Best+Practices+for+World+History

I used this political cartoon with the OPTICS strategy for analyzing visual documents. I've been struggling all year to get them to provide nuanced, in-depth, sophisticated analysis (which I've called "significance" and thought this activity would get them to (1) put in a lot of effort and (2) look at each others' work and for those who have been particularly weak, see what I'm looking for and how to do it.

They've had the OPTICS strategy since the first unit of the year: Overview: Parts: Title: Inference: Conclusion: Significance:

This time, I had them compete in small, randomly assigned groups (I just divided the class into groups of 4 or so and went around the classroom, numbering off). They had about 10 minutes altogether (I think I gave them less originally, but then added time as necessary) to discuss the picture and record the answers to the sections of the strategy in their notebooks. It became evident to me that it was important that each student in the group had the exact same answer, since my earlier classes tended to just do the work individually and then sort of discuss it and have the best from their group present, so I don't know how much collaboration went on.

Once they all had answers, I went around the room and had each group read just their significance to the class. Then, using a chart I had created on the board, I recorded both the classes grade, expressed by the fingers of one hand from the class as a whole (I fudged an average) and the grade I would have given it (1-5). The best group, determined by the average of my grade and the class grade, got extra credit.

It also became evident that they've gotten really good at the first five sections of the strategy. They got really excited about figuring out which nation each figure in the cartoon represented (inferences) and then what the meaning of the cartoon was (conclusion);they still struggle, though, with significance. I don't think any significance was really above a 3. My last period class had the time (and my own awareness) to be able to talk about how if we put all of the groups' answers together it would have been a 5, but that each group only focused on one aspect of the significance (the weakness of the Qing dynasty, the Opium War, the spheres of influence) that the cartoon represented.

I am interested in using your optics technique. I have two questions about it: (1) what do students write for overview and (2) what do students write for title? I am guessing they just copy the title down, but what happens when their isn't a title? Do students make up a title? Can they come up with a title before they know the conclusion? Do students complete optics in order, starting with overview and ending with significance? I also used this cartoon when I taught about imperialism in China. I believe this cartoon is the best illustration of imperialism. After studying imperialism for 1.5 months, one of my students didn't appear to grasp the concept until seeing this cartoon. Thanks for the post Dan. -Brian
 * OPTICS response**

For Overview, I tell students to write their first impression "in one sentence, or less". The idea is that often students will jump straight to making inferences, since that is the part where they get to show off what they know, but the problem is that then they often miss a bunch of other important stuff. Overview and Parts (all the things physically present in the picture) are designed to get them to slow down. For Title, I have them write what the title is, or make one up if it isn't present - though I'm thinking maybe I'll stop allowing that - it's relatively fun, but often just gets them being creative without making any real sense of the picture. Other than that, it is definitely in order on purpose: it goes from details to more comprehensive. For significance, they have to put the picture in the historical context - what connections can they draw to the history of the time when it was created?

-Dan

Thanks Dan. I'll give this technique a try sometime soon and I'll let you know how it goes. -Brian

Hi Dan, I am going to teach my freshmen how to use the OPTICS strategy in our next unit on Andrew Jackson. The History Alive text uses political cartoons in three sections on Jackson: the spoils system, the nullification crisis, and Jackson's battle with the Bank of the United States. This will give me three opportunities in a row to work on the skill of cartoon analysis. I'll let you know how it goes. -Brian

When teaching world history, I have learned that my students' knowledge of geography is rather incomplete. Whenever I start a new unit, I have had students color and label maps. Because I can't find good historic blank maps online, I have resorted to creating my own. I find that students like coloring maps and that it helps them visualize where history is taking place. Here are a couple examples of maps I have had my students work on for the last three units: Imperialism in China, Japanese Imperialism, and WWI. -Brian
 * Maps:**

I just tried an activity to help students understand how the Russian Revolution developed. I copied the chapter from the textbook, cut it up (leaving out headings, sections that gave away the chronology and blacking out dates), and labeled each section with a letter (out of order of course). Students in groups of 4 were instructed to: title each section, summarize the reading on the back of the cutout and then organize the readings in order. Extra credit for the first group to get it in the right order correctly. Then I gave them the correct order and pointed out that their titles were section titles for their notes and the summaries were the notes. We went over them and had students transfer the notes to their notebooks. They seemed to get into it.
 * Reading/Notes:**