Series Reading Like a Historian: Reading Like a Historian: Re-Assessing Reliability

Reading Like a Historian: Re-Assessing Reliability

Lesson Objective: Evaluate reliability before, during, and after reading
Grades 9-12 / History / Sourcing
2 MIN

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. How do students' assessments of reliability change as they read?
  2. What does Mr. Colglazier mean when he says "history is going to change with the more investigation that you do?
  3. " How does Mr. Colglazier encourage sourcing as a habit rather than just a skill?

7 Comments

  • Private message to gwen purvis
Coupling sourcing with reliability is very smart. Only by reassessment of the sources can a student really determine any reliability at all. In fact, I think this 'second look' should happen 4 or 5 times.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Brittany Rodriguez
I think that structuring sourcing this way is very smart. Here students are forced to make an educated guess on if they believe something is reliable or not, and then through research and corroboration they edit their decision on reliability and continue to develop their ideas. Will definitely try this out in my classroom!
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  • Private message to AJ Guevara
Reliability could be used on the elementary campus to determine which sources are more reliable.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Adam Hopson
Reliability was something I always considered in college, but rarely considered in high school. Encouraging students to consider an author's reliability and authenticity would better prepare those students planning to continue their education and, indeed, allow them to engage the author more deeply.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Kelly Mills
Can you tell me what your poster "Sourcing Photographs" says?
Recommended (0)

Transcripts

  • Reading Like A Historian: Strategy – Re-Assessing Reliability
    Program Transcript

    Colglazier:
    What are we thinking about reliability? This can change after

    Reading Like A Historian: Strategy – Re-Assessing Reliability
    Program Transcript

    Colglazier:
    What are we thinking about reliability? This can change after we read it, but let’s start with a guess. Kayla, what do you think in going forward?

    Student:
    I put a 2.

    Colglazier:
    Okay.

    Student:
    ‘Cause he might be biased, but it seems like…

    Colglazier:
    Alright, so right, he was a part of the Civil Rights Movement.

    Student:
    Yeah.

    Colglazier:
    He could be biased, try and maybe sugarcoat the information. Okay, it’s true. So, what we need to do is read it, and then we can go back to our educated guess and determine if we were right.

    Will Colglazier (Interview):
    So the way I would try to get students to think about sourcing and reliability in a more critical way would be to constantly come back to the sense of reliability. It’s a very fluid process. It’s something that they should do before they read a source, after they read a source, and after they’ve read other documents.

    Colglazier:
    Now, you need to assess if your reliability is good enough. You assessed it before you read it; now you need to re-evaluate. Can anybody think of another reason why Document B gets added reliability after we’ve read it? Daniel?

    Student:
    Because it doesn’t make himself look good. He even says that he got pushed behind everybody.

    Colglazier:
    The fact that he admits he got pushed aside, he admits they’re not in the front, he admits a little bit of a negative, I think helps its reliability.

    Will Colglazier (Interview):
    I send students to re-evaluate their previous determination of reliability, because technically nothing is 100 percent reliable or unreliable, so never thinking of it as one question to be completed on the worksheet, that it’s something that they’re always editing. And so, it helps them realize that history and narratives are things that are going to change with the more investigation that you do.

    #####

School Details

Aragon High School
900 Alameda de las Pulgas
San Mateo CA 94402
Population: 1675

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greatschools

Teachers

teachers
William Colglazier