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Historicizing Christopher Columbus for Elementary and Secondary Students

J. H. Bickford and Maegan Wilton

 

"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

     American elementary students annually familiarize themselves with the above rhyme every October as Columbus Day memorializes Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the western hemisphere. Teachers generally construct a narrative of Columbus by celebrating his navigational skill and reviewing relevant dates about his first voyage with worksheets derived from a textbook or a historical fiction book.1 In secondary world history classes, teachers many teachers may provide little more as they race through the content to complete the textbook.2 Research suggests that some educators teach social studies topics like Columbus well by integrating age-appropriate, comprehensive content with engaging methods.3 However, other researchers discredit the content within history textbooks they use,4 find misrepresentations and omissions within widely used historical fiction,5 and question the ability of teachers to engage students in historical thinking.6 Whereas many teachers at the elementary and secondary levels clearly chart a forward-thinking path to elicit students' interest and complicate their thinking,7 some researchers have found too much reliance on catchy poems about dates, generic worksheets based on facts, simplistic historical fiction tales, and one-dimensional textbook summations about Columbus which serve to promote the "heroification" of this navigator, a simplistic approach long abandoned by world historians at all levels of instruction.8

     This heroification is due to many factors. Research suggests that many elementary school teachers are not motivated or trained to effectively teach a rich, complicated narrative history to young children.9 Mandated time reductions for social studies curricula also negatively influence elementary history education.10 Such issues can emerge in middle and high school social studies or history curricula as well. Teachers' units on Columbus, however, are impacted by controversy. The controversy surrounding Columbus manifests when various political, educational, or special interest groups (some with genuine concerns, others with dubious intent) influence how this history is taught and/or celebrated in schools.11 Research indicates educators' reluctance to expose students to controversial, disputed, and/or divergent historical perspectives before they are "intellectually ready" to evaluate the primary sources upon which historians base their findings.12 Historians' disagreements about Columbus also contribute to the aforementioned controversy.

     Historians express divergent interpretations about Columbus's accomplishments, their significance from a world history perspective, his motivations, and his action's negative impacts. While some in the American public (wrongly) attribute the "discovery" of the New World to Columbus, most historians acknowledge the land was already occupied13 and/or postulate theories about Phoenician, Carthaginian, Chinese, Viking, and Germanic exploration of the Americas.14 While some historians credit Columbus as the catalyst for European expansion of exploration and colonization,15 many argue his relative insignificance when compared to others' exploration of the Pacific and Indian Oceans,16 posit that Europe was relatively slow in achieving economic modernity,17 and/or theorize that successful European expansion had more to do with sovereign rulers' willingness to yield power to merchants than with one explorer's success.18 While historians' have boundless opportunities to quarrel about Columbus, most see him as both an ambitious navigator and a controversial figure who caused (at least some) harm to those living in the Americas.19 And, yet, the narrative of "hero" or "discoverer" persists in the American public, in textbooks, and in historical fiction books,20 which demonstrates a disconnect from recent scholarship about Columbus.

     To deepen students' understanding about Columbus, his motivations, his actions, his crew's actions, and their collective impact on Native Americans, teachers must provide students with opportunities to examine and scrutinize the vast, rich, and readily available primary source material. Since such a pursuit may seem somewhat daunting, the question emerges: What historical sources and educational resources can teachers use to challenge students' thinking? Rethinking Columbus21 historicizes Columbus's encounter with Native Americans, proffers various activities for elementary and secondary teachers, and contextualizes the exploration (and its implications) within contemporary socio-economic and environmental issues. However, it is not rich in text-based primary sources, it does not facilitate students' examinations of competing secondary interpretations of primary sources, the historical content appears best suited for older students, and the activities seem best suited for younger students. To supplement this seminal text, this article provides elementary and secondary school teachers with a plan rich in primary sources, based on competing narratives, and extended in a spiraled format. The content, methods, and assessments are not intended to be an exhaustive list, but instead a demonstrable guide to the possibilities generated from reliable primary source documents and competing interpretations of the aforementioned primary sources. It is broken down into four parts.

     The first section, entitled Primary Sources and Competing Interpretations, examines the historical documents used within historians' divergent interpretations. Historians' disparate views on Columbus – based on differing interpretations of primary sources – provide readers a complex picture about the controversies surrounding Columbus.22 Effective history teaching must include both primary sources and opposing secondary interpretations.23 In separate subsections, the authors contextualize three different themes within primary sources about Columbus and historians' competing interpretations of each. This section is purposefully the largest to generate teachers' interest in the rich primary sources and divergent secondary interpretations.

     The second section, entitled Differentiated Applications for Elementary Teachers, contextualizes the primary documents for elementary teachers to use with students of various ages and abilities. Effective history teachers must appropriately adapt their content, deftly challenge their students' thinking with engaging methods, and flexibly provide students with an array of opportunities to demonstrate their learning.24 This section, which provides interesting content, differentiated activities, and inventive authentic assessment strategies, is intended to intrigue elementary teachers interested in historical content on Columbus, which recent educational scholarship has strongly encouraged.25

     The third section, entitled Extensions for Secondary Teachers, charts a forward-thinking path for middle and high school teachers. The authors propose a spiraled curriculum that actively engages and constructively complicates older students' thinking with new and age-appropriate secondary historical content. This section proffers differentiated content, engaging methods, and authentic assessment strategies to appeal to middle and high school teachers interested in historical content on Columbus. Recent educational research urges this approach to curricular content, methodology, and assessment.26

     The final section, entitled Discussion, points towards other historical figures that are commonly presented in elementary, middle, and high schools. As with Columbus, these complicated individuals had both multi-faceted motivations and easily disagreed-upon impacts, yet they are presented in overly simplistic ways. The authors encourage more nuanced historical presentations of these individuals.

Primary Sources and Competing Interpretations

     Primary sources provide a rich and comprehensive view of the complexities and controversies surrounding historical events.27 Historical examinations of primary sources about Columbus suggest multiple themes. These include, but are not limited to, his navigational talent and bravery, involvement with violence and slavery, and motivation to explore. Such primary sources form the bases for historians' divergent interpretations of the aforementioned themes. While historians debate – to a small degree – Columbus's navigational talent and bravery, major disagreements emerge about Columbus's involvement in violence, participation in slavery, and motivations to explore. Historians base their divergent arguments on the same primary sources. As with effective history writing, these primary sources form the bases for effective history teaching.

     The question for teachers, then, is two-fold. Which primary historical sources are best (as defined by age-appropriateness and engaging content) for students? Which secondary historical interpretations are most comprehensive and accurate? The latter and the former reciprocally complement each other. (The second section, entitled Differentiated Applications for Elementary Teachers, provides answers for elementary teachers; the third section, entitled Extensions for Secondary Teachers, addresses these questions for middle and high school teachers.) Thus, representative primary sources must be examined, categorized, and properly historicized within the framework of secondary interpretations.

     This section is not intended to meticulously contextualize every primary source relevant to Columbus nor does it painstakingly examine every secondary historical interpretation of the aforementioned primary sources. This section does provide rich primary sources that illustrate the complexities ignored in many historical fiction trade books and expository texts. Further, it supplements the various visual primary sources and historians' divergent interpretations within Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years.28 Focusing on a representative sampling of the aforementioned themes within the primary sources, this section is broken down into three subsections: Navigational Skills and Bravery, Involvement with Violence and Slavery, and Motivation to Explore.

Navigational Skills and Bravery

     While historians acknowledge Columbus's identification of land in the Atlantic, they dispute his navigational expertise and bravery. Schweikart and Allen claimed Columbus was a talented navigator and had a courageous, poised, and persistent demeanor.29 Granzotto argued Columbus to be more motivated than talented but courageous nonetheless.30 Zinn and Loewen each described Columbus as more arrogant than skilled and, based on Columbus's flawed navigational logic, fortunate to have survived the journey.31

     While space prevents full inclusion of Columbus's journal of his first voyage in 1492, the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies at Fordham University provides extracts that connote both his capacity to navigate and ability to constructively confront emergent (and dangerous) situations.32 The following primary sources extracts from this rich primary source provide insights, supplement prior knowledge, elicit questions, and are open to interpretation. (These figures are labeled for subsequent referencing.)

3 August 1492. Set sail from the bar of Saltes at 8 o'clock, and proceeded with a strong breeze till sunset, sixty miles or fifteen leagues south, afterwards southwest and south by west, which is the direction of the Canaries.

Figure 1


6 August 1492. The rudder of the caravel Pinta became loose, being broken or unshipped. It was believed that this happened by the contrivance of Gomez Rascon and Christopher Quintero, who were on board the caravel, because they disliked the voyage.

Figure 2


9 September 1492. Sailed this day nineteen leagues, and determined to count less than the true number, that the crew might not be dismayed if the voyage should prove long. In the night sailed one hundred and twenty miles, at the rate of ten miles an hour, which make thirty leagues. The sailors steered badly, causing the vessels to fall to leeward toward the northeast, for which the Admiral reprimanded them repeatedly.

Figure 3

     As mentioned, all three entries entice students with novel content, facilitate their active construction of knowledge, and elicit students' questions. Figure 1 provides students with dates, direction, and location while eliciting questions about each. Figure 2 provides names of people and a ship; it also documents damage to the ship. It generates questions about mutiny and fear while complicating the story of a safe voyage. Figure 3 further complicates the safe voyage story by providing details about the crew's worries, the crew's mistakes, and Columbus's response to each. It elicits questions about terms like "leagues" and Columbus's admission of deceiving the crew. When combined, these rich primary sources create both an opportunity for students to actively construct knowledge that complicates previously held understandings and a context for divergent interpretations based on newly constructed understandings.

     Schweikart and Allen used the extracts to support their celebration of Columbus's confidence and resiliency. They argued that while the voyage's length produced anxiety ("which bordered on mutiny") among the crew, Columbus's tactful reassurance and "managerial skill" generated both diligent work and faith among the crew. They attributed the location of land as Columbus's accomplishment.33 Using the same primary source material, others disagreed.

     Loewen, Zinn, and Granzotto, while focusing on Columbus's admission of deception (as noted in Figure 3, "determined to count less than the true number, that the crew might not be dismayed if the voyage should prove long"), arrived at different conclusions. Loewen and Zinn each constructed a narrative of Columbus as deceitful with little regard for the crew's safety or concerns. They argued that the fleet's (and not Columbus's) successful location of land saved a popular revolt; they further attribute the ships' successful landing was based more on luck than on Columbus's bravery.34 Granzotto agreed to an extent with Loewen and Zinn, but argued for a nobler purpose. He asserted that Columbus's deception centered on Machiavellian logic (read: the ends justify the means) whereby his intent on accomplishing his goal overshadowed his worries about the crew's safety or concerns.35 Granzotto, in coherence with Schweikart and Allen's, described Columbus as quite valiant.36

     The preceding historians' examinations of the same primary source material clearly resulted in incongruent interpretations. Interestingly, these historians similarly diverge when interpreting Columbus's involvement in violence and slavery, which forms the bases for the subsequent subsection. In it, the authors present various primary source materials and historians' divergent interpretations of the primary source materials.

Involvement with Violence and Slavery

     While all of the aforementioned historians acknowledge Columbus's involvement in violence and slavery, they contextualize it far differently. Schweikart and Allen barely mention Columbus's conquest and enslavement of indigenous peoples and do so only to argue that his actions were typical of explorers of that period.37 Granzotto similarly minimally examined Columbus's involvement in violence and slavery.38 Both Granzotto and then Schweikart and Allen argued Columbus should not be viewed as a conqueror. Others disagreed vehemently. Zinn, Loewen, Sandberg, and Nader each separately constructed narratives based on Columbus's (and his crew's) unscrupulous behaviors which (eventually) violated anti-slavery decrees set forth by the Spanish royalty.39 As before, these historians generated opinions based on the same primary source materials.

     While space prevents full inclusion of all the primary sources that reference Columbus's involvement in violence and slavery, the following are representative extracts that provide insights, supplement prior knowledge, complicate thinking, and elicit questions.

14 April, 1495. I ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect three handful quantities of gold every three months for thy Royal Highness. As they bring it, they are given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Those found without tokens shall have one hand cut off as punishment.40

Figure 4


They [the Native Americans] should be good servants…I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses.41

Figure 5


I implore you to recognize the Church as a lady and in the name of the Pope take the king as lord of this land and obey his mandates. If you do not do it, I tell you that with the help of God I will enter powerfully against you all. I will make war everywhere and every way I can. I will subject you to the yoke and obedience to the Church and to his majesty. I will take your women and children and make them slaves. … The deaths and injuries that you will receive from here on will be your own fault and not that of his majesty nor of the gentlemen that accompany me.42

Figure 6

     As mentioned, all three primary sources will likely elicit students' interest and questions, facilitate active construction of knowledge, and challenge previously held beliefs. Figure 4 details both Columbus's demands for gold and resultant punishment for failure to provide the requisite gold. It elicits questions about greed and brutality. Figure 5 implies forced servitude. It leads the reader to question Columbus's decency. Figure 6, which historians have termed The Requirement, appears ominous when more fully contextualized: Columbus's crew read this to the Native Americans in Spanish (a language they could not understand). It connotes an authoritarian tone, at best, or a conquistador's timbre, at worst. It elicits queries about the role of the Church (and Columbus's readings of Christ's teaching) in Columbus's actions.

     Zinn and Loewen argued these primary source documents, written by Columbus himself, are not open to interpretation. Both historians argued that Columbus willfully and demonstrably engaged in crimes against humanity; they each examine in graphic detail the slavery and dehumanizing acts of violence in which Columbus and his crew took part.43 Many historians focus on Columbus as the catalyst for forced prostitution of Native American women44 and the Native Americans' infanticide (which was either a purposeful decision to kill their children so they would not grow up under tyranny or an impulsive and desperate act when fleeing Columbus's crew).45

     Granzotto minimizes, and Schweikart and Allen virtually ignore, Columbus's role in this brutal violence and slavery.46 These historians argue that it is only due to drastic changes in societal norms that contemporary historians view these acts as brutal.47 Many historians similarly argue that to judge such actions from a modern perspective is an error in historical decontextualization.48 Granzotto, along with Schweikart and Allen, asserted that while Columbus and his men engaged in slavery and then tortured or killed native people, these were not anomalies but part of a larger pattern in which most explorers participated. As such, the aforementioned historians claim contemporary interpretations should not condemn Columbus for his actions.49 Ignoring evidence of the Spanish royalty's changing perceptions about slavery and violence,50 Schweikart and Allen made the case that "left-wing" and "socialist" historians with "agendas" revise and "corrupt" history by focusing on these acts.51 Using the same primary source materials, other historians disagree.

     Loewen and Zinn argue these primary sources point towards Columbus's true motivation. They argue that Figure 4 suggests Columbus's interest in gold and loyalty to the royalty; figure 5 indicates Columbus's intent on making money through slavery when gold was insufficient and implies loyalty to a Christian God or royalty ("I, our Lord being pleased"); and figure 6 signifies Columbus's loyalty to the Church and the royals.52

Loewen and Zinn drew far different conclusions about Columbus's motivations than Granzotto and Schweikart and Allen. Columbus's motivation(s) forms the bases for the third theme extracted from primary source material about Columbus, which the subsequent subsection examines.

Motivation to Explore

     Historians' analyses about Columbus's motivations likely impacted their interpretations of the two preceding themes of primary source documents, entitled Navigational Skills and Bravery and Involvement with Violence and Slavery. Historians uniformly agree that, like all explorers, multiple variables motivated Columbus. They disagree, however, on the influence of each specific motivation, which included Indian spices, curiosity, God, glory, and gold/greed. Schweikart and Allen asserted Columbus was motivated to locate a safe sea travel way to India for precious gold and spices (which were valued in ways similar to gold), spread Christianity, and encounter new areas and new people.53 Granzotto agreed with the previous three motivations while asserting Columbus's interest in glory and monetary reward.54 While Zinn and Loewen did not discount Columbus's intent on Indian spices, curiosity, and interest in spreading Christianity, they argued glory and greed to be the strongest motivational catalysts for Columbus.55 In their view, Columbus used religion as a pretext to zealously chase titles and treasures.

     The same primary sources formed the bases for the aforementioned historians' analyses about Columbus's motivations. While space does not allow for a comprehensive inclusion of all the primary source material, the following four primary sources are representative extracts. These primary sources provide insights into the five main conclusions surrounding Columbus's intentions: India and its spices, curiosity with new land and new people, spreading Christianity, glory, and greed/gold. As before, these primary sources elicit interest, generate questions, and complicate students' understandings about Columbus's motivations. (For clarity, a contextualizing statement follows each chronologically-organized primary source.)

That of all and every kind of merchandise, whether pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever, of whatever kind, name and sort, which may be bought, bartered, discovered, acquired and obtained within the limits of the said Admiralty, Your Highnesses grant from now henceforth to the said [Christopher Columbus] ... the tenth part of the whole, after deducting all the expenses which may be incurred therein.56 (On April 17, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain created this business contract which entitled Columbus to ten percent of the profits.)

Figure 7


Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of … all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith... [Y]our Highnesses … ordered me to proceed … to India, and for that purpose granted me great favors, and ennobled me that thenceforth I might call myself Don, and be High Admiral of the Sea, and perpetual Viceroy and Governor in all the islands and continents which I might discover and acquire…57 (On August 2, 1492, Columbus wrote this entry into his journal.)

Figure 8


They are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts … Their Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they need … and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped.58 (In April of 1493, Columbus wrote this letter to a financier, Luis de Santangel.)

Figure 9


We of our own motion, and not at your solicitation, do give, concede, and assign for ever to you and your successors, all the islands, and main lands, discovered; and which may hereafter, be discovered, towards the west and south; whether they be situated towards India, or towards any other part whatsoever, and give you absolute power in them.59 (In this May 4, 1493 papal bull, Pope Alexander VI granted ownership of this newly "discovered" land to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.)

Figure 10

     To more comprehensively conceptualize Columbus's motivations, the authors presented the previous four primary sources. For purposes of brevity, the syntheses will be compact and center on the historians' claims about Columbus's motivations.

     Locating a safe seaway to India (to locate valued spices and exotic goods) is a common theme in many secondary historical writings60 and children's historical fiction accounts about Columbus.61 Previous researchers, utilizing content analyses of materials intended for elementary students, found this theme to be the most commonly taught motivation.62 However, upon further scrutiny, it was mentioned in only one (Figure 8) of the aforementioned primary sources. In Columbus's own diary, he mentions India and spices three times each.63

     Curiosity with new land and new people is similarly a basis for many history and children's historical fiction accounts about Columbus.64 Correspondingly, researchers have found this to be the second most commonly taught motivation.65 However, upon detailed examination of the cited primary sources, Columbus expressed curiosity just once (Figure 9). In Columbus's own diary, he frequently mentions curiosity, but usually it is located within expressions of interest for the subsequent three motivations: spreading Christianity, glory, and greed/gold.66

     Spreading Christianity, obtaining glory, and claiming gold are inextricably intertwined motivations for Columbus (along with both the Spanish royalty and the Catholic Church). When spreading Christianity to newly "discovered" lands, the explorer, the royals, the financiers, and the church all assumed financial benefit would follow.67 The above primary sources were written by or to those expecting glory, gold, and the expansion of Christianity. Many historians describe Columbus (and his financiers) as either keenly motivated or "desperate" to fulfill financial obligations.68 Further, each of the cited primary sources either denotes or connotes these three motivations. Upon analysis of Columbus's journal, he mentioned gold (eighteen times) and Christianity (six times) far more than locating India (three times) or spices (three times).69 Further, one prominent historian noted that Columbus, in the first two weeks of his journal alone, mentioned gold over seventy-five times, a topic surpassed in frequency only by observations of location on the ocean.70

     This suggests Columbus's incentives to explore were based more on the latter three motivations (spreading Christianity, garnering glory, and collecting gold) than the former two (Indian spices and curiosity). However, many prominent historians disagree. Schweikart and Allen – and others – claimed Indian spices, spreading Christianity, and curiosity were prominent motivators for Columbus.71 Granzotto assented, while noting that the pursuit of glory and financial windfalls were closely tied to spreading Christianity.72 Zinn and Loewen asserted glory and greed to be the strongest motivations for Columbus.73 As before, the aforementioned historians based their disparate interpretations on the same primary source documents.

     This healthy debate often does not emerge in classrooms covering this historical event. As researchers have found, historical fiction novels on and worksheets about Indian spices and Columbus's curiosity abound in elementary school contexts.74 For these reasons, the authors promote a different approach. The following section, Differentiated Applications for Elementary Teachers, provides applications of the aforementioned primary sources for elementary teachers in a spiraled format. This section proffers adapted content, engaging methods, and differentiated assessment strategies. Extensions for Secondary Teachers provides a metaphorical map for secondary teachers; this spiraled format also offers new adaptations to aptly challenge older students with age-appropriate historical content.) The preceding section was intentionally large to generate teachers' interest in the sources and divergent interpretations. The subsequent sections are deliberately suggestive to facilitate teachers' ownership and creative application of the primary and secondary material.

Differentiated Applications for Elementary Teachers

     Previous researchers' proposed elementary age-appropriate topics about Columbus75 and encouraged teachers to actively challenge ubiquitous misinformation about (and stereotypical archetypes of) Native Americans.76 To extend these suggestions and arguments, this section will challenge students in new and different ways while incorporating the aforementioned primary source documents and competing narratives. With the purpose of eliciting elementary students' interest and complicating their thinking, this section provides adapted content, methodological suggestions, and ideas for enabling students' authentic demonstrations of learning.

     For purposes of clarity, three subsections – content, methods, and assessment – organize this section. The authors perceive the following to be not an exhaustive list but illustrative suggestions that demonstrate the possibilities with incorporating primary sources and competing narratives. (The authors later extend these illustrative suggestions for middle and high school teachers.)

Content: For Elementary Teachers

     Previous researchers have encouraged teachers to modify language within complex historical sources to age-appropriate levels while maintaining the authentic voice.77 To demonstrate the potential for effortlessness primary source adaptation, the authors proffer the following modifications. The following suggestions maintain the integrity and tone of the original primary source but are demonstrably reader-friendly78 for younger students.

On August 3rd 1492, we set sail from Spain early in the morning. Heading south and west towards the sunset, we traveled sixty miles.

Figure 1 (adapted)


On August 6th 1492, the rudder of our ship the Pinta broke! I think people on the ship might have done it. My sailors Gomez Rascon and Christopher Quintero were both on board and have complained about this trip.

Figure 2 (adapted)


On September 9th 1492, we sailed more than 60 miles, but I'm not telling my crew the truth because they seem very worried about if we will ever find land. The sailors steered our ships badly, causing them to tip a lot. I had to tell them repeatedly to do better.

Figure 3 (adapted)


On April 14th 1495, I ordered every Indian over fourteen to collect three handfuls of gold every three months. I'm going to give this to the King and Queen of Spain. When the Indians bring it, I give them a copper necklace. Those Indians who don't do this will be punished.

Figure 4 (adapted)


These Indians could be good servants. I will take six of them back to Spain with me for the King and Queen.

Figure 5 (adapted)


I want you all to follow my religion and also obey my king's rules. If you don't, I will fight you and make the women and children slaves. It will be your fault if you don't follow my orders.

Figure 6 (adapted)


To pay for this trip, I want you, Christopher Columbus, to take all the pearls, gold, silver, spices, and other expensive things. And, then, I will give you a part of it all.

Figure 7 (adapted)


King and Queen of Spain, my name is Christopher Columbus. Since you love Christianity and don't love enemies or people who aren't Christian, please send me to India. I want to meet with the people and see the land there. I want to help make them Christian. If I find this land and meet these people, then I want to rule it.

Figure 8 (adapted)


King and Queen of Spain, you would not believe how kind, generous, and loving these Indians are! If you ask them for something, they will give it. I will give you, the King and Queen of Spain, as much gold as I can get and as many slaves as I can take on the ship.

Figure 9 (adapted)


I, Pope Alexander VI, leader of the Catholic Church, give Christopher Columbus all the lands you discover. I will let you own them.

Figure 10 (adapted)

     The authors previously categorized figures 1, 2, and 3 as Navigational Skills and Bravery; figures 4, 5, and 6 as Involvement with Violence and Slavery; and figures 7, 8, 9, and 10 as Motivation to Explore. Revised to facilitate elementary students' comprehension, the content in these adapted primary sources both maintain the tone of their original versions and provide reading opportunities for elementary students. While these sources have limitless potential for application, the authors recommend the following methodological steps for elementary teachers.

Methods: For Elementary Teachers

     When adjusting for elementary students' cognitive development and reading comprehension abilities (and taking into account the district's curricular requirements), teachers are limited only by their own motivation and methodological creativity. Thus, the aforementioned adapted primary sources provide endless possibilities for imaginative and enthusiastic teachers. Two engaging suggestions follow.

     First, many researchers encourage teachers to generate students' prior knowledge, elicit questions, and enable reflection.79 These researchers promote KWL as a reading strategy to enable students to list their prior knowledge before the lesson or unit begins (when they write what they Know), ask questions (when they write what they Want to know), and then, after the lesson or unit, answer their questions when they list their newly generated understandings (when they list what they Learned). While not refuting the merits of KWL, the authors question its appropriateness for elementary-aged students learning historical content for many reasons.

     It is a lengthy process (which may take days to complete), requires students to have some prior knowledge about Columbus (which is limited at best), and, most importantly, does not enable students to distinguish between what they know with certainty and what they think they know. The authors propose an adaptation that they term: KTQ. This strategy enables students to denote prior knowledge (Know), list information they believe to be true (Think they know), and generate questions about information about which they are uncertain (Questions). KTQ effectively utilizes quality aspects of KWL (prior knowledge elicitation, inferential thinking, question generation) while facilitating students' discrimination between knowledge and speculation. KTQ effectively enables students' examinations of primary sources while efficiently using classroom time.

     The authors propose teachers utilize KTQ for the adapted primary sources in the ways they see fit. Modeling KTQ – in a teacher-centered and whole class format – might effectively generate elementary students' understandings, speculations, and questions. Teachers can then enable the students' examinations of primary sources in small groups, pairs, or individually. Teachers can further utilize various forms of cooperative learning, such as expert-novice grouping, to efficiently enable students to effectively teach (and learn from) others.80

     Second, since historical fiction trade books are common in elementary schools and frequently misrepresent history,81 it would be beneficial for elementary students to apply their interpretations of primary source documents to content within historical fiction trade books. This activity enables students to identify divergent interpretations of the same historical event. The authors encourage teachers to first read a historical fiction text to the class, generate a list as a large class about the story's content, enable students' examination of the primary sources, and then construct a similar list about the content within the primary sources. The students can use a graphic organizer to evaluate each list's content.82

     While researchers describe such inter-textual comparative activities as age-appropriate for elementary history students,83 comparisons should not be limited to simply text-to-text. Stated differently, students can also compare their content lists (generated from primary source analyses) to political cartoons and movies. These comparisons also should not be seen with finality. In other words, these comparisons will likely generate questions that can (and should) lead to a discussion based on differences between the lists. As many world history researchers and educators have encouraged, teacher can (and should) cultivate student-centered dialogue in which students' opinions remain at the forefront.84

     To paraphrase an argument Dewey85 made in multiple places, knowledge is meaningless without a purpose. Therefore, this discussion should not be seen with finality or as an end product. It should instead be seen as an occasion for students to verbally express and refine their answers and as an opportunity for the teacher to ask questions that elicit reflection and complicate students' understandings. This discussion, then, should be a catalyst for an authentic activity that enables students to articulate newly generated understandings.

Assessment: For Elementary Teachers

     While teachers utilize various forms of summative and formative assessments to more precisely and comprehensively understand what students do and do not grasp, researchers suggest this may not most effectively enable students' expressions of newly constructed knowledge.86 The authors proffer two assessment strategies that build off previous researchers' suggestions about the educational validity in comparative activities for elementary students.87 These assessments, which should not be seen as an exhaustive list, are intended to spark educators' interest in utilizing primary sources and differ in tone from the visual sources and various creative writing activities proffered within Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years.88 They are both authentic (as defined by their focus on classroom-based content) and differentiated (as denoted by their flexibility, a distinguishing characteristic).89 Further, while these assessments would appeal to different students' learning styles,90 they each utilize technology and require writing (both of which are skills largely ignored within summative state assessments).

     Students could generate a Venn diagram to juxtapose content summaries generated from primary sources, visual texts, historical fiction trade books, and/or expository texts, which many researchers and educators have encouraged.91 To supplement this comparative graphic organizer, students could write a three-paragraph essay in which they explicitly state similarities, distinguish differences, and then note what they learned from the activity and what questions remain unanswered. The writing and Venn diagram could be on paper, poster board, or on Microsoft PowerPoint, whichever the teacher and/or student believes is the least restrictive medium for expression.

     Students could also use a diorama to compare information generated from primary sources to information expressed within other texts, trade books, or visual imagery. With each section of the diorama devoted to different texts, students might complement this comparative (and artistic) product with an essay similar in style and content to the one mentioned above. While the writing could paper-based or computer-based, the diorama could be either in the traditional shoebox format or on Microsoft PowerPoint where Internet images replace items brought from home or made within the classroom. The teacher and/or student could determine the least restrictive medium for expression.

     Intended for elementary school teachers, the above subsections adapt and contextualize the content, proffer age-appropriate methods for historical analyses, and suggest differentiated and authentic assessment strategies. The content, methods, and assessments are based on rich primary source material intended to supplement traditional narratives about Columbus and complement the visual sources and creative writing within Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years.92

     As knowledge without a purpose is inconsequential,93 teachers must complicate students' previous understandings in new and different ways. Therefore, elementary students' understandings about Columbus must be extended in middle and high school. These secondary teachers must challenge their students with new information based on representative primary sources and a variety of secondary interpretations of those sources.

Extensions for Secondary Teachers

     Dewey argued convincingly that educators must elicit students' interests while complicating their prior knowledge and purposefully challenging their thinking.94 As students mature, their understandings – generated from the previous section's content – must be both extended and complicated. Others have persuasively argued that students must be taught to think historically or think like a historian.95 To do so, Dewey argued teachers should enable students to critically evaluate ambiguous situations using the best available evidence and, in doing so, demonstratively express new understandings.96

     Towards these ends, this section proffers age appropriate content, engaging strategies, and unique measures of learning for middle and high school students. As before, these are not intended to be illustrative examples, and not an exhaustive inventory, of content, methods, and assessment for middle and high school teachers.

Content: For Middle and High School Teachers

     While previously adapting the primary sources for elementary students, the primary sources – in their original form – appear appropriate for secondary students. They can be utilized with adaptations made for struggling readers. To further complicate students' understandings, it is necessary to introduce students to secondary interpretations of the primary sources.

     To best construct a paradigm that incorporates the divergent interpretations, students are encouraged to read (and then juxtapose) competing historical narratives. Chapter One of Zinn's A People's History of the United States and Chapter One of Schweikart and Allen's A Patriot's History of the United States are recommended. While other historical texts are more detailed, these two chapters, when seen together, present the most contrasting interpretations of the same primary source materials (as noted in the paper's first section, Primary Sources and Competing Interpretations).

     When coupled with detailed examinations of the primary sources, these two chapters represent opposite ends of an interpretative continuum about Columbus and how he should be seen (or celebrated) today. As noted in the paper's first section, both chapters utilize the primary source material when addressing his Navigational Skills and Bravery, his Involvement with Violence and Slavery, and his Motivation to Explore. To efficiently use class time and enable students' comprehension and examination of the readings, teachers must employ age-appropriate methods. To effectively determine students' construction of new understandings, teachers should utilize age-appropriate assessment strategies. The subsequent two subsections concentrate separately on the former and latter, using textual primary sources in ways not addressed within Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years.97

Methods: For Middle and High School Teachers

     To resourcefully utilize class time and facilitate students' comprehension and examination, teachers employ age-appropriate methods. Researchers on adolescent learners encourage teachers to incorporate movement, choice, and collaboration because middle and high school students spend inordinate amounts of time in hard seats as their bones grow, thrive when offered opportunities to make decisions, and are social creatures emboldened by cooperative learning activities.98 While the aforementioned KTQ is an effective strategy for primary source analysis, the authors encourage four strategies that each incorporates at least two of the recommended variables for adolescents.

     Think, Pair, and Share is a familiar strategy for primary source interpretation whereby students first generate observations and then share ideas with a partner. This incorporates collaboration and movement. To generate more ideas, many teachers lead a whole class discussion after the pairing/sharing segment. It could be utilized during either examination of both primary sources or secondary readings.

     Interpret-Swap utilizes movement, choice, and collaboration. During Interpret-Swap students freely move to different tables or desks where the teacher has placed primary sources. During this activity, students can collaborate with peers and work at their own pace. This enables choice as some students examine fewer primary sources in more detail, while others examine more primary sources with less depth. To expose all students to all primary sources (and to informally assess comprehension), teachers might lead a whole class discussion afterwards. While Think, Pair, and Share works well with primary sources or secondary readings, Interpret-Swap appears best suited for primary source analyses because it encourages detailed examination of smaller texts.

     During Gallery of Evidence, the teacher purposefully places primary sources on the wall around the room and then encourages students to move, examine the sources, collaborate with peers (if they so choose), and move at their own pace. Like Interpret-Swap, a Gallery of Evidence activity enables students' movement, choice, and collaboration. It also appears best suited for primary source examination because it elicits detailed interpretations of shorter passages.

     Sentence Scramble is an engaging activity that works best with longer texts such as the aforementioned secondary sources. To prepare, the teacher selects an important paragraph (or two) of a larger text, types the sentences down on a separate piece of paper, places each sentence on a separate line, reorganizes the sentence-lines so they are out of order, randomly assigns numbers to the sentence-lines, and cuts the sentence-lines (so students are given ten or fifteen strips of paper, each with its own randomly assigned and numbered sentence-line). The teacher then encourages students to choose to collaborate or work alone to reorganize the sentence-lines into a seemingly logical sequence. As students work, the teacher moves around the room, offering encouragement for students' sequencing attempts, and, when appropriate, exclaims, "Yes, number four does come first, please write #4 on the board!" This incorporates student-movement (as they write the sequence on the board), encourages confident students to work ahead, and provides slower (or confused) students with the support needed to continue. Once all the sentences are properly sequenced on the board, the teacher then reads the whole passage to the whole group. During Sentence Scramble, students read the sentences multiple times during sequencing and then listen to it again during the whole class reading. This provides students with prior knowledge of an important section of a longer reading before they individually read the chapter. Sentence Scramble, which can be adapted in many ways and incorporates choice and collaboration, would work well for the aforementioned chapter readings.

     These four strategies follow research about adolescent learners, which suggests strategies that incorporate movement, choice, and collaboration.99 These four strategies have the potential to work well for teachers who employ text-based reading of primary and secondary sources to facilitate students' comprehension and active construction of knowledge. As previously mentioned, though, comprehension and knowledge construction should not be the end goals. Teachers must enable students to creatively express newly generated understandings. The subsequent subsection focuses on authentic assessment strategies that extend suggestions provided within Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years.100

Assessment: For Middle and High School Teachers

     To enable students to express newly constructed understandings, teachers must utilize age-appropriate assessment strategies. Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years101 proffers middle and high school teachers various assessments like creative writing, image interpretation, and Mock Trials. While these are effective strategies to assess students' learning, they are also limiting in certain ways.

     Middle and high school teachers frequently employ different forms writing assignments, such as creative writing and expository writing. While these activities can be both appealing and arduous for students, they are necessary for the discipline and enable sequential, purposeful thinking.102 However, it also can be redundant when repeated annually by different teachers. Further, such writing does not provide optimum opportunities for students to purposefully use the primary sources in ways similar to how historians work.

     Secondary history teachers regularly historicize a topic using images like photographs, political cartoons, and artistic representations. Such sources facilitate students' contextualized interpretations of the event and are not time-consuming. However, as others have argued, interpretation is a middle-tiered thinking skill103 and students, at times, mold their interpretations to fit their perceptions of the teacher's perspective.104

     Secondary teachers also frequently utilize Mock Trials. These at times can be quite entertaining while also challenging students to think in different ways.105 However, as many teachers know, it is time-consuming during preparation (say, for those students assigned to jury duty) and potentially ineffective for students assigned to certain roles (for example, the actors do not engage in historical thinking when they perform).

     This is not to suggest that creative writing, image interpretation, or Mock Trials are ineffective forms of assessment. They are limiting, though, due to redundancy, students' reliance on the teacher's interpretation, requirements for role-playing, and a lack of opportunity to interweave primary sources, secondary readings, and original opinions. To enable students to critically evaluate complicated situations using primary source materials and secondary readings and then demonstrate their newly developed understandings in creative ways, teachers must creatively think outside the proverbial box. Towards these ends, the authors propose four assessment strategies that researchers deem to be educationally appropriate for middle and high school students.106 Intending to spark interest in utilizing primary sources in new and different ways, these assessment strategies are authentic and differentiated,107 engage students' distinct learning styles,108 utilize technology (where appropriate), and require writing (a necessary skill for students as they advance in school).

     Whereas science teachers permit students to work like scientists as they perform experiments, history teachers should enable students to write like historians. To do so, history education researchers encourage teachers to assign students with persuasive and evidentiary essays.109 In these activities, students generate written opinions based on critical evaluations of primary sources and competing historical interpretations. While interweaving opinions with evidence can be time-consuming, it enables students to write like historians. The aforementioned researchers characterized this writing as ideally suited for middle and high school students. This expository writing activity challenges students' thinking in different ways than creative writing.

     Whereas music teachers enable students to perform as musicians, history teachers can facilitate students' performances as historians during debates or structured discussions. While researchers examining debates110 have characterized them as widely popular and engaging, others note how debates can elicit antagonism and result in polarized discussions.111 While space precludes detailed analysis, Constructive Controversy is an alternative to debates.112 In it, students research both sides of a contentious and unresolved topic and present an evidence-based perspective. However, instead of focusing on "winning" an argument, both groups work together to generate a politically triangulated opinion upon which both sides can agree. While Constructive Controversy can be complicated, it enables students to perform like a historian during a public speaking event. Unlike in debates, research findings indicate that Constructive Controversy generates little if any antagonism and focuses students on dialogically negotiated ideas (instead of "winning"). Researchers described this as well suited for middle and high school students.113 Further, this public speaking activity engages different learning styles than the previous writing activity.

     Whereas art teachers enable students to express themselves artistically, history teachers often enable students to express themselves creatively. Bickford has argued convincingly that political cartoons are underused and can be employed for more than simply interpretation.114 He demonstrated that adolescent students have the intellectual potential to utilize various technologies to inventively assert a newly generated opinion based on examination of historical documents, which researchers have argued is the highest level of thinking.115 These student-products can then be used to elicit others' interpretation about the student-artist's expressed opinion and the historical evidence upon which it is based.116 In this way, students' products – generated with effective and efficient technologies – are both an assessment for learning and a tool for teaching others as all students engage in the uppermost tiers of higher order thinking.117 This method utilizes technology in ways that other strategies do not and engages different learning styles than writing or public speaking.

     Whereas English teachers enable students to write editorials or op-ed pieces for a student-generated newspaper, world history teachers have long sought to enable students to write historical fiction newspapers.118 In doing so, students utilized primary sources and secondary readings to generate various forms of content appropriate for a newspaper. This activity has the potential to engage a variety of learning styles as students can write editorials, "current events", or letters to the editor from a specific perspective, while others create complementary advertisements and political cartoons. Generating historical fiction newspaper accounts of a historical event is an ideal assessment activity for middle and high school students.

     The above subsections offer age-appropriate content, creative methods, and differentiated and authentic assessment strategies for middle and high school teachers. These are based on rich primary and secondary source materials intended to complicate students' understandings generated from the aforementioned elementary curricula and to supplement the creative writing, image-based activities, and Mock Trials proffered within Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years.119

Discussion

     To bridge the gap between emergent scholarship about and unwavering public support for the Genoese mariner, this article historicized Columbus using illustrative examples of primary source materials and representative secondary interpretations. It proffered spiraled content, age-appropriate methods, and authentic and differentiated assessment strategies for elementary, middle, and high school teachers. While not intended to be an exhaustive list, the above sections and subsections are intended to elicit teachers' interest to engage students with complex content that challenges their understandings, to use inventive methods to enable students to actively construct understandings, and to provide creative assessment strategies to facilitate students' expressions of newly constructed understandings. By enabling students to think, work, write, create, debate, and speak like historians,120 teachers can more effectively teach about the only non-American awarded a national holiday. While doing so, they may be encouraged to similarly explore other lives central to American and world history, such as Martin Luther King, Helen Keller, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Albert Einstein, and Rosa Parks. Many of these lives, like that of Columbus, were complicated individuals about whom divergent interpretations have been offered to explain their motivations and legacies, which are nonetheless often discussed in overly-simplistic ways in texts and schools. This paper has offered some means of ensuring that these historical figures, and our students, receive the consideration they both deserve and every committed world history teacher seeks to provide.

Dr. J. H. Bickford III is a former Mid-Prairie (IA) Middle School world history teacher and currently is an Assistant Professor of Middle Level Education at Eastern Illinois University. He has research and teaching interests in the theory, methodology, and assessment of history education and can be contacted at jbickford@eiu.edu.

Mrs. Maegan Wilton is an Eastern Illinois University elementary education graduate, winning the Booth Library Award for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity and the Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity grant. She is an elementary teacher at St. Philip Neri School (Chicago, IL) and can be contacted at maegankwilton@yahoo.com.


 
Notes

1 Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson, eds., Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998); Bob Peterson, "Columbus and Native Issues in the Elementary Classroom," in Bigelow and Peterson, eds., Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998a), 35-41; Bill Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide: Columbus in Children's Literature," in Bigelow and Peterson, eds., Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998a), 47-55; Bigelow, "Good Intentions are Not Enough: Recent Children's Books on the Columbus-Taino Encounter," in Bigelow and Peterson, eds., Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998b), 62-68.

2 James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).

3 Thomas Fallace, Ashley Biscoe, and Jennifer Perry, "Second Graders Thinking Historically: Theory into Practice," Journal of Social Studies Research 31, no. 1 (2007): 44-53; Jennifer Holloway and John Chiodo, "Social Studies IS Being Taught in the Elementary School: A Contrarian View," Journal of Social Studies Research 33, no. 2 (2009): 235-261.

4 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 11-17

5 T. Lee Williams, "A Closer Look: The Representation of Slavery in the Dear America series," Social Studies and the Young Learner 21, no. 3 (2009): 26-29; Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide," 47; Bigelow, "Good Intentions are Not Enough," 62-67.

6 Tarry Lindquist, Ways That Work: Putting Social Studies Standards into Practice (Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 1997); Tarry Lindquist, Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies (Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 2002); Timothy Lintner, "Social Studies (still) on the Back Burner: Perceptions and Practices of K-5 Social Studies Instruction," Journal of Social Studies Research 23, no. 2 (2006): 147-168; Diane Yendol-Hoppey and Keith Tilford, "Does Anyone Care about Elementary Social Studies?: Dilemmas of Teaching Elementary Social Studies Methods within a High Stakes Testing Context." Social Studies Review, Fall, (2004): http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4033/is_200410/ai_n9467574/.

7 Frederick Drake and Sarah Brown, "A Systematic Approach to Improve Students' Historical Thinking," The History Teacher 36, no. 4 (2003): 465-489; Tom Holt, Thinking Historically: Narrative, Imagination, and Understanding (New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1990); E. Ruffin and L. Capell, "Dispelling the Myths: Using Primary Sources in the K-12 Classroom," Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 7, no. 1 (2009): 26-31: Samuel Wineburg, Historical thinking and other unnatural acts: Charting the future of teaching the past (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2001); Howard Zinn and Donaldo Macedo, Howard Zinn on Democratic Education (New York: Paradigm Publishers, 2005).

8 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 36-39, 69-70, 74.

9 Hilary Conklin, "Promise and Problems in Two Divergent Pathways: Preparing Social studies Teachers for the Middle School Level," Theory and Research in Social Education 36, no. 1 (2008): 36-65; Hilary Conklin, "Teaching Intellectually Challenging Social Studies in the Middle School: Problems and Possibilities," Social Education 74, no. 4 (2011): 220-225; Lintner, "Social Studies (still) on the Back Burner," 148; Yendol-Hoppey and Tilford, "Does Anyone Care about Elementary Social Studies?," 2.

10 Lintner, "Social Studies (still) on the Back Burner," 147-149; Yendol-Hoppey and Tilford, "Does Anyone Care about Elementary Social Studies?," 1-3.

11 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 19-36, 41, 50, 301; Gary Nash, Charlotte Dunn, and Ross Dunn, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (New York, NY: Alfred Knopf Publishing, 1997); Linda Symcox, Whose history? The struggle for national standards in American classrooms (New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 2002).

12 Conklin, "Teaching Intellectually Challenging Social Studies in the Middle School," 220; Elizabeth Yeager and Elizabeth Wison, "Teaching Historical Thinking in the Social Studies Methods Course: A Case Study," Social Studies 88, no. 3 (1997): 121-127.

13 Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2007); Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States (New York: HarperCollins, 1999).

14 Thomas Hughes, "The German Discovery of America: A Review of the Controversy over Pining's 1473 voyage of exploration," German Studies Review 27, no. 3 (2004): 503-526; Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year China Discovered America (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2003); William Richardson, "South America on Maps before Columbus? Martellus's 'Dragon's Tail' Peninsula, Imago Mundi 55 (2003): 25-37.

15 Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years (London: Vintage, 2005); Gianni Granzotto, Christopher Columbus: The Dream and the Obsession (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1985); Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005); Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011); Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 3-11.

16 Lauren Benton, "Legal Spaces of Empire: Piracy and the Origins of Ocean Regionalism," Comparative Studies in Society and History 47, no. 4 (2005): 700-724; I. C. Campbell, "The Culture of Culture Contact: Refractions from Polynesia," Journal of World History 14, no. 1 (2003): 63-86; Kenneth Hall, "Local and International Trade and Traders in the Straits of Melaka Region: 600-1500," Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 47, no. 2 (2004): 213-260; Randall Pouwels, "Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean to 1800: Reviewing Relations in Historical Perspective," The International Journal of African Historical Studies 35, no. 2/3 (2002): 385-425; Serge Tcherkezoff, "A Long and Unfortunate Voyage Towards the 'Invention' of the Melanesia/Polynesia Distinction, 1595-1832," The Journal of Pacific History 38, no. 2 (2003): 175-196; Marina Tolmacheva, "The Early Russian Exploration and Mapping of the Chinese Frontier," Cahiers du Monde Russe 41, no. 1 (2000), 41-56.

17 Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, 411-414; Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giraldez, "Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century," Journal of World History 13, no. 2(2002): 391-427; Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).

18 Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth," The American Economic Review 95, no. 3 (2005): 546-579.

19 Edward Bourne, ed., The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503: The Voyages of the Northmen, of Columbus and of John Cabot. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906); Andrew Dalby, "Christopher Columbus, Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Search for Cinnamon," The Journal of Food and Culture 1, no. 2 (2001): 40-49; Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 141-157; Lewis Hanke, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1949); Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 37-74; Helen Nader, "Desperate Men, Questionable Acts: The Moral Dilemma of Italian Merchants in the Spanish Slave Trade," The Sixteenth Century Journal 33, no. 2 (2002): 401-422; Kirkpatrick Sale, Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise (New York, NY: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006); Brian Sandberg, "Beyond Encounters: Religion, Ethnicity, and Violence in the Early Modern Atlantic World, 1492-1700," Journal of World History 17, no. 1 (2006): 1-25; Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 7; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 10.

20 Lynette Field and Judith Singer, "Talking with Children about the Columbian Exchange," Social Studies and the Young Learner 18, no.4 (2006): 24–26; Mary Beth Henning, Jennifer Snow-Gerono, Diane Reed, and Amy Warner, "Listening to Children Think Critically about Christopher Columbus," Social Studies and the Young Learner 19, no. 2 (2006): 19-22.

21 Bigelow and Peterson, Rethinking Columbus, passim.

22 Nader, "Desperate Men, Questionable Acts," 414; Sandberg, "Beyond Encounters," 4-5; Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, chapter 1; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, chapter 1.

23 Holt, Thinking Historically, 39-54; Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 19-36; Wineburg, Historical thinking and other unnatural acts, 139-154; Zinn and Macedo, Howard Zinn on Democratic Education, 16-18, 23.

24 Holt, Thinking Historically, 17-38; Lindquist, Ways That Work, 3-7; Williams, "A Closer Look," 28-29; Wineburg, Historical thinking and other unnatural acts, 89-112.

25 Laura Hamilton, "Testing What Has Been Taught: Helpful, High-Quality Assessments Start with a Strong Curriculum," American Educator 34, no. 4 (2010-2011): 47-52; E.D. Hirsch, "Beyond Comprehension: We Have Yet to Adopt a Core Curriculum That Builds Knowledge Grade by Grade – But We Need To," American Educator 34, no. 4 (Winter, 2010-2011): 30-36; Diana Senechal, "The Spark of Specifics," American Educator 34, no. 4 (2010-2011): 24-29, 54.

26 Linda Darling-Hammond and Jon Snyder, "Authentic Assessment of Teaching in Context," Teaching and Teacher Education 16, no. 5-6 (July, 2000): 523-545; Hamilton, "Testing What Has Been Taught," 47-52; Hirsch, "Beyond Comprehension," 30-36; Diana Senechal, "The Spark of Specifics," 25.

27 Drake and Brown, "A Systematic Approach to Improve Students' Historical Thinking," 466-469; Holt, Thinking Historically, 15-16; Ruffin and Capell, "Dispelling the Myths," 26-31; Williams, "A Closer Look," 28-29; Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, 28-60.

28 Bigelow and Peterson, Rethinking Columbus, passim.

29 Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 1-11.

30 Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 48-59, 93, 122-140.

31 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 54-60; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 1-8.

32 Peter Halsall, "Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal" (Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies: Fordham University, 1996) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html.

33 Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 4-5.

34 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 38-50, 54-60; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 1-8.

35 Granzotto Christopher Columbus, 122-140.

36 Ibid.

37 Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 6.

38 Granzotto Christopher Columbus, 141-157.

39 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 37-74, 264, 293-294; Nader, "Desperate Men, Questionable Acts," 411; Sandberg, "Beyond Encounters," 15-16; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 1-8; Zinn and Macedo, Howard Zinn on Democratic Education, 99-102.

40 Halsall, "Christopher Columbus," http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html.

41 Hanke, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America, 18; Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 60-66.

42 Hanke, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America, 33-34; Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 43, 322; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 6.

43 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 43, 61-67, 74, 264, 293-294; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 3; Zinn and Macedo, Howard Zinn on Democratic Education, 99-102.

44 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 61-70; William Phillips, "Africa and the Atlantic Islands Meet the Garden of Eden: Chrisopher Columbus's View of America," Journal of World History 3, no. 2 (1992): 149-164; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 6-7.

45 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 60-67; Nader, "Desperate Men, Questionable Acts," 414-417; Sale, Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise, chapter 2; Sandberg, "Beyond Encounters," 2; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 6-7.

46 Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 141-175; Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 7-9.

47 Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 267-285; Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 10.

48 David Fischer, Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1970); Holt, Thinking Historically, 11-16; Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 43; Williams, "A Closer Look," 28-29; Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, 3-27.

49 Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 267-285; Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, xxi-xxii.

50 Nader, "Desperate Men, Questionable Acts," 402, 414-417; Sandberg, "Beyond Encounters," 2; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 4-8.

51 Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, xxi-xxii.

52 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 43; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 2-5.

53 Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 1-4.

54 Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 162-163, 198.

55 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 42-45; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 3.

56 Bourne, The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503, 79.

57 Halsall, "Christopher Columbus," http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html.

58 Bourne, The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503, 270.

59 Thomas Southey, Chronological History of the West Indies, Vol. 1 (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827), 22.

60 Dalby, "Christopher Columbus, Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Search for Cinnamon," 40-49; Anne McCants, "Exotic Goods, Popular Consumption, and the Standard of Living: Thinking about Globalization in the Early Modern World," Journal of World History 18, no. 4 (2007): 433-462; Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 3-5.

61 Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide," 47-55; Marion Bauer, Christopher Columbus (New York, NY: Scholastic Inc, 2009); Barbara Brenner, If you were there in 1492 (New York, NY: Bradbury Press, 1991); Stephen Dodge, Christopher Columbus and the first voyages to the New World (New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991); Fiona MacDonald, You wouldn't want to sail with Christopher Columbus! Uncharted waters you'd rather not cross (Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts Publishers, 2004); Jean Marzollo, In 1492 (New York, NY: Scholastic Publishers, 1991); Barry Smith, The first voyage of Christopher Columbus, 1492 (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1992); Eve Spencer, Three ships for Columbus (Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1993).

62 Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide," 47-55; Field and Singer, "Talking with Children about the Columbian Exchange," 24–26; Henning, Snow-Gerono, Reed, and Warner, "Listening to Children Think Critically about Christopher Columbus," 19-22.

63 Halsall, "Christopher Columbus," http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html.

64 Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide," 47-55; Bigelow, "Good Intentions are Not Enough," 62-68; Field and Singer, "Talking with Children about the Columbian Exchange," 24–26; Henning, Snow-Gerono, Reed, and Warner, "Listening to Children Think Critically about Christopher Columbus," 19-22; Peterson, "Columbus and Native Issues in the Elementary Classroom," 35-41.

65 Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide," 47-55; Bigelow, "Good Intentions are Not Enough," 62-68; Field and Singer, "Talking with Children about the Columbian Exchange," 24–26; Henning, Snow-Gerono, Reed, and Warner, "Listening to Children Think Critically about Christopher Columbus," 19-22; Peterson, "Columbus and Native Issues in the Elementary Classroom," 35-41.

66 Halsall, "Christopher Columbus," http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html.

67 Nader, "Desperate Men, Questionable Acts," 402, 409-412, 421; Phillips, "Africa and the Atlantic Islands Meet the Garden of Eden," 149-154; Southey, Chronological History of the West Indies, Vol. 1, 22.

68 Bourne, The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503, 79, 270; Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 162-163, 198; Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 42-45; Nader, "Desperate Men, Questionable Acts," 402, 409-412, 421; Phillips, "Africa and the Atlantic Islands Meet the Garden of Eden," 154; Southey, Chronological History of the West Indies, Vol. 1, 22; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 3-5.

69 Halsall, "Christopher Columbus," http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html.

70 Zinn and Macedo, Howard Zinn on Democratic Education, 99-101.

71 Dalby, "Christopher Columbus, Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Search for Cinnamon," 40-49; McCants, "Exotic Goods, Popular Consumption, and the Standard of Living," 433-462; Sandberg, "Beyond Encounters," 4-5; Schweikart and Allen, A Patriot's History of the United States, 1-5.

72 Granzotto, Christopher Columbus, 162-163, 198.

73 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 42-45; Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 3-5.

74 Bigelow and Peterson, Rethinking Columbus, passim.

75 Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide," 47-55; Bigelow, "Good Intentions are Not Enough," 62-68; Field and Singer, "Talking with Children about the Columbian Exchange," 24–26; Henning, Snow-Gerono, Reed, and Warner, "Listening to Children Think Critically about Christopher Columbus," 19-22; Peterson, "Columbus and Native Issues in the Elementary Classroom," 35-41.

76 June Sark Heinrich, "What Not to Teach about Native Americans," in Bigelow and Peterson, eds., Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998), 32-33; Philip Martin, "Scalping: Fact and Fantasy," in Bigelow and Peterson, eds., Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998), 58-59; Cornell Pewewardy, "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas," in Bigelow and Peterson, eds., Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998), 61.

77 Lindquist, Ways That Work, 106-121; Lindquist, Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies, 40-43.

78 Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm, Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men, (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002); Jeffrey Wilhelm, "Getting boys to read: It's the Context!" Scholastic Instructor October, 2002, 16-18.

79 Rachel Billmeyer and Mary Lee Barton, Teaching Reading In The Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who? (2nd ed.), (Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory, 1998); Richard Vacca and Jo Anne Vacca, Content Area Reading (9th ed). (Boston: Little Brown Publishing, 2008).

80 Billmeyer and Barton, Teaching Reading In The Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who?, 27-30; Vacca and Vacca, Content Area Reading, 47-63.

81 Williams, "A Closer Look," 26-28; Bigelow, "Once Upon a Genocide," 47-55; Bigelow, "Good Intentions are Not Enough," 62-68; Peterson, "Columbus and Native Issues in the Elementary Classroom," 35-41.

82 Vacca and Vacca, Content Area Reading, 17, 19-22, 157.

83 Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision Of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (New York: Longman Publishing, 2001); Cynthia Sunal and Marcia Haas, Social Studies for the Elementary and Middle Grades: A Constructivist Approach 3rd edition (New York: Pearson, 2008); David Welton, Children and Their World 8th edition (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005).

84 Conklin, "Teaching Intellectually Challenging Social Studies in the Middle School," 224; L. Delpit. "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children," Harvard Educational Review 58, 3 (1988): 280-98; James Diskant, "Engaging Students to Make Meaning out of their Own Learning: Constructing Student-Centered Electives and Focusing on Student Decision-Making in Required Courses," World History Connected 6, no. 2 (2009): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/6.2/diskant.html;

Clare Sisisky, "Re-Thinking How to Teach about Religion in the World History Classroom through Collaborative Peer Education ," World History Connected 4, no. 1 (2006): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/4.1/sisisky.html.

85 John Dewey, How We Think, (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1933); John Dewey, Experience and Education, (New York: Collier Books, 1938).

86 Lindquist, Ways That Work, 102-103; Lindquist, Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies, 191-213; Fallace, Biscoe, and Perry, "Second Graders Thinking Historically," 52; Holloway and Chiodo, "Social Studies IS Being Taught in the Elementary School," 259.

87 Anderson and Krathwohl, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, 7-11.

88 Bigelow and Peterson, Rethinking Columbus, passim.

89 Carol Ann Tomlinson, How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1995); Carol Ann Tomlinson, "Mapping a Route for Differentiated Instruction," Educational Leadership 57, no. 1 (1999), 12-16.

90 Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, (New York: Basic Books, 1983); Howard Gardner, Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, New York: Basic Books, 1999).

91 John Murnane, "Reversing the 'Disneyfication' Process: Using Disney Films to Debunk Stereotypes and Oversimplification in Middle and High School Social Science Courses," World History Connected 5, no. 1 (2007): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/5.1/murnane.html; Saundra Schwartz, "Comparative Classroom Approaches to the Classical Past," World History Connected 6, no. 1 (2009): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/6.1/schwartz.html.

92 Bigelow and Peterson, Rethinking Columbus, passim.

93 Dewey, How We Think, 35-54; Dewey, Experience and Education, 67-72.

94 Dewey, Experience and Education, 51-60.

95 Holt, Thinking Historically, 11-38; Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, 63-88.

96 Dewey, How We Think, 225.

97 Bigelow and Peterson Rethinking Columbus, passim.

98 Michael McKenna and Richard Robinson, Teaching through Text: Reading and Writing in the Content Areas, (Boston: Pearson Publishing, 2009); Vacca and Vacca, Content Area Reading, 42-47.

99 McKenna and Robinson, Teaching through Text, 25-30; Vacca and Vacca, Content Area Reading, 42-47.

100 Bigelow and Peterson Rethinking Columbus, passim.

101 Bigelow and Peterson Rethinking Columbus, passim.

102 Holt, Thinking Historically, 11-38; Erik Vincent, "Learning to Think on Paper: Why Writing Remains Essential in the AP World History Course," World History Connected 7, no. 2 (2010): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.2/vincent.html; Erik Vincent, "Teaching By Talking: Discussion-Based Learning in the AP World History Survey," World History Connected 8, no. 1 (2011): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/8.1/vincent.html.

103 Anderson and Krathwohl, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, chapter 3.

104 Lindquist, Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies, 57; Lee Jussim and Kent Harber, "Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies," Personality and Social Psychology Review 9, no. 2 (2005): 131-155.

105 Anthony Pattiz, "Stimulation through Simulation: Creating an Excellent Adventure as Students Have a Blast with the Past," World History Connected 5, no. 1 (2007): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/5.1/pattiz.html; Anthony Pattiz, "Using a Japanese War Crime Trial Simulation to Expand Students' Understanding of the Roots of Wartime Atrocities, Mass Killings and Genocide," World History Connected 6, no. 3 (2009): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/6.3/pattiz.html; Vincent, "Teaching By Talking," World History Connected 8, http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/8.1/vincent.html.

106 Anderson and Krathwohl, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, 11-15.

107 Tomlinson, How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, 13-18; Tomlinson, "Mapping a Route for Differentiated Instruction," 14.

108 Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind, 73-276; Gardner, The Disciplined Mind, 60-85.

109 Holt, Thinking Historically, 39-54; Vincent, "Learning to Think on Paper," World History Connected, http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.2/vincent.html; Vincent, "Teaching By Talking," World History Connected, http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/8.1/vincent.html; Wineburg, Historical thinking and other unnatural acts, 128-133.

110 California's High School Speech Association's Curriculum Committee, Speaking across the curriculum: Practical ideas for incorporating listening and speaking into the classroom, (New York, NY: International Debate Education Association, 2004); John Meany and Kate Shuster, Speak out! Debate and public speaking in the middle grades, (New York, NY: International Debate Education Association, 2005); Jason Webster and Grady Long, "Using Debate Competition in the Classroom: History Style," World History Connected 7, no. 1 (2010): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.1/webster.html.

111 Diana Hess, Teaching about same-sex marriage as a policy and constitutional issue. Social Education 73, no. 7 (2009): 344-349.

112 John H. Bickford III, "A Comparative Analysis of Two Methods for Guiding Discussions Surrounding Controversial and Unresolved Topics," Eastern Education Journal 40, no. 1 (2011): 33-47; David Johnson and Roger Johnson, "Democratic Decision Making, Political Discourse, and Constructive Controversy," Cooperative Link 20, no. 1 (2005): 3; David Johnson and Roger Johnson, Creative Constructive Controversy: Intellectual Challenge in the Classroom, (Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company, 2007); David Johnson and Roger Johnson, "Energizing Learning: The Instructional Power of Conflict," Educational Researcher 38, no. 1 (2009): 37-51.

113 Bickford, "A Comparative Analysis of Two Methods for Guiding Discussions Surrounding Controversial and Unresolved Topics," 43-45; Johnson and Johnson, "Democratic Decision Making, Political Discourse, and Constructive Controversy," 3; Johnson and Johnson, Creative Constructive Controversy, 10-21; Johnson and Johnson, "Energizing Learning," 37-39.

114 John H. Bickford III, "Complicating Students' Historical Thinking through Primary Source Reinvention," Social Studies Research & Practice 5, no. 2 (2010a): 47-60; John H. Bickford III, "Uncomplicated Technologies and Erstwhile Aids: How Powerpoint, the Internet, and Political Cartoons can Elicit Engagement and Challenge Thinking In New Ways," The History Teacher 44, no. 1 (2010b): 51-66.

115 Anderson and Krathwohl, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, 11-15.

116 Bickford, "Complicating Students' Historical Thinking through Primary Source Reinvention," 53-55, 58-59; Bickford, "Uncomplicated Technologies and Erstwhile Aids," 60-64.

117 Anderson and Krathwohl, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, 11-15; John H. Bickford III, "Students' Original Political Cartoons as Teaching and Learning Tools," Social Studies Research and Practice 6, no. 2 (2011): 47-59.

118 Helen Gregg and Jeremy Greene, "RAFTing on the Great New Sea of Knowledge: Historical Role Playing for Engagement, Authenticity, and Interaction," World History Connected 7, no. 3 (2010): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.3/gregg.html; Saundra Schwartz, "Comparative Classroom Approaches to the Classical Past," World History Connected 6, no. 1 (2009): http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/6.1/schwartz.html.

119 Bigelow and Peterson, Rethinking Columbus, passim.

120 Wineburg, Historical thinking and other unnatural acts, vii-xiv, 217-218.

 


 
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