1. Historians love to argue…
Wednesday August 19, 2015

2. Is reality TV bad for America?
With your partner, brainstorm some reasons to support your assigned side (either YES or NO).
Think about all different kinds of reality shows!
Competition Shows: American Idol, The Voice, America’s Got Talent, Survivor, Amazing Race, America’s Next Top Model
Pretty much anything on Bravo, MTV, TLC, HGTV, Food Network

3. Is reality TV bad for America?
Yes ] No

4. Is reality TV bad for America?
What made one side or the other convincing?

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

6. Argument or Evidence? Tasty Dog 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.
Barack Obama is the best president ever.

7. 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 America justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Was the Iraq War necessary? Was the Afghan War necessary?

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

9. But, it’s hard to know “the truth”…
While you watch, think about how and why these two trailers for the same movie are different.

10. 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.

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