Historians love to argue… Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Does social media enhance or weaken student writing? With your partner, discuss reasons to support your assigned side (either YES or NO) using the reading.

Does social media enhance or weaken student writing? Yes No

Does social media enhance or weaken student writing? What made one side or the other convincing?

Proving that you are RIGHT (Board = Paper!) Argument (Your answer to the question) A debatable statement Evidence Information that supports an argument

Argument or Evidence? Jimmy Johns is the worst restaurant in Oak Park. Cars, trucks, and even refrigerators release greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. US soldiers are dying in Afghanistan. Too much attention is paid to how female celebrities look, rather than their talent. Donald Trump is the best president ever.

Historians debate their own kind of questions Did Europeans enslave Black Africans because Europeans were racist, or did the enslavement of Black Africans result in the emergence of racism? Was it necessary to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Did Lincoln’s decision to abolish slavery heal the country, or forever divide it?

Historians use evidence to try to prove that their version of the past is the right one.

So what is history? History is an argument about the past, based on evidence from the past. Historians disagree about what was most important and read evidence in different ways, so there is more than one story about the past. History is SUBJECTIVE because it is influenced by the beliefs, personal opinions and feelings of the people writing the story.

~African proverb~ Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.