Extend Your Learning
Historical Interpretations
In this session, you analyzed several of our nation's founding documents. You also reflected on some of the challenges and benefits of using historical documents with your students. One of the greatest challenges faced by teachers and students alike is the fear of misinterpreting a document, perhaps because they feel that they have insufficient knowledge of specific facts or because of the document's archaic language.
Dr. Jonathan Chu, University of Massachusetts - Boston, reflects on the importance of teachers and students becoming comfortable with analyzing historical documents:
"Teachers need not to be scared of the documents. That's a hard thing because the collective society encourages it by making people think of history as being the knowledge of specific facts and pieces of information. And so there must be a right way to read Federalist #10 or to read Common Sense. It's hard for teachers to remember that Common Sense and Federalist #10 were documents that were designed to convince people of a certain course of action... The challenge is to see that these documents don't exist in a remote part of time. The knowledge that they derive out of this and the knowledge their students derive out of this is useful knowledge. That's the part that has to be made clear to the students and that's the part that's the most difficult thing to make teachers feel confident in their ability to analyze a document and to understand it. I think that's the biggest problem. There's still a sense that there's a right way and a wrong way to read a document, but there are multiple ways to read a document. Depends on what you're looking for in it."
Present Your Historical Interpretation
What challenges have you dealt with in terms of your students' (or your own) comfort level with analyzing historical documents? How did you address these challenges? How do you help students see that there are multiple ways to read a document? Discuss these questions with your colleagues or reflect on them in your journal.