Evaluating Sources
Monday, 15 September
DO NOW:
Left side:
15 september 2014 Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
Right side:
1. What is truth? How do we know?
(Answer this now.)
2. The Mouse Moral is___. (you will fill out the rest after the story.)
Learning Objective:
I will begin to evaluate sources using the SOAPPS-Tone method to determine reliability.
Connection to Standards: UCLA HT3 Compare competing historical narratives.
(Write this on the left side of your DEJ)
Lunchroom Brawl!
Imagine that you are the principal of a school and you just found out that there was a fight in the lunchroom during lunch. You’ve asked many students and teachers who witnessed the fight to write down what they saw and who they think started the fight. Unfortunately, you have received many conflicting accounts that disagree about important details of the fight, like who started it, when it started, and who was involved. It’s important to remember that NO ONE is lying.
Pair/Group Share
(a) How could there be different stories of the event if no one is lying?
(b) Who are the different people who might have seen this fight? (e.g.,
friends of those involved versus people who don’t know the kids
who were fighting; those who were fighting versus those who were
witnesses; adults versus kids).
(c) What might make one person’s story more believable than
another person’s?
Issues to discuss...
(a) Why might people see or remember things differently?
(b) Who has an interest in one person getting in trouble instead of another? Who was standing where? Could they see the whole event?
(c) The plausibility of the stories themselves (e.g., issues of exaggeration and how the stories fit into what is known about the students’ prior histories). Is the story believable? Trustworthy?
(d) Time: Do stories change over time? How might what we remember right after the event differ from what we remember a week later? Does time make the way someone remembers something more or less trustworthy?
(e) Physical Evidence: What physical evidence might affect who/what you believe (bruises, missing objects, etc.)?
Things to consider...
(a) The principal needs to consider which stories are more or less reliable because it’s important to understand why the fight began. Not only is it important that the instigator (if there was one) be punished, but also it’s important to think about how to prevent such fights in the future.
Things to consider…(continued)
(b) Historians, in trying to figure out what happened in the past, essentially engage in the same work. Just like the principal, there’s no way to actually recreate the moment or time-travel to witness it. All that historians have to work with is the remaining evidence — ranging from people’s stories to physical artifacts.
Things to consider…(continued)
(c) Sourcing is the act of questioning a piece of evidence and trying to determine if it’s trustworthy. When you source, you ask how people’s biases or perspectives shape their story. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is lying if he or she comes from a particular perspective. They still might have something valuable to contribute to your understanding of what happened in the past. But as a reader it’s important to keep in mind that each person sees the world in a particular way. When you keep that in mind, you’re sourcing.
Evaluating Sources
One question that historian face all the time is who to believe? What makes one account more trustworthy than than the other?
Your turn! Who do you believe and why?
SILENT CONVERSATIONS
Let’s see what you thought...
1. Historical Question: Who was present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence?
Source 1: Hollywood movie about the American Revolution made 2001.
Source 2: Book written by a famous historian who is an expert on the American Revolution, published in 1999.
Which do you trust more? Why?
ANSWER KEY:
1. Source 2: Historians base their accounts on multiple primary and secondary documents and extensive research. Hollywood films have no standards for historical accuracy.
Let’s see what you thought...
2. Historical Question: What was slavery like in South Carolina?
Source 1: Interview with former slave in 1936. The interviewer is a black man collecting oral histories for the Federal Writers’ Project.
Source 2: Interview with former slave in 1936. The interviewer is a white woman collecting oral histories for the Federal Writers’ Project.
Which do you trust more? Why?
ANSWER KEY (continued)
2. Source 1: Audience shapes the stories we tell. We can imagine that even in 1936, a former slave would be wary of criticizing slavery to a white government official. That is not to say that Source 1 is necessarily accurate; we can imagine a former slave might exaggerate accounts or possibly not remember details so well. Of the two sources, however, Source 1 will probably be more trustworthy.
Let’s see what you thought...
3. Historical Question: What was the layout of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz?
Source 1: Interview with 80 year-old Holocaust survivor in 1985.
Source 2: Map of concentration camp found in Nazi files.
Which do you trust more? Why?
ANSWER KEY (continued)
3. Source 2: Human memory is notoriously unreliable. A map of a concentration is technically an “objective” source. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the map perfectly mirrored the layout of the camp.
Let’s see what you thought...
4. Historical Question: Why were Japanese Americans put in internment
camps during WWII?
Source 1: Government film explaining internment from 1942.
Source 2: Government report on Japanese Internment from 1983 based on
declassified government documents.
Which do you trust more? Why?
ANSWER KEY (continued)
4. Source 2: Any government film created in 1942 to explain internment would be propaganda. The declassified evidence in the Congressional report makes Source 2 more reliable.
Let’s see what you thought...
5. Historical Question: Did American soldiers commit atrocities during the
Vietnam War in 1969?
Source 1: Sworn testimony by American Sergeant in Congressional hearings
in 1969.
Source 2: Speech by American General touring the United States in 1969.
Which do you trust more? Why?
ANSWER KEY (continued)
5. Source 1: Sworn testimony is the gold standard of evidence. Although testimony can be corrupted by lying, coercion, and the shakiness of human memory, in this instance Source 1 is more reliable than a public speech by a General whose reputation is on the line.
Let’s see what you thought...
6. Historical Question: What happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn?
Source 1: High school history textbook from 1985.
Source 2: Newspaper account from the day after the battle in June 1876.
Which do you trust more? Why?
ANSWER KEY (continued)
6. Neither: Textbooks from the 1980s tended to overlook and/or neglect the experiences and accounts of Native Americans. On the other hand, a newspaper account from 1876 would likely have lacked credible evidence about the battle and/or have been biased towards Custer and his men.
SOAPPS-Tone and MLK
SUBJECT/ SUMMARY | What is the document about? What is the main topic or idea of the document? Be able to summarize the main idea in one sentence and no more. |
OCCASION | What is the situation? This is a time frame (not a specific date) and historical context behind the document. What was happening during the time the document was written? How might this have influenced the writer? What kind of document is it? |
AUDIENCE | To whom is the document intended? How might an audience have received this document and why? |
PURPOSE | The reason behind the text. Why was the document written/produced? How might an audience have received this document and why? |
POINT OF VIEW or PERSPECTIVE | Bias that influences a person’s outlook. What does the writer or producer believe? Interpret his writing and tell me why he holds these views. |
SPEAKER | Who is the speaker or producer? What can you tell me about his background? How might his personal background have influenced his work? Whose voice is not represented? What was it left out? |
TONE | What feeling or attitude does this document express? Use descriptive adjectives and adverbs. |
Google Searching
Information from education sites:
site:edu
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
Homework: SOAPPS-Tone POST
1. Find an article, blog, video, etc.
2. Use the SOAPPS-Tone graphic organizer to evaluate whether the source is reliable or not.
3. Post the link to your source AND your analysis to Edmodo.