Skim-C
- Summarizing is the first phase of the SCIM-C strategy and begins with having students quickly examine the documentary aspects of the text, in order to find any information or evidence that is explicitly available from the source. Within this phase students should attempt to identify the source's subject, author, purpose, and audience, as well as the type of historical source (e.g., letter, photograph, cartoon).
Student should look for key facts, dates, ideas, opinions, and perspectives that appear to be immediately apparent within the source. The four analyzing questions associated with the summarizing phase include:
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What specific information, details and/or perspectives does the source provide?
What is the subject and/or purpose of the source?
Who was the author and/or audience of the source?
What type of historical document is the source?
- Monitoring is the capstone stage in examining individual sources. Here students are expected to question and reflect upon their initial assumptions in terms of the overall focus on the historical questions being studied.
Hippo
H: Historical Context (aka little c): What’s the date? What was going on at the time of the document? Are there other big events that could have motivated the writer/creator/author at the time to inspire a change?
APPARTS
Author: Students should look closely at who authored the piece. What do they know about the author that would affect the reliability of the document?
SOAPS
Big C/little c
Larger Context that influences a source
What is the Subject
- Contextualizing begins the process of having students spend more time with the source in order to explore the authentic aspects of the source in terms of locating the source within time and space.
Students and teachers must be careful to avoid treating the source as a product of today as they pursue their guiding historical question.
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When and where was the source produced?
Why was the source produced?
What was happening within the immediate and broader context at the time the source was produced?
What summarizing information can place the source in time and place?
- Inferring is designed to provide students with the opportunity to revisit initial facts gleaned from the source and to begin to read subtexts and make inferences based upon a developing understanding of the context and continued examination of the source.
KEY POINT!
What is suggested by the source?
What interpretations may be drawn from the source?
What perspectives or points of view are indicated in the source?
What inferences may be drawn from absences or omissions in the source?
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What additional evidence beyond the source is necessary to answer the historical question?
What ideas, images, or terms need further defining from the source?
How useful or significant is the source for its intended purpose in answering the historical question?
What questions from the previous stages need to be revisited in order to analyze the source satisfactorily?
- Corroborating only starts when students have analyzed a series of sources, and are ready to extend and deepen their analysis through comparing the evidence gleaned from each source in light of the guiding historical questions.
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What similarities and differences between the sources exist?
What factors could account for these similarities and differences?
What conclusions can be drawn from the accumulated interpretations?
What additional information or sources are necessary to answer more fully the guiding historical question?
- Interpretation of a Primary Source
Place and Time: When and where was the source produced, and how might this affect the meaning of the document? If time and place is not given in the source, are there clues within the document as to the time and place of origin?
Prior Knowledge: Based on the author and time and place of the source, what additional knowledge can a student trigger from this document?
Audience: Who was the source created for, and how might this affect the reliability of the document?
Reason: Why was this document produced at the time and place it was?
Main Idea: What is the point the document is trying to make?
Significance: On the Advanced Placement exam, students are always asked to examine documents relative to a specific question.
APPARTS is designed to get students to focus on key elements of the document and to evaluate the relative importance of these elements - Primary Source
Smaller/more immediate context that may affect a source
CONTEXTUALIZATION: Historical thinking skill that involves the ability to connect historical events and processes to specific circumstances of time and place as well as broader regional, national, or global processes
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A VITAL component of the Historical Thinking Chart (See Previous Section)
• When and where was the document
created?
• What was different then? What was
the same?
• How might the circumstances in
which the document was created
affect its content?
Primary Source Analysis
...CONTEXT Matters!
What is the Occasion?
Who is the Audience?
What isthe Purpose?
Who is the Speaker?
The general topic, content, and ideas contained in the text. Students should be able to state the subject in a few words or a short phrase.
I: Intended Audience: Who did the speaker (author/creator) intend to reach? Who was meant to read, see, or hear the document?
P: Purpose: Why did the speaker create this document? What is he/she trying to change?
P: Point of View: What is the speaker’s position in society, and how does this impact his/her view? Does he/she convey emotion? Does he/she have a defined political, religious, or economic view that a reader should consider? Consider the context, audience, and purpose when writing POV.
Outside information: What additional evidence can you tie to the documents? Can you make a connection to the argument? Can you include more evidence, separate from the Context?
Primary Source Context
Primary Source Application