Teaching Strategy Keith A. Erekson Lincoln’s Pockets: Doing History on Day One National Standards Standards in Historical Thinking: Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Standard 3A: Identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative and assess its credibility. Standard 3G: Compare competing historical narratives by contrasting different historians’ choice of questions, and their use of sources reflecting different experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and points of view, and by demonstrating how an emphasis on different causes contributes to different interpretations. Time Frame A thirty-minute block of time on the first day of class. Objectives 1. To establish a classroom climate of collaborative and participatory historical learning. 2. To foreshadow course activities that will require primary source analysis and argumentation with evidence. Preparation The teacher should arrange student seating in groups of three or four and prepare an image of the group of artifacts to be shown to the entire class on a screen at the front of the room. Prepare close-up color hard copies of each artifact and black-and-white photocopies of the artifacts for each group of students. Finally, prepare a place for students to write their findings on a white board, chalkboard, or piece of butcher paper. Procedures 1. Begin by welcoming students to the course and then move directly into the activity by saying something like, “If this were a basketball class you would not expect me to lecture about dribbling. Nor would you want to write a final essay about ball-player locomotion. You would want to play the game. Similarly, I presume you have not come here to listen to me talk about the past, but to do history yourselves.” 2. Place on the screen this image of several objects: two pair of glasses with cases, a lens polisher, a handkerchief, a billfold, money, a knife, a watch fob, and nine newspaper clippings (1). As the students look at the objects, explain: “All of these items belong together. You are seated in groups of three (or four). With your colleagues I want you to examine the items in the photo. Full-color close-ups of the objects are available on the table at the front of the classroom. I am passing around black-and-white copies of the objects and the newspaper clippings. I want each team to prepare to tell me in one sentence what these items are and how they are related. I also want you to list three reasons why you think you are right. You are now free to look at the color images, talk to your neighbors, and prepare your explanations.” 3. Now stop talking and symbolically move to the back of the room to watch. At first students will look at the black-and-white photocopies quietly and individually. After a few minutes, one brave student will look around the room, hesitate, and then quietly slip up to the front of the room to look at the full-color photographs. She or he will then return to the team and whisper excitedly. Soon pairs of students will sally up to the photographs, and then, while standing in the front of the room, students will begin to discuss with each other. Throughout the room some students will crane their necks to listen, others will point back and forth between the image on the screen and the item in their hands. In time the classroom will become a whir of motion: whispering voices in two dozen conversations, chairs sliding in and out, arms waving, brows furrowing, neurons firing, pencils scratching. 4. After several minutes, begin circulating throughout the room. When all of the teams feel comfortable with their conclusions and reasons, pair them off and challenge them to persuade the other team that their own conclusions are right. In cases where teams hold the Copyright © Organization of American Historians ▪ All Rights Reserved ▪ <http://www.oah.org/magazine/> OAH Magazine of History • January 2009 51 Downloaded from http://maghis.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Texas at El Paso on December 29, 2011 T he first day of a new course presents a dilemma for teachers. We want to plunge into an exciting subject while simultaneously feeling restrained by the need to explain course objectives and expectations. For their part, students arrive without having “prepared” anything and feel reluctant to speak out among new peers. All too often the scenario results in a teacher simply explaining the course outline. Some will employ a generic ice breaker activity, but the last thing students want to do in a new classroom is to find someone with the same color of toothbrush (especially one who did not use it that morning). Such procedural paralysis is doubly unfortunate. Manuals on teaching methods invariably emphasize the potential of the first class meeting for setting a proper tone for all that follows. Moreover, cognitive scientists indicate that initial encounters powerfully shape a person’s ability to learn and remember. The following first-day classroom activity takes up both challenges by helping students to do history on day one—in this case, examining the contents of Abraham Lincoln’s pockets at the time of his death. Though they have not yet read any course materials, students still bring popular cultural awareness of Lincoln and the Civil War into the classroom. Though they may not have experience with historical sources, they can be drawn in by personal items. The challenge of identifying relationships between artifacts forms a foundation for the subsequent development of more sophisticated techniques of analyzing and interpreting evidence. same conclusion, counsel them to join forces and select the best three reasons from the combined team. Depending on the numbers, make the merged team(s) challenge the other remaining teams. 5. When there are approximately 4-6 teams remaining, instruct representatives from all teams to write their conclusions and reasons on the blackboard for collective assessment. Typically, every group identifies the items as being affiliated with Abraham Lincoln. Some will argue that they were his personal possessions and one or two will demonstrate that the artifacts were the contents of Lincoln’s pockets at the time of his assassination. 6. Begin debriefing by complimenting the teams who argue generally that the items were affiliated with Lincoln. Ask them which items led them to their conclusion and which items they found perplexing (almost invariably they are baffled by the watch fob). Then move to the teams who argue more specifically that the items belonged to Lincoln. They typically note the monogrammed handkerchief and some will notice his name engraved on one of the eyeglasses (the Confederate bill often remains a puzzle for these groups). Finally, address the teams who argue that the items were in Lincoln’s possession at the time of his assassination. These students usually note the dates of the early April 1865 newspaper clippings and combine this finding with their previous 52 OAH Magazine of History • January 2009 knowledge about the date of his assassination. Congratulate them on crafting a solid argument based on very specific evidence. 7. Now introduce the course syllabus or outline. This initial experience can serve for a touchstone in your explanation of the rest of the course. Just as students looked at Lincoln’s personal items, in the coming weeks they will examine a variety of historical sources, including letters, diaries, and so forth. Just as students articulated and defended positions based on reasonable conclusions, they will soon analyze the competing arguments made by historians. With increasing precision, they will craft their own arguments that engage historical scholarship in ways that are relevant to their individual and collective experience. q Endnotes 1. The artifacts belong to the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, <http:// www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/233.html>. A photograph of all of the items is found at <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm012.html>. Because it provides too much of a clue, the newspaper in the photograph should be obscured. A copy of the image without the newspaper is available at <http://oah.org/pubs/magazine/llegacy>. Copyright © Organization of American Historians ▪ All Rights Reserved ▪ <http://www.oah.org/magazine/> Downloaded from http://maghis.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Texas at El Paso on December 29, 2011 These artifacts from Lincoln’s pockets belong to the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. (Image courtesy of Library of Congress.) Bibliography Axelrod, Alan. Lincoln’s Last Night: Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, and the Last 36 Hours Before the Assassination. New York: Chamberlain Bros., 2005. Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Kauffman, Michael W. American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House, 2004.   Steers, Edward, Jr. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Image of all items <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/tlc0070.jpg>. Images of individual artifacts Spectacles, <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/at0050hs.jpg>. Spectacles case, <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/at0050js.jpg>. Reading glasses, <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc003975.jpg>. Watch fob, button, knife, handkerchief, wallet, five dollar bill, lens polisher, reading glasses case, and close up of name engraved on reading glasses, <http://memory.loc.gov/service/rbc/rbc0001/2004/2004lincoln/2004linc oln.pdf> [in a single pdf file] or <http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/233. html> [in individually viewable image files]. Newspaper clippings “Emancipation in Missouri,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/ vc50e.1a.jpg>. “The Disaffection among the Southern Soldiers,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/ treasures/images/vc50e.1b.jpg>. “John Bright on the Presidency,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/ images/vc50e.1c.jpg>. “President Lincoln,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc50e.1d.jpg>. “The Message of the Governor of Missouri,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/ treasures/images/vc50e.1e.jpg>. “A Conscript’s Epistle to Jeff. Davis,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/ images/vc50e.1f.jpg>. “Sherman’s Orders for His March,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/ images/vc50e.1g.jpg>. “The Two Platforms,” <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc50e.1h.jpg>. Keith A. Erekson is assistant professor of history at University of Texas El Paso. He also serves as the director of the Teaching Social Studies in El Paso initiative. His research explores the practice of history in the United States and focuses on memory, popular interest in the past, and public debate over history. He is currently writing a book about popular interest in Abraham Lincoln in the early twentieth century and some of this work has been published in the Oral History Review, The Public Historian, and Ohio Valley History.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Copyright © Organization of American Historians ▪ All Rights Reserved ▪ <http://www.oah.org/magazine/> OAH Magazine of History • January 2009 53 Downloaded from http://maghis.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Texas at El Paso on December 29, 2011 Images Photographs of the artifacts are available online. I recommend full-color prints of individual artifacts for display at the front of the room and multiple blackand-white photocopies for circulation among the teams.