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Inquiries Filed Under:

You Are The Historian

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About the inquiry

In this unique inquiry, students explore the Korean War Legacy Project Memory Bank and watch veteran interview video clips on a common topic or event. Students then explore the archives in order to find documents that corroborate or contradict ideas and events shared in the oral history clip.

Compelling Question

What If You Were the Historian?

Staging Question

Teachers will have students watch the first 35 seconds of the awareness test video and individually record their telling of the event in the video. Next, rewatch the entire video as a class and lead a whole-class discussion of the variations of historical telling based on perspective and viewpoint. Introduce the concept of evaluating historical documents for perspective during this discussion. The concept of corroborating or contradicting documents and sources with each other should also be introduced to students in this staging activity.

1
Supporting Question

What do these two primary source documents say about this historical event or topic?

Formative Tasks

Using the graphic organizer in Appendix A, identify the narratives and facts shared by these primary source documents about the racism experienced by Korean War soldiers.

Sources

Source A: Oral history, John Saxton
Source B: Oral history, Dottie Harris

2
Supporting Question

How can you corroborate or contradict this with an additional primary source document from the archival materials?

Formative Tasks

Using the Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial Project, corroborate or contradict the information shared in the featured sources of Supporting Question 1. Use the graphic organizer in Appendix A to help organize your thoughts.

Sources

Source A: Link to Korean War Memorial Digital Archives
Source B: Link to Interactive Memory Bank

Summative Performance Task

Argument: Construct an argument that evaluates the primary source documents to create a one-paragraph summary of the topic or event.

Extension: Students can further explore the memory bank and primary source documents and discuss with a partner the strengths and weaknesses of genres of primary source information in order to explore the question, “How do we know what really happened in history?”

Taking Informed Action

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