John C. Fremont Document Based Question

Document Based Questions (DBQ)  are a great way for teaching students to use Primary and Secondary Sources and formulate their own conclusions. For this DBQ I took an article for Utah Historical Quarterly and simplified it and broke it scaffold it with a question to help students understand its significance.
The question that students were to keep in mind during this assignment was: How were Mormon Settlements Influenced by John Fremont's Reports of the Great Basin?
Students would then read the documents intrprite and read maps, and answer questions to help students understand what they should be looking for.
Depending on the level of students they would then come up with a Thesis and Essay to answer the first question.

The Full Document Based Question is at the Following Link to a Google Doc:
Fremont Mormon Settlement Document Based Question

Baugh, Alexander L. "John C. Fremont's 1843-44 Western Expedition and Its Influence on Mormon Settlement in Utah." Utah Historical Quarterly 83.4 (2015): 254-69. Print.

Writing Literacy

In the state of Utah they have implemented a writing literacy standards in Social Studies. As I looked for ways to incorporate writing, I came across an article from the Colonial  ƒoundation that gives suggestions on ways to put writing into Social Studies.

The article starts out by saying three reasons to write in a Social Studies classroom:

1. Writing is a fundamental intellectual activity. It prompts problem solving, discovery, and communication.

2. Writing helps you to learn history. Students learn best when they are actively engaged and writing is one way we can do this.

3. Writing clarifies your understanding of the subject. As students write often their questions are clarified.

The author also suggests posting these points in the classroom, and to point to them when students complain.  It goes on to have students write daily summaries, and unit wrap-ups, emphasizing that writing every day is better than long papers.

Students must be taught how to write a historical essay, compared to language arts essays: there are differences. These are suggestions from the article:

• Assume your audience knows nothing about the historical topic.
• Historical writing is based on fact.
• Chronology and sequence are important for organizing historical writing.
• Historical facts should support statements or reasons.
• Use the appropriate historical time frame.
• Make historical writing interesting to the audience by:
• Providing details from the time period.
• Organizing historical information clearly so that it makes an impact on the audience.
• Using first person, if writing as a historical figure.

Journals are also suggested. For opening bell ringers you can have questions posted or do what is called a reaction journal entry: where a quote from a historical figure of the time period being studied is shown and students must write their reaction to the quote using what they know at that time (essay questions can be pulled from these quotes for unit papers, etc). These journals can also be looked back at the end of the unit and see if opinions have changed and reactions have changed.

With writing in the classroom language arts and history can drastically change the way they view writing.

© 2011 †he Colonial  ƒoundation
Writing in the Social Studies Classroom
By Peter Pitard, Principal, Bath County High School, Hot Springs, Virginia

Department of Education Outreach

DBQ Immigration during turn of the Nineteenth Century

Document Based Questions                                               

 Immigration during the turn of the nineteenth century: their acceptance and rejection                                                                                            

Significance: Immigration between 1890 and 1917 was the busiest time for immigration to the United States in its entire history. There were some that welcomed these new citizens while others showed prejudice and hatred toward them. This acceptance and rejection shaped American society into what it is today with the stereotypes and actualities of immigrants.

Assignment: Using the information provided and any prior knowledge answer the following questions: what was the view that many Americans had about immigrants during this time period, and how would this affect the lives of these new immigrants during this time period?

Document Based Questions                   

 Summary and Inferences

Document A: Poster, “Food will win the war - You came here seeking freedom, now you must help to preserve it - Wheat is needed for the allies - waste nothing.” C. E. Chambers                                                                                      

   http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@1(ppmsca+05651))

Summary:                                                                                                                   
  Jewish immigrants were a large part of the immigration of the progressive era, and as seen in this poster, written in Yiddish, a form of Hebrew, by 1917 life in America had been good and now with WWI beginning it was time for the immigrant to help feed the troops overseas.

Inferences:                                                                                                                 

·         Jewish immigrants had been accepted into America and had prospered.

·         America now needs support for the war and to waste nothing.

Document B: Picture, “Emigrants coming to the ‘Land of Promise’.”  

  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?pp/ils:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a09957)):displayType=1:m856sd=cph:m856sf=3a09957

Summary:                                                                                                    

 Immigrants on a ferry from Ellis Island with only what they had on their backs.

Inferences:

·         Immigrants were poor and only had the clothes on their backs.

·         Imagine yourself as one of those immigrants that had just gone through Ellis Island. What would be going through your mind?

Document C: Picture, “Immigrants on an Atlantic Liner”           

   http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?pp/ils:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a13598)):displayType=1:m856sd=cph:m856sf=3a13598

Summary: 

          This is a picture of thousands of immigrants on a ship heading for America. They had so many expectations and hopes for the land they were approaching.

Inference:

·         Between 1890 and 1917 there were more immigrants coming to America than any other time in American History.

·         Imagine that you were on that ship, a small person on a ship of thousands. What fears and expectations might you have for your new life with your fellow immigrants?

Document D: Personal Document, Journal of Sadie Frowne, “We saw the big woman with the big spikes on her head.”          http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/immigrating.htm

Summary:

            This is three entries from a young immigrant. First we read about Sadie (13) and her mother coming into the New York Harbor. Also, we read about her mother’s work and death. We then see a portion of her new job as she’s living on her own. The final entry we read is about the sweat shops that Sadie worked in.

Inference:

·         Life was not easy for any immigrant.

·         Death was common among immigrants.

·         Money was scars and loosing a family member would wipe out what little money they may have saved.

Document E: Newspaper Article, New York Tribune, December 17, 1905, “Big Wave of Jews Coming”                http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1905-12-17/ed-1/seq-53/

Summary:

           An article written to encourage acceptance of the Russian Jews that have been coming. It comments on the blessings that helping them will give and encourages readers to help these Jews find work.

Inference:

·         Many Jews were accepted and given a positive welcome to America.

·         Despite disease and poverty, American society was willing to embrace these new Jews.

Document F: Newspaper Article, New York Tribune, April 17, 1910, “What Will the Typical American of the Future Look Like?” http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1910-04-17/ed-1/seq-17/

Summary:  

           This article shows more of a mystery of what was going to happen to the country now that so many Europeans were immigrating to America. It shows pictures of faces of the different immigrant groups and combines them into the “Future American.”

Inference:

·         Many were conserned that the world they knew would change and nolonger be an English America.

·         Prejudice may come about with mixing of ethnic peoples.

Document G: Newspaper Article, New York Tribune, May 10, 1903, “More Immigrants Will Land on These Shores in 1903 Than in Any Previous Year Experts Estimate.”                                             http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1903-05-10/ed-1/seq-44/

Summary:   

          The article calls into question the stereotypical responses of the new immigrants coming into the country and how they will all do what it takes to get into the country, even lie and steal.

Inference:

·         Immigrants were not always welcome

·         There were many stereotypes associated with each immigrant group.

·         Calls for a need to enforce the deportation laws.

Document H: US Immigration Legislation, “Immigration Act of 1917”  http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/1917_immigration_act.html

Summary:    

           The act limited immigration from certain countries and required certain abilities from the immigrants, such as reading and health requirements.

Inference:

·         Shows reasons for denying immigration

·         Shows prejudice developed from immigration from prior decades