Chic, Virginia
and Mr. Lincoln:
Understanding
Historical Perspective
by Christine Adrian
June 2006
To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.
Lesson
#1: Understanding Historical Perspective in Retelling Events
Abstract: In
this lesson, students will practice retelling personal history stories and
experience a hands-on experiment to distinguish factual differences between
primary and secondary sources.
Essential
questions/enduring understandings:
- How historically accurate are
secondary sources? Primary
sources?
- How do our experiences affect how
we see our past?
- How do we evaluate the
reliability of sources during historical research?
Assessment: Students
will be evaluated by their responses on the Understanding Historical
Perspective Worksheet and through class discussion.
Setting
the Purpose: Students will use this lesson to
understand what we mean by historical perspective, and how primary and
secondary sources show differences in perspective. They will use knowledge as a foundation for understanding
material covered in the rest of the unit, analyzing historical perspective
regarding Abraham Lincoln through the lens of some famous entertainment figures
in Urbana and national history.
Duration:
One to two class periods.
Procedure:
- On the board, or overhead, write
the word ÒperspectiveÓ. As
students to brainstorm what this term means. After a few moments, a list should be compiled of
possible definition. If
everyone agrees on the definition, then the class can move on. Otherwise, have the students look
this word up in the dictionary.
- Now, add the word Òhistorical
perspectiveÓ. Discuss
possible meanings for this term.
- Explain to students that todayÕs
activity will help us understand what historical perspective is, as well
as what is a primary source or secondary source.
- Distribute the Understanding
Historical Perspective Worksheet and read through the instructions
together.
- Students will come up with a
short but important memory that they can recall in detail. They will then share these stories
with a partner that does not know the story. Once they complete this task, they will go back to
their seat and write down what they recall of their partnerÕs story and
give the written version back to the person who told the memory.
- Students will then work on the
second half of the activity, comparing the accuracy of their partnerÕs
retelling to their own retelling.
Students will then complete the questions at the end of the
worksheet.
- Once all students finish the
activity, bring the group back for a class discussion. Possible discussion questions:
- How did your story differ from
your partnerÕs retelling?
- What is a primary source? A secondary source? Which do you feel are more
reliable sources in understanding history?
- Are primary sources always
reliable? Why or why not?
- Just because someone lived
through an event, does it mean that they remember it all correctly?
- How does point of view
(historical perspective) change the way people remember current
events? Historical events?
- Wrap up the lesson by explaining
that the class will be learning about how everyone has a viewpoint of
history that is affected by our experiences and stories that we have
heard. Some of these
viewpoints are based in fact, some in fiction that weÕve come to believe
as fact. This unit will look
at how two historic Urbana residents saw Lincoln, and how this affected
the way their audiences saw Lincoln too. WeÕll then be studying Lincoln ourselves, and forming
our own opinions of the man.
Analysis
of local primary sources: None in this introductory activity;
the sources are the students themselves.
Ties to
National primary source or sources:
None in this
introductory lesson.
list of
Materials and resources:
Attachments: