social studies – Assignment Bank

Go Vote!

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Studebaker workers voting under the bleachers of a stadium in South Bend, IN circa 1950-1960.

I’m a sucker for performing important civic duties…..and black and white photography. So I decided to craft this impromptu voting poster today with the help of the United States Library of Congress and their awesome digital collection. While I really don’t have much to say this morning beyond the trite “go, vote” mantra that even the least engaged citizen can accomplish, I wanted to point out that the LoC has a fantastic collection of images, legislation, websites, audio, video, and more! If you happen to be in the patriotic mood, go help yourself to one of their “voting images” from the photo, print, and drawing category (most of them are public domain, or available under free use exemption), load it up in an image editor of choice, and have your students create some propaganda for the simplest civic duty any of us can perform.

I particularly enjoyed shifting through the LoC archives for a few minutes, to see see examples of political advertisements and images from a wide range of U.S. history, including the image above, which was taken not too far from where I live, about 30 minutes away in South Bend, IN. It’s a simple way to knock out a few technology standards in the K-12 arena, a brief exploration of historical imagery related to Civics standards, or a simple ds106 Visual Assignment in a pinch.

Don’t live in the U.S. or want to explore other historical media from other nations? Check out the list below!

Library & Archives Canada - http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html

Europeana – European Cultural Archives - http://www.europeana.eu/portal/

National Archives of Australia - http://www.naa.gov.au/

National Diet Library (Japan) - http://www.ndl.go.jp/

The MOTHERLODE – Links to Major National Libraries of the World - http://www.publiclibraries.com/world.htm

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Playing Devil’s Advocate Through Imagery

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not necessarily my own opinion, just exploring a point

I ~~have a pathological need~~ like to argue. It’s something that I was apparently born with, as my mother insists at a very young age I was quite obviously cut out to be a lawyer. Despite my best efforts at self-monitoring and awareness of this trait, I often relapse into base level arguments when unprepared for a conversation that may challenge my viewpoints. Perhaps that’s why I was drawn to create the image above for the ds106 Big Caption assignment. While some may question the taste of the piece (it certainly doesn’t reflect my own personal beliefs), I wanted to create something that could be used as a way to provide a contrasting viewpoints, rather rational or not, to a topic of interest that students and teachers wrestle with.

In this case, I found an image from Boston.com’s Big Picture photo journalism project, an amazing look at news from around the world through striking imagery. You can see the original image of a woman looking out through the ice-covered window of a bus in Bucharest below. I took the image into Photoshop and added the text, applied some simple effects (stroke and color fill), and viola! The end result is meant to be slightly tongue-in-cheek, but the idea is to try and provide a conversation piece that might provide a contrast to a topic you’re covering in class, or perhaps just practice rhetorical skills.

A woman looks out a bus in Bucharest on February 2, 2012. (Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press)

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not in favor of global warming, but quite often the more important discussion of how global warming will affect the lives of everyone on this planet is overshadowed by the much more mundane argument of whether it actually exists. That doesn’t sit right with me, as while I am capable of arguing over almost anything, I’d like to think that I’m discussing a topic that will lead to answers and results with greater value for everyone. Disproving global warming isn’t going to help anyone if it still happens, but talking about how cultures, countries, and citizens might have to change their long term living patterns seems as though it might be a bit more important.

I love the Big Picture site that this ds106 assignment is based upon, and the idea of captioning of striking image with a humorous, insightful, or other type of caption was made popular by the Big Caption website (warning: not all images and captions are appropriate for the K-12 setting). Forgetting the captions for a moment, there is a near constant flow of amazing images from around the world on the Big Picture site that could be used for classrooms talking about current events, or want a way to bring the world into their classroom in a very humbling manner (see the rest of the images from the European winter which has many homeless living in underground heating vents).

Imagery, especially such vivid photographs as those taken from around the world by professional photo journalists, can play a very intimate and important role in spurring discussion, or illustrating a point. I highly recommend any social studies or language arts teachers to give the site a look, and see what you could take from it for use in your classroom.

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Hunting Trolls in History

Don't worry, everything about this digital artifact is supposed to be wrong.

At the great risk of people thinking that I am either a very poor student of history, or a closet racist (both of which I can strongly assure you I am not), I created this digital artifact as an example of how you could stir a debate, a discussion, or prompt a deeper exploration of an issue in a history course, specifically one dealing with Antebellum America. In the interest of full disclosure, I created this work based on a Design Assignment for ds106 entitled “Triple Troll Attack”, in which an image of a character or individual (Lincoln) is juxtaposed with a quote from a related individual (Douglas), and provided credit to a third individual (Jefferson) who may or may not be loosely related. The idea of being a troll on the internet is simple; post and/or create something so inflammatory that it evokes some emotion from others (either good or bad). But what if you were to take the idea of being a “troll” and flip it on its head, and instead create a digital artifact that would spur conversation, questioning, and discussion around a topic?

What if you presented the image of Abraham Lincoln above, with the included quote and attribution and challenged your students to “find the lie”, or “go troll hunting” (to use the vernacular that many gamers and online forum users are used to seeing)? What would happen if you were to create something so untruthful, so filled with mis-attributed quotes juxtaposed with the image of some other historical figure that is equally inaccurate? What if you choose the quote, the attributing author, and the image of three related individuals and/or topics so that at first glance it might actually appear to be truth? Could you use a digital artifact like the one above to challenge your students to “uncover the lie”, and push a deeper understanding of the topic through their careful detective-like examination of resources and materials in an attempt to “slay the troll”?

Quite often history is presented to learners in a linear fashion, typically with events outlined in a cause and effect manner. My own World History teacher was notorious for making the entire class outline, annotate, and then rephrase the text in our books from the start of a unit to finish. While I was always studious and made outlines until my eraser was worn down to a nub, as I learned more about the past I wondered about how events, cultures, and societies influenced the present, and possibly the future. What if the exploration of a new unit or time period in history was presented not in a linear fashion, but as an amalgam of all of the preceding events, societal practices, and common practices surrounding the issue or time period?

In this case, the entire idea of slavery, a bit of the thought surrounding it, and a few of the people that wrestled with its existence (Lincoln, Jefferson, and Douglas) were smashed together to present something that would hopefully give your students a chance to discover the truth behind the issue. The goal would be to use it as a jumping off point to discuss the major themes, events, thoughts, and individuals that pertain to a historical topic, without having to follow the bread crumbs from the beginning of the issue to the very end.

SPECIAL THANKS goes to Shawn McCusker for helping edit this post and consulting on the content. You can follow this amazing high school History Teacher on twitter: @ShawnMcCusker

image – Abraham Lincoln (from the Library of Congress Flickr Photostream) http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3252917783/in/photostream/