Activity overview
Primary HTC concept(s) explored in this activity
Evidence guidepost 3
Sourcing often begins before a source is read, with questions about who created it and when it was created. It involves inferring from the source the author’s or creator’s purposes, values, and worldview, either conscious or unconscious..
Evidence guidepost 3
Sourcing often begins before a source is read, with questions about who created it and when it was created. It involves inferring from the source the author’s or creator’s purposes, values, and worldview, either conscious or unconscious..
Students will consider the authors of the sources they have consulted to learn about the Dieppe Raid.
Some questions so consider are:
Teachers can provide a list of guiding questions, or scaffold student development of good questions to investigate the source authors. An excellent source to support the study of worldview is Alberta’s online guide to worldview for teachers.
Students should try to answer these questions using the original source, to see what clues they can uncover. Students should list the information they can find in the source, and identify remaining questions that require further investigation before doing outside research on the source authors.
Some questions so consider are:
- Who are the authors?
- During what time period are they writing?
- For what purposes are they writing this account?
- What are their backgrounds?
- What might make up their worldviews?
Teachers can provide a list of guiding questions, or scaffold student development of good questions to investigate the source authors. An excellent source to support the study of worldview is Alberta’s online guide to worldview for teachers.
Students should try to answer these questions using the original source, to see what clues they can uncover. Students should list the information they can find in the source, and identify remaining questions that require further investigation before doing outside research on the source authors.
In this activity, students should be able to demonstrate understanding that a source is not objective but comes from a specific perspective. Students should also be able to demonstrate the ability to look for clues in texts about their authors. Please see The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts (2012) by Peter Seixas and Tom Morton, as well as the Historical Thinking Project website for further ideas for student assessment or to adapt these activities.
Questions posed to students in this activity
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Research question: Who are the authors of these sources?
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Inquiry question(s): How might the authors’ backgrounds influence how and what they write?
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Considerations for teachers to introduce in student inquiry
Additional guiding question for students: How does understanding the author help us understand an historical account?