Goals & Objectives:
Students will analyze and evaluate various primary source documents in order to create a written essay. Students will learn and sharpen their research skills by completing a close reading of several primary sources, working specifically on the SCCC approach of source, close reading, contextualize, and corroborate. These skills will be crucial for them to understand and execute when they create their written essay. This essay will require that the students take a side, support their argument, and back it up with specific contextually based quotes.
CALIFORNIA STATE CONTENT AND COMMON CORE STANDARDS:
10.4 - Students analyze patterns of global change in the era of New Imperialism in at least two of the following regions or countries: Africa, Southeast Asia, China, India, Latin America, and the Philippines.
1. Describe the rise of industrial economies and their link to imperialism and colonialism (e.g., the role played by national security and strategic advantage; moral issues raised by the search for national hegemony, Social Darwinism, and the missionary impulse; material issues such as land, resources, and technology).
2. Discuss the locations of the colonial rule of such nations as England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
3. Explain imperialism from the perspectives of the colonizers and the colonized and the varied immediate and long-term responses by the people under colonial rule.
1. Describe the rise of industrial economies and their link to imperialism and colonialism (e.g., the role played by national security and strategic advantage; moral issues raised by the search for national hegemony, Social Darwinism, and the missionary impulse; material issues such as land, resources, and technology).
2. Discuss the locations of the colonial rule of such nations as England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
3. Explain imperialism from the perspectives of the colonizers and the colonized and the varied immediate and long-term responses by the people under colonial rule.
lesson introduction:
The teacher will display the political cartoon image, “Ten thousand miles from tip to tip 1898” to the class. The teacher will instruct students to do a quick write journal entry dealing with the political cartoon. The teacher will ask students to address ideas such as, “what is the date of the cartoon,” “what does the bald eagle represent and what does it appear to be staring at,” “how could you use this cartoon to support or criticize American Imperialism?” After the students are given five minutes to complete their journal write we will have a quick class discussion about the political cartoon.
Important vocabulary:
Here are some key vocabulary words that will be important for student s to understand. These terms will improve student engagement and understanding of the text while evaluating their primary sources:
- Primary source
- Secondary source
- Evaluate
- Corroborate
- Annexed
- Anti-imperialists
- Liberate
- Occupy
- Insurgent
- Primary source
- Secondary source
- Evaluate
- Corroborate
- Annexed
- Anti-imperialists
- Liberate
- Occupy
- Insurgent
content delivery:
This lesson will focus on the use of primary sources to answer several pertinent historical questions relating to American Imperialism. The teacher will explain and demonstrate how to analyze primary source documents using the SCCC (Source, Close Reading, Contextualize, Corroborate) approach. The teacher will give the students some background information regarding American Imperialism. As a class the teacher and students will take turns reading the opening background essay entitled, “Should the United States Have Annexed the Philippines?” After posing and discussing some critical thinking questions related to the essay the teacher will hand out copies of several primary source documents to the class. The teacher will inform the class that they will be investigating several primary source documents in order to gain a variety of perspectives surrounding America’s imperialist efforts during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The teacher will inform the class that they will be evaluating these primary source documents with the historical question in mind, “Were America’s Imperialist efforts to annex the Philippines just or unjust?”
student engagement:
Students will be given four excerpts from primary source documents:
- Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, October 1899
- Albert J Beveridge, “The March of the Flag.” Campaign speech, September 1898
- William McKinley, speech to a group of clergy men, November 1899
- William Jennings Bryan, speech “Paralyzing Influence of Imperialism,” August 1900
As students read the documents they will answer guiding questions to help them source, read closely, contextualize and corroborate. Students will identify and select evidence from the documents that either support or condemn America’s efforts to annex the Philippines. Students will record the selected evidence on a web graphic organizer with the probable reasons for suppression in the main frames of the organizer and the evidence on the spokes. After the documents have been thoroughly examined and the graphic organizer complete, the students will weigh the evidence to determine their stance, either with or against, the issue of America’s annexation of the Philippines.
The students will use the evidence they gathered from the documents and placed on the graphic organizer to write a short essay about the variety of perspectives and reasons for America’s ultimate decision to annex the Philippines. In their essays, they must provide adequate evidence to support their claim.
- Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, October 1899
- Albert J Beveridge, “The March of the Flag.” Campaign speech, September 1898
- William McKinley, speech to a group of clergy men, November 1899
- William Jennings Bryan, speech “Paralyzing Influence of Imperialism,” August 1900
As students read the documents they will answer guiding questions to help them source, read closely, contextualize and corroborate. Students will identify and select evidence from the documents that either support or condemn America’s efforts to annex the Philippines. Students will record the selected evidence on a web graphic organizer with the probable reasons for suppression in the main frames of the organizer and the evidence on the spokes. After the documents have been thoroughly examined and the graphic organizer complete, the students will weigh the evidence to determine their stance, either with or against, the issue of America’s annexation of the Philippines.
The students will use the evidence they gathered from the documents and placed on the graphic organizer to write a short essay about the variety of perspectives and reasons for America’s ultimate decision to annex the Philippines. In their essays, they must provide adequate evidence to support their claim.
lesson Closure:
To wrap this lesson up the teacher will have the students conduct a thumbs up / thumbs down session based on the readings that they did during class. The teacher will focus on specific quotes and ideas from the primary source selections that the class has been dealing with during that lesson. The teacher will also ask the students some opinion questions to trigger their critical thinking skills and create some class discussion. As class is finishing the teacher will pose the final question of "based on our readings, should America have annexed the Philippines?" Of course some students will have different opinions and hopefully leave them debating amongst themselves the answer that they have chosen.
assessment:
For this lesson the class will complete several informal and formal progress monitoring assessments. In the opening of the lesson introduction students will create a journal write entry based on a political cartoon that will be shown to the class. The journal write will eventually be collected along with the rest of their journal for a formal progress monitoring assessment, to be checked and graded for completeness. The teacher will have some more instant feedback and informal progress monitoring when the class holds a discussion on their ideas reflected in their journal. The students will also create a written essay based on the close reading of four primary source documents provided in their DBQ packet. This essay will be a formal progress monitoring assessment that will reflect their reading, research, and writing skills.
ACCOMMODATIONS FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS, STRIVING READERS, AND STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS:
Within this lesson the students will be required to preform a close reading of several documents, therefore English learners, striving readers, and students with special needs may be faced with a difficult task. The teacher will provide extensive vocabulary support for these students. If necessary the teacher will work in a small group with these students while the rest of the class works individually on their close reading and essay assignment. Within this small group any English learners, striving readers, and students with special needs will be able to work together with the teacher to ensure that they are getting support with the material. These students will be abel to ask extra questions and gain some significant insight from the teacher that they may have not gathered on their own. This being said, the teacher will not spoon feed them answers, and still require that they use thier own critical thinking skills. This group will be an extra support for them in order to assist them and sharpen their SCCC skills. The teacher will still have these students complete a essay, but allow them to revise it several times until it is acceptable to turn in for grading.
Resources:
DBQ Packet