Bellwork Vocabulary Card On the blank side of the card: Write “V4” in the upper right corner Write “Context” near the center of the card Leave room for an illustration On the lined side of the card write, “the situation in which something happens; the conditions that exist where and when something happens” Keep your vocabulary cards neatly stored together with a rubber band, box, envelope, etc.

Set Up Number page 18 Title page 18 “Lunchroom Fight II” Page 19 will be a handout Table of Contents: page 18 Lunchroom Fight II

Q&A Corroboration? Reliability? Sourcing?

How can context help us better understand history? Lunchroom Fight II

Contextualization When we did the first Lunchroom Fight activity, we focused on sourcing. You wondered how two accounts of the same event could be different if no one was lying, and you considered why some accounts might be more reliable or trustworthy than others. Today you’re going to receive evidence from eyewitnesses and others connected to the fight in the lunchroom. Your job is to figure out who should get suspended for starting the fight. In order to figure that out, you’re going to need to source, contextualize, and corroborate. In other words, you’re going to need to read and compare multiple pieces of evidence in order to figure which are more reliable and how they all fit together to fill out the story of what happened in the lunchroom that day.

Evidence Target (p. 19) TOWN What’s been happening at school that might help explain the fight? What’s been happening in town that might help explain the fight? SCHOOL CAFETERIA What happened in the cafeteria?

Check for Understanding What is context? How can context help us better understand this fight? Which witnesses did you find the most reliable? Why? Which witnesses did you find the least reliable? Why? Who do you think started the fight? Why?

Context It is likely that Max, Justin, their parents, and Max’s friend are all unreliable because they are clearly aligned with one side Jamie, the cafeteria worker, and the bystander seem to be reliable because, as far as we know, they don’t have a vested interest in either side Max’s girlfriend and the English teacher present some interesting situations We would predict the girlfriend would side with Max, but she says that he has been mean recently WE would predict that the English teacher would be neutral, but his comments suggest that he feels for the boys whose parents lost their jobs, and he might have turned a blind eye to their teasing of Justin

Context The important point here is the role that context plays in painting a full picture of what happened in the lunchroom. If we simply throw out the unreliable evidence, we would lose some critical context information that Justin moved around a lot that Max’s friends think Justin is weird). It would be difficult to paint a full picture of what happened using only the information in the “reliable” evidence, because bystanders typically see the events from a distance. Even if you believe a source is mostly unreliable, it may still contain some useful information.

Suspension Report (p. 18) Write and answer the following questions What happened in the cafeteria? (Please identify your sources.) In my judgment, the following student should be suspended: __________. My reasoning is as follows: __________. Sign and date the bottom of the page. If you can, try to make it look like a real suspension report.

Ticket Out the Door On the blank side of an index card: Write “T4” in the upper right corner Write “CR” in the upper left corner (means “constructed response”) Write this question “Are sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration useful in history class? Why?” Write your answer on the lined side Keep your Tickets Out the Door neatly stored together with either a rubber band, box, envelope, etc.