Ourdocuments.Gov Lee Ann Potter

“Our founders believed that the study of history and citizenship should be at the core of every American’s education; yet today our children have large and disturbing gaps in their knowledge of history.” —President George W. Bush, September 17, 2002 Teaching With Documents Turns Twenty-Five “Our Documents: A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Ser- In the fall of 1977, education specialists at the vice” seeks to fll the gaps that President Bush referred to in his 2002 Constitution Day National Archives frst began submitting to remarks. The project revolves around one hundred milestone documents drawn primarily Social Education articles that featured primary from the holdings of the National Archives—from the thousands of public laws, Supreme source documents, included background Court decisions, inaugural speeches, treaties, constitutional amendments, and other docu- information about the documents, and suggested ments that have infuenced the course of U.S. history. Educators and students can participate methods for incorporating them into classroom in this initiative in a number of ways, including integrating the documents into classroom instruction. Twenty-fve years—and 110 articles instruction and participating in national competitions. later—Teaching with Documents is a regular feature in the journal, its hands-on approach has Integrating the Documents into Classroom Instruction come to defne the National Archives education As a starting point, educators are encouraged to visit www.ourdocuments.gov, view the high- program, and using primary sources for classroom resolution images of the milestone documents, read the transcriptions and brief explanations, instruction has become a widely accepted teaching share and discuss the documents with students, and develop instructional activities that focus method, strongly encouraged in the national on the documents. standards. Although each of the one hundred documents can serve as a powerful teaching tool, This fall, Teaching with Documents is taking one teaching method may be more effective with a particular document than another. The two giant leaps forward. following ffteen teaching suggestions may be helpful for introducing the milestone docu- First, the National Archives and Records ments (and other primary source documents) to students. Administration has teamed up with ABC-CLIO, Inc., to publish a four-volume compilation of Focus Activity previously published Teaching with Documents Introduce document analysis as a regular activity at the beginning of each class period to articles. The volumes include the articles in focus student attention on the day’s topic. chronological order according to the date of the For example: Place a transparency of a document on an overhead projector for students featured document, facsimiles of the documents, to see as they enter the room; or meet students at the door, hand them a document, and as and a CD-ROM containing PDF fles of all the soon as the bell rings, begin a discussion. featured documents. Ordering information is available online at www.abc-clio.com/schools/. Second, on September 17, 2002, President George W. Bush announced a nationwide civics Group 360. Also featured are the Cancelled Check for Alaska, from Records initiative titled “Our Documents: A National of the Accounting Offcers of the Department of the Treasury, Record Group Initiative on American History, Civics, and 217; and Thomas Edison’s Patent Drawing for the Electric Lamp, from Service.” It is a collaboration between the National Records of the Patent and Trademark Offce, Record Group 241. All are in Archives and Records Administration, National the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration. History Day, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the USA Freedom One Hundred Milestone Documents in U.S. History Corps, designed to promote public exploration The list begins with the Lee Resolution of June 7, 1776, a simple document and understanding of how the rights and resolving that the United Colonies “are, and of right, ought to be free and responsibilities of American citizens have taken independent states . . . ,” and ends with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a statute shape over time. Educators can visit the initiative’s that helped fulfll the promise of freedom inherent in the frst documents web site at www.ourdocuments.gov. on the list. The remaining milestone documents are among the thousands of public laws, Supreme Court decisions, inaugural speeches, treaties,

Social Education Brainstorming Activity Launch a brainstorming session prior to a new unit of study with a document. This will alert students to topics that they will study. For example: Distribute one or more documents to students. Ask them what places, names, concepts, and issues are contained in the documents, as well as what questions the documents prompt. Write these on a sheet of butcher paper. Keep this list posted in the room for the duration of the unit. Check off items as the students study them.

Visualization Exercise Encourage students to visualize another place or time by viewing and analyzing graphical materials. For example: Post around your classroom photographs, maps, and other visual materials created during the period that you are studying. Change these images as the units change.

Project Inspiration Let documents serve as examples for student-created projects. For example: The Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States, milestone document #5 (featured in this article, p. 398), could be used for this purpose. Pro- vide students with a copy of the document, and assign them to research the symbolism contained in the design. Next, ask them to design a seal of their own, integrating mod- ern-day symbols to represent the character- istics that the nation’s founders included in the Great Seal.

Dramatic Presentation Activity Use documents to inspire dramatic presen- tations by your students. For example: Share with students a presidential speech (such as President George Washington’s First Inaugural Speech, milestone document #11), and ask a student volunteer to deliver the speech to the class; or ask a student to present a dramatic reading of a letter; or assign students

The Cancelled > Check for Alaska, 1868

November/December 2002 constitutional amendments, and other documents that have infuenced the to write a script containing quotes from course of U.S. history. They have helped shape the national character, and primary source documents. they refect our diversity, our unity, and our commitment as a nation to continue our work toward forming “a more perfect union.” Writing Activity Use documents to prompt a student writing The decision not to include milestone documents since 1965 was a activity. deliberate acknowledgement of the diffculty in examining more recent For example: Share with students a history. As stated in the guidelines for the National History Standards, letter and ask them to either respond to it developed by the National Center for History in the Schools, “Historians or write the “original” letter that may have can never attain complete objectivity, but they tend to fall shortest of the goal prompted that one. when they deal with current or very recent events.” Listening Activity • Lee Resolution (1776) Allow sound recordings to give students • Declaration of Independence (1776) the sensation of being present at a histori- • Articles of Confederation (1777) cal event. For example: Dim the lights in your • Treaty of Alliance with France (1778) classroom while you play a sound clip from • Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States (1782) an event, and ask students to describe or • Treaty of Paris (1783) draw the scene and/or the emotions in the • Virginia Plan (1787) voices. • Northwest Ordinance (1787) Creating a Documentary • Constitution of the United States (1787) Use vintage flm footage to encourage stu- • Federalist Papers, No. 10 & No. 51 (1787-1788)** dent-created documentaries. • President George Washington’s First Inaugural Speech (1789) For example: In place of a traditional unit assessment, assign student groups to • Federal Judiciary Act (1789) create ten-minute documentaries about the • Bill of Rights (1791) time period they have just studied. Ask them • Patent for Cotton Gin (1794) to incorporate flm footage, photographs, • President George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)* sound, and quotes from other primary sources. • Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) • Jefferson’s Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis & Clark Cross-Curricular Activity Expedition (1803) Use documents to suggest and reinforce • Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803) collaboration with a colleague in another • Marbury v. Madison (1803) department on student assignments. For example: If a physics teacher assigns • Treaty of Ghent (1814) students to create an invention, share with • McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) students a patent drawing, such as Thomas • Missouri Compromise (1820) Edison’s Patent Drawing for the Electric • Monroe Doctrine (1823) Lamp (1880), milestone document #46 (featured in this article). Ask students to • Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) draw a patent for their invention along with • President Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress “On Indian a specifcation sheet describing its design Removal” (1830) and intended purpose. Or share docu- • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) ments with students related to the novels • Compromise of 1850 (1850) (or authors) that they are reading in lan- guage arts. • Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) • Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) • Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter (1861) • Homestead Act (1862) The Northwest > • Pacifc Railway Act (1862) Ordinance, 1787 • Morrill Act (1862) 2 pages • Emancipation Proclamation (1863) Continued on page 395

Social Education November/December 2002 Social Education Current Events Activity (What Is Past Is • War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Prologue) Troops (1863) Use documents to launch a discussion • Gettysburg Address (1863)** about an issue or news event. For example: Select a document that relates • Wade-Davis Bill (1864) to a person, event, or place that is currently in the • President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865)** news. Strip the document of information reveal- • Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of ing the date of its creation and distribute it to students. Ask students to speculate on when it Northern Virginia (1865) was created. • Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865) Drawing Connections Activity • Check for the Purchase of Alaska (1868) Use documents to help students recognize • Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) cause and effect relationships. For example: Provide students with • Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) two seemingly unrelated documents and • Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870) ask them to connect them using other docu- • Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park (1872) ments. One possibility might be to ask stu- • Thomas Edison’s Patent Drawing for the Electric Lamp (1880) dents how the Lee Resolution (milestone document #1) and the Homestead Act • Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) (milestone document #31) are connected. • Pendleton Act (1883) Student answers might include, “Three • Interstate-Commerce Act (1887) committees were set up as a result of the • Dawes Act (1887) Lee Resolution. One committee drafted the Declaration of Independence (milestone • Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) document #2). Its principle author was • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Thomas Jefferson. He was the president at • De Lome Letter (1898) the time of the Louisiana Purchase (mile- • Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the stone document #18). The territory that United States (1898) became part of the United States as a result of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty included • Platt Amendment (1903) much of the land that became available for • Theodore Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1905) settlement under the Homestead Act.” • Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Federal Income Tax (1913) Integrating Geography Activity • Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of Use documents to emphasize the site of U.S. Senators (1913) signifcant events. • Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of (1916) For example: Post a large map of the United States or of the world on the class- • Zimmermann Telegram (1917) room wall. Each time a new milestone • Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against document is discussed, place a pin on the Germany (1917) location where the specifc document was • President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points (1918) created or where its impact was the greatest. • Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to The Northwest Ordinance, milestone doc- Vote (1920) ument #8 (featured in this article), could be used for this purpose. Ask students to frst • Boulder Canyon Project Act (1928) locate the northwestern United States, and • Tennessee Valley Authority Act (1933) then provide the students with a copy of the • National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) document. Ask them how their perception • National Labor Relations Act (1935) of the “northwest” had changed. • Social Security Act (1935) Small-Group Hypothesis Activity • President Franklin Roosevelt’s Radio Address unveiling second half of Use documents to encourage creative the New Deal (1936) thinking about the signifcance of a par- • President Franklin Roosevelt’s Annual Message to Congress (1941) ticular document. • Lend Lease Act (1941) For example: Using the Cancelled Check for Alaska, milestone document • Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of DiscriminationContinued in the Defense on page 396

November/December 2002 Industry (1941) #41 (featured in this article), divide stu- • Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against dents into small groups. Provide them with Japan (1941) a copy of the document, and ask them to • Executive Order 9066: Japanese Relocation Order (1942) consider “what if” that document never existed. Encourage them to share their sce- • General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Order of the Day (1944) narios with the class. • Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944) • Manhattan Project Notebook (1945) Self-Refective Exercise • Surrender of Germany (1945) Use documents to prompt student understanding about how government • United Nations Charter (1945) actions and/or events of the past affect the • Surrender of Japan (1945) students’ lives today. • Truman Doctrine (1947) For example: Provide students with • Marshall Plan (1948) copies of the Nineteenth Amendment (milestone document #63) and the Voting • Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel (1948) Rights Act (milestone document #100), • Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948) and ask them to consider the documents’ • Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State implications on their lives. (1953) • Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954) Assessment Incorporate documents into document- • Brown v. Board of Education (1954) based essay questions to assess student • National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956) knowledge of a topic or event. • Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School For example: Provide students with (1957) four documents that relate to westward • President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961) expansion, such as, the Northwest Ordi- nance (milestone document #8), the Home- • President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961) stead Act (milestone document #31), the • Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps. (1961) Pacifc Railway Act (milestone document • Transcript of John Glenn’s Offcial Communication with the #32), and the Morrill Act (milestone docu- Command Center (1962) ment #33). Ask them to use the informa- • Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba (1962) tion contained in the documents and their knowledge of the subject to write an essay • Test Ban Treaty (1963) explaining the federal government’s role in • Offcial Program for the March on Washington (1963) the settling of the West. • Civil Rights Act (1964) • Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964) Participating in National Competitions • Social Security Act Amendments (1965) Further involvement in the Our Docu- • Voting Rights Act (1965) ments initiative can include participation in national competitions—one for educa- All of these milestone documents are in the holdings of the National tors and one for students. Archives and Records Administration except where noted: Teaching Our Documents: A National *in the holdings of the New York Public Library History Day Competition for Educators **in the holdings of the Library of Congress invites teachers to develop and test a classroom lesson focusing on one or several of the one hundred Milestone Documents in U.S. history. Lessons should engage students in a meaningful examination of the documents within their historical context. Complete contest rules and submission guidelines are Edison’s Patent Draw- > ing for the Electric Lamp, 1880

Social Education 10 November/December 2002 11 in History.” Projects can be created indi- Note to the teacher

The Great Seal, > vidually, or by a group of up to fve students. The documents featured in this article 1782 Student winners will also be announced at available online at www.ourdocuments.gov. the national contest held at the University include the Adoption of the Lee Awards will be announced at the annual of Maryland at College Park, June 15-19, Resolution, the Original Design of National History Day national competi- 2003. For more information about Nation- the Great Seal of the United States, tion June 15-19, 2003, at the University of al History Day, visit the NHD web site at and the Northwest Ordinance. Maryland at College Park. www.nationalhistoryday.org. G These three come from Records of Understanding Our Documents: A the Continental and Confederation National History Day Competition for Lee Ann Potter is the head of Education and Volun- Students invites students in grades 6-12 teer Programs at the National Archives and Records Congresses and the Constitutional Administration, Washington, D.C. She serves as the Convention, 1774-1789, Record to create an exhibit, documentary, paper, editor for “Teaching with Documents,” a regular or performance focusing on one or more department of Social Education. You may reproduce of the milestone documents and its rela- the documents shown here in any quantity. Adoption of the Lee tionship to this year’s National History Resolution, 1776 > Day theme, “Rights and Responsibilities

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