Blog Post #3 - Disciplinary Text Set

 Hi all!

I hope you are all having a great semester! I’m excited to bring you this 3rd blog post finally! To recap, I am covering the usage of primary sources across American History. Primary sources refer to things such as texts, pictures, posters, and other documentation from the period of history that they come from. For example, a letter written between a husband and wife during WW2 is a primary source of the time period. 

For this text set, I am using my 10th grade United States History 1 class at my placement at St. Francis High School. My students come from a range of different backgrounds. Many students come into the St. Francis school district via school choice and come from the surrounding communities, thus they often struggle to have a true connection to the community since it isn’t necessarily “their” community. My students tend to come from different economic backgrounds, with a range of different family socioeconomic situations. Further, their familiarity with history and associated skills come at a variety of different levels, some students excel, while others struggle. 

I have chosen 6 different primary documents from across American History, stretching from the American Revolution to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are cited below:

The Abraham Zapruder film of the Kennedy Assassination. (2019). SchoolTube. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.schooltube.com/media/Zapruder+FilmA+JFK+Assassination+%5BHD%5D/1_3pmydxgt.

Paine, T. (1775). Common Sense.

This is America Music Video . (2018). YouTube. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY&ab_channel=ChildishGambinoVEVO.

United States. Dept. of the Treasury., & Division., U. S. W. F. (2006, June 12). 85 million Americans hold war bonds. UNT Digital Library. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc536/m1/1/

Washington, G. (1796, September). George Washington's Presidential Farewell.

YouTube. (2020, March 20). Coronavirus(COVID-19) tik toks. YouTube. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ptjxDb7Lzc&ab_channel=AlohaTati143 

Text Summary #1: Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

For the first deep analysis, I chose to look deeper at Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.” This text falls into the printed texts group, it is a pamphlet that was circulated in the American colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. Its purpose was to inspire colonists to rebel against the King of England and fight in the revolutionary cause. The pamphlet argues that it does not make sense for England to rule the American colonies because they are much bigger than England is as a whole. Further, Paine argues that the sheer distance at which they rule from makes them not suitable rulers and that the Amercians should be able to govern themselves. This pamphlet comes at a time where tensions between the colonists and British were at an all time high, specifically it was published after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which are the infamous battles that started the American Revolution. Therefore Paine was attempting to get more people on the side of the colonists and their struggle against the British. 

Quantitatively, Common Sense is a significantly difficult document to process for my 10th graders. I put portions of the document into StoryWorks and Common Sense received an average grade scale of 13.5, which is in early college levels. This would indicate that the document has a high reading level and is bound to be challenging to my 10th graders unless they are quite exceptional. I do agree with StoryTools’ quantitative analysis of Common Sense because the language is quite intellectual and the date as it was written in 1775. However, only about 17% of the document contains “long sentences” of 42 words or more. Further, almost half of the document contains short sentences of 17 words or less, which tend to be easier to understand. The average word count per sentence is roughly 31.5. On another note, the syllables per word count is fairly low, at only 1.40, which might make the text a bit easier for my students to understand. Overall, I do agree with the quantitative data presented because I believe that it highlights the difficulty of the text throughout. Further, it shows how the text presented might be quite difficult for a student to understand without some aid. 

Qualitatively, I utilized the Qualitative Measures Rubric presented by SCASS. The rubric allowed me to understand the different qualitative elements to Common Sense. The rubric had 4 different parts; text structures, language features, purpose, and knowledge demands divided into different levels; exceedingly complex, very complex, mildly complex, and slightly complex. In the category of text structures, I have common sense a score of Moderately Complex. I gave this score because the pamphlet organization is fairly straightforward, it doesn’t require much thought to be able to follow along throughout it as it is laid out in a simple way. Further, I chose moderately complex because there are some allusions to the issues of the day that might require some inference and thinking on a student’s part. Therefore, I thought the “moderately complex” score was appropriate. When it came to the section considering Language Features, I have “Common Sense” a score of Very Complex. I gave the text this score because it has a lot of text and language that is dated and thus is considerably complex for students to understand. For example, the word “maxim” might be a word that many of my students may have never heard before and thus it might impede their understanding, thus a “very complex” score. When it comes to Purpose, I gave Common Sense a score of “Very Complex.”  This score is appropriate because the purpose of Common Sense requires some background knowledge to understand, however once acquired, students should be able to easily infer the purpose of the document. Therefore, the “very complex” category is appropriate because one of the things it suggests is that the meaning is relatively easy to infer and is somewhat abstract, while a war effort is somewhat abstract. Lastly, the knowledge demands category receives a score of exceedingly complex. I gave knowledge demands this score because there is a lot of context necessary for understanding the issues presented in Common Sense. Specifically, ideas about freedom and taxation issues might be way above the minds of many of my students since these are not things that they might be grappling with. Therefore, this score is appropriate because it shows how the context of the American Revolution and all the things that led up to it are important to understanding Common Sense. 

Lastly, Common Sense may not necessarily line up with the experience of my students. Specifically, I used the Cultural Relevance Rubric provided on the assignment sheet. Common Sense scored 1s all the way through. This is indicative that the text does not necessarily match up with the students who will be reading it. However, the text is fundamentally important in understanding some of the feelings surrounding the American Revolution. I want to use this text to help students understand what colonists felt about British rule on the cusp of the Revolution. However, the low score of the CRR does make me feel differently about its use. However, I feel conflicted as a social studies educator about the exclusion of this document because it does provide critical insight. In terms of the task to be paired with this text, I believe the best task would be breaking it up into its smaller and more important parts and guiding students through reading it. According to Bloom’s taxonomy, I believe using a “understand” activity would be appropriate considering the difficulty of the text. Through this, students would be able to get the ideas I want for them to get out of Common Sense while recognizing the difficulty of the text.

Text Summary #2: WW2 War Bond Poster

This text is a form of multimedia text that covers a huge topic in American History, the Second World War. This poster was printed in 1945 as a way to get Americans to buy war bonds to pay for the Allies' struggle against the Axis powers. War bonds were used to finance the war via the voluntary payments by ordinary citizens. Specifically, you would pay for a war bond, and then the government would use that money in the war process and then pay it back to citizens after the war was over with interest added to the amount paid for the war bond. War bonds were an investment that allowed Americans to invest in the war effort on their own terms rather than through taxation. 

Quantitatively, the War Bond Poster is much more simple for my student to understand because there are minimal words. According to StoryTools, the mean grade reading level was 7.4. For most of my students, this poster will not be particularly challenging in regards to reading the words on the poster. The average syllables per word is 1.5, which means most words are straight forward and should be relatively easy for my students to decipher. In terms of quantitative measures, it is pretty bare bones as the poster only contains a single sentence, however I believe that the poster more than makes up for this in its qualitative measures.

Qualitatively, the poster is much more complex and has much more to offer. I used the SCASS Informational Text Rubric to assess the war bond poster in a quantitative manner. Due to the poster's nature, it received scores that trended towards “slightly complex,” only receiving a “moderately complex” on purpose and a “very complex” on knowledge demands. I gave the poster a “slightly complex” on text structure and language features because it only includes one sentence and the sentence is overall fairly simple. Therefore, this text does allow students to engage with it due to its minimal and photo-focused nature. When it comes to purpose, I gave the poster the score “moderately complex” because I believe that the poster does require some inference to figure out its purpose, especially if you lack adequate background knowledge. Lastly, I gave the poster a score of “very complex for knowledge demands. I believe what this poster lacks in depth of text, it makes up for in the complexity of the message and how you need to understand the background context. The issues of the day that make up the historical context behind this poster are significant and a lack of understanding of these issues may make it incredibly hard for students to understand. 

In relation to reader and task analysis, this poster is not something that will, on its own, connect to the lives of my learners. Specifically, I used the cultural relevance rubric and the poster received a score of all 1s. This is because the poster does not fit the context of being culturally relevant for my students. It is from an era gone by that my students cannot relate to in the way they could connect to something today. I think it is challenging that these texts, while important to the discipline of history, often are far from culturally relevant to the students we serve. However, the task being paired with this text might lend itself to some more cultural relevance. In regards to the task, I would have students complete a task which pulls from the “analyze” portion of Bloom’s taxonomy. This is because the poster itself is a relatively easy read and text to understand. As a result, an “analyze” task, like comparing this poster to informational posters we see today could make the lesson more culturally relevant as well make them analyze what a poster like the WW2 poster looks like today. In this, I would want students to utilize the WW2 poster to understand the context of that period in American History. 

Text Summary #3: “This is America” - Childish Gambino

“This is America” highlights a primary source in American History that tends to have more cultural connections to the students I serve. The song is performed by Donald Glover, better known as Childish Gambino. The song is a political critique of the racism in America, the music video depicts issues of violence against Black Americans and issues that Black Americans face every single day. The video depicts these things while Glover dances in front of them. This could reference symbolism to how Black Americans have to continue living their lives when they are constantly being encountered with violence. 

Quantitatively, the lyrics are quite simple and students will not have an issue understanding them. I attempted to plug the lyrics into StoryTools, but it was not able to analyze the lyrics due the lack of complete sentences. However, I scanned the words of the song and the longest words I noticed throughout the lyrics were “contraband” and “somebody,” which are both 3 syllable words. Therefore, the small amount of syllables across the words throughout the songs shows me that my students should not have an issue with the understanding of lyrics overall. I believe that qualitative analysis of this song will provide more insight into the song than quantitative analysis. 

Qualitatively, “This is America” is much more complex. I used the SCASS Literature Rubric due to the fact the text is a song, which can be a form of literature. The rubric is split into four different sections; text structure, language features, meaning, and knowledge demands. In the “text structure section,” I gave the song a rating of very complex. This is because the lyrics themselves are laid out in a way that might make it difficult to understand, especially without the aid of the video to add some context. For the section of language features, I gave the song a score of exceedingly complex. As mentioned before, the lyrics are deeply tied to the video and without it, the lyrics are deeply subtle and symbolic and as a result the language features of the song lyrics are exceedingly complex due to their symbolic nature. In the category of meaning, I gave the song lyrics a score of exceedingly complex. This is because the meaning of the song requires significant context, some of which the video supplies, but the meaning of the song and its video need lived experiences to fill in the necessary context in order to completely understand. Lastly, for the knowledge demands, I gave the song lyrics a score of exceedingly complex. This is because the song lyrics are truly only understood through lived experiences in American society, therefore someone who is trying to completely needs to have significant context from their own lives and experiences. 

When it comes to analyzing the reader and the task associated with the text, “This is America has a certain level of complexity in connection to readers and the tasks they will complete with it. Focusing on the reader, “This is America” speaks to the lived experiences of some of my learners, but not all of them. Some of my students have experiences that can deeply relate to the video and the issues that it touches on, while other students of mine might not be able to understand the issues being expressed. Therefore, this song might connect the lives of some of my students while other students might struggle with connecting to the song. In regards to the task to be paired with the song. I could use the song in conjunction with a transcription of the 13th amendment, which could allow students to talk about the experience of Black Americans and how it has and has not changed since the passage of the 13th amendment. This would inspire significant discussion about how society views black Americans today and allow the song to serve a message from today.

Thank you so much for reading this post. It was very interesting to analyze these primary documents and look into how they would probably function in my future classroom. This assignment was tough but rewarding as it has invited me to think more deeply about the texts I bring into my classroom.