Lockdown Y9 – 17. Historical Sources IV

Monday 15 June 2020 – Year 9

It is very important that you follow the order in which I give you instructions today!

We are still busy with our final “topic” on The Use of Sources in History. Again, you will do quite a bit of reading, watch videos on the topic, and do an assessment quiz at the end of the lesson – so make sure that you work fast, because the quiz will expire by the end of the lesson!

1.

First, watch the following video that I have made for you in order to revise some of the source analysis theory that you have learnt so far.

Primary and Secondary Sources. (3:30 minutes long)

2.

Now watch the following video that I have made about dealing with various types of Historical Sources.

Types of Sources. (3:38 minutes long)

3.

Now, read the information (below) about “Interpreting Photographs“. It comes (more or less directly!) from an excellent website on “Using Historical Sources”.

Interpreting Photographs

“Photographs are very useful types of primary sources. They provide a rare glimpse of a particular second in time, which will never again be repeated. This is especially true for events that occurred before the development of television or digital technologies.”

“Interpreting a visual source, like a photograph, is very different to interpreting words on a page, which is the case with written sources. Therefore, you need to develop a different set of skills.”

“Many people assume that photographs are unbiased, accurate records of historical events. However, that is not always the case. Photographers took great care to create the exact images they wanted their audiences to see. Therefore, it is important to analyse photographs in order to identify the message the creator wanted their audience to understand.”

“When people take a photograph, they make decisions about what to show in, or leave out of, the picture. Photographers do this by choosing the angle from which they take the shot and from what distance it will be taken, either close up or further away. Experienced photographers could then also edit their pictures later in order to change how the original image looked.”

“Therefore, to correctly interpret what the photographer intended their audience to understand from their image, we have to identify some specific information.” Identify the main subject (the most important people, locations or items in the image), the minor subjects (the background images) and the composition (the camera’s distance from the main object). Then consider “the purpose of the photograph, the motive of the photographer, the relevance of the source to your argument and the accuracy of the information presented in the image.”

4.

To see how different photographers can effect what an audience sees in an image, watch the following video: “A Portrait session with a twist”. (3:17 minutes long)

Also watch the following video as a further example of how photographs can be manipulated or staged. (3:31 minutes long)

5.

Read all the information (below) about, “Corroboration”, “Contradiction” and “Contestability”. It comes (more or less directly!) from an excellent website on “Using Historical Sources”.

Corroboration

“Corroboration is the ability to compare information provided by two separate sources and find similarities between them. When a second source provides the same or similar information to the first, the second source is considered to corroborate (e.g. support, or agree with) with the first. Finding corroboration between sources strengthens your conclusions, especially when you are making a historical argument. When choosing sources to corroborate, pick those that are deemed particularly reliable, which adds further certainty to your claims.”

“When you are analysing a source, it is helpful to compare what information it provides when compared with other sources. This helps you to more successfully evaluate your sources, especially in regards to their accuracy. If, in the process of finding corroboration between sources, you find that the two sources provide information that is different to each other, you have potentially discovered contradiction between them. This is another source analysis skill…” that is discussed below.

6.

Watch the following video that explains “How to corroborate sources in History”. (4:58 minutes long)

7.

Contradiction

“Contradiction is the ability to compare two separate sources and find information that differs between them. Contradiction is when the things said by the two sources cannot both be true: one has to be wrong.”

“When you are analyzing a source, it is helpful to compare what information it provides when compared with other sources. This helps you to more successfully evaluate your sources, especially in regards to their accuracy. For example, if one source said that Germany won World War One and another source said that Britain won World War One, they clearly cannot both be right. One of the sources has to be wrong. This is a point of contradiction.”

“Finding contradiction between sources helps you to determine how accurate or reliable a particular source is.” However, please note that “Sources may provide different kinds of information that may not prove contradiction. Contradictory is only information that is provided by two separate sources that cannot be true at the same time.”

8.

Watch the following video that explains “How to find contradiction in historical sources”. (4:51 minutes long)

9.

Contestability

“Contestability is a source evaluation skill which requires you to acknowledge that different historical interpretations can be supported by the surviving evidence. It is the idea that two separate sources can draw different conclusions about a historical person, concept or event.”

“Contestability most commonly occurs between two modern sources, typically academics, who have studied the surviving material in detail, but hold two different interpretations of the past. The ability for different interpretations is often caused by a lack of surviving primary sources for anyone to know for certain which interpretation is most likely to be correct. On these occasions, the different interpretations are both considered valid until further evidence is found.” For example, two different historians could have different explanations for an event, with either argument being supported by historical evidence and, therefore, the information they provide is contestable.

Take note: “Just because two different sources have different opinions doesn’t automatically show contestability. Both sources need to be considered reliable sources of information in order to trust their interpretation. If you find that one opinion is from an unreliable source, then its interpretation is not considered a valid basis for contestability. For example: A university academic could say that the Egyptian pyramids were built by humans, while a conspiracy theory website could say that the pyramids were built by aliens. Just because they have different opinions doesn’t show contestability: in this example the website is far less reliable than an academic and, therefore, its interpretation can be discounted.”

10.

Watch the following video: “Contestability in History Explained”. (5:42 minutes long)

11.

Finally, complete the quiz in Schoology about “Photographs“, “Corroboration”, “Contradiction” and “Contestability”.

IMPORTANT: Please note that you have only one attempt to complete the quiz. Also, it is a timed quiz, that expires at the end of the lesson!! So, do it now straight away! AND: If, for some reason, you have any problem with the quiz, let me know immediately in Hangouts, or you may lose marks!!

12.

Send me a private message on Schoology (use the SAME mail-thread!!!) to confirm that you have completed the tasks as instructed today!

(If you want to access the information on Sources used in this lesson directly from the original website, here is the link to access it: https://www.history.org.uk/student/resource/3211/using-historical-sources .)

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