Exploring issues and events through consideration of a key document

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Exploring issues and events through consideration of a key document

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Documents-based study

The documents-based study embodies key features of the syllabus:

• In-depth study

• Emphasis on skills in relation to working with evidence

• Structured use of historical documents (S2)

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Choosing documents• Focus is on documents relating to the case

studies

• Students should be able to look at contentious or controversial issues from more than one point of view

• Students should encounter different types of sources

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Choosing documents

Important to bear in mind the purpose(s) of the source being used:

• To develop awareness of events and issues?• To develop critical skills?• To familiarise students with different points of

view on particular issues?

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Choosing documents

Other factors to bear in mind:

• How will use of sources be integrated in classroom practice?

• Will students work in groups?• Will students be given same sources?• What will role of teacher be?

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Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, 1963-1968

• Working with sources offers opportunity to engage in the use of different methodologies

• One such methodology is presented here in relation to Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, 1963-68

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Johnson greets US troops in Vietnam, 1966

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Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, 1963-1968

Associated elements:• The Vietnam War• Domestic factors in US

foreign policy: the anti-war movement

• US foreign policy, 1945-1972: Berlin, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam.

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Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, 1963-1968

Also relates to:• The presidency from

Roosevelt to Reagan• Collapse of consensus,

1968-1989: youth-culture, ‘counter-culture’ and multiculturalism

• Decline of Cold War certainties, 1973-1989: withdrawal from Vietnam

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.ieIntroducing a case study through consideration of a key document

• This session exemplifies how a key document can be used as the springboard for engaging with the case study

• Students deduce events and issues at stake by interrogating document

• Students develop understanding of role of evidence through ‘being’ the historian

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The document to be studied

• The document in question is the text of an address delivered by President Johnson from the Oval Office, 31 March 1968. The picture shows Johnson delivering this speech.

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The speech

Johnson announces his decision to:

• unilaterally stop the bombing of North Vietnam so as to instigate peace moves;

• withdraw his candidacy for the presidency in the elections to be held in November 1968.

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Using a key document

This approach has many benefits:• Reinforces the primacy of documents• Encourages students to be active in enquiring of

the document in seeking to identify issues• Leads students into case study through broader

context revealed by interrogation of the document• Leads students into associated elements

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The enquiry question• What was the impact of

Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

• This question provides the focus for the interrogation of the document that is at the centre of the methodology

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Introducing a ‘hook’

• Using a stimulus as a ‘hook’ helps to capture the interest and attention of students

• It arouses their curiosity and leads them into the main focus of the lesson

• It reflects the emphasis on evidence and enquiry

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The Great Society

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Using a key document

• Lends itself to group work• Each group can consider a particular extract

from the document• Example: The Tet Offensive• As each group reports its findings, the

teachers can oversee a whole class appraisal of the issues raised by the document

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Interrogating evidence

• Description/comprehension• What does the document say?

• Interpretation• What can be inferred from reading between the

lines?• Wider context

• What issues or themes are raised that I need to find out more about?

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

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• What issues and events are raised through group interrogation of extracts from the speech?

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

“To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion.”

Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, 27 February 1968.

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

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May 1993

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

TIME “Man of the Year”, 1st January, 1965

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• The search for peace in Asia

• The specter of violence at home

• Time, 12th April 1968

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What was the impact of Vietnam on Johnson’s presidency?

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