Monday, March 11, 2013

Columbus and US History textbooks

By what standards do historians choose information?
How should readers of history examine the information presented to them?
How should we understand Christopher Columbus? Should he be considered a hero? Is it important for high school school students to know who he was?

previous night's assignment: read Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States Chapter 1 (or at least the first nine pages)

students write: (5 min) In three sentences or less, answer the following question:
                        Who was Christopher Columbus and what did he do? 

converse: (10 min) on what students wrote. How were the answers influenced by Zinn's account? What did they know previously? What did they think of the Zinn account?

students read and write, in groups of three (15 minutes)
    Consider the treatment of Columbus in your textbook. Answer the following in notebook:
                        What comes before and after the section on Columbus?
                        How many pages are devoted to Columbus?
                        What subtitles are used?
                        Are there pictures? What do they convey or imply?

Discussion (10 minutes)  How important was Columbus according to your textbook?
                        Why was he important?

Converse (5 min) How good is the textbook's treatment? Better or worse than Zinn?


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