Historical Scene Investigation - OpenStax CNXcnx.org/.../historical-scene-investigation-2.pdf · If so, welcome to Historical Scene Investigation (HSI)! ... soldiers found guilty

OpenStax-CNX module: m32208 1

Historical Scene Investigation∗

Alexander Cannon

This work is produced by OpenStax-CNX and licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0†

Abstract

This module serves as an introduction to Historical Scene Investigation (HSI), which is a websitedesigned to expose students to original historical inquiry using primary and secondary historical sources.Included in this introduction is a step-by-step guide of how to use the website, suggestions for supple-mental investigations to and modi�cations of the HSI curriculum, and summative evaluations of theprogram.

1 Overview

Teachers of American history: do you want to engage your students in historical inquiry using primary andsecondary sources, but groan at the thought of compiling materials? Have you ever wanted to organize astructured and evidence-based debate about signi�cant, multifaceted, and controversial events in our nation'spast? If so, welcome to Historical Scene Investigation (HSI)! This website, which is intended for social studieseducators and students of American history at a wide range of grade levels (arguably grades 4-12), will walkyou through the essential components of HSI. No prior experience with HSI is necessary. To begin, simplyenter the following website into the address bar of your Internet Browser, or click on the link provided here:http://web.wm.edu/hsi/index.html1 . You should arrive at the following web page:

∗Version 1.2: Oct 29, 2009 1:22 am -0500†http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/1http://web.wm.edu/hsi/index.html

http://cnx.org/content/m32208/1.2/


Figure 1

2 About the Creators of HSI:

HSI was captained by Dr. Kathleen Owens Swan, Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education at theCollege of Education of the University of Kentucky, and Dr. Mark Hofer, Assistant Professor of EducationalTechnology at the School of Education of the College of William and Mary. Contributors to the projectinclude a number of other professors at institutions such as the University of Kentucky, Virginia TechUniversity, and Longwood University. Also fundamental to the project are teacher consultants Julie Bray(Toano Middle School of Toano, Virginia), and Abriana Nelson (a high school teacher of an institution whichis anonymous). As stated on the �About H.S.I.� page, the primary goal of these faculty members is to provide�a strong pedagogical mechanism for bringing primary sources into their classroom.� It appears that theyhave done exactly that.

3 The HSI Model:

The HSI model is based on four steps of historical inquiry. The �rst step, which is called �Becoming aDetective,� provides students with the context of the event that they will be investigating. This is usually



brief and is more situational than informative of the greater background in which the situation is placed. Thesecond step, �Investigating the Evidence,� provides students with access to primary and secondary sourcesthat provide evidence for student conclusions about each case. Third, students become involved in �Searchingfor Clues,� in which students document their observations about and interpretations of the sources. Lastly,students partake in �Cracking the Case,� which requires that they make conclusive arguments based onthe evidence they have collected. This model, which has the same general guidelines for each case, can bereviewed at http://web.wm.edu/hsi/model.html2 , and is reproduced here:

Figure 2

4 Starting Your Investigations

Upon arriving at the main web page (which is reproduced above), you should be able to click on the�Investigations� link. Upon doing so, you will arrive at the following webpage. This page is an interactive��le cabinet� containing ��les� that serve as links to speci�c case studies that surround important events inAmerican history. Take a look below:

2http://web.wm.edu/hsi/model.html



Figure 3

The choice is yours from here. After you have selected a case, please click the appropriate link for eitherteachers or students.

Let's use �The Boston `Massacre� ' as our example:



Figure 4

Upon clicking the �Student View� link at the bottom-left section of the page, you will encounter the�home page� for each case study. At the top of the page is an elaborated introduction to the case, followedby the �goal� of the investigation.

Continuing with the Boston Massacre example, take a look at the following:



Figure 5

Upon scrolling down, students will �nd the historical evidence that they will use to formulate their argu-ment. The number and type of primary and secondary sources available depends on the case being studied.Students may encounter eyewitness accounts, interviews, newspaper articles, historians' interpretations, pho-tographs, paintings, etc. These documents may con�ict one-another, build upon one-another, or may providedi�erent types of information. Here is the list of documents available for the Boston Massacre case:



Figure 6

Let's explore the �rst document, �Joy Hakim's Account of The Boston Massacre�:



Figure 7

Here is an example of a di�erent type of source to which students have access:



Figure 8

Not only does HSI provide students with access to a diverse (but concentrated) array of sources that helpthem investigate the topic at hand, but the site also provides guiding questions for each unit that encouragesstudents to critically evaluate the bias and arguments forwarded in each source. The site provides theseguiding questions in a helpful �grid� format (available both as a Word document and as a .pdf �le)thatallows students to compare their �ndings across documents. Also provided is space for evaluative analysisthat extends beyond the documents themselves. An example of these resources is included below:



Figure 9



Figure 10

After carefully evaluating the sources, students are �nally asked to �Crack the Case.� To continue withour example, students analyzing the Boston Massacre trial are asked to write one to two paragraphs aboutwhether or not justice was served. In formulating their answer, they are to incorporate not only theirevidence-based analysis, but they are also asked to list any unanswered questions that might make theirconclusion more de�nitive.



Figure 11

Depending on the case being studied, there may also be opportunities for further investigation. Thesequestions could be used as homework assignments that build o� of the material studied during class. Anexample from the �School Desegregation� �le is provided here:



Figure 12

Note: The �Teacher� version of each HSI case is quite similar to that which the students use. Theonly di�erences between these two versions for each case is that the teacher version also contains 1) linksto brief explanations about each of the di�erent segments of the HSI model of inquiry, which has beendiscussed at the beginning of this presentation, 2) an introduction to the case, 3) standards of learning fromsuch organizations as the National Center for the Social Studies and the National Center for History inthe Schools (as well as the standards of learning for the states of Maryland and Virginia), and 4) ideas forimplementing and modifying the lesson in the classroom (e.g. extending a student's conclusions about a casefrom a paragraph to a complete essay). Lastly, a form of each lesson is provided in a Word document foreasy printability.

You are now ready to start investigating! If you are interested in learning about di�erent ways toimplement HSI in your classroom, please consult the resources below.

5 Classroom Examples (Modi�cations)

While this space would normally be reserved for examples of teachers' implementations of HSI to date,the fact that the HSI is so self-encapsulating renders this section relatively useless (or, at its very best,redundant). This fact is nothing but a complement to HSI, as the case �les are presented in such a mannerthat the program remains universally useful for its speci�c purpose. While the general structure, content,



and implementation of HSI remains the same in classrooms across the country, this is not to say that HSI isfree from (sometimes necessary) modi�cations. As such, this section will �rst be devoted to brie�y identifyingways in which teachers can modify the content of HSI to accommodate varying needs and interests, and willsecondly discuss the overall goals, merits, and constructive criticism regarding four of the cases.

.

5.1 Making the Text Easier: Modern Translations

As encouraged by (and obtained from) the creators of HSI, Drs. Kathleen Swan of the University of Kentucky,Mark Hofer of the College of William and Mary, and David Locasio of Longwood University (2008), theHSI text might occasionally need to be modi�ed to accommodate student di�culties in understanding theadvanced and/or antiquated terms and phrases present in the text. For example, the authors noted thatteachers in a case study of a �fth-grade social studies classroom included the following translation of adocument from the �Jamestown's Starving Time� case:1

Figure 13

As the example above shows, it is sometimes necessary to translate the terminology from the past inorder to make the documents' messages more clear. While the depth of historical analysis can arguably bediminished by modifying the linguistic content of these works, this sacri�ce when necessary, promotes thegreater cause of facilitating understanding over authenticity.



5.2 Expanding the Scope: Researching Supplemental Sources

Students in more advanced courses might be encouraged to research additional sources that could change theconclusions reached with the standard documents provided in HSI. A student who formerly thought that thesoldiers found guilty in the Boston Massacre trial deserved their punishment could, for example, be asked to�nd an editorial from a Tory newspaper that defended the soldiers' actions. Whatever the scenario, studentswould be reminded not only that there are a variety of sources lying outside of those provided in the originalHIS, but also that the evidence provided in a scenario strongly in�unces the conclusions made.

5.3 Expanding the Scope: Creating Supplemental Sources

Just as students could spend time �nding actual historical accounts that changed the tide of evidence forthe conclusions they formed in the original HSI, students could also use their creative powers to create a keypiece of evidence that would turn the tide of history. Students could write a private letter, for example, fromPresident Eisenhower to a friend about how he laments having to enforce desegregation. In essence, havingstudents create historical documents shows that students grasp the actual fundamental trends of history tothe extent that they are able to replicate them to some extent.

5.4 Arguing about Arguments: Debating the Strength of Historical Analyses

Finally, students in more advanced courses could be encouraged to defend their arguments in debate. Notonly would this process encourage students to do more careful analysis in presenting their own arguments, butthis process would also force them to articulate the key points of their reasoning while rebutting contestingarguments. Students could also be allowed to provide supplemental historical (i.e. unfabricated) evidenceto support their claims.

5.5 An Overview and Analysis of Four HSI cases:

Once again, as a replacement for the relative irrelevance of providing examples of teachers' varied uses of HSIin the classroom, that which follows is a brief overview and crtitique of four speci�c cases explored withinthe HSI program.

5.5.1 The Atomic Bomb: The Year of Decisions

In this scenario, students are asked to conclude whether or not former President Harry S. Truman (who served1945-1953) �decided� to drop the atomic bomb, or whether the use of the atomic bomb was �inevitable� bythe time Truman rose to the presidency. This question is presented alongside the powerful claim that Trumanwas unaware of the Manhattan Project during his term as Vice-President under FDR.

In order to base their responses in historical evidence, students are presented with a wide variety oftextual resources that range from entries in Truman's diary, to correspondence between Truman and anewspaper reporter after the war, to a table outlining military research from 1942-1945. Students aretherefore exposed to a wide range of viewpoints that force them to draw conclusions based not only onTruman's own �opinion� about his decision, but also on the extenuating circumstances surrounding militaryknowledge of the Manhattan Project before and during Truman's presidency.

The strengths of this HSI module are �rst that it discusses a very controversial and undoubtedly in�uentialevent in American history. Students will think about the dropping of the atomic bomb in a new way,understanding the psychology and emotion behind a seemingly black-and-white military strategy. Secondly,the documents provided are diverse in scope and allow students to incorporate a wide variety of viewpointsin forming their answer to the guiding question. Lastly, what is perhaps most valuable about this moduleis that the question diverges from the traditional �Should the U.S. have dropped the bomb?� to �Was thedropping of the bomb inevitable by a certain point?� This is likely a very novel concept for students toponder, and it allows them to re�ect on the combination of long-term strategies and short-term tactics thatmake up a war.



This very same question, however, might be considered a weakness of the module, as the question indeedcenters around a relatively secondary topic. For students who had not had the privilege of previously engagingin the larger moral and political debate about whether the U.S. should have dropped the bomb, they willonce again miss out when using this HSI model to learn about this event in American history. Perhaps thismodule could be used alongside the more traditional discussion in order to give students a more roundedinquiry into the rationale behind the dropping of the A-bomb.

5.5.2 When Elvis Met Nixon

This module involves a brief investigation into the purpose behind the meeting between rock legend ElvisPresley and President Richard M. Nixon in December of 1970. In addition to the picture, documentsincluding correspondence between Elvis and the President, o�cial White House schedules for the meeting,and a memorandum describing the goals of the meeting are provided.

The bene�ts of such an investigation are that students are encouraged to research an event that is oftencovered very brie�y (or not at all) during American history courses. Though seemingly a harmless, minormeeting resulting from Elvis' prominence in the music industry, students discover that the meeting centeredon Elvis' role in an anti-drug and anti-counterculture campaign. This investigation is useful in that inaddition to providing some useful knowledge about the role and in�uence of media �gures at the time, theinvestigation can easily tie into discussions about modern versions of the same scenario (i.e. of celebritiesusing their clout to promote causes beyond their original �eld of expertise).

However, my principal concern about this module is that it o�ers students very little room to interpretanything as historians. The �investigation� in which students engage in this module amounts to little morethan reading the schedule and memorandum provided in the collection of primary documents. Thus, I thinkit might be more interesting if students were simply given the picture of Elvis and Nixon and were asked touncover the documents explaining this meeting themselves.

5.5.3 Virginia at the Crossroads: Nathaniel Bacon�Hero or Traitor

Another module asks students to examine Bacon's Rebellion (1676) in detail and to determine whetherBacon was a hero or a traitor. Students are provided with a series of video clips that testify to positive andnegative aspects of Bacon's �heroism� in rebelling against Governor Berkeley. Students are then to discussBacon's actions alongside pre-provided guiding questions, and they are asked to mark a (+) or a (-) uponviewing the evidence to designate whether or not the evidence provided is in Bacon's favor. Students thenlist and cultivate their arguments in a T-square before crafting a coherent response.

The module is certainly a departure from the other HSI investigations with respect to primary documentsserving as the core of evidence. What is most useful about this module, though, is that students are ultimatelyparticipating in debates about history that can be argued from both sides by using di�erent evidence. This isa very useful skill, as it teaches students to carefully select their arguments and to submit those which mostclearly present Bacon in a particular light. This HSI opens the door for an actual classroom debate, whichis a very positive instructional tool. Even if a formal debate does not occur, tbhe guiding questions builtinto the module help students to engage in a productive dialogue. All in all, this is a very well-constructedmodule.

That said, the module's primary �aw comes from a lack of interactivity with primary documents. Studentsare simply receiving information and are not encouraged to analyze the biases, epistemological assumptions(and misgivings), etc. that (naturally) rhetorical documents provide. Nonetheless, I believe that the centralpremise of the module is a valuable one. I would strongly recommend using this module in my class.

5.5.4 The Battle of Lexington and Concord

Students are to use a variety of evidence to present an argument for who (between the British and theAmericans) �red the �rst shot at Lexington and Concord. I particularly like the wide variety of bothprimary and secondary sources that students have at their disposal to argue their case; materials range



(but are not restricted to) from a newspaper article from the London Gazette in 1775, to a diary entryfrom the president of Yale College several months after the incident, to an excerpt from a modern work ofhistorical �ction set in the time period. The value of these (arguably unconventional) sources is substantial,and students are presented with multiple viewpoints within these sources, which forces them to select andsynthesize the most compelling arguments before writing a paragraph-long argument rooted in the evidencethey have synthesized.

I particularly support the inclusion of the Word/PDF guide with the documents, which encouragesstudents to analyze, compare, and contrast the documents using e�ective methods of historical inquiry.I �nd little weakness with this particular module, though I might have liked to see another professionalhistorian's interpretation alongside the other accounts. (The only modern professional opinion rendered wasthat of an author of a high school history textbook, and his credentials are not o�ered in a description ofthe text.)

With the above examples in mind, we will now proceed into a general discussion of the positive andnegative attributes of HSI:

6 Assessing . . . for the Classroom

6.1 Pro's

The positive attributes of HSI are many. First, the lessons provided are self-encapsulating and allow studentsto work independently on a very straightforward and comprehensive project. Students learn to engage inthe actual processes of historical inquiry and, in essence, teach themselves what they want to learn abouteach of the events by synthesizing their own arguments. The program is minimally restricted across gradelevels and geographic regions of instruction, and adaptations (such as those listed above) can be made toaccommodate di�erent learning goals.

6.2 Con's

There are not many negative aspects of the HSI program. The most glaring �de�ciency,� if one can callit that, is that all of the case studies still require su�cient background context for students to be ableto craft intelligent conclusions. The deeper understanding students have about the event being studiedprior to using the documents, the better their analyses will be. Thus, there is some worry that teacherswill use HSI as a substitute for, not a supplement of, instruction, and students will thus formulate theirunderstanding of a subject based solelyon a slew of con�icting rhetoric sources. Teachers must also becautious to remind students that the sources selected for HSI ultimately construct and constrict the rangeof opinion that students can form about tremendously multifaceted events in history. As such, studentsshould be encouraged to pursue additional interpretations of events, including secondary sources that helpto synthesize this material. Overall, HSI is a useful program that can be implemented at a variety of gradelevels as a teacher of the fundamental processes of historical inquiry.

7 Considerations for Teachers

That which has already been mentioned constitutes the vast majority of the commentary that can be o�eredabout this subject. Once again, it is important for teachers to sca�old students' understanding of the eventsused in HSI before students engage the program; despite the utility of in-depth case studies, HSI should notbe used as the sole source of instruction about the events discussed. Secondly, teachers must be careful tomention that the sources provided are far from all of the data available about the topic being examined.To supplement the project, teachers might consider asking students to either collect or create another pieceof data that heavily turns the argument in the opposite direction as that which the students had originallyargued. Third, the guiding questions provided along with the documents are extremely useful in facilitatingthe �proper� process of historical inquiry, but teachers should supervise students' responses to make surethat they are reaching the appropriate depth of analysis. To elaborate on this matter, teachers may want



to model sample answers or pause for �group review� at various times in the analytical section of lesson.This will ensure that students are drawing reasonable interpretations of the text from which they can thenargue their opinions as they see �t. Lastly, teachers should emphasize that the process of historical inquiryis not limited to a �closed� exercise such as that found in HSI. Rather, historical inquiry can and does takeplace during other activities in the classroom, and it can even become a part of students' lives outside ofthe school's walls. Teachers can thus expand the methodology of HSI to everyday activites by encouragingstudents to examine their social interactions, work in other disciplines, et cetera.

References:1Kathleen Owings Swan, et al. �The Historical Scene Investigation (HIS) Project: Examining the Use

of Case Based Historical Instruction in the Fifth Grade Social Studies Classroom,� International Journal ofSocial Education (Fall 2007-2008) 22: 2. (Muncie, IN, Ball State University Department of History, 2008)70-100.


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Historical Scene Investigation - OpenStax CNXcnx.org/.../historical-scene-investigation-2.pdf · If so, welcome to Historical Scene Investigation (HSI)! ... soldiers found guilty