well-structured knowledge” (Anderson, 102). This is beneficial to learning because “learning occurs when learners actively transform incoming information and construct meaning in terms of their prior knowledge” (Anderson, 1989, 101). During a “museum walk” students make observations and use those observations to construct critical inferences and analysis.

Why bother? “During assimilation, a person imposes his or her available structure on the stimuli being processed. That is, the stimuli are ‘forced’ to fit the person’s structure. In accommodation, the reverse is true. The person is ‘forced’ to change his or her schema to fit the new stimuli” (Wadsworth, 15). “The process of accommodation results in a qualitative change in intellectual structures (schemata), while assimilation only adds to the existing structures—a quantitative change” (Wadsworth, 17). Through the use of primary sources, the teacher can force the student to reevaluate preconceived notions or predictions.

Why bother? Students with performance-oriented goals focus on doing better than other students in their class” (Eccles, 2004, 131). This is beneficial because “there is no stronger predictor of students’ self-confidence and efficacy than the grades they receive” (Eccles, 2004, 142). The focus is not on a grade; the focus is on accruing the skill of being able to craft inferences and make observations. Students receive guidelines for good observations and inferences

SWBAT. . . break down who benefitted from the advent of new methods of transportation and technology during American westward expansion of the 19 th century.

What do you think the women in white represents? Where do you think she is leading them? What are the settlers bringing with them? http: //www. loc. gov/pictures/item/97507547/resource/

This picture was taken in Montrose, Colorado. The men in the picture are drilling for artesian water. Why would such technology be important in westward expansion? http: //memory. loc. gov/cgi-bin/query/r? ammem/AMALL: @field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+10010461))

Describe the technology in this picture. Who do you think the technology helps or hurts? http: //memory. loc. gov/cgi-bin/query/h? ammem/psbib: @field(DOCID+@lit(p 10235))

The first patent for barbed wire was issued in 1867. How do you think the invention of barbed wire affected the West? Who do you think it helped? Who do you think it hurt? http: //www. loc. gov/pictures/item/fsa 2000011905 /PP/

This is an invitation for Alexander Graham Bell to participate in AT&T's formal opening of the transcontinental telephone line on January 25, 1915. The event included a telephone conversation between Bell in New York and his old assistant, Thomas Watson, in San Francisco, as well as speeches by President Woodrow Wilson from the White House and AT&T President Theodore Vail from Georgia. When a duplicate of an 1876 telephone was connected to the New York line, Bell, echoing his famous words on the original occasion, called out, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you. " Watson replied that this time it would take him a week to do so. http: //memory. loc. gov/cgi-bin/ampage? coll. Id=magbell&file. Name=129/12900103/bellpage. db&rec. Num=0

This is a picture of one of Alexander Graham Bell’s first telegraphs. How do you think this piece of technology affected westward expansion? http: //memory. loc. gov/ammem/bellhtml/belltelph. html

“This particular telephone crew strung five copper wires from Omaha, Nebraska, to Denver, Colorado. The woman pictured is the operator. ” source: American Memory Library of Congress http: //memory. loc. gov/cgi-bin/query/h? ammem/psbib: @field(DOCID+@lit(p 10135))

http: //www. loc. gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Pacific. Rail. html How do you think this affected development of the West? “The Pacific Railway Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 1, 1862. This act provided Federal government support for the building of the first transcontinental railroad, which was completed on May 10, 1869. ” Source: Virtual Services Digital Reference Section of the Library of Congress

http: //www. loc. gov/rr/scitech/Sci. Ref. Guides/winchester-rifle. html In what ways do you think firearms, such as the Winchester rifle, were used? In the 1800 s the idea of a repeating rifle was finally realized by Oliver Winchester, the largest stockholder of the New Haven Arms Co. of Connecticut. He was assigned US patent No. 5501, which protected improvements to the Henry rifle. The new technology included a spring-closed loading port on the righthand side of the frame, directly at the rear of the magazine tube, and resulted in the first reliable leveraction repeating rifle, produced as the first Winchester, Model 1866. Famous for its rugged construction, the original Winchester rifle allowed the rifleman to fire a number of shots before having to reload: hence the term, "repeating rifle. "

References • Anderson, L. M. (1989 a). Learners and learning. In M. C. Reynolds (Ed. ), Knowledge base for the beginning teacher (pp. 85 -99). Oxford: Pergamon Press • Eccles, J. S. (2004). Schools, academic motivation, and stage- environment fit. In R. M. Lerner, & L. Steinberg (Eds. ), Handbook of Adolescent Psychology, 2 nd Ed. New York: Wiley. • Wadsworth, B. J. (1989). Chapters 1 and 2 from Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development, 4 th Ed. (pp. 9 -32). New York: Longman.