Integrating OurDocuments.gov into the Classroom

By Lee Ann Potter

Reprinted from "Teaching With Documents: Our Documents.gov" Social Education 66(7), (2002): pp. 390-399 © National Council for the Social Studies.

"Our founders believed that the study of history and citizenship should be at the core of every American's education; yet today our children have large and disturbing gaps in their knowledge of history."
—President George W. Bush, September 17, 2002

"OUR DOCUMENTS: A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service" seeks to fill the gaps that President Bush referred to in his 2002 Constitution Day remarks. The project revolves around one hundred milestone documents drawn primarily from the holdings of the National Archives—from the thousands of public laws, Supreme Court decisions, inaugural speeches, treaties, constitutional amendments, and other documents that have influenced the course of U.S. history. Educators and students can participate in this initiative in a number of ways, including integrating the documents into classroom instruction and participating in national competitions.

Integrating the Documents into Classroom Instruction
As a starting point, educators are encouraged to visit www.ourdocuments.gov, view the high-resolution images of the milestone documents, read the transcriptions and brief explanations, share and discuss the documents with students, and develop instructional activities that focus on the documents.

Although each of the one hundred documents can serve as a powerful teaching tool, one teaching method may be more effective with a particular document than another. The following fifteen teaching suggestions may be helpful for introducing the milestone documents (and other primary source documents) to students.

• Focus Activity
  Introduce document analysis as a regular activity at the beginning of each class period to focus student attention on the day's topic.
  
  For example: Place a transparency of a document on an overhead projector for students to see as they enter the room; or meet students at the door, hand them a document, and as soon as the bell rings, begin a discussion.
  
  
• Brainstorming Activity
  Launch a brainstorming session prior to a new unit of study with a document. This will alert students to topics that they will study.
  
  For example: Distribute one or more documents to students. Ask them what places, names, concepts, and issues are contained in the documents, as well as what questions the documents prompt. Write these on a sheet of butcher paper. Keep this list posted in the room for the duration of the unit. Check off items as the students study them.
  
  
• Visualization Exercise
  Encourage students to visualize another place or time by viewing and analyzing graphical materials.
  
  For example: Post around your classroom photographs; maps, and other visual materials created during the period that you are studying. Change these images as the units change.
  
  
• Project Inspiration
  Let documents serve as examples for student-created projects.
  
  For example: The Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States, milestone document #5, could be used for this purpose. Provide students with a copy of the document, and assign them to research the symbolism contained in the design. Next, ask them to design a seal of their own, integrating modern-day symbols to represent the characteristics that the nation's founders included in the Great Seal.
  
  
• Dramatic Presentation Activity
  Use documents to inspire dramatic presentations by your students.
  
  For example: Share with students a presidential speech (such as President George Washington's First Inaugural Speech, milestone document #11), and ask a student volunteer to deliver the speech to the class; or ask a student to present a dramatic reading of a letter; or assign students to write a script containing quotes from primary source documents.
  
  
• Writing Activity
  Use documents to prompt a student writing activity.
  
  For example: Share with students a letter and ask them to either respond to it or write the "original" letter that may have prompted that one.
  
  
• Listening Activity
  Allow sound recordings to give students the sensation of being present at a historical event.
  
  For example: Dim the lights in your classroom while you play a sound clip from an event, and ask students to describe or draw the scene and/or the emotions in the voices.
  
  
• Creating a Documentary
  Use vintage film footage to encourage student-created documentaries.
  
  For example: In place of a traditional unit assessment, assign student groups to create ten-minute documentaries about the time period they have just studied. Ask them to incorporate film footage, photographs, sound, and quotes from other primary sources.
  
  
• Cross-Curricular Activity
  Use documents to suggest and reinforce collaboration with a colleague in another department on student assignments.
  
  For example: If a physics teacher assigns students to create an invention, share with students a patent drawing, such as Thomas Edison's Patent Drawing for the Electric Lamp (1880), milestone document #46. Ask students to draw a patent for their invention along with a specification sheet describing its design and intended purpose. Or share documents with students related to the novels (or authors) that they are reading in language arts.
  
  
• Current Events Activity (What Is Past Is Prologue)
  Use documents to launch a discussion about an issue or news event.
  
  For example: Select a document that relates to a person, event, or place that is currently in the news. Strip the document of information revealing the date of its creation and distribute it to students. Ask students to speculate on when it was created.
  
  
• Drawing Connections Activity
  Use documents to help students recognize cause and effect relationships.
  
  For example: Provide students with two seemingly unrelated documents and ask them to connect them using other documents. One possibility might be to ask students how the Lee Resolution, (milestone document #1) and the Homestead Act (milestone document #31) are connected. Student answers might include, "Three committees were set up as a result of the Lee Resolution. One committee drafted the Declaration of Independence (milestone document #2). Its principle author was Thomas Jefferson. He was the president at the time of the Louisiana Purchase (milestone document #18). The territory that became part of the United States as a result of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty included much of the land that became available for settlement under the Homestead Act."
  
  
• Integrating Geography Activity
  Use documents to emphasize the site of significant events.
  
  For example: Post a large map of the United States or of the world on the classroom wall. Each time a new milestone document is discussed, place a pin on the location where the specific document was created or where its impact was the greatest. The Northwest Ordinance, milestone document #8, could be used for this purpose. Ask students to first locate the northwestern United States, and then provide the students with a copy of the document. Ask them how their perception of the "northwest" had changed.
  
  
• Small-Group Hypothesis Activity
  Use documents to encourage creative thinking about the significance of a particular document.
  
  For example: Using the Cancelled Check for Alaska, milestone document #41, divide students into small groups. Provide them with a copy of the document, and ask them to consider "what if" that document never existed. Encourage them to share their scenarios with the class.
  
  
• Self-Reflective Exercise
  Use documents to prompt student understanding about how government actions and/or events of the past affect the students' lives today.
  
  For example: Provide students with copies of the Nineteenth Amendment (milestone document #63) and the Voting Rights Act (milestone document #100), and ask them to consider the documents' implications on their lives.
  
  
• Assessment
  Incorporate documents into document- based essay questions to assess student knowledge of a topic or event.
  
  For example: Provide students with four documents that relate to westward expansion, such as, the Northwest Ordinance (milestone document #8), the Homestead Act (milestone document #31), the Pacific Railway Act (milestone document #32), and the Morrill Act (milestone document #33). Ask them to use the information contained in the documents and their knowledge of the subject to write an essay explaining the federal government's role in the settling of the West.
  
  
• Participating in National Competitions
  Further involvement in the Our Documents initiative can include participation in national competitions—one for educators and one for students.
  
  Teaching Our Documents: A National History Day Competition for Educators invites teachers to develop and test a classroom lesson focusing on one or several of the one hundred Milestone Documents in U.S. history. Lessons should engage students in a meaningful examination of the documents within their historical context. Complete contest rules and submission guidelines are available online at www.ourdocuments.gov. Awards will be announced at the annual National History Day national competition June 15-19, 2003, at the University of Maryland at College Park.
  
  Understanding Our Documents: A National History Day Competition for Students invites students in grades 6-12 to create an exhibit, documentary, paper, or performance focusing on one or more of the milestone documents and its relationship to this year's National History Day theme, "Rights and Responsibilities in History." Projects can be created individually, or by a group of up to five students. Student winners will also be announced at the national contest held at the University of Maryland at College Park, June 15-19,2003. For more information about National History Day, visit the NHD web site at www.nationalhistoryday.org.

Lee Ann Potter is the head of Education and Volunteer Programs at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. She serves as the editor for "Teaching with Documents," a regular department of Social Education. You may reproduce the document shown here in any quantity.