Examining complex historical issues with middle-school students

1. Examining complex historical issues with middle-school students Steven H. Newton, PhD Professor of History and Political Science Delaware State University

2. This is too often our starting point for understanding the causes of the Civil War…

3. And unfortunately, simple questions usually lead to simple answers…. • “Slavery caused the Civil War” • “The Civil War was inevitable” • “The Free North vs. the Slave South”

4. So what’s the problem? • Problem #1: Middle School students are beginning to deal with intellectual and social complexity, so their history needs to reflect that reality

5. So what’s the problem? • Problem #2: Historians have long ago put aside simple interpretations of the causes of the Civil War, and teachers need to do so as well

6. So here’s the challenge…. • How do we introduce complex causal arguments into the Middle-School classroom without…. • Relying on the “Talking Head” strategy that turns students into passive learners? • Confusing them by presenting too many potential causes and not providing them the tools to weigh and assess those causes? • Creating lessons and units that not only cannot be assessed, but cannot be aligned with state standards? • And, finally, how do we do that without killing our teachers?

7. First steps in a journey of a thousand lesson plans…. • Teachers need to acquire a strong historiographical understanding of the debates over the causes of the Civil War • That understanding needs to be translated into assessable objectives for lesson and unit planning • Teachers then need to locate the resources necessary to conduct student-centered, inquiry-driven lessons and units

8. Teachers need to acquire a strong historiographical understanding of the debates over the causes of the Civil War • Acquire sources

9. Two essential sources (in both the short and long versions)…. • James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom • See his article “What Caused the Civil War?” in North & South (Vol. 4, Nr. 1, November 2000) • Edward Ayers, What Caused the Civil War? • See his article “What Caused the Civil War?” in North & South (Vol. 8, Nr. 5, September 2005)

10. But here’s the really condensed version…. • The “Irrepressible Conflict” interpretation (which owes its name to a speech by William H. Seward) could also legitimately be called the “House Divided” interpretation • The basic argument is that the development of two different systems of labor (slave and free) led to the evolution of two incompatible social, cultural, and economic systems within the same nation, rendering conflict inevitable • Advantage: simplicity • Disadvantage: moral implications?

11. Which is a really great excuse to dig out those political cartoons….

12. Which led to… • The development of the “Blundering Generation” interpretation by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. that rejected arguments of inevitability and concentrated on blaming contemporary politicians for failing to avert the war • Essentially, Schlesinger argues, there was a long history of compromise over slavery that should have provided the blueprint for avoiding bloodshed • Advantage: counterbalances Irrepressible Conflict • Disadvantage: ignores too many factors

13. And in turn…. • James M. McPherson (among others) advanced the theory that political structures capable of mediating compromise were rendered ineffective by the rapid changes in communication, transportation, and developing regional/national market economies—the “Modernization Thesis” • Thus the social and political structure grew progressively less able to support compromise without disintegrating • Advantage: wide array of factors considered • Disadvantage: difficulty in correlation

14. One way to look at Modernization…

15. And more recently…. • Edward Ayers has suggested that we abandon mono-causal and structurally deterministic models for explaining the Civil War and concentrate on Contingency instead • There were economic trends and divisions, but there were also unique events and phenomena leading to the ultimate breakdown • Advantage: fits well in a narrative presentation • Disadvantage: requires fairly sophisticated use of Contingency as an analytical tool

16. Contingencies…. • Print journalism • Popular politics

17. That understanding needs to be translated into assessable objectives for lesson and unit planning • Understanding by Design Resources • Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework for designing curriculum units, performance assessments, and instruction that lead your students to deep understanding of the content you teach. • http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.6a270a3015fcac8d0987af19e3108a0c/

18. That understanding needs to be translated into assessable objectives for lesson and unit planning • At the end of this unit, students should be able to: • Explain at least three different historical interpretations of what caused the Civil War, citing key elements of each, while comparing and contrasting the factors that each interpretation emphasizes…. • [with respect to a particular interpretation—sample]: Examine maps showing changes in population, transportation, political parties, and other factors during the period 1820-1860 in order to suggest the impact these factors may have had on increasing sectionalism and decreasing ability to craft political compromise….

19. Those maps, by the way, are as close as your computer….

20. And for the ultimate classroom resource…

21. Imagine a classroom where…. • Cooperative groups of 3-5 students are each… • Assigned one historiographical interpretation to research, or… • Given a series of thematic maps to analyze the impact of specific social, economic, and political trends, or… • Handed a portfolio of political cartoons to use in determining how ideas were disseminated prior to 1860, and then… • Brought back together to examine the 1860 election and the Secession Crisis as a whole class…

27. Epilogue: those New York standards…. • compare and contrast different interpretations of key events and issues in New York State and United States history and explain reasons for these different accounts