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Synthesizing Multiple Perspectives: Global Texts and the Common CoreA Primary Source Workshop for the PGL Conference

Ann Marie Gleeson, Ph.D.Program Director

+Primary Source

Courses and Workshops

International study tours

Classroom-ready resources

We are a non-profit, global education organization that educates K-12 teachers about world histories, cultures, and global issues.

+Today’s Resources

https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=924207

+Agenda

Overview of Multiple Sources and the Common Core

Using Multiple Sources

Reading Strategies

Writing Strategies

Resources

+Warm-Up: Understanding Multiple Perspectives

Draw what you see.

+Engaging Students with Multiple Perspectives and Sources from Other Cultures for the Common Core

+Session Essential Question:

How can we effectively engage students with multiple sources so they can recognize and articulate diverse global perspectives through reading and writing in a way that aligns with the Common Core?

+Why use multiple sources and perspectives in social studies?

Think/Pair/Share

+Why use multiple sources and perspectives in social studies?

To show how people can experience the same event in different ways across time and place

Central to disciplinary process of thinking like a social scientist/historian

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“Through extensive reading of stories, dramas, poems, and myths from diverse cultures and

different time periods, students gain literary and cultural knowledge as well as familiarity with

various text structures and elements.”

--”English Language Arts Standards, Anchor Standards, College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading”

from the Common Core State Standards Initiative Website

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/CCRA/R

Aligns with Common Core!!!

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“Students appreciate that the twenty-first-century classroom and workplace are settings in which

people from often widely divergent cultures and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives must learn and work together. Students actively seek to understand other

perspectives and cultures through reading and listening, and they are able to communicate

effectively with people of varied backgrounds.”

--”English Language Arts Standards, Introduction, Students Who are College and Career Reading in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language” from the

Common Core State Standards Initiative Website

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/introduction/students-who-are-college-and-career-ready-in-reading-writing-speaking-listening-language

+Integrating multiple forms of text

Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12 Craft and Structure

6. Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).[Grades 6-8]

+Integrating multiple forms of text

Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.[Grades 6-8]

+Integrating multiple forms of text

Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

9. Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.[Grades 6-8]

+Integrating multiple forms of text

Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12

7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.[Grades 6-8]

+Challenges for Using Multiple Texts

What are the challenges to having students work with multiple texts?

+Source Packet

The Mongol Invasion of Baghdad

https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=924207

+What are the key elements that students need to consider when examining multiple perspectives?

+What are the key elements that students need to consider when examining multiple perspectives?

Source Creator, position/role in society, motivations, actions

Context What was happening at the time the source was created?

Corroboration How does the source compare to other sources? How does the source compare to the author’s other works?

+What should you think about when selecting multiple sources?

+What should you think about when selecting multiple sources? Sources meet a purpose

Represent a range of significant perspectives

Address significant aspect of the issue; Address or suggest essential question

Documents in tension with one another

Small, focused excerpts that get a key points

Developmental considerations (Initially, use documents with stark contrasts, moved to more nuanced interpretations)

+Adapting Sources for Accessibility

Focusing Ellipses 200 – 300 words

Simplification Conventional syntax, spelling, punctuation

Presentation 16 pt font White space

Wineburg, S., & Martin, D. (2009). “Tampering with history: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers.” Social Education, 73(5), 212 – 216.

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Reading StrategyRead/Think A-Loud

Source 1: Benjamin of Tudela, c. 1159 – 1171 Benjamin of Tudela was a Jewish traveler from northern Spain.Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages . Edited by Michael A. Signer. New York: NightinGale Resources, 2005.

Thence it is two days to Bagdad, the great city and the royal residence of the Caliph Emir al Muminin al Abbasi of the family of Mohammed. He is at the head of the Mohammedan religion, and all the kings of Islam obey him; he occupies a similar position to that held by the Pope over the Christians. He has a palace in Bagdad three miles in extent, wherein is a great park with all varieties of trees, fruit-bearing and otherwise, and all manner of animals. The whole is surrounded by a wall, and in the park there is a lake whose waters are fed by the river Hiddekel. Whenever the king desires to indulge in recreation and to rejoice and feast, his servants catch all manner of' birds, game and fish, and he goes to his palace with his counsellors and princes. There the great king, Al Abbasi the Caliph (Hafiz) holds his court, and he is kind unto Israel, and many belonging to the people of Israel are his attendants; he knows all languages, and is well versed in the law of Israel. He reads and writes the holy language (Hebrew). He will not partake of anything unless he has earned it by the work of his own hands…. He is truthful and trusty, speaking peace to all men. …

Within the domains of the palace of the Caliph there are great buildings of marble and columns of silver and gold, and carvings upon rare stones are fixed in the walls. In the Caliph's palace are great riches and towers filled with gold, silken garments and all precious stones….

Source 1: Benjamin of Tudela, c. 1159 – 1171 Benjamin of Tudela was a Jewish traveler from northern Spain.Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages . Edited by Michael A. Signer. New York: NightinGale Resources, 2005.

Thence it is two days to Bagdad, the great city and the royal residence of the Caliph Emir al Muminin al Abbasi of the family of Mohammed. He is at the head of the Mohammedan religion, and all the kings of Islam obey him; he occupies a similar position to that held by the Pope over the Christians. He has a palace in Bagdad three miles in extent, wherein is a great park with all varieties of trees, fruit-bearing and otherwise, and all manner of animals. The whole is surrounded by a wall, and in the park there is a lake whose waters are fed by the river Hiddekel. Whenever the king desires to indulge in recreation and to rejoice and feast, his servants catch all manner of' birds, game and fish, and he goes to his palace with his counsellors and princes. There the great king, Al Abbasi the Caliph (Hafiz) holds his court, and he is kind unto Israel, and many belonging to the people of Israel are his attendants; he knows all languages, and is well versed in the law of Israel. He reads and writes the holy language (Hebrew). He will not partake of anything unless he has earned it by the work of his own hands…. He is truthful and trusty, speaking peace to all men. …

Within the domains of the palace of the Caliph there are great buildings of marble and columns of silver and gold, and carvings upon rare stones are fixed in the walls. In the Caliph's palace are great riches and towers filled with gold, silken garments and all precious stones….

The first thing I look at is the source. Who wrote the text? I’ve never heard of Benjamin of Tudela but it says he was a Jewish traveler from Spain. He wrote this between 1159 – 1171. Going back to the packet introduction, I know this was before the Mongol invasion of 1258 from our textbook.

Source 1: Benjamin of Tudela, c. 1159 – 1171 Benjamin of Tudela was a Jewish traveler from northern Spain.Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages . Edited by Michael A. Signer. New York: NightinGale Resources, 2005.

Thence it is two days to Bagdad, the great city and the royal residence of the Caliph Emir al Muminin al Abbasi of the family of Mohammed. He is at the head of the Mohammedan religion, and all the kings of Islam obey him; he occupies a similar position to that held by the Pope over the Christians. He has a palace in Bagdad three miles in extent, wherein is a great park with all varieties of trees, fruit-bearing and otherwise, and all manner of animals. The whole is surrounded by a wall, and in the park there is a lake whose waters are fed by the river Hiddekel. Whenever the king desires to indulge in recreation and to rejoice and feast, his servants catch all manner of' birds, game and fish, and he goes to his palace with his counsellors and princes. There the great king, Al Abbasi the Caliph (Hafiz) holds his court, and he is kind unto Israel, and many belonging to the people of Israel are his attendants; he knows all languages, and is well versed in the law of Israel. He reads and writes the holy language (Hebrew). He will not partake of anything unless he has earned it by the work of his own hands…. He is truthful and trusty, speaking peace to all men. …

Within the domains of the palace of the Caliph there are great buildings of marble and columns of silver and gold, and carvings upon rare stones are fixed in the walls. In the Caliph's palace are great riches and towers filled with gold, silken garments and all precious stones….

Here he describes Baghdad as a “great city” where the Caliph has a palace three miles wide, which seems very big. This makes me think that Baghdad was an important city in the 1100s.

Source 1: Benjamin of Tudela, c. 1159 – 1171 Benjamin of Tudela was a Jewish traveler from northern Spain.Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages . Edited by Michael A. Signer. New York: NightinGale Resources, 2005.

Thence it is two days to Bagdad, the great city and the royal residence of the Caliph Emir al Muminin al Abbasi of the family of Mohammed. He is at the head of the Mohammedan religion, and all the kings of Islam obey him; he occupies a similar position to that held by the Pope over the Christians. He has a palace in Bagdad three miles in extent, wherein is a great park with all varieties of trees, fruit-bearing and otherwise, and all manner of animals. The whole is surrounded by a wall, and in the park there is a lake whose waters are fed by the river Hiddekel. Whenever the king desires to indulge in recreation and to rejoice and feast, his servants catch all manner of' birds, game and fish, and he goes to his palace with his counsellors and princes. There the great king, Al Abbasi the Caliph (Hafiz) holds his court, and he is kind unto Israel, and many belonging to the people of Israel are his attendants; he knows all languages, and is well versed in the law of Israel. He reads and writes the holy language (Hebrew). He will not partake of anything unless he has earned it by the work of his own hands…. He is truthful and trusty, speaking peace to all men. …

Within the domains of the palace of the Caliph there are great buildings of marble and columns of silver and gold, and carvings upon rare stones are fixed in the walls. In the Caliph's palace are great riches and towers filled with gold, silken garments and all precious stones….

Benjamin describes how the Caliph treats “the people of Israel.” It makes sense that he would be concerned about this if Benjamin of Tudela is Jewish like it says in the source description. He says the Caliph is kind to the Jewish people and truthful, trusty, and “speaking peace to all men.” This makes me think that different religions are respected in Baghdad.

+Group Read Aloud

Read the next paragraphs. Write down ONE comment while you read. (Use the sentence starters if you need a prompt.)

What did you learn from the comments?

+Comparing Perspectives

1. Select 4 sources from the packet.

2. Fill out the graphic organizer.1. Identify the source and point of view.

2. Provide evidence from the text to support point of view.

3. Write 20 word summary of each source.

4. Write ONE final 20 word summary of all FOUR sources.

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Source:

What key evidence from the source illustrates the author’s point of view?

Summarize the source (20 words or less)

Source:

What key evidence from the source illustrates the author’s point of view?

Summarize the source (20 words or less)

Essential Question:

Write a single summary of all of the sources in 20 words or less.

Summarizing Multiple Perspectives

+What other strategies do you use for multiple perspectives?

+Writing

What types of writing activities/lessons have you done around multiple perspectives?

+Writing

Research shows that when students write about multiple texts, they demonstrate deeper historical understanding about the content.

Significant writing assignments come in all sizes

Create prompts that require students to cite more than one source

Voss, James F., and Jennifer Wiley. “A Case Study of Developing Historical Understanding via Instruction.” In Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives edited by Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, 375–389. New York: New York University Press, 2000.

+Common Core Writing Examples

Writing Types Represented in the Common Core

Informative/Explanatory Compare/contrast, chronological, definitions, cause/effect,

summary

Argumentative Compare/contrast arguments, opinion, synthesizing sources

to construct an argument

Narrative* Synthesizing different sources

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Describe the process through which African people were rendered into slavery in the Americas, highlighting the roles of both Africans and Europeans.

+Informative/Explanatory

Describe the process through which African people were rendered into slavery in the Americas, highlighting the roles of both Africans and Europeans.

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Describe the experience of the Middle Passage from the point-of-view of a participant, European or African.

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Describe the experience of the Middle Passage from the point-of-view of a participant, European or African.

Narrative

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Agree or disagree with the assertion that, during the Middle Passage, African people engaged in active resistance to their captivity.

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Agree or disagree with the assertion that, during the Middle Passage, African people engaged in active resistance to their captivity.

Argumentative

+Writing

1. Get into groups of 3.

2. Assign each person ONE writing type:1. Argumentative

2. Informative/Explanatory

3. Narrative

3. Create a writing prompt that addresses multiple perspectives for the writing type you’ve been assigned.

4. Share (and critique) your prompts with you group.1. Will the prompt engage students in that type of writing?

+Writing

+Multiple Perspectives: Your Turn

Think about a topic that you teach.

What perspectives are important to use to fully understand the topic?

What do you want students to know about these perspectives?

What evidence or texts are available to represent these perspectives?

What instructional activities might you use?

+Multiple Perspectives: Your Turn

+Resources: General Global Primary Sources

Primary Source Resource Guides: http://www.primarysource.org/resourceguides

Reading Like a Historian: http://sheg.stanford.edu/world

Library of Congress Primary Source Sets: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/

Old Maps Online: http://www.oldmapsonline.org

World Digital Library: http://www.wdl.org/en/

+Resources: Newspapers

Chronicling America (Library of Congress): http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

Today’s Front Pages (The Newseum): http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

Newsmap: http://newsmap.jp/

Online Newspapers: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

+Wrap-Up

Classroom Connections

Contact Us annmarie@primarysource.org

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