Industrial Revolution Charts

Students looked at three sources as a class and chose three sources while reading independently.  Two of the sources were videos (Oliver, directed by David McLean; The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal). The third source was Dickens' Oliver Twist, read aloud.  Independent reading included testimonies to British commissions investigating working conditions in factories.   

The teacher checked for basic comprehension of documents through class discussion and by collecting the charts.  A quiz followed the document-based activities:  students had to match a worker's specific concerns to an Industrial Era reformer they learned about in the textbook.

Russian Revolution Charts  

Students compared two accounts of the execution of the Romanov family.  The first was a clip from the television series The Great War and the Making of the Twentieth Century by PBS.  After drawing or describing the most vivid picture in their heads from the video, they evaluated the methods used by the filmmaker in the box next to their picture. Then the class read one of two texts about the execution (self-selected): Robert Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra, or a much longer selection from The Fate of the Romanovs.  In the box next to each source, students analyzed the methods used by the author of the account they read.  

The debriefing focused on which source gave the best information about the execution.  Notably, no matter what text was read, students agreed that the text was more accurate than the video and could articulate reasons for the video's abbreviated version of the executions.

• Molly focused in quadrant one on the image of Tsar Nicholas II carrying his son down the stairs to the room where the family would be executed.  She did not list all the ways in which the video told the story of the Romanovs; she listed only the methods the video used for the section she imagined.  In quadrant 4, Molly restates the imagery that sticks with her from the most memorable part of the text:  the omission of servants as victims, the chaos of the execution itself, and the pain/suffering of the children during the execution.  Click here to see Molly's work more closely.

• Nikki carefully noted in quadrant one the order in which the video listed the victims, shot one-by-one.  She does a more complete job of listing all the techniques used by the video producers.  Her drawing in quadrant 3 shows the chaos described by her text (rather than an orderly execution).  In quadrant 4, Nikki organized the information into a Venn diagram to make it easier for her to evaluate the two sources.  Click here to see Nikki's work more closely.

World War II Charts 

The teacher modelled the 4-square chart using the opening monologue from the movie Patton.  This allowed students to ask questions about how to use the chart.

On a different day, students selected a collection of WWII document reproductions.  This could be either a manila envelope with primary source documents from the Library of Congress, or from the book From Flight Decks and Foxholes:  World War II through Letters.  The students could read as many or few sources as they wanted in a single class period (50 minutes).

• MG, a student with an IEP for language and auditory processing issues, drew very little and wrote briefly about the documents he looked at.  He does process, however, the importance of affective details with his comments. His notes about Patton indicate he understands the audience and message in Patton's monologue.   Click here to see his work more closely.
• MB colored her Patton drawing to emphasize the flag in the background.  She added her own opinion on the monologue in the square as well.  She chose to read letters for her independent work but focuses mostly on summarizing the content of the letters.   Click here to see her work more closely.
•  MS chose to read letters as well.  Her comments show the most historical analysis in questioning the recipients' reactions to the documents she read.  She also noted the parts left in or out of the document being examined.  Click here to see her work more closely.