What is Change Called When it Happens to Societies?
When change happens to societies, it is called "reform". For the rest of the year we will be discussing the ways that the United States has experienced reform over time. Before we can do this, we must define reform as well as learn about the different ways that it appears in our history.
Reform - make changes in (something, typically a social, political, or economic institution or practice) in order to improve it.
Examples of Reform in U.S. History
To become more familiar with the concept of reform, we are going to look at some of the reforms that we have experienced in the past. I would like you to google "reforms in American History" and together we will create a list of these reforms.
Once we have that list together, we will categorize them into Social, Political, and Economic reforms.
Part II: Reforms Through Primary Sources
Next, we will look at actual historical evidence of reforms throughout the history of the United States through primary sources. I want you to work on the packet I will give you of primary sources and then pass it in when you are done. After everyone is done, we will talk about what was difficult about these sources and what came easy now that we have had more practice with primary sources throughout the year.
Sourcing - Considering who wrote the document and why. • Who wrote this? • What is the author’s perspective? • Why was it written? • When was it written? • Where was it written? • Is this source reliable? Why? Why not?
Contextualizing - Determining when the document was written and getting a sense for what that time period would have been like. • 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?
Corroborating - Considering whether your background knowledge on the topic as well as other documents confirm or contest what this document says. • What do other documents say? • Do the documents agree? If not, why? • What are other possible documents? • What documents are most reliable?
Close Reading - Reading closely to analyze what the author of the document meant the reader to understand and why the document was written. • What claims does the author make? • What evidence does the author use? • What language (words, phrases, images, symbols) does the author use to persuade the document's audience? • How does the document's language indicate the author's perspective?