Title:  Boyle Heights: America in the Mirror Subject:  History, Language Arts Author:  Susan Anderson, Roosevelt High School Date:  April, 1998 Unit:  Boyle Heights

Teaching Unit

There are any number of lessons and activities which can be included in this part of the unit. How much you do will depend upon the level of skill your students have mastered and your time constraints. I have tried to include a variety of exercises aimed at audiences of varying skill levels. The final project for this class is a student created web page. Students will be assigned an ethnic group that has lived in the community (Boyle Heights) during its long history and will research and collect information on this group. (See the student handout that explains the semester project entitled Research Project at the end of this unit.)

Students will understand the concept of key words and be able to extract key words from a variety of sources.

Locate, understand, and interpret information in primary and secondary sources.

An assortment of book excerpts, magazine, and newspaper articles dealing with local history and events.

1. Teacher will explain the concept of key words or terms.

2. In a directed lesson, teacher and class will read an article together and create a list of key words. Teacher and class will discuss the merits and weaknesses of class generated words or terms.

3. In cooperative groups, students will read assorted articles and make lists of key words. Group members will compare lists and discuss strengths and weaknesses of each choice.

4. Class will come back together and discuss their choices for each article.

Class can begin keeping a collection of the information they uncover dealing with local history. A database can be built on one computer. Students will be required to add articles to the database. (Hint for teachers: If every student uses the name of your town as a keyword on your class database, every article will come up on the screen if that term is searched!) A more in-depth discussion of this can be found in the Virtual Museum Section.

Group and class agreement with individual student’s list of key words. Quality of proposed student additions of articles and key words to the class data bank. (See rubric for acceptance of articles for the database at the end of this unit.) Teacher created quizzes can be created with various short readings for students to demonstrate their ability to extract key words.

• Students will be able to locate historical accounts of Columbus’ “discovery” of America.
• Students will be able to understand and interpret information from secondary and primary sources.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and assess the validity of various historical sources.

• Locate, understand, and interpret information in primary and secondary sources.
• Evaluate the accuracy of information obtained from computer programs, films, printed materials, radio, television, and video tapes.

• Primary source material: excerpts from Bartoleme de las Casas’ History of The Indies; (this may be found in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.)
• Secondary source material: textbook account of Columbus’ arrival and a children’s book’s treatment of Columbus.

1. Teacher and class will make a list of the factsknown to the class about Columbus’ expeditions to the “New World”.

2. Teacher and students will read assorted excerpts from Las Casas together. They will make a list of facts that are not on the list on the board. Class will discuss the questions:
   
   • Who makes that decision and why?
   • Does the leaving out of certain facts change history?

Students’ assignment will be to find five sources that discuss Columbus and fill out an analysis form on each. (See Source Analysis Form.) Sources should represent various historical perspectives.

Completion of five analysis forms of student researched sources. Student essay written to the prompt: write a short history of a local event. On an accompanying page discuss what you left out of your history and why. Essay graded according to class developed rubric. (See Class Generated Rubric.)

Familiarize students with Internet research skills and techniques.

• Locate, understand, and interpret information in primary and secondary sources.
• Evaluate the accuracy, validity and reliability of information obtained from computer programs, films, printed materials, radio, television, and video tapes.

• Class set of Internet Activities: Adventures on the Superhighway by Ashton, Bardsdale, et al: Southwestern Educational Publishers, 1997 or similar workbooks
• Access to an online computer lab
• Four or five computers in the classroom, not necessarily online
• WebWhacker software program

1. Like all sojourners, students should begin their journey with a guidebook. Use Internet Activities: Adventures on the Superhighway by Ashton, Bardsdale, Rutter, and Stephens (Southwestern Educational Publishers, 1997) or a similar workbook to introduce students to the basic concepts of using the Internet - web sites, navigators, search engines, FTP, gophers, etc. Luckily these books are easy enough for even teachers to understand if you are a novice. Another great instructional source for the basics is Macs For Teachers of the infamous “For Dummies” series.

2. If you have at least one computer in your class with Internet capabilities, you may want to hook up the computer to the TV monitor so that students will have an additional chance to become familiar with Internet browser formats, menu bars, and navigational techniques.

3. If you have three or four computers in your room, I would recommend that you use the Web Whacker program to “whack” a few web sites and load them into your computers. This allows students to simulate being on the Internet on computers that do not have Internet access. Set up learning stations at each computer with different web sites that have been “whacked” (downloaded) ahead of time. In the case of my research class, I “whacked” sites that dealt with the major cultures who have historically lived in Boyle Heights. Next to each computer station was a CyberActivity sheet for students to fill out. The activity sheet helped them practice navigating on the Internet without actually being online.

   ** WebWhacker really is a fairly straight forward program - not too complicated - and the ability to bring web sites to your computers is really well worth the time to learn the program.

4. Make arrangements to spend a few days in a computer lab that has Internet capabilities. Before turning students loose to use search engines, it is worthwhile to visit, as a group, web sites that you have chosen as models. In my assignment I chose the Bland County Archives for a “class visit” because it was done by high school students, it is an oral history site, and it has a “virtual museum walk” - all things we hope to accomplish in our project. The address is http://www.teci.net/bland/rocky/gap.html.

5. Once students have seen a good model for what you hope to achieve, they can begin researching on the net. Remember to discuss proper usage of Internet access. Without vigilant supervision students may wander in cyberspace to places you don’t want them to go. Even when they are not trying to find “inappropriate” sites, they may stumble across them. One of my groups, in a legitimate search, ended up on a hate group’s web site. You must be vigilant.

6. It was my experience that once students spent a few days researching on the Internet, they began to understand the capabilities and limitations of the Internet. The Internet is excellent for finding basic information on a variety of topics, finding maps, graphics, and what is available on a specific topic. However, it will not replace library research. It is important for students to understand the limitations of the Internet as well as the benefits. If you are working under ideal circumstances, that is, you and your students have regular, easy access to online computers, then you of course will want to take the time to teach your students to do in-depth research and to utilize resources like AskEric and other databases devoted to historical materials. For most of us the time required is prohibitive.

Students will spend time online searching for web sites that have information useful to them in the researching and writing of the history of their assigned group. (See Research Project at end of unit). They will fill out Web Site Evaluation Forms as well as Source Analysis Forms for the sites they discover.

CyberQuizes, CyberActivites, Site Evaluations, Site Analysis Forms.

Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and synthesize information.

• Locate, understand, and interpret information in primary and secondary sources.
• Students will locate, evaluate and synthesize information for specific purposes, using a variety of sources, including interviews, the library and a range of current technology. (LAUSD Language Arts Standard #4)

• Excerpts rewritten and simplified from “The Rythms of Everyday Life” from A People and A Nation by Mary Beth Norton (Houghton Mifflin Co: New York, 1982) and “Husbands and Wives” by John Demos (American Historical Review. March, 1983)
• Teacher-prepared handouts

1. Teacher will review with students the skills of analysis and synthesis and conduct a group practice using the terms:  dominant impression, analysis, and synthesis.

2. Students will read the excerpts and answer the questions on Worksheet #1.

3. After a class discussion of Worksheet #1, students should use Worksheet #2 to go through the steps to write a short paper.

Paper will be graded according to the rubric. (Unless otherwise stated, rubrics will be LAUSD rubrics or derivatives thereof. See Scoring Guide for Visual Presentation, Scoring Guide for Oral Presentation, and Scoring Guide for Written Project.)

** This lesson is at a simplified level so that students understand the process of analysis and synthesis. Students who are more accomplished should be given document-based questions to suit their level. See the I Search assignment in the packet.