Reading around a document

Identify clues around the “edges” of a historical document to learn about its author, audience, origin, purpose and type.

Purpose

  • Introductory analysis: To help students make careful observations and draw plausible inferences about the context of historical documents prior to analyzing their contents.
  • Bridging activity: To help students acquire background information about a historical document in anticipation of involving them in other activities requiring deeper analysis.

Instructions

Demonstrate the importance of establishing context: Illustrate to students how useful it is when interpreting historical sources to have some idea of the context of the document. Write a statement such as the following on the board “I am going to beat you.” Post the following headings that outline different contexts for the statement and ask students to discuss how the meaning of the original statement differs depending on the context of the different headings:

  • the statement is taken from English class notes about the main character’s intentions in a novel.
  • conversation between two students about an upcoming badminton match.
  • text message sent between two students who have had a series of disagreements.

Introduce the strategy: Explain to students that the strategy “reading around a document” helps them look around the edges of a document to identify important details about the author, audience, origin, purpose and type before reading the main body of the document. Distribute a copy of #1 Reading around a Document and explain the structure of the data chart, define important terms and outline expectations for completed sheets.

Check students’ ability to “read around the document”: Distribute #2 Example Document and invite students to complete the #1 Reading around a Document data chart as a check to see how well they are able to make observations and inferences about the context of the document. When students have completed the data charts invite them to share their responses, or if desired teachers can distribute #3 Assessing Observations and Inferences and invite students to peer or self-assess their ability to make accurate and relevant observations and plausible and imaginative inferences. If teachers are confident that students can successfully complete the read around a document activity, they are invited to complete the same activity for a historical document in the Introduce a historical example section below. If students had difficulty completing the #1 Reading around a Document data chart, teachers are invited to help students confirm the individual tools for reading around a document in the Confirm the tools section below.

Confirm the tools: In this section students are invited to confirm the tools necessary for reading around a document.

  • If students need help understanding the difference between observations and inferences work through tool enhancement supplement “A”.
  • If students need help locating clues around the edges of a document, invite them to work through the “circle the clues” example in the tool enhancement supplement “B”.
  • If students need help understanding and applying the criteria for making accurate and relevant observations, and plausible and imaginative inferences work through the tool enhancement supplement “C”.
  • If students need guidance looking for less obvious details when reading around a document work through the example in tool enhancement supplement “D”.

Tool Enhancement Supplement:

  1. Introduce observation and inference: This section helps students understand how to make observations and inferences. Ask students to define the terms observation and inference. Inform students that whether they know how to define these terms or not, they frequently make observations and inferences in their daily life. For example, when walking down the street a student notices a man sleeping on the park bench (observation) and concludes that the man is homeless (inference). Explain to students that observations and inferences are closely connected—an observation is something that they see or notice, and an inference is the conclusion made from the observation.

    Describe the following scenario to students: Mr. Peter Truong, a student-teacher, tells his friend about a number of observations and inferences that he made during the first social studies ten class that he taught in first period on Monday morning. He is not sure that if the lesson was successful or not so he is hoping his friend can help him decide. Distribute a copy of activity sheet #1 Categorizing Observations and Inferences and invite students to categorize each example as either an observation or an inference, and match each observation with the corresponding inference that can be drawn from it. When students have completed the activity sheet, discuss students’ categorization, display #2 Categorizing Observations and Inferences Sample, and ask students to compare their responses to the sample provided.

  2. Circling the clues: This section helps students understand how to make observations around the “edges” of a historical document to learn about its author, audience, origin, purpose and type before encountering the body of the document. Distribute #3 Circle the Clues Practice Example and invite students to make observations about the contextual clues that are circled, and record them in the boxes provided. Challenge students to make observations about the context of the document without reading (or while covering up) the main body of the document. When students have completed the activity sheet, discuss the observations they made and display #4 Circle the Clues Sample and ask students to compare their observations with the sample.

  3. Judging the quality of observations and inferences: This section helps students understand how to use criteria to make judgements about the quality of observations and the quality of inferences. Invite each pair of students to list the characteristics of a quality observation, and share their responses with the rest of the class. After students have shared their responses, introduce them to the criteria for identifying a quality observation.

    • Identifies accurate and relevant observations: the observations identified to support the inferences are accurate and relevant.

    Invite each pair of students to list the characteristics of a quality inference and then share their responses with the rest of the class. After students have shared their responses, introduce them to the criteria for a quality inference.

    • Plausible and imaginative inferences: the inferences go way beyond the very obvious conclusions and are supported by several pieces of evidence found in the documents or based on other facts known about the topic.

    Inform students that if they are unsure about the inferences they make, they can use more tentative qualifiers, such as “may be” “possibly,” and “perhaps.” For example: Students who fell asleep in class might indicate that students were bored by the lesson.

    Invite students to return to the observations and inferences provided in #1 Categorizing Observations and Inferences and ask students to use the criteria provided to determine which of Mr. Truong’s observations were accurate and relevant, and which inferences were plausible and imaginative. Invite students to share their conclusions about how accurate and relevant the observations are, and how plausible and imaginative the inferences are.

  4. Look for less obvious details: This section helps students become more attentive to detail in order to help them notice important, yet less obvious details about the context of a document. Explain to students that when making observations about a historical document they should look beyond obvious clues because even the simplest details can provide important information about the context of the document. Individually or in pairs, invite students to identify five of the most subtle details from #3 Circle the Clues Practice Example. When students have finished, invite them to share their subtle observations with the rest of the class. Teachers may want to share the following list of subtle details with students, and have them compare their findings to these ones.
  • The date and time listed on the document is specific to the exact minute.
  • All of the addresses except one include fairviewsecondary.bc.ca.
  • One of the addresses listed includes globalcitizensclub.
  • The one address that does not include fairviewsecondary.bc.ca is labelled saveourplanetnow.
  • It is unclear if jordanfisher@fairviewsecondary.bc.ca is a female or male name.
  • At the end of the document JF refers to himself as “the Prez”.

Introduce a historical example: When students understand the various tasks included in reading around a document invite them to apply their knowledge to a historical document. Distribute #4 Historical Document Example (a transcribed version of an original Colonial Despatch) to students individually or in pairs. If teachers prefer to have students engage with the original Colonial Despatch instead of the transcript version, they can distribute #5 Historical Document Original. Before students begin making observations and inferences about the context of the document, invite them to “circle the clues” in the sample document. Instruct students to circle the clues without reading (or while covering up) the main body of the document (the section of the Despatch between the salutation and the signature). When students have completed circling the clues, display #6 Circle the Clues Historical Document Sample to provide them with an example of the potential clues to be circled.

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